Co-branding is often weird. Sometimes it results in astonishing machines like the ASC-McLaren Pontiac Grand Prix, but much of the time it just churns out largely forgettable special edition after largely forgettable special edition. Any of the 2000s Monte Carlo special editions that weren’t the Dale car, the Kith edition BMWs, that sort of stuff. The Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition sits somewhere in between. It’s had both flashes of awesomeness and years of underachievement, but the final factory-built model is one big-displacement high point.
In a way, the concept of a Harley-Davidson F-150 made perfect sense. Sometimes, people need to tow America’s most iconic motorcycles behind America’s most popular truck. Why not make the trucks and the bikes match? At least, that was the spirit for 2000, when Ford rolled out a Lightning without the poke. The first Harley-Davidson F-150 had 20-inch chromes and lowered suspension, but that’s about the extent of mechanical changes. Under the hood sat a 260-horsepower 5.4-liter V8 that couldn’t quite take the fight to GM’s then-recent LS-based V8s, but at least the truck looked cool. The signature orange stripes wouldn’t appear until 2001, when a proper four-full-door crew cab body also made an appearance. 2002, however, marked the start of something special.
That’s because the 2002 F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition was essentially a detuned crew cab F-150 Lightning. It still had a 5.4-liter V8, but a supercharger on top of that bumped output up to 340 horsepower and 425 lb.-ft. of torque, and that was enough to make things exciting. We’re talking zero-to-60 mph in a hair over six seconds, which was blistering in an era when a base Porsche Cayenne took more than nine seconds to run the same dash. From 2002 to 2003, the F-150 Harley-Davidson finally felt right. Then Ford killed it.
Coinciding with the arrival of the eleventh-generation F-150, the Harley-Davidson nameplate switched over to the Super Duty trucks. These were definitely more capable tow rigs, but they weren’t street trucks. Thankfully, the Harley-Davidson F-150 returned for 2006 with a new body, but it lost its supercharger. An optional Saleen blower joined the party in 2007, but when you need to follow up muscle, you better do it with something punchier than a naturally aspirated 5.4-liter V8.
Well, after taking a year off in 2009, the F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition returned for 2010 with … a naturally aspirated 5.4-liter V8. With the same 320 horsepower output that you could get in cheaper F-150s, this H-D Edition basically just gave you stickers, leather, and 22-inch wheels for $50,000. Fortunately, there was a bit of a late course correction.
See, the twelfth-generation F-150 came with a range of seven different engines, and the Boss was the biggest and baddest of the bunch. In the second half of the 2000s, it became abundantly clear that the 5.4-liter modular V8 had a finite shelf life, and both GM and Chrysler were going big with V8s displacing six liters and beyond. With that in mind, Ford created a single-overhead-cam, 16-valve, iron-block V8 with 4.53-inch bore spacing. Settling on a 102 mm bore and a 95 mm stroke resulted in a total displacement of 6.2 liters and output to rival a first-generation Coyote. We’re talking 411 horsepower and 434 lb.-ft. of torque when Ford put it in the F-150 Raptor. It’s this very configuration that carried through to the 2011 F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition, and the result kinda ripped.
We’re talking zero-to-60 mph in 6.3 seconds during Car And Driver instrumented testing—not really any quicker than the 2002 to 2003 supercharged model, but the 2011 edition was a heavier truck without the benefit of forced induction. More importantly, it was an order of magnitude quicker than the 2010 model, and it performed with a proper soundtrack. As the magazine wrote:
Not quantifiable but more enjoyable is the angry roar from the tailpipes, a function of the Harley-Davidson’s specially tuned exhaust system. Likewise, the 2011 F-150 sees tremendous improvement in the opposite longitudinal measure, braking. This truck needed only 176 feet to stop from 70 mph, although it needed a few tries to get heat into the brakes and tires before performing its best. Note to those who will need to perform a panic stop: It will behoove you to practice panicking a couple of times immediately before you do so for real.
The 2011 F-150 Harley-Davidson was a fairly smooth operator without much in the way of off-road lip service. Standard 22-inch wheels and sports dampers were very much street-oriented, a monochrome appearance with dark headlamp inserts and a unique trapezoidal lower grille are definitely street truck, and you got all the toys too. Heated and cooled leather front seats, a power-adjustable steering column, GPS navigation, moonroof … you name it. Sure, the graphics and branding were a bit much, but for a while, this was the last loaded-up street truck standing.
It didn’t stand for long, though. The Boss-powered F-150 Harley-Davidson was only sold for the 2011 and 2012 model years. When 2013 rolled around, Ford stopped affixing those giant, tacky shields to half-ton trucks at the factory, and it expanded availability of the 6.2-liter V8. However, because of the relatively short production run and previous naturally aspirated 5.4-liter F-150 Harley-Davidson Editions, these trucks aren’t terrible value on the used market.
Here’s a 2012 model up for sale in Michigan with 154,000 miles on the clock, and the seller’s asking $17,900. Admittedly, that’s a lot of money for a 14-year-old truck with that sort of mileage, but it’s also not a terrible price for this engine and level of equipment. Keep in mind, the 6.2 was also used in Super Duty trucks, where it was quite durable, provided you kept good spark plugs in it and fixed air and fluid leaks as they cropped up in normal operation. Outside of a few iffy early valve springs that can often be changed with the head still on the engine, the Boss is good for the long haul.
