Popped my cherry on the F150

"Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey" (dingersghost) 02/09/2015 at 19:20 • Filed to: 2015 F150, Ive mended something, Design issue

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Did my first bit of work on the new F150 today. A customer came in with the truck they bought a week ago, asking for a broken cargo bed cleat to be replaced.

See, that might sound like an odd thing to break. But on to the design: They're designed to be easily removed. Why, I don't know. Anyhow, they use a simple turn-key latch that holds the hook in. You unlock the latch, then pull out slightly on the bottom and push the hook down to remove it. The whole thing is encased in plastic, to protect the aluminum. To reinstall the hook, you reverse the process and it will latch itself in, and then you lock it. If you ever take one for a drive and notice a little key on the ring, that's for the cleats.

The problem was, this customer's hook broke on the lower part where you pull on it to unlatch it. Hm, that's problematic. The process for removing the hook breaks it. Turns out, Ford's catching on to their mistake.

After I borrowed a hook off another one of our 15's, we found out our parts department couldn't order a new hook because Ford was working on resolving the design issue.

So I have a feeling I had better get used to replacing these. Today was a simple fix, take the new hook and swap the lock barrels so I could replace it on the customer's truck. I'm just stumped as to why you would even want to remove the tie downs, and why this wasn't originally seen as an issue.

ly2v8-Brian > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/09/2015 at 19:25

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That is a bizarre idea. and frankly dumb.

yamahog > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/09/2015 at 19:26

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I'm just stumped as to why you would even want to remove the tie downs, and why this wasn't originally seen as an issue.

Somewhere in Dearborn, an engineer is sobbing over their DFMEA.

bob and john > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/09/2015 at 19:26

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I think it was less about removing the tiedown and more about having a fail safe. aluminum is expensive to repair, so they design the latchs to break off before bending the truck body. then, to make it easier to replace, they make them removable.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > ly2v8-Brian 02/09/2015 at 19:30

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It's part of what's called BoxLink. It's a way to allow customers to configure their truck for their needs, but so far it's kind of facing poor execution in my opinion (and apparently others)

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > yamahog 02/09/2015 at 19:31

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I'm reading now (and I should have known this) it's part of BoxLink, a package to help owners configure their trucks to their needs. It's a cool idea, just poor execution so far.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > bob and john 02/09/2015 at 19:34

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Actually I'm learning now, something I should have know, it's part of BoxLink, a feature that allows owners to configure their truck bed to their needs. They're designed to be removed to suit other uses, but the design on the hook is bad. After time I'm sure Ford will fix this and it will work nicely.

ly2v8-Brian > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/09/2015 at 19:40

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Cant win 'em all. Not like it'll keep people from buying them.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > ly2v8-Brian 02/09/2015 at 20:40

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Oh no thats for sure. Honestly, someday down the road I would love to own one of these.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > yamahog 02/09/2015 at 21:53

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No, they are clearly bitching about the pinhead who effed up the PFMEA and allowed nonconforming parts to be produced.

orcim > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/09/2015 at 23:26

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How many times have we used *really smart people* to come up with *new* design ideas, that don't *match* the real world.

Forever, I guess. Testing is key, continuous improvement is second. Glad to see they are addressing it.

desertdog5051 > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/09/2015 at 23:34

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Plastic cargo tie downs!? PLASTIC CARGO TIE DOWNS!!? I guess those will be OK for the groceries that most people haul in their 4 foot bed. Jeez.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > orcim 02/10/2015 at 15:43

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Poor designs happen too often haha

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > desertdog5051 02/10/2015 at 15:44

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Plastic covered hooks. The actual hook is still metal inside. The hook itself seems pretty sturdy, but the way of removal is not.

desertdog5051 > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/10/2015 at 23:26

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Thank you.

orcim > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/16/2015 at 23:10

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Ya know, I just got a recommendation for my original comment and reread your comment. "Poor designs happen too often.." is absolutely true. Asking the question of "why" is the real problem in my mind.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > orcim 02/17/2015 at 17:38

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Designers aren't usually affected by their poor designs in my experience.

orcim > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 02/18/2015 at 02:39

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Too true.

"Unleash the Krakken Users!"

Though I have to admit, getting 10 users in a UI study to use your [obviously] very well designed software [shit] is not an ego building experience. It just doesn't happen often enough.