What’s going on guys, Ponani here. Thanks for watching. So, how many truck articles can I have? You know, some people got drug problems—I got truck and car problems, specifically truck problems though, as you can see. If you haven’t watched my articles before, thanks for watching, I appreciate it. I try to come into every article unbiased. I know there’s Ford, Chevy, GM, Toyota guys, and everybody else out there—Ram guys too. I’ve about had them all, and I get a lot of comments on my articles. You can look at my list of trucks in my truck playlist—just go to my page, you’ll see the truck playlist right there.
I’m going to walk around the Superduty I got. I already have a article on it; you can watch that, it’s in the playlist. So, I’m not going too deep—just going to say it’s going away and I am going to miss it because this is an incredible truck. Everybody that drives a Superduty, I get it. It took me a minute to realize why I need a heavy-duty truck, and honestly, I do not. The biggest thing with this guy right here is the sheer manliness of it. I do love just driving around—it’s such a beast, right?
The setup I have on this—I wanted to go over it because there are a lot of Superduty articles out there and you can watch all those. This is more of an owner review with this Carly 2.5 setup. I’ll do some article in the truck as well. I’m just going to touch on the outside while I’m standing here in the parking lot and give you a sense of what I love about it, what I don’t, and see what y’all think. Maybe this will help you decide if you’re looking at a different kind of truck. Having had seat time in just about everything that’s out there, I’ve got a lot of experience—so hopefully, that helps. Once again, coming in unbiased.
So here it is, guys. I’ve got maybe 4,000 or so, 5,000 miles of seat time in this guy. I had it stock for maybe a month—it wasn’t long, I couldn’t stand the stock look. The tires are just too small for me, and it rode nice. This new 2023/24 platform—the new suspension components make a huge difference. The ride quality is definitely smooth, especially for a solid axle. It’s very impressive.
As far as solid axle trucks go, you’ve got this in the Ram. The 10-speed auto is great—it shifts good on mine, though I’ve heard some complaints on shifting. Occasionally, I do get a lazy downshift—if I get on the throttle, sometimes it’ll take a sec to click in. I drive it a lot in tow mode as well, which seems to sharpen it up and downshift a little bit earlier.
I did 37-inch Toyo RT Open Countries, which you’ll see in my first article, and the Carly 2.5. There you go. I have the scales, so we had to modify the bracket down there. The rear is stock—I’ll show you that in a sec. On the side, I’ve got the Carly. You can see where it rubbed, but honestly, it barely rubs. A lot of the rubbing was the brakes. We had to do some playing around with heavy-duty zip ties to get them in place so they don’t rub on a hard lock. Does it rub? Just a tiny bit on full lock—not enough to bother me by any means. If you spaced them out, they wouldn’t rub. These are not spaced; these are stock wheels.
I’ll show you where it sits—just enough poke there. Now, the rears on the heavy-duty axle (I have the high-capacity) have the extra spring back here. I didn’t mess with the back. I was going to do trimmer blocks to bring the back up a little bit. I’ll show you from the other side, but you can see it’s just a tiny bit higher in the front, maybe by an inch. I’m on an angle here in the parking lot. Tremor blocks—I’ve watched a couple of other guys who have these in Platinum formats on YouTube. Check them out too. Tremor blocks and removing that top spring apparently bump the back up maybe an inch or so to kind of offset that. I was going to do that with a set of AED bags if I kept it, but honestly, guys, I’m not towing, so there’s no need for me to keep this truck. It’s more of a toy, and I’m trying to cut my fuel, payment, and maintenance costs down. There’ll be another truck coming—there’ll be another article, of course.
This is a Lariat Ultimate package, so we’ve got heads-up display, switchgear, the B&O sound system, the big screen, and the digital dash, which is beautiful. I love the startup screen. Love the big console and the column shift. FX4 package, so I’ve got a locking rear diff, trailer brake. Love that B&O sound system—it’s one of my favorites. Fit and finish—compared to Ram, I do like it a little bit better. Obviously, the materials in this truck are better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a work truck, I completely understand that, so I’m being a little critical.
Here’s the space in the back—lots of space. If you’re looking for a panoramic roof, the Ford has it. Ram and GM do not. I feel like I have more headroom in this truck compared to the GMC I had. The cab in the GMC is just a tiny bit smaller, and I don’t know what it is—just the layout, the roofline up here, something about it. It’s not dramatic, but as a 6-foot-tall person, you notice. Ford does a good job on the seats—they’re very comfortable. They always have been. I’ve been a big fan of Ford seats. If you can afford to go up to the Platinum or Limited, you get the nice diamond-stitch seats with the multi-functions and all that fun stuff. I think they even massage too.
This one has the Black Appearance Package, so the badging is blacked out, the wheels (which are extremely dusty and clay-filled from farm life) are blacked out, and the mirror caps and grille are blacked out as well.
So, I will say this—I’m getting about 16.5 miles per gallon. I get on it when I hit the highway, but I don’t hammer it everywhere. I can’t believe the fuel economy with these 37-inch tires. I did calibrate for the tires using the FORScan tool—just a laptop tool you can find articles on, and that fixed it. It’s exactly on point with Waze and all my GPS apps. There is a fix for that, and it helps monitor your fuel economy. It’s not perfect, but I’ve done it by the paper method too.
Here’s the magic—along with the Carly steering stabilizer kit. I didn’t do the top one—that’s factory, and I have no issues with it. It tracks down the road. You can go 100 mph in this, and it’s stable, it’s nice. Very, very solid.
I would love some power steps, and if I did it again in the future, I’d probably go for the high output, even though the torque is fine. The 1,050 lb-ft of torque is definitely fine.
So what do I think of the Superduty? If you’ve watched my channel, I have a truck playlist. Go check it out—I’ve had a lot of trucks. Everything from the Raptor to the TRX, to GMC AT4, GMC Elevation with Duramax, Denali with Duramax, and the Denali Ultimate. You may know that if you’ve watched my channel. So, I’m not biased. I’ve had the Ram 1500 Limited—the 2024, the last of the V8 5.7 Hemi. That truck, with some bigger tires, was definitely one of my favorites as far as comfort goes. I also had the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning when it first came out. Getting ready to get another truck, and I’ll explain that in the next article for sure.
What truck am I getting? Good question. I’ve got a lot of different things that I do with my trucks—different from your average commercial or job-site guy. Ninety percent of my driving is to work. If you’ve watched my articles before, I’m about 40 minutes in, 40 minutes back. I’m out in farmland, so I use it for farm work on my days off—fueling the skid steer, going to Home Depot for projects. I still use a pickup truck like a pickup truck.
All that said, electric vs. diesel vs. gas vs. supercharged V8, I’ve literally had just about everything they build. I haven’t had a 2500 Duramax, but I’ve driven plenty. Basically, I understand why people buy them—it’s the only heavy-duty truck with independent suspension, while the Ram and Superduty are solid axles. It’s old school, it’s strong.
But this Superduty? Solid. It’s a workhorse. If you want to pull, it will do it. The Duramax has more finesse and luxury, but if you want power and work, this truck’s got it.
Thanks for watching, and stay tuned for the next article!
