Went on a work trip with my boss and a couple other colleagues this past week, me and him both have 2011 f150's. He dislocated his elbow at the gas station so i took over on driving for the rest of the trip (around 800 miles round trip). I switched his key to my key ring so I wouldn't have to carry all of his other keys.

Yesterday he goes out to his truck with my keys (and his) and opens the tail gate with my key. So today at lunch on our way back to Houston i got curious, put my key into his tail gate to verify what he said. Sure enough, it pops right open. Well i got to thinking, the key theoretically should work on the door as well. Sure enough, it does. So now i have his door opened with my key. Compare the 2 keys and they are in no way similar, but apparently similar enough to open a truck door.

The alarm did go off about 15 seconds after wards (dash said it was about to go off), but so glad that any body can get into my truck easily if they want to....

 

Especially now that everyone on the internet knows.

 

There are only so many unique combinations they can cut into a mechanical key. I a little wear and close combos melt together.

Purely coincidence.

 

3 of my pals and I bought 1971 Kawasaki triples and all our keys were the same!!!

 

If by chance the first truck i tried worked, odds probably aren't going to go in your favor either

Only thing someone can steal out of my truck is a pair of steal toes and hard hat so i'm not too worried about it, but at the same time it'd been nice to not know this information

 

Reminds me of our John Deere tractors. One key will start them all.

 

yep. a buddy and i found that out at tractor day for FFA one day! we took each others rides around town afterwards!

 

Yep Deere's are the same. Little keys with a deer on them usually. CAT uses the same keys as well, brass keys. So does Kamatsu. All heavy equipment are keyed the same, same ignitions for same makes.

 

I had an old F150 and an old Explorer. The ignitions on both began to get slack in them around the same time. Just wondering one day, I switched the keys. Yep, they each started each other. It had more to do with the wear on them that allowed small differences in the keys to slide past.

 

im goin to the dealer after they close and see how many f150 i can unlock and lock all the tailgates lol

 

I remember with my old Cavalier, there were only 10 or so different key combinations for the doors. While I'm sure Ford has more combinations for the new F-150s, you and your boss just won the key lottery.

 

Back in the day, when auto garage doors were becoming popular, we'd ride around with my parent's remote in the fancy, uppity sub-divisions opening their doors. Then we'd ride on.

Didn't take much to amuse us, back then. Unlike today..........

 

Back when I was a kid my parents drove early-60's Chevrolets and I remember distinctly that those vehicles were designed to start without a key. If I remember correctly, there was a certain way you could turn the ignition off to determine whether a key was needed or not to restart it, and in our small Midwestern town, I rarely recall a time when mom used a key. Different times, for sure.....

 

My '92 Taurus i had, had a worn out ignition. We took it to a shop, couple days later brought it home, and the next morning couldnt get into the locked door. Some how the shop gave us a key to a Merc Sable that was also there, their key started the car, but didnt work in the door.

Later i found out i could manipulate the ignition, kill the engine and take the key out and not roll the tumbler all the way back, then i could restart without the key. Then i found out you could start the engine and take out the key when ever you wanted.

 

I had a 92 GMC Sierra that you could take the key out whenever you wanted. Was handy when you needed to run back inside after something...just don't leave your keys because when you turn the truck off, it won't start again without the key.