Is it really any different than when the Toyota Tundra was put up against the 4.7l V8 Dodge, the 4.6l Ford, and the 4.8l or 5.3l Chevy? Ya, I know the Tundra was a 4.7l but it was a much more highly developed engine due to it being their flagship engine and the truck cost 10k more than the American trucks they used.

Sorry, back to topic at hand...

 

But if they did that then Ferd would pull all of its advertising dollars.

That is how it works, hit in the wallet and see who comes out on top.

Just my .02

 

The Fords are butt-ugly. I happen to like the Chevy's. I heard a Chevy Dmax last saturday. It sounded like the 78 my old boss had when it started to throw a push rod. VERY quiet but not the best sound.

Also noticed that they put a Ford F-450 in there test??!! What does that have to do with everything?

And they something right, though. Ford is riding the new 6.4L for the success of their trucks. If it goes kerplunk like the 6.0L, they are gonna lose the Chevy.

I just read a Popular Mechanics issue from earlier this year where they tested the 1/2 ton market. Very disappointing.

Jon

 

Yeah, Nissan first and Dodge last? Whatsupwiththat???

(I'll tell what's up, have you noticed all the Nissan ads in there? See any Dodge ads? Nope.)

 

Yea, I think it all comes down to advertising money. I dont of any other reason why all the mags praise the Fords so much, other than Ford spending some money on advertising in the mags. Its gotta be. And then when the Honda Ridgeline won Truck Of The Year in Motor Trend...only because Honda payed enough for them to pick it. Noone in theyre right mind would choose a Ridgeline as the best "truck" all it is is a fancy minivan with a bed on the back

 

Part 2 is up now with some very interesting 1/4 mile times....while pulling 10,500#...PART 2 - CLICK HERE

 

I guess im kinda surprized the gassers did as well as they did, when compared against their Diesel Siblings.

I'd love to see those same tests though with some bombed diesels!

And put a 3.73 axle ratio in the Dodge Cummins for the tests to make the playing field as level as possible!!!!!

 

whos gives a hoot.
1.i personally dont care about stright road times, their are no stright roads in PA, if u wanna go fast stright, theres these cool pluggy in things that make u go fast
2.Who knows how good the drivers testing the trucks are at driving diesels. its slighty different from gassers.
3. All i care about are the graded tests coming in part 3

 

First off I agree with all 3 above. With that said, if its like most magazines it will be Ford in first [ Ford will be first as Ford buys a lot of add space] Chevy and then Dodge. Dodge will be last being they don't buy enough add space to get top billing in any car/truck magazine.

 

4.Who actually hauls only 10500? thats a light load, ur either under or way over loaded....

 

and (gasp!) Ford didn't win. The good old CTD held it's own. Amazing what a 6-speed auto tranny did for the Ram.

http://www.pickuptruck.com/html/2007...otout9mpg.html

 

I did ask one of the guys about why they pulled only 10,500 lbs being that most people run at the Gross Combined vehicle weight rating which with the 4.10's is a little above 15,000 lbs in a quad cab. He said they couldn't put in goose neck hitches due to them being loaner trucks from the big 3. He did say they could of loaded them up to 12,000 lbs but the smaller gassers were not rated for that weight. I say the better test would be to load them up to the their load rating which would be around 15,000 lbs. It would be interesting to see how they did then.

 

The Dodge had 4:10's because that's what Dodge sent them. And they mentioned in the article that each manufacturer was made aware of exactly what the other manufacturers were sending. So obviously Dodge felt the 4:10's would give better performance. Hopefully Dodge did some testing on their own before making this decision.

In a nutshell, the overall conclusion was that the Duramax was king of the hill (literally) on the diesel side, and that the Ford V-10 is the way to go if you have to use a gasser to pull your trailer. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to mention how small the performance gap was between the Powerstroke and the V-10. The Hemi performed OK unloaded, fell on it's face when pulling a load, a combination of weak low end torque and gear spacing issues. The Cummins was middle of the road in nearly all the performace tests on the diesel side, but for my money I'd take another Cummins over the others in a heartbeat, I'm OK with someone beating me to the top of a hill by a half-second or so, My little inline six has never let me down.

 

Consider how the high revving DMax's and PStrokes won by a couple of seconds. The Cummins is lower revving with 4:10 gears and lost by 2-3 seconds. Not much of a gap. Now if the Dodge had 3.55:1....

 

IMHO, the diesels tested were all so close in performance that it really boils down to exactly that kind of personal preference you point out (also pointed out in the article).

They were so close in fact, one has to wonder what effect on the outcome fuel additive, tire pressure, synthetic oils, driving methods (sounds like they used a power brake launch), shifting winds, DPF regen (an alleged factor with the Ford), etc., etc. might have had.

What do I think? On paper, the Dmax won because they have a little more power & torque in the stock config., and less weight. For less then $1000 in mods, the CTD would have been the run away winner, and it's my experience you're gonna' save several more bills than that by going with the Dodge With that you get the peace of mind provided by legendary Cummins reliability and simplicity. Not to mention a factory exhaust brake, largest cab available, best looking of truck of the three, solid front axle....