A Look Back At The First Ford F-Series Super Duty Truck

The 1999 Ford Super Duty commemorated the first time that the automaker's popular F-Series spawned into two separate model lineups. Back then, the ninth-generation F-Series still rode on seventh-gen underpinnings, and competition from Chevy and Ram was nipping at the heels of truck buyers with better heavy-duty capabilities and performance.

The 10th-generation F-Series introduced in 1997 marked a period of transition for Ford. It debuted the first Super Duty in 1998 for the 1999 model year, and was no F-150 clone. It deviated too radically from the standard F-150 platform that the only shared components were the taillamp lenses and tailgate.

Furthermore, the Super Duty had a lengthened chassis — four inches longer for regular and crew cab, three inches for SuperCab variants — an upsized cabin with larger seats, and an optional four-wheel (4x4) drivetrain on dual rear-wheel ("dually") models, the first time in Ford's truck history.

The base F-250 Super Duty came with a 5.4-liter Triton V8 gas engine — a carryover from the 10th-gen F-150. However, with an enormous body and beefier underpinnings, the Super Duty needed something more potent, so the automaker gave it the first V10 engine in a Ford truck. The Triton V10 boasted 6.8 liters of displacement and single overhead camshafts (SOHC) to produce 275 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque, enough to tow up to 10,000 pounds with the right equipment.

In addition, the first Ford Super Duty had an available 7.3 liter Power Stroke diesel V8 engine, churning out 235 horsepower and a massive 500 pound-feet of torque at 1,600 rpm — numbers that make it the most potent diesel engine when it launched in 1999. Helping the cause is an air-to-air intercooler, a revamped turbocharger and wastegate, and higher-voltage injectors.

The transmission options were a ZF six-speed manual, and a 4R100 four-speed automatic with PTO or Power take-off capabilities. It sounds like something that a top fuel dragster would utilize at full tilt, but PTO enables the engine to power auxiliary equipment like dump trucks or snow plows.

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Furthermore, Ford engineers tinkered with the cooling system of the four-speed automatic gearbox to make it eligible for heavy-duty hauling or towing. The driveline included an NV273 part-time 4x4 transfer case with shift-on-the-fly, which made the Super Duty the first in its segment to have one.

The first-gen Ford Super Duty was in production from 1999 to 2007. Now in its fifth generation, the 2024 Super Duty was named the 2024 North America Truck of the Year for its max 40,000-pound towing capacity and 8,000-pound max payload.