Chevrolet beats Ford in heavy-duty pickup torture test
By Chris Woodyard
Nov. 15, 2010
Which automaker has the most macho heavy-duty pickup truck?
2011 Chevy Silverado 3500 LT
Our friends at Pickuptrucks.com decided to torture test Chevys and Ford to see who would come out ahead in towing impossibly heavy loads up impossibly difficult hills. They called it the “Rumble in the Rockies.”
The result was a bit of surprise given all the hype: Chevy won.
But then again, Chevy was behind the test.
Chevy challenged Ford to a Rocky Mountain tow test. Ford said no. Chevy moved forward and invited PickupTrucks.com and Diesel Power Magazine to oversee the test with trucks bought off the lot from Ford and Chevy dealers.
2011 Ford F-350 XLT
Pickuptrucks.com compared a 2011 Chevy Silverado 3500 LT (397 horsepower, 765 pounds-feet of torque 6.6-liter Duramax V-8) and a 2011 Ford F-350 XLT (400 hp, 800 pounds-feet 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8) and tested them pulling an 18,920 pound trailer up and down a 7.6 mile stretch of I-70 from Dillon, Colorado to the Eisenhower Tunnels, the highest vehicular tunnels in the U.S. at 11,000 feet elevation.
Pickuptrucks.com editor Mike Levine says the trucks were probably the most evenly matched heavy duties that the they had tested. Besides the same rear axle ratios, the $54,805 8,440-pound Ford was just $65 and 220 pounds more than the $54,740 8,220-pound Silverado.
Gross combined weight rating for the Chevy was 27,140 pounds before four adult males jumped in and added another 800 pounds, for a grand total of 27,940 pounds, or 96% of the Silverado’s maximum gross combined weight rating. The total for the Ford F-350 was 28,160 pounds, or 94% of the Super Duty’s maximum GCWR.
The trucks were tested for towing time up the hill and exhaust brake effectiveness going down.
The fastest time up the grade for the Ford was 10 minutes, 46.8 seconds at an average speed of 42.41 mph. The Chevy Silverado was significantly faster:
It finished more than two minutes ahead of the F-350, in 8 minutes, 38.2 seconds. Average speed cruising up to 11,000 feet was 53.63 mph, 11.22 mph faster on average than the Ford.
Going downhill with exhaust brakes on in both trucks, we had to apply the wheel brakes 10 to 11 times in the Ford to keep its speed below 60 mph. We had to hit the wheel brakes 1 to 2 times in the Chevy to keep its speed under 60 mph.
