Screenshot: Team O’Neil Rally School (Other)
People love putting cars in situations they weren’t originally designed for, like off-road Miatas and slammed trucks, and while seeing a stock Ford F-450 Super Duty King Ranch dually get hucked around a gravel rally course was not on our bingo card, it sure is cool!
Friends of the site Team O’Neil Rally School has a series of YouTube videos called Will It Rally, where lead instructor Wyatt Knox takes a vehicle out on a gravel track and hoons it to within an inch of its life to determine that question that has plagued mankind for generations: will it rally?
Previous vehicles range from performance cars like a first-generation Porsche Cayman to a Kia Sedona minivan to a Toyota Tacoma, but this episode features something even more obscure: a Ford F-450 Super Duty King Ranch dually tow rig. Now, logic would dictate that this mammoth of a truck would be hopeless on a course that is fit for purpose-built rally rockets, lumbering through turns and understeering into oblivion, but Knox has this down to a science.
Knox starts by pulling the three ABS fuses to disable any stability control or ABS intervention while performing his experiments. The experiments in question start by swinging the hulking rig around a makeshift gravel skidpad in the forest to allow him to gain a feel for how this behemoth is going to fare for the rally portion.
The Ford F450 King Ranch. Will It Rally?
Obviously an unladen F-450 Power Stroke Diesel has ample power to break the rear wheels loose– all four rear wheels on this dually model– but that doesn’t mean that the other characteristics of the truck are suitable for sideways slides and diving into donuts. Surprisingly, Knox finds the bulky behemoth to be impressively docile on the gravel, and he even compares its dynamics to that of a BMW. Whether that’s a compliment to the Super Duty or a dig at the BMW is up for interpretation, but it seems like it’s a compliment to the dynamics of the Super Duty.
Once Knox moves beyond the safety of a wide open skidpad and starts slinging the big rig down a narrow and twisting forest road things get a bit more tense. Again, the Super Duty seems to impress Knox The big demerit on the driving dynamics of the truck is its bigness. It’s a huge machine to hurdle down a narrow gravel mountain road that’s flanked by old-growth trees, but Knox does not take it easy in the slightest.
Despite some tense moments, the F-450 Super Duty dances around the tight turns and powers through the complex gravel-covered course with impressive composure. Knox makes it look easy when he hucks this truck finishing at indicated speeds of around 65 miles per hour.
Overall, the truck seems to fare quite well and Knox is impressed with how docile the Super Duty is. It was the slowest run that he’s recorded, but the sheer insanity of hooning an 8,500-pound, six-wheeled tow pig that cranks out 1000 lb-ft of torque down a gravel mountain road at highway speeds is still mighty impressive.
Keyword: Watch A Ford F-450 Super Duty King Ranch Dually Rally Its Gigantic Heart Out