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The Ford F-150 Tremor Is A New “Off-Road” Trim For America’s Best Selling Pickup Truck

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Photo: Ford

Truck YeahThe trucks are good!

Ford is going all-in on the “Tremor” name after offering the off-road package on the Ford Super Duty and Ford Ranger. Now there’s an F-150 Tremor. Here’s the off-road equipment that it offers over other F-150 models.

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The world is going crazy over off-road culture these days, with Ford offering a new Bronco and Bronco Sport, Jeep building V8 Wranglers, Toyota offering TRD packages on all sorts of vehicles including the RAV4 crossover, and even Honda throwing some cladding on a Pilot and calling it the new Passport.

Even if folks don’t actually take their vehicles to the trails, people sure as hell enjoy looking like they do. So it’s no surprise that Ford is adding another off-road-ish F-150 in addition to the FX4 package and the Raptor. The more off-road trims the better, I guess?

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You’ve already seen the Tremor name, as it’s the off-road package that Ford offers on the Super Duty XLT, Lariat, King Range and Platinum, as well as on the Ford Ranger XLT and Lariat.

In those vehicles, the Tremor Package’s main selling points are special exterior styling bits, increased ground clearance from a tweaked suspension, unique shocks, and big tires—in addition to off-road features like locking differentials and skid plates offered on other trims.

On the F-150, things are a bit different in that Tremor isn’t a package, it’s actually its own trim level.

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Photo: Ford

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The F-150 Tremor trim gets “retuned springs” all the way around to increase ground clearance, plus upper control arms and knuckles have been “revised,” and there are new monotube shocks up front and twin-tube dampers out back. “Tremor has 1.5 inches more total travel in the rear and an additional inch of total travel in front,” Ford’s press release reads.

I reached out to Ford to ask about the control arms and knuckles, because it seems surprising that the team would go through all the effort of manufacturing and tuning these critical new suspension parts just for a new trim level. The Blue Oval hasn’t answered my query about whether these are indeed Tremor-specific knuckles and control arms, though perhaps they are, as the new Ford Ranger Tremor package also includes “a lifted suspension, redesigned front knuckles and 32-inch [all-terrain tires].”

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Speaking of tires, those same General Grabbers offered on the Ranger Tremor package come with the F-150 Tremor, though they’re 33s on the full-size truck versus 32s on the Ranger:

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The tires wrap around 18-inch wheels, and add to the vehicle’s additional ground clearance, plus they increase the vehicle’s stance width by one inch, Ford says.

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The 2021 Ford F-150 Tremor’s approach angle is a decent 27.6 degrees, departure angle is an acceptable 24.3 degrees, and the breakover angle of 21.2 isn’t too horrible for a pickup, either. All of these figures apply to the SuperCrew with 5.5-foot box, as this is the only truck configuration offered as a Tremor. For reference, Ford lists the standard 4×4 F-150’s approach angle as 24.3 degrees, the departure angle as 25.3 degrees, and the breakover angle as 20 degrees.

The Tremor trim only comes with the 3.5-liter EcoBoost mated to a 10-speed automatic, so if you wanted the V8 (and let’s be honest: you did), you’re out of luck.

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Like F-150s equipped with the FX4 Off-Road package, the Tremor gets skid plates, a locking rear differential, and Hill Descent Control. Plus there’s “Trail Control,” which is an off-road cruise control found on the outgoing Ford Raptor and the Ford Bronco Sport that I recently reviewed, and there’s Trail Turn Assist, which brakes the inside rear tire to help the truck make tight turns off-road.

In addition to the rear locker, Ford says that a Torsen limited slip front differential is coming later, and the company says that “high series customers get a torque-on-demand transfer case similar to the high-performance unit in F-150 Raptor.” This active transfer case offers an automatic mode that activates four-wheel drive when conditions call for it.

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Perhaps more interesting than any of this is “Trail One-Pedal Drive,” mostly because it could solve a problem I’ve faced with a number of off-road vehicles—they don’t have large enough crawl ratios to allow for precise low-speed crawling, and to compensate, I’ve had to drive with two feet. “In harsh trail situations,” Ford writes in its literature, “a driver typically must use both pedals, modulating throttle and brake simultaneously to advance the truck and avoid damage. Trail One-Pedal Drive simplifies all that, combining those operations into activating just the throttle.”

“Press to move forward, release to brake. The truck applies the brakes proportionally as the driver lifts from the accelerator.”

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This sounds like a good idea, and I’m excited to see how well it works over rocks.

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Photo: Ford

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The Tremor isn’t just about hardware or software, though, it’s also about styling. There’s a unique black grille with an “Active Orange” horizontal bar, there are orange tow hooks, plus there’s a redesigned hood and dual exhaust, orange tremor badges everywhere, and a “Raptor-Style” front skid plate.

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Photo: Ford

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The interior also has special Tremor styling bits, including stitching in the seats and door panels, plus little orange trim accents in the dash and elsewhere in the cabin.

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Photo: Ford

Oh, and there are some auxiliary switches, too, for light bars, winches, and other accessories.

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Illustration for article titled The Ford F-150 Tremor Is A New Off-Road Trim For Americas Best Selling Pickup Truck

Photo: Ford

Is it a huge step over a standard F-150 with the FX4 package? Probably not. But the 2021 Ford F-150 is an impressive truck, and I have to admit that the Tremor trim looks cool and appears to get the hardware needed to do some decent off-roading. Good truck, good looks, decent hardware? Plus a 10,900 tow rating?

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I don’t know how much the Ford F-150 Tremor will cost, but as long as it’s less than the forthcoming Raptor, people will buy it.