Ford F-150 Harley Davidson Edition: A Kid Rock CD With Four Wheels and A V8 Engine

The cooperation between the Ford Motor Company and Harley Davidson Motorcycles was largely spawned from being in the right place at the right time. Harley had already been the go-to name in American motorcycles for decades by the turn of the Millennium. Meanwhile, the F-150 consistently outperformed every other pickup in America year after year since the late 1970s.

In 1999, the second generation F-150 SVT Lightning was just beginning to hit showroom floors. Packing a supercharged 5.4-liter fuel-injected V8 engine, one would think it would be the obvious choice of engine to find a spot under the engine bay of a Harley branded F-series truck. But at least for the very first model year, the 2000 F-150 Harley Davidson Edition had no guts whatsoever.

Under the hood was the same 5.4 liter Ford engine, just sans the only component separating it from a performance-tuned sports car engine and a glorified boat anchor. 260 horsepower was all you got from the factory in this 2000 model year. It's made up for somewhat of an updated version of the same sports suspension also found in the SVT Lightning.

It wasn't until the 2002 model year before Ford seemingly got the memo they'd forgotten to fit a supercharger on the F-150 Harley Davidson Edition. Suddenly, 260 horsepower became 340, and there's reason to suspect those numbers are slightly underestimated, as tends to happen sometimes with American performance cars. They've been doing it since the 60s, after all.

Zero to 60 was blitzed in 6.2 seconds, around the same time as some sports cars from only a couple of decades prior. With a quarter-mile time in the 13-second area, that's touching on Range Rover Sport territory, and the F-150 Harley Edition never even sniffed the price level one of those fetches. With little more than a mild tune and some 93 octane gas, you could have what is essentially a Ford SVT Lightning, all with a wicked Harley Davidson-inspired aesthetic.

The following year, a special centennial celebration example of the Harley Davidson F-150 was released based on the Supercrew variant of that truck. Followed by similar appearance packages for both the F-250 and F-350, the latter of which came rocking a wicked two-tone orange and black exterior with a matching leather interior.

Such color patterns were the name of the game for Harley Edition F-Series trucks. And though none of the subsequent models had the same sporting credentials as the 2003 supercharged F-150, they at least make their presence known no matter where they are.

By 2008, the Harley F-150 was rocking many of the same features present on the high-end Platinum edition. Things like a powerful stereo system, even softer leather seats, and more soft-touch interior materials found their way to the model around this time.

Said leather is the very same type reserved for official Harley Davidson biker jackets. Sadly, by 2011, the F-150 Raptor had already burst onto the scene. Suddenly, the non-performance-oriented Harley Davidson Edition started to seem like somewhat of a wet noodle compared to the purpose-built Baja truck for the street that the Raptor became synonymous with.

The writing was on the wall for the moniker, and by 2012, the trim package was replaced by the Limited trim level, which used a similar monochromatic exterior package. Ford hasn't produced a Harley Davidson branded automobile since then. But as for the aftermarket, safe to say the older models sure made their impression on people.

The modified 2020 Ford F-250 from Tuscany Motor Co of Elkhart, Indiana, was a very normal Blue Oval truck before it was slapped with a Harley Davidson Fat Boy bike, 22-inch wheels, and 37-inch BFGoodrich all-terrain tires. Added fender flares and a custom exhaust make for something in between the fire-breathing monster Harley trucks of the early 2000s and the glorified appearance packages that came later.

At a starting price of $111,185 before taxes and fees, this is the kind of truck you buy with your heart instead of your brain because you're perfectly capable of buying a profoundly more powerful Ram TRX for the same money. But let's be real, even the TRX isn't as effortlessly cool as one of these Harleys.

Check back soon for more from Limited Edition Month here on autoevolution.