[eluded]

You never answer my question about the nitrous:-)

I used to have a nitrous problem but after my second time in rehab (aka blown motor), I finally kicked the habit.

Originally Posted by Nitrousbird

I have a Formula Firebird that I've owned since the 90's, bought her in college. Currently in long-term project state with a heavily built 383 LT1 and D1SC Procharger sitting on the shelf.

[Nitrousbird]

Originally Posted by eluded

You never answer my question about the nitrous:-)

I used to have a nitrous problem but after my second time in rehab (aka blown motor), I finally kicked the habit.

Nitrous in my Formula Firebird.

Hence the screen name I've had for a good 15+ years...Nitrousbird

[David70]

Next thing you know sports car manufactures will be taking cars around the Ring (professional drivers) and we will be endlessly debating these tests, how these few seconds over 7 minutes matter and trying to make these tests meaningful to the average buyer.

Imagine how dumb that would be.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

Because when one buys a truck, a strong consideration is how it can handle taking a load of heavy rocks being dropped into the bed.

Besides, what dipshit gets a truck for that purpose and doesn't get it sprayed with a heavy duty bedliner? These Chevy commercials are almost frustratingly stupid.

Some people buy a truck to use it. First weekend after I bought my brand new 1999 F-150 I went to my local aggregate supply and had 1,800 lbs of No. 2 bluestone dumped in the bed. Now being a truck guy from long back I had also purchased a bed mat the day after I got the truck, so the gravel landed on a thick rubber mat, but it got dumped from about the same height as the blocks did in the commercial. Obviously you'd not do that with landscaping block (simply to prevent damage to the block), but the tool box seemed to hit home for me. It looks like a drop-in bedliner is a must for the new F-150.

A spay-in bed liner would not prevent punctures such as caused by the tool box, since while strong, aluminum is brittle. Maybe Ford should offer TIG welding classes and a small TIG welder as part of the sale with a new AL F-150...

My '99 F-150 is no longer in my care. After 15 years it rusted out to the point where I put a foot through the left front corner of the bed floor... A farmer has it now and it seems to be still working for him well. I see it often.

[kiloTHREE]

The great thing that no one is mentioning is that aluminum will not corrode through like steel nearly as quick or as bad. I see so many 6-8 year old trucks in the rust belt start loosing their fenders so early in life. That dent in the chevy will be a guaranteed rusted hole within a couple of years.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by kiloTHREE

The great thing that no one is mentioning is that aluminum will not corrode through like steel nearly as quick or as bad.

http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...8#post20075608

[RM7]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

since while strong, aluminum is brittle.

I suggest you look at an airplane wing the next time you are flying.

Or to be more specific, which alloy are you talking about?

[auf Deutsch]

These paid advertisements by Motor Trend, er I mean Chevy need to go away. The commercials with the focus groups are particularly annoying.

[1MOREMOD]

Agreed

[scoobysaurus]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Check back in five years when the Silverado bed is completely rusted away while the Ford bed is still there, albeit with a few battle scars.

Or, like people already said, there is this great invention called a bed-liner, and its composite construction is probably more durable and more puncture proof then thin metal (of any type) anyway.

Good point, but hypocrisy is nothing new for Chevrolet.

Remember the time when they said the'd never follow Ford and make a 4-cylinder Camaro? Fast forward to 2016 and behold, we have a 4 cylinder Camaro!

Here's the article about GM planning to go aluminium for their next generation pickups: http://www.autoblog.com/2015/08/05/g...ucks-aluminum/

Despite actively planning to do EXACTLY what Ford did, they still try and criticise the people they're following. I'm not sure if they're just plain dense, or arrogant enough to think of their customers as idiots.

[E90SLAM]

Player 3 just entered the game.

http://www.autotrader.ca/newsfeature...BpUytjZ3mFH.97

Honda has issued a response video to the Chevrolet cement block attack ad in which shows a few hundred kilos worth of the bulky building material being dumped into the beds of its Silverado and the competitive Ford F-150 in order to prove the Silverado’s steel bed is tougher than the Ford’s aluminum bodywork.

Honda’s video features the brand’s second-generation Ridgeline, set to go on sale later this year. The Japanese automaker attempts to recreate the circumstances portrayed in the Chevy ad by using a small loader to drop about 830 pounds (that’s the figure quoted in the video, which translates to about 375 kg) of paving stones (which look about the same size as the cement used in the original video) in the back in order to show the Ridgeline is, in at least one way, tougher than both the trucks used in Chevy’s ad.

Cement or toolbox, the Ridgeline’s trump, says Honda, is its “black all the way through” composite bed, which ends up with only a few superficial and barely-visible scratches to show for its ordeal, instead of the ugly dents the apparently tougher-than-a-Ford Silverado comes away with. Naturally, they also point out the Ridgeline’s in-bed “trunk” and a tailgate that can be opened two ways.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

I suggest you look at an airplane wing the next time you are flying.

Or to be more specific, which alloy are you talking about?

I'm talking about the "military grade aluminum" that Ford advertises it has made the F-150 out of.

Puncture resistance and flexibility are two different attributes of a material, along with construction design; there are not many sharp rocks up at 15,000 feet where airplane wings flex, but they do get punctures.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

Player 3 just entered the game.

http://www.autotrader.ca/newsfeature...BpUytjZ3mFH.97

What I like about the new Ridgeline is that Honda has finally offered a mid-sized truck bed that you can lay 4x8 sheet down flat between the wheel wells. Ford, Chevy and Dodge (when they all offered midsized trucks 20 years ago) never would. Honda doesn't have a larger-sized truck to sell so it has no reason not to offer that feature. Impressive is how the trunk lid took all that weight dropped on it. I wish Honda had kept the feature where the tailgate had the lower top edge design to hold 2-by boards in place.

