Ford F150 Scales; Trucks that weight themselves!
I’ve reviewed lots of aftermarket truck/trailer scales. Finally Ford decided to build the 2021 F150 to weigh itself. The aftermarket world has been building accessories to weighs trucks, trailer, payload WDH and so worth. From Canada AutoFlex has a complete rear air suspension system. With air bags they could weigh how much more air psi was in the bags and convert that to payload pounds. Weigh-Safe from Utah has a load cell under the coupler ball that weighs tongue weight on bumper pull trailers and now goosenecks. Load cells are similar to what feed trucks use to weigh feed at feedlots. Haul Gauge, recently sold to Curt, can use a trucks automatic transmission torque converter to weight, the truck, trucks payload, trailer weight, trailer tongue weight and weight distributing weight.
Revolutionary: Ford just entered the scale business on F150’s produced later in June of this year. Of course they’ve been developing this for years. It’s three systems, Onboard Scales, Smart Hitch and Continuously Controlled Damping.
One of the cool things about payload weight, is you don’t have to ask your passengers what they weigh as they get in the truck. The truck will keep adding any weight to the payload number as any load is added. Four corner weight sensors on the suspension calculates the extra weight. Dampers, solenoid in shock absorber controls the orifice size to slow or speed up how fast the oil moves from shock oil reservoir to the shock piston with the active suspension. The damper system in the shocks is like preloading springs. Generally a loaded truck rides better than an empty truck. So by controlling how the oil flows in shock absorbers the truck can control and improve the ride of trucks. Ford has these active shocks in the Raptor. GM uses metal flakes in their shock absorbers for magnets to thickening or thinning the oil going thru shock absorber orifices.
All this information is on your trucks center dash screen, your phone and the trucks tail lights. Payload and tongue weight can be done by the trucks computer. You need to weight the loaded trailer to know if the tongue weight is too high and for dialing in weight distribution weight which the 4-corner sensors tells you the front trucks axle weight to accurately adjust the spring arm tension on the Weight Distributing Hitch.
All this new information will help you control how much weight you haul so you can go to the maximum ability of your truck if you need to but not get into trouble by loading too much weight. How many people do you know that know how much they can haul in the bed of their truck or in their trailer? Knowing your trucks loaded weight, knowing trailer tongue weight and controlling how your truck handles, all make driving your truck and trailer safer. Which is important as I might be driving behind you with my grandkids.
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