Truck Practicality With Serious Off-Road Capability

While Ford’s off-road trucks maintain some level of practicality, there is some compromise when you get to hardcore desert-runners like the Raptor. In the Ford F-150 lineup, the Tremor is the most off-road-focused trim Ford offers, and it can still pull big loads, doesn’t compromise on features, and can still tackle rough trails. Essentially, the Tremor is the right truck if you’re into getting off-road but not planning on going desert racing and still want your truck to be a regular truck during the week. Ford has been listening to and working with off-road veterans while developing a new model for 2024.

To underscore its commitment to capability alongside practicality, Ford gives customers looking to buy a 2024 F-150 Tremor a choice between a 5.0-liter V8 or the turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 for power. Specs are pegged at 400 horsepower for both, but the former puts out 410 lb-ft of torque while the EcoBoost engine has 510 lb-ft on offer. To further the practicality side of things, the F-150 Tremor can be equipped with hands-free BlueCruise tech and Ford’s new Pro-Access Tailgate, too.

We got to spend a couple of days out in the desert with Ford, which included a four-hour off-road trail through the desert and canyons with the Tremor. We left impressed – and not just about one aspect of the Tremor’s personality.

Exterior: Standing Out

The F-150 Tremor is easy to spot due to its ‘Coast To Coast’ grille, with Tremor Orange accents, new body panels, bold decals, and Tremor exclusive running boards. Options likely to be taken up by many Tremor buyers include a modular front bumper designed to mount accessories like a light bar and winch, and Ford’s Pro-Access Tailgate. It gets better approach, breakover, and departure angles than other models, too.

When it comes to tailgates, there’s an amusing technology war between the truck brands that’s resulted in some genuine steps forward in usability. The Pro-Access Tailgate has a side-opening door in the center of the fold-down panel, making it easier to reach deep into the truck bed or just load up smaller items. Ford demonstrated its two-stop gaps at 37 and 70 degrees, and fully opened at 100 degrees.

The idea is that, even with a large trailer hitched behind the truck, you can find a convenient angle to open the tailgate door to so you can slip things into the tailbed. We are a bit leery of that as it seems like it would be easy to push the door with your hips or elbows when pulling something out, especially with the 37-degree opening, and smacking the door into the hitch. Tailgates hitting tow hitches is hardly a new thing, but we’re not convinced this is the answer. However, it is a super-useful piece of engineering beyond that.

Rough-Stuff Capable and Highly Engineered

There’s a lot going on in the chassis and electronic systems on the Tremor to make full use of the BFGoodrich 33-inch all-terrain tires. The 5.0-liter V8 we spent the afternoon in makes 400 hp and 410 lb-ft, which can still be considered overkill for the vast majority of off-road adventures; the optional EcoBoost engine makes 510 lb-ft.

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That power is fed to all four wheels through a 10-speed automatic transmission with low range as an option for crawling. An electronically locking rear differential is standard, and the Tremor uses unique control arms and front knuckles for durability. Along with Normal, ECO, Sport, Tow/Haul modes, the Tremor includes Slippery, Deep Snow/Sand, Mud/Rut, and Rock Crawl. For protection, there are skid plates for the fuel tank, transfer case, and front differential.

On The Road: Still an F-150

Despite the extra ride height and running on all-terrain tires, the on-road experience isn’t drastically different between your basic F-150 and the Tremor. If anything, the suspension is a little softer, but the ride is definitely a little noisier – that’s negligible to us, however. The interior is standard F-150, barring some Tremor trim and seats. That’s great because the F-150 interior is already great – read our road-spec F-150 review for more info on the interior.

The day before this, we took a freeway ride in a BlueCruise-equipped truck. The Tremor can option on BlueCruise, which is worth a look for people who spend a lot of time on the freeway. The technology is advanced cruise control that, when in what Ford calls a Blue Zone, can be used hands-free; those Blue Zones are the areas mapped for the service, and while hands-free, it does require driver attention. However, it is a paid service as opposed to a standard feature, so you’ll need to weigh up whether the cost is worthwhile for you specifically.

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On the 40-mile ride on the freeway, we found BlueCruise 1.2 to be our smoothest experience with this kind of technology yet. It maintains its lane properly and without jerkiness, and the lane-change ability is excellent – simply trip the indicator to move into the lane you want, and BlueCruise uses its sensors for safety and takes care of it without the driver touching the wheel. The last BlueCruise-equipped vehicle we drove was a Lincoln with the 1.0 version of the technology, which we weren’t impressed with due to sudden braking in bends. We were unable to test BlueCruise 1.2 in the same area to see whether there was an improvement, but we’ll be sure to do so on future week-long test drives.

Off-Road: Capable And Comfortable

After spending the morning in the Raptor out in Johnson Valley, California, we were prepared to be underwhelmed by the Tremor – simply because that’s a big act to follow. However, the reality is that the Raptor and the Tremor are two entirely different animals. The Raptor could have covered the long trail with some rock obstacles and a fun climb area, but it would have been overkill, and the extra width – although not as much as you expect – would make a difference in tight areas, particularly with traffic coming the other way. The F-150 Tremor, on the other hand, felt perfectly suited.

The first thing we noticed behind the wheel of the F-150 Tremor was how comfortable the ride feels on a rough track. This should be a given, but we’ve been bitten before, so we remained wary. We tried the crawl control feature, which is great but, frankly, the brakes and throttle are so easy to modulate that it’s more of a luxury for all-day treks than a necessity. The real game-changer is the trail turn feature, which can lock the inside rear wheel so it drags, allowing the long truck to pivot on tight corners. It’s incredibly effective, making it feel as though the F-150’s wheelbase suddenly shrank.

One pedal drive is also a nice touch. It feels like cheating, but focusing effort on one foot is easier for those long, high-concentration technical areas. If you’ve already driven an electric vehicle with one-pedal driving ability, it’s as easy to get used to as that. A few spots showed off the Tremor’s long suspension travel and ability to cross itself up across rocks while maintaining drive due to the locking rear diff. Watching several journalists who admitted they have very little off-roading experience bang the trucks around with no problems also gave some idea of durability.

Conclusion: A Comprehensive Off-Road Truck

Our ride out in the Tremor was more of a “get to know you” journey interspersed with some obstacles that required driver care, rather than a course that actually challenged the truck. Given how easily it took some dusty climbs and tight turns, it’s clear the Tremor can handle much more arduous terrain that challenges both driver and vehicle. Saying that, we must note that we genuinely enjoyed the drive because the Tremor has such a nice ride on rough ground, while still having the ground clearance and ability to dispatch obstacles. And we couldn’t find anything to complain about on normal roads either.

We look forward to spending a week with the Tremor to review what it’s like to live with as a daily while putting in the hours out in the wild. We don’t have any concerns though, and it appears Ford has nailed that balance between everyday usability and off-road prowess with a big dose of durability thrown in.