So yeah, the F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition was strange, in that it violently swung the needle of merit versus kitsch depending on year and powertrain. On the plus side, it did go out on a high note, and if you can live with the graphics and emblems, a late F-150 Harley-Davidson Edition could be the well-equipped, street-focused pickup truck you’re looking for. Or maybe the next time one drives by, you’ll wonder if it’s one of the models with a neat engine.
Top graphic image: Ford
I bought a 2014 Raptor with the 6.2L just two weeks ago, and I love this engine. It sounds fantastic, and by all reports is extremely reliable. There are a lot of Gen 1 Raptors rolling around with WELL over 200k miles on the engine.
The only downsize is at the gas pump.
On a side note, is that interior photo AI? It just seems a little off, and the center stack is nothing like what’s in my Raptor.
I loved the early 2000’s Supercrew models – at the time, street trucks were still all the rage and they just looked so good from the factory (and I honestly didn’t care at all about Harley-Davidson, I just loved the wheels and the new style headlights and the interiors). Such a great looking upgrade from the stock trucks (again, at the time). As you pointed out the later models lost a lot of luster and they’ve faded away but I still have a huge soft spot for the early ones
Cool article – but this part struck me as funny about the 6.2.. “…fixed air and fluid leaks as they cropped …. a few iffy early valve springs…” my man none of this is normal or OK haha
5.4 tritons were pretty terrible in the long run in general, but the Lightning variants seem to be made of glass. Cool Idea, bad execution on Ford’s part, in about every one that I have come across the Motor failing dramatically is the reason for it sitting.
more cars/trucks should come with flame graphics from the factory!
Lariat Limited is a less polarizing way to get the 6.2L in an F150. If you take off the bling, I guess the Harley F150 would be an ok truck. As-is, it’s like “Yo dawg, I hear you like to Harley so you can Harley while you Harley while you Harley while you Harley…”
CRANK HAWG HOSS THE BACK LOT i’ll see myself out
Yuck. 22 inch wheels, big Harley badges, and a bunch of attitude from the guy behind the wheel. Billygoat beard doofus up the street had a second hand one in white for years. QAnon and Lions Not Sheep stickers on the back. The coup d grace for this truck.
Never liked this gen F150 much anyway. Terrible interior plastics, doors that shut like a tin can and then squirmed and jittered in their frames on dirt roads.
I didn’t forget about these things, I just never cared. Can’t forget about them, every other Corvette owning Boomer here in God’s Waiting Room has one.
While the HD+F150 relationship makes sensee in some ways, I always found it tacky and lame. As if you MUST tell other people you own a Harley at all times.
One look at the driver and you immediately know their other car is a Corvette.
“Thankfully, the Harley-Davidson F-150 returned for 2006 with a new body, but it lost its supercharger.”
Meanwhile, in 06, you could get a Dodge Ram pickup with a *V10* and 500HP. And I say that as a Ford fan. But Ford definitely got a lot of those folks that spend crazy money on Harleys to get that F 150 as well.
That C&D article was familiar when I clicked on it, but you’re right: I forgot this 411 horsepower V8 street truck.
These only interested me in the supercharger years, and I lost track of how long they were made once the Harley Davidson co-branding just became an appearance package.
Not sure why they didn’t make a regular-cab, 8-ft. bed version. You couldn’t fit something like, I don’t know, a Harley Davidson in the bed of the ones they made.
A regular-cab one could have come with a ramp and custom wheel-securing openings and tie-downs, and even an integrated drain pan to catch the dripping oil.
Seems like a missed opportunity.
Totally agree. And this was at the height of Baby Boomer cashflow, where they’d be able to deal with a truck for the weekends that, gasp, was a truck, not a luxury car in truck form as is demanded now.
My Road Glide weighs over 800 lbs. and my F250’s bed is 3.5+ feet off the ground. The bed of my truck is long enough to fit the bike, but I would need several stout men, an extremely sturdy ramp, and a six pack of Schlitz to even think about trying this.
Realistically, if you have to haul a Harley with a pickup truck, a trailer is the only practical way to do it.
An F150 Vespa Edition with ramps and custom wheel chocks might be realistic, though.
Sadly true. the last Truck I have that was even close is a 2007 silverado Z71. The short bed is a pain though.
I used to carpool to work with a stonemason driving a 2011 F-150 Lariat Limited, which also came with that 6.2L V8. He let me drive it one time, and I guess it was fast! I didn’t have a ton to compare it to, though
Meh. I knew someone with one and it wasn’t very special besides the stickers (and that stupid shield on the center console lid that repeatedly burned my arm after sitting in the sun). It certainly wasn’t any faster or better handling than my 2011 F150 Ecoboost FX4, aside from less sidewall flex from the big wheels. In this generation, I’d take a Platinum or Limited over the Harley Davidson 100% of the time.
The truck that time forgot? More like the pickup that quality forgot. Amirite?
(shamelessly stolen from MST3k)
For our invention exchange we’ve come up with a way to combine two inflated ego purchases into one product. What do you think, Sirs?
We forgot because they were dumb.