2024 King Ranch delivery trip ... another happy Granger customer!

[gemini]

My 2024 F150 King Ranch arrived, and was picked up from Granger last week. Here's the details:


2024 F150 King Ranch 601A w/ PowerBoost, Antimatter Blue, FX4 Off-Road, 7.2kW Pro power, Max Recline Seats, Tough Bed Spray-In Bedliner, Tow/Haul, 6.5" bed

• Ordered from Granger Ford: 6/3/24
• Scheduled Week: 7/15/24
• Blend Date: 7/18/24
• In Production (as listed on the order page): 6/26/24
• In Production (As updated later in the order page): 07/19/2024
• Built: 07/20/2024
• Shipped: 07/22/2024
• Delivered to Granger: 07/29/2024
• Email from Shelby: 07/29/2024
• Picked up: 8/8/2024

This was by far the smoothest vehicle transaction I have ever had. Thanks to the staff at Granger for the job well done. Zack & his staff, Chip, Shelby, and all of those folks working behind the scene to make this a great experience.

I flew into Des Moines and was picked up by Steve for a 20 minute ride to Granger. I was greeted by Shelby who had the paperwork ready to be signed and Chip who had the truck ready outside waiting for me. He went through the options with me and showed me the new capabilities/features which were different from my previous truck (2021 F150 Lariat High). With that out of the way, I met with Shelby and signed the paperwork (which I had already seen via email). The entire process with Chip and Shelby took no more than 45 minutes. We were then off to start a road trip back home to the Portland area.

This was planned as an eight day road trip with the following attractions along the way:

• Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Keystone, SD
• Black Hills National Forest, Custer State Park, SD
• Devils Tower, Wyoming
• Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
• Yellowstone
• Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming
• Caribou-Targhee National Forest, Idaho
• Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Idaho
• Shoshone Falls, Idaho
• Painted Hills, Oregon

I wanted to do a proper break-in for the truck, so almost all of the trip was done via old state and US highway routes, avoiding the Interstate freeways.

The truck performed flawlessly, and was very comfortable while driving for several hours. The goal was to spend as much time visiting those attraction during this trip so I logged some long driving hours. The massaging seats and full lumbar support definitely helped during those long hours.

Highlights of the trip:

• Attractions along our route... what a beautiful country we live in!
• Comfortable seats
• Great visibility
• HUD
• Quiet ride
• fairly good gas milage (21.3 MPG, despite driving to some high elevation and clocking 65~75 MPH for some period of time)
• 360 cameras
• Excellent 10 speed transmission, always seem to pick the right gear
• The B&O Unleashed sounds great, and the SYNC system can play uncompressed FLAC files!

Lowlights:

• Horrible turning ratio (my first truck with 6.5" bed)
• Small/narrow/short parking spots (cameras do come handy, and I'm getting better at backing into spots.)
• Spotty SYNC navigation function (specially search) when there is no/low cell signal
  • I finally downloaded the rest of our route's maps through Google Maps offline feature at one of the hotels where wifi was available.
• Powerboost transition to electric mode not as smooth as when transitioning from electric to combustion mode
• No tailgate footstep/grab bar with the Pro Access Tailgate (a very useful feature on my 2021 Lariat)
• When lane centring/departure system is active, I got many nags/warnings about looking/watching the road even though I was directly looking at the road! Maybe it didn't like my sunglasses!
• BlueCruise only available on the Interstates. No BlueCruise on any of the highways during this trip!

Overall, these lowlights are small/nitpicking issues and don't affect how good this truck is!

And now for some pictures:

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[Kodiak]

Excellent trip write up! I would have liked the 6.5' bed but I could not get it with some of the options I wanted. With that said that 157" wheelbase would have been one of the negatives for me just like you posted. As it is with the 145" wheelbase this is a "park it in the last spot" vehicle so that diminished turn radius is what would have bugged me the most.

I would have loved a good HUD though. It sounds like you put the truck through a lot of the paces and features, what is your impression of the HUD.

Congratulations on the new beauty!

 

[SonarChief]

You and so many others make me happy I ordered almost the same truck, which I should have in less then a month!!!! Mine is also the Anti-matter blue 157’ KR, can’t wait to write my own review!!!! I knew going into this that the 157’ was a land yacht, and have no issue parking at the outer fringes (keeps door dings to a minimum). Great review!!!

