Some workdays start where the pavement quits. Survey crews staking out a pipeline route, utility crews chasing a fault 40 miles down a washboard two-track, contractors hauling a full load of tools to a site that barely shows up on GPS. Those are the people ARB had in mind when it built this 2027 Ford F-250 Platinum, and you can see it in every piece bolted to the truck.
On paper, the Platinum is the dressed-up end of the Super Duty family, the trim you buy for the seats and the quiet cabin rather than the payload sticker. ARB left all that comfort intact and spent its energy underneath and around the truck, turning a luxury hauler into what the company calls a rig built for remote worksites. It rolled into ARB’s booth at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, but the real reason it was there was to introduce a whole family of Super Duty parts that didn’t exist a year ago.
A New Foundation From Old Man Emu
Everything on this truck starts with the suspension, and it’s the biggest news of the build. The Old Man Emu MT64-R 3.5-inch Suspension Kit (part number 2122K) is ARB’s new system for 2023-and-newer F-250 and F-350 trucks, and it’s slated to arrive in early 2027.
The MT64 name will be familiar to anyone who’s shopped OME in the last couple of years. It’s the company’s monotube shock family, developed from decades of Nitrocharger production and ARB’s experience building the high-end BP-51, and positioned between the two. The “R” in MT64-R is where things get serious for Super Duty owners. These dampers use 2.8-inch aluminum bodies wrapped around a 2.5-inch piston, with remote reservoirs that give the oil more room and more surface area to shed heat. That matters on a heavy truck grinding through miles of corrugated dirt road, where an undersized shock fades long before the driver does.
The kit delivers 3.5 inches of lift, 9.25 inches of front wheel travel, 13 inches of rear travel, and room for tires up to 37 inches tall. ARB also includes radius arm drop brackets, an adjustable track bar, and extended brake lines in the base kit, so the geometry and plumbing are sorted out of the box.
ARB didn’t stop at the base kit on this truck, either. With a bumper, tray, canopy, and spares hanging off the frame, the company built out the full menu of supporting upgrades. Up front, high-strength OME radius arms with bushing pivots offer up to 6.4 degrees of caster adjustment, a welcome fix for the vague steering feel lifted Super Duty trucks are known for. A torsional sway bar with billet mounts, arms, and links improves ride comfort and handling, while a 2.8-inch steering stabilizer adds steering control and resists fade. Limiting straps and upper mounts keep the front axle from overextending at full droop.
Out back, OME swapped the factory pack for parabolic rear springs with new bushings and U-bolts. ARB claims up to 35 percent better ride quality than a conventional multi-leaf setup, and the springs come in several constant-load ratings, from factory spec all the way to 3,500 pounds over it. A rear air bag kit provides adjustable support when the load changes throughout the day, and a greasable shackle and pin kit is available to simplify maintenance. Aside from the MT64-R kit itself, every one of those components wears a “Coming Soon” tag for now.
Armor Up Front, Alloy Out Back
The first thing most people notice is the bumper, and it’s hard to miss. ARB’s new Full Size Summit HD bumper is a heavy-duty steel piece with welded mesh infill and a black powder coat, plus towering hoop uprights that frame the Super Duty’s grille. It has an integrated front hitch, twin recovery points, built-in LED fog lights, indicators, and daytime running lights, along with mounts for auxiliary driving and clearance lights. ARB says it plays nicely with the truck’s factory safety systems. Separate ARB front recovery points round out the front end, giving crews a solid place to pull from for self-recovery or for moving material around a jobsite.
The back half of the truck tells the work-truck story even louder. The factory bed is gone, replaced by an aluminum tray topped with an ARB Alloy Canopy, a lockable aluminum enclosure with weather-sealed compartments and a rain-gutter design that keeps gear dry even with the doors open. It sits on rubber mounts to cut vibration, wears a textured black powder coat, and has lift-off points so the whole canopy can come off when the full deck is needed. ARB also used the show to introduce its EVO 2 alloy flatbed and canopy systems as a new part of its lineup. A full-length rack runs over the cab and canopy, and a pair of spares rides on adjustable mounts at the rear with a spinner and lock, along with a dedicated jack mount.
Light, Air, And Rubber
After dark, this F-250 leans on NACHO lighting. A 30-inch NACHO lightbar (coming soon) sits low in the bumper, NACHO Nano Lights (part NAN116) serve as scene lighting along the sides, and the NACHO Switch System (NAC11SW) ties everything together in the cab.
Onboard air comes from ARB’s Brushless Twin Motor 12V Air Compressor (CKBLTA12). It’s a meaningful step up from the company’s long-standing brushed twin, with about 50 percent more air output, active cooling fans, a 100 percent duty cycle, an IP67 rating, and a maximum of 150 psi. Its Smart Start feature staggers the two motors at startup to soften the electrical spike, and if the charging system gets tired, the compressor can shut down one motor and keep working on the other. With 37s at each corner, that kind of airflow takes the sting out of airing back up after a day on dirt.
Those 37s are Nitto Trail Grappler M/T tires in a 37×12.50R18 size, mounted on Innov8 Forged 18×9 wheels. It’s an aggressive but sensible pairing for a heavy truck, with plenty of sidewall to air down and a tread that handles gravel, mud, and highway miles without much complaint.
Built For The Long Haul
Most of what you see on this truck is still in the pipeline, with the MT64-R kit due in early 2027 and much of the hardware listed as coming soon. ARB hasn’t announced pricing yet. Taken together, though, the build makes a clear argument. A Super Duty Platinum doesn’t have to choose between the comfortable cab and the capability needed to get a crew and its tools to the job and back, day after day, on roads that were never meant to be easy. ARB just needed the right parts to make the case, and now it has them.
You might also like
Twin-Turbo Cummins Power Fuels This Wild 1979 Ford F-250
This wicked 1979 Ford F-250 was crafted by its owner from a $1,000 salvage yard find and fitted with a twin-turbo 12-valve Cummins.