[RM7]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

I'm talking about the "military grade aluminum" that Ford advertises it has made the F-150 out of.

Puncture resistance and flexibility are two different attributes of a material, along with construction design; there are not many sharp rocks up at 15,000 feet where airplane wings flex, but they do get punctures.

Puncture resistance is not a property of metal. Ductility, hardness, elastic and plastic limits for flexing/loads, these are properites of metal/alloys. Depending on the alloy and the processes it goes through, you can have significantly different properties. Your assertion that aluminum just "snaps" or "fragments" is asinine to anyone who has studied metals or engineering. Are you saying that you have no idea what alloy is being used when you made your "aluminum is brittle" comment?

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

Puncture resistance is not a property of metal. Ductility, hardness, elastic and plastic limits for flexing/loads, these are properites of metal/alloys. Depending on the alloy and the processes it goes through, you can have significantly different properties. Your assertion that aluminum just "snaps" or "fragments" is asinine to anyone who has studied metals or engineering. Are you saying that you have no idea what alloy is being used when you made your "aluminum is brittle" comment?

Dude, I studied manufacturing engineering in college and worked as a manufacturing engineer for about 4 years upon graduation. I'm quite familiar with what the properties of metals are and the various common alloys used in industry, since I had to spec out cutting, welding, and shaping equipment for a manufacturing plant and the installation there of. You are getting into the weeds to prove you have a metallurgy background, good for you. Puncture resistance of a metal alloy is determined by its chemical composition, along with the elements of the design it is used in and the manufacturing processes used to produce a particular part. I get it, so relax. Puncture resistance is a performance attribute of metal, which is what to point of the commercial is. My apologies for offending any metallurgists in the E90 Post audience that I wasn't specific as to what aluminum alloys and what manufacturing processes are use on them to make them "brittle".

Not sure why your panties are in a wad here about this. Chevy found a way to exploit Ford's use of an aluminum alloy for its new F150 and made an internet commercial about it. Regardless of what aluminum alloy Ford chose to use (I've not read any of the trade magazines that have reported on the specific alloy used - because I really don't care), but Ford has called it "Military Grade" in its commercials, which is a marketing slogan at least, and I'm sure has real meaning if one were to delve into what aluminum alloy was used and what hardening processes Ford uses to manufacture the bed plate of the F150. To 99.9999% of truck buyers all of that information means nothing because they wouldn't understand it. I'm sure somewhere there is a piece of military hardware that uses the same type and grade of aluminum alloy that is used in the F150. Perhaps it is the same alloy we used to weld up to make the Patriot Missile canisters and frame, or possibly the canisters of the Vertical Launching System (some of the stuff I worked on... since we're throwing our shit around here).

However, what I do find interesting is Chevrolet's new Silverado using steel alloys is in the same comparable weight class as Ford's Aluminum F150, which points to the use of aluminum by Ford to be not much of an advantage as it is advertised. Throw in a commercial where it can be shown Chevy's steel bed plate is more puncture resistant than Ford'd aluminum bed and the information might hit home for some truck buyers. I'm sure Chevrolet's engineers studied the Ford truck bed immensely to find the exact place to drop a steel tool box. And I'm quite sure the engineers then mathematically determined the proper angle the corner of the toolbox must hit the Ford's bed plate to make a puncture. Had the tool box hit a much less severe angle and at a place where the Ford's box has a crossbeam, the tear in the aluminum wouldn't have happened. It is apparent that the shear strength of the aluminium at some places in the the F150's bed is low enough to allow a steel tool box puncture it.

And by the way, I never said puncture resistance was a property of metal... I said it was an attribute. I also never said nor asserted that aluminum just snaps or fragments; not sure where you came up with that.

[RM7]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

And by the way, I never said puncture resistance was a property of metal... I said it was an attribute. I also never said nor asserted that aluminum just snaps or fragments; not sure where you came up with that.

Because you made the overall-comment that aluminum is "brittle", with no regard to the alloy being used. Brittle implies "snaps", as I can't recall the last time when something brittle was tested beyond it's elastic limit that did not, in fact, "brittle" implies there is no plastic limit, like glass, etc. It implies that once the elastic limit has been reached, the "curve" drops straight down at 90 degrees. Are aluminum alloys like glass? No. When an aluminum alloy component fails, does it "snap"? No. I am in aerospace and I deal with failed aluminum components, "brittle" is not a term I'd use to describe most aluminum alloys used. Some of the more exotic hardened steel alloys do show failure modes sometimes that could be described as looking "brittle", but these usually have seen extreme overload situations. What exactly is "brittle" anyway? Just doesn't seem like the right word to use at all.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

Because you made the overall-comment that aluminum is "brittle", with no regard to the alloy being used. Brittle implies "snaps", as I can't recall the last time when something brittle was tested beyond it's elastic limit that did not, in fact, "brittle" implies there is no plastic limit, like glass, etc. It implies that once the elastic limit has been reached, the "curve" drops straight down at 90 degrees. Are aluminum alloys like glass? No. When an aluminum alloy component fails, does it "snap"? No. I am in aerospace and I deal with failed aluminum components, "brittle" is not a term I'd use to describe most aluminum alloys used. Some of the more exotic hardened steel alloys do show failure modes sometimes that could be described as looking "brittle", but these usually have seen extreme overload situations. What exactly is "brittle" anyway? Just doesn't seem like the right word to use at all.

Okay... low tolerance to inelastic collision.