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A job like this one offers no shortage of memorable encounters. A few years back, on an Easter Jeep Safari junket in Moab, I managed to scam some time behind the wheel of Jeep’s all-electric Magneto concept with then-boss Jim Morrison riding shotgun. The Magneto was essentially a Wrangler body sitting on top of a battery pack, a pair of motors, a Hellcat’s six-speed manual gearbox and 40″ tires. Reaching a clearing, I turned to him and asked where I should go next. In reply, he simply smiled and said “A Wrangler on 40s can go anywhere.”
What does Jeep have to do with a heavy-duty truck build? Well, as you might have guessed, both of them have 40-inch tires. That’s where the “XL” in AEV’s new Super Duty FXL package comes from. Not following? As any Steelers fan. will tell you, those are the Roman numerals for 40. And yes, “FX” is also an homage to Ford’s long-standing “FX4” off-road packages. It’s an appropriate nod, because AEV’s entire goal was to offer the go-anywhere capability of 40s without deviating from its factory ride quality.
The largest stock tire available on an F-250 is the 35″ all-terrain offered on the Tremor. To stuff another five inches under there, AEV needed to work from above and below. The former was accomplished thanks to HighMark, which supplied the FXL’s enormous fender flares, while the latter was done the old-fashioned way—with a 4-inch lift. The resulting package offers 12 inches of vertical clearance beneath the lowest point on the rear axle, and a custom-tuned Bilstein suspension keeps body movements in check.
You probably expect more from an AEV package than four massive expanses of sidewall, and sure enough, those BFG HD-Terrains are just the beginning. The HighMark Fender flares not only clear the 40s, but they widen the Super Duty’s stance. They’re matched with front and rear AEV steel bumpers. The front bumper includes a standard winch mount and accommodates all of the Super Duty’s factory ADAS systems (radar sensors, etc.). It can also be upgraded with a brush guard (late availability).
While the company started (and still identifies itself most closely) with Jeeps, AEV’s proverbial shop doors are wide open, so long as automakers are looking for overlanding-inspired upgrades. We’ve already seen their official partnerships expand beyond the seven-slot grille, and while your author may be partial to that Level II Wrangler (even with its unobtanium price tag), it’s far from the only showroom model to bear the up-fitter’s branding.
It’s a good time to be in the aftermarket business. The EPA is toothless and NHTSA may well be next, making the barrier to entry for aftermarket modifications lower than it has been in decades. But for AEV, it’s business as usual—and that business is pretty good. As a tier-one supplier, AEV works closely with automakers to supply the parts that keep vast swaths of America’s new-vehicle fleet rolling day-to-day. This scale not only gives AEV the breathing room to experiment with limited-run projects, but it gives them direct access to the decision-makers who can green light their collaborations.
Put another way? You never know what they might do next.
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