And yes it is likely your sunglasses causing the alert’s. Good thing I am tinting everything, and don’t usually wear sunglasses.

What size USB do you use for the Flac files?

 

[BarryT82]

I ordered the same color, the max recline seats, powerboost, and tow mirrors. I went with the short bed because I already have a Retrax XR Pro bed cover for it from my last truck.

 

[TUNAS1016]

Congratulations, looks sharp! This is one of the quickest order to delivery dates I have seen for a KR. My Lariat 501A had a blend date of 7/17 but is currently on QC hold. Won’t be seeing it anytime soon I suspect but your experience gives me something to look forward to for my road trip from Granger in the Fall. Thank you for sharing.

 

[powerboatr]

Sweetest. Another running W in the northwest.
Great stop over spots

 

[BMCGC]

I love the KR, if I were to abandon my conservative spending habits and whip out the checkbook, the KR is the truck I would buy.

The low CCC is a killer if you actually need to do truck stuff.

This is odd: No added options, just the base packages. Screw, base engine, 6.5/6.75 bed.

A F250 XLT is about $500 less than a F150 XLT. $2200 less if you opt for the 6.8 vs 7.3.

A F250 KR is about 3k more than a F150 KR.

 

[Matisse70]

Nice truck. I ordered a truck with similar features 286 days ago and can't a build date. When I called Ford a month ago, I was told there were restricted items like the HUD, PAT and 3.5L Hybrid engine. Looks like you ha e all three. Enjoy your ride.

 

[fatBatman]

Congrats! You got the extended version of mine. I chose not to get the FX4 because I couldn't get the fancy 22" wheels and it would've removed the CCD suspension. Ever since, I have been curious if it rides differently without the CCD. Maybe I'll find out in 4-5 years when it's time to get a new one.

Side note, I've said it on here a million times that America is beautiful and that everyone needs to road trip to/from Granger. I'm glad you did.

 

[Smokewagun]

Always a King Ranch guy here, but that payload is a deal breaker for me. My 2022 loaded long box was 1,680#. They added 400# of plastic? Yup. I guess.

 

[BarryT82]

Congrats! You got the extended version of mine. I chose not to get the FX4 because I couldn't get the fancy 22" wheels and it would've removed the CCD suspension. Ever since, I have been curious if it rides differently without the CCD. Maybe I'll find out in 4-5 years when it's time to get a new one.

Side note, I've said it on here a million times that America is beautiful and that everyone needs to road trip to/from Granger. I'm glad you did.

If you try to build one now the 22” wheels aren’t an option. Did you have to order specific wheel well liners for the CCD? I have a set that I removed from my last truck without CCD.

 

[Snakebitten]

The long wheelbase turning radius is a geometrical reality. No way around it.
But everything else about it is wonderful and well worth the additional parking/turning effort. (in my opinion)

Beautiful truck! Congratulations.

 

[gemini]

I would have loved a good HUD though. It sounds like you put the truck through a lot of the paces and features, what is your impression of the HUD.

There are a few adjustments for the HUD including the content, brightness as well as its position. I had no issue during bright sun and it did not interfere with my vision out the windshield. It does include instructions when using the SYNC navigation, but I did not see any info from either Waze or Google maps in the HUD. I did not use Apple Maps to see if it displays direction in the HUD... will have to try that one of these days.

The HUD adjustments for the GMC Denali is on a stalk on the steering column. The F150's HUD adjustments are part of the setting menu and you'll have to use the buttons on the steering wheel to control its content and position.

Overall, I like it a lot. This was one of the reasons I upgraded to KR instead of ordering another Lariat.

 

[gemini]

What size USB do you use for the Flac files?

I had two USB drives formatted to FAT32 and they both worked fine. I had a Sandisk 128G USB-A and a Samsung 256G USB-C. There is one of each type of connectors right next to the phone charging pad. I mostly used the 256G drive and Apple CarPlay during this trip.

 

[gemini]

Always a King Ranch guy here, but that payload is a deal breaker for me. My 2022 loaded long box was 1,680#. They added 400# of plastic? Yup. I guess.

It could be the huge sunroof, or the retractable running board, or the PowerBoost battery or combination of all the above?

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