The 2024 Ford F-150 Tremor comes packed with features, including unique front and rear springs and shocks, special Tremor control arms, and an optional new front bumper. Under the hood, there’s a choice between Ford’s EcoBoost 3.5 Liter V6 and its 5 liter V8 — with the V8 offering more horsepower and the V6 producing more torque thanks to its accompanying electric motor. There are also a few special features that may make a difference should you take the truck on a trail.
Those features include new ways to turn, an option to drive without touching a pedal (or sticking to just one) and a pretty much industry-standard array of assistance tools that rely on the vehicle’s various cameras and sensors. To try it all out, Ford took me on a short offroading expedition on California’s Burns Canyon Trail. It wasn’t a particularly challenging route, but did allow the company to showcase many of the truck’s best features. Here’s what I found.
Trail Turn Assist and Trail Control are the standout features
Of the new features Ford is offering in its 2024 F-150s, Trail Turn Assist and Trail Control with one-pedal driving are the two that stand out the most from an offroading perspective.
Trail Turn Assist
Trail Turn Assist is a pretty simple concept. If you turn the steering wheel sharply and give it some gas, then the system will lock the rear wheel closest to the direction you’re trying to turn in. This essentially makes the truck almost pivot around that wheel and allows drivers to get around corners that would normally require a lot of difficult maneuvering on often challenging ground. Trail Turn Assist needs to be enabled before you use it, and you should really turn it off once you’re done with it.
In terms of potential, Trail Turn Assist has lots of it. It’s a system with a little learning curve, and in hindsight, I’d liked to have spent a bit more time with it, but there are obvious practical applications. The issue I had centered on activating it; I couldn’t work out exactly when that back wheel was going to lock and how much the truck was going to spin around as a result. It’s the sort of thing I’m sure comes with a bit of practice, and once you get a feel for the system then it’s going to be a valuable tool to have in your offroading arsenal. Just make sure you get to grips with it somewhere sensible and aren’t trying it out for the first time on a hairpin near a cliff edge.
Trail Control
Trail Control is essentially Cruise Control: Offroad Edition. You set your speed and the vehicle handles everything but steering input. So, your truck will climb and descend slopes at the steady pace you’ve selected. If you don’t want to go full cruise control, there’s also a related one-pedal option. So give it some gas, and you go forward; lift off the accelerator a little, and it will brake for you.
As with one-pedal driving on the street, and on the track, the Trail Control system may be a bit of an acquired taste. It’s something I’m personally not fond of using, but I’m certain plenty of people will try it, love it, and go on to swear by it. The cruise control function is similar. Giving up total control of the vehicle on a technical section seems a bit odd to me, but I can see it being handy if there’s a long and uncomplicated stretch you have to plod to before getting to the next technical bit. It’s there if you want it.
Ford’s best offroading feature has been around for a while
Despite the new tech, Ford’s best offroading feature isn’t anything particularly new. The cameras dotted around the vehicle, particularly the one at the front, make navigating challenging areas of terrain fairly simple — even if you lack a spotter. There’s even an option to use the kind of “top-down” camera that may have helped you work your way into a parking spot. It turns out this feature, along with the 360-degree parking sensors the Tremor is equipped with, is equally useful when you’re navigating between boulders. “Offroad Mode” makes various adjustments that should prime the vehicle for an offroad environment and also pulls the front camera up on Ford’s easy-to-use 12-in. display. This is another example of how standard tech is very relevant in non-standard situations.
With that being said, everyone offroads differently, and you may find other bits of tech more useful. For example, if you get particularly good with Trail Turn Assist, then you’re probably going to be able to go to places you’d have struggled to reach otherwise. And that’s what tech should do. It should either open up new possibilities, eliminate something tedious, or just paper over the cracks in our skill levels. The Ford Tremor is also a solid choice if you’re going out on the trail. It didn’t struggle at any point, and it’s designed to take a metaphorical punch.
