There is a constant war between the Chevrolet Silverado and the newly introduced Ford F-150 in the US. The most recent strike belongs to Chevrolet who managed to proove that an aluminium bed is not such a good solution for a car that has to handle brutal treatment.
As you might of guessed, Chevrolet demonstrated the benefits of a the Silverado’s roll-formed, high-strength-steel bed floor. In laboratory testing, as well as 26 real-world demonstrations, the impact strength of the Silverado’s bed consistently outperformed the stamped aluminum bed of the Ford.
All of the comparisons were conducted on 2016 model year Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 trucks. A total of 12 pairs of truck beds were used for video demonstrations, all purchased through retail dealerships. All demonstrations were conducted without bedliners, in order to compare the impact strength of each vehicle’s bed construction.
For an extreme demonstration of the relative impact strength of the two different bed materials, 55 landscaping blocks weighing a total of approximately 825 pounds (374 kilograms) were dropped into the bed of each truck.
For the demonstration, blocks were randomly loaded into skid-steer loaders and dropped from an identical height of 5 feet, measured from the bed floor to the bottom, rearmost point of the bucket.
A total of 12 demonstrations were conducted for video. In 12 out of 12 drops, the Silverado’s roll-formed, high-strength steel bed exhibited only surface damage with no punctures. In 12 out of 12 drops, the stamped aluminum bed exhibited significant puncture damage, averaging 4.3 holes per demonstration.
