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2018 One-Ton Heavy-Duty Truck Challenge: How They Towed
By Matthew Barnes
One of the biggest reasons to purchase a one-ton pickup truck instead of a half-ton or three-quarter-ton truck is for the increased tow rating. With manufacturers constantly changing and upgrading their vehicles, we wanted to see which of the Detroit Three automakers makes the best one-ton truck for towing. So, we invited Chevrolet, Ford and Ram to send us one-ton single-rear-wheel trucks equipped with the top tow package and capable of towing a gooseneck trailer for our 2018 One-Ton Heavy-Duty Truck Challenge.
2018 One-Ton Heavy-Duty Truck Challenge
Results | Towing | How We Tested
We received a 2018 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 High Country, 2018 Ford Super Duty F-350 Lariat and 2018 Ram 3500 Laramie, crew cabs all with diesel engines. We attached them to a 4,900-pound Big Tex gooseneck dump trailer filled with 8,100 pounds of gravel and hit the Arizona hills to see how they compared.
Davis Dam Hill Climb
Over the course of five days, we spent a significant amount of time towing our load behind each of the heavy-duty trucks. We covered a variety of terrains, but the culmination of the towing experience was our test day spent on the Davis Dam grade on state Route 68. Each of our three judges — PickupTrucks.com Editor Mark Williams, Cars.com Detroit Bureau Chief Aaron Bragman, and product engineer and industry blogger Matthew Barnes — drove the grade multiple times in each truck to get a feel for how they handled the load, both while climbing and descending. With the incredible amount of power each of the diesel trucks puts out, we decided to limit our timed testing to the steepest section of the full grade (just more than 2 miles in length). Even so, all three trucks were able to exceed the posted speed limit. We started from a full stop and went full throttle over the entire section, allowing the trucks to shift on their own. Here's how they performed:
Chevrolet Silverado 3500: 2:03.25 (minutes/seconds) with a top speed of 74 mph
The Silverado 3500 was noticeably faster than its competitors. It seemed like there was always more power on tap with the 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engine and Allison transmission combination. With the exception of the hard 1st-to-2nd gear shift, the transmission was smooth and the shifts were quick at the right time. It had the roughest ride when loaded, but it controlled the load quite well.
Ford Super Duty F-350: 2:04.10 (minutes/seconds) with a top speed of 72 mph
The Ford F-350 felt much slower than the Chevy, but it was only a tad bit slower in overall time. We blame this on its sluggish starts. While it was composed in most situations throughout the week, it gave all three judges trouble over a certain section of the Davis Dam run: There were a couple of bridge expansion joint bumps on the grade that would set the truck into an aggressive fore-aft motion. The truck regained composure and returned to normal once the throttle was released. We should note that this did not occur during our acceleration test runs but during drives to gather judges' impressions. It was disheartening, if not a little unnerving. Despite this issue, the Ford placed second in our two Davis Dam tests.
Ram 3500: 2:16.40 (minutes/seconds) with a top speed of 68 mph
Driving the Ram 3500 after being in the Ford and the Chevy was a nice treat. The rear supplemental air suspension smoothed out the ride significantly without sacrificing composure. None of the trucks were stressful to drive, but the Ram was by far the least taxing. At slow speeds, its six-cylinder acceleration felt on par with the others, but as it gained speed, it became apparent it lacked the horsepower that the V-8 competitors put out. While it was the slowest truck in all timed acceleration events, it remained the most competent tow vehicle of the three. It was always composed and maintained control of the loaded trailer very well. We'll note that the transmission needs some retuning to get everything dialed in, as it sometimes seemed to struggle to hit the best gear for the situation. The Ram 3500 had the most commercial-truck feel.
Descending Davis Dam
Chevrolet Silverado 3500: On the Davis Dam downhill grade, the Chevrolet Silverado 3500 did an excellent job with its exhaust brake and transmission programming. The only choices for the exhaust brake are on and off, but it didn't seem to need more than that. We simply set the cruise control and let the truck do the thinking to keep everything under control, which it did within 1 or 2 mph of the speed selected. This worked well even when the speed limit dropped from 65 mph to 45 mph. To reduce speed, the truck comfortably downshifted to get better and more aggressive engine and exhaust braking. Much like the engine, the exhaust brake was the quietest — to our ears anyway — of the three tested. One thing the Chevy lacked that we would have liked to see is a readout that lets you know what gear the truck is in.
Ford Super Duty F-350: Heading down the hill, the Ford Super Duty F-350 was also composed. We used the exhaust brake in both the on and automatic settings. When using cruise control, the two different settings didn't make any difference and it maintained the set speed accurately. It also did well when the speed limit dropped, like the Chevy, and no adjustments were required other than decreasing the cruise control speed manually. It maintained 4th gear without making a downshift for the 20-mph decrease in speed. The Ford had the most comprehensive gauge setup of the three, and the gear indicator can be set to always be on, making it easy to see what gear the truck is in at any given time with a quick glance.
Ram 3500: Descending the grade, the Ram 3500 kept everything in check. The exhaust brake has settings of on, automatic and off. Like the Ford, it didn't matter which setting was being used when the cruise control was set. The cruise control response, however, was rather ambiguous, often not slowing the vehicle until it had gone 5 or 8 mph over the set speed. The cruise control also didn't make the speed change from 65 mph to 45 mph very well, so we had to apply the service brakes to make that decrease within our allotted time. With cruise control off and the exhaust brake set to on, the Ram engaged the exhaust brake as soon as the throttle was released, producing a wonderfully deep, big-rig, Jake-brake sound that every judge enjoyed hearing. While the Ram did have a readout showing what gear it was in, the manual shifting mode had to be activated to see it.
Summing Things Up
If speed was our only goal in our towing evaluation, the Chevrolet Silverado 3500 would have been the clear winner because it was the fastest in our Davis Dam acceleration tests; you can see the testing results here. However, we also were evaluating composure, braking and other towing-related issues. Issues with the Chevy included its lack of a useful diesel exhaust fluid gauge, no way to see transmission gearing in real time, and its stiffer ride and handling. The best way to drive this heavy-duty is to let it do as much of the driving as possible by using the cruise control and simply steering. It's a truck that seems best designed for those who don't want to be bothered with shifting or grade braking themselves.
As to the Ford, while it placed second in our wide-open-throttle run score-wise, in the judges' opinion it deserved last place. The main reason for this was the serious fore-aft oscillation motion we encountered after hitting uphill bumps at speed. It did offer excellent gauges for monitoring temperatures and fluid levels, which is great for safe towing. The high-tech adaptive cruise control was also a nice feature, especially for running in a convoy.
If you like and want a big-rig feel, then the Ram 3500's straight-six Cummins diesel is for you, despite its third-place score on the Davis Dam run. It was the most controlled when loaded, and the sounds it makes are glorious. The amount of manual control over the vehicle is greater than its competition. This is the truck for people who like doing things themselves rather than having computers do things for them. It also had excellent gauge readouts, with a decent inclinometer being the only gauge missing. The cruise control, transmission and exhaust-brake programming could be better integrated; a multilevel transmission setting to offer smoother gearing transitions could help. Or maybe the best way to improve this truck could be to rework the stout manual transmission and clutch so that it can be paired with the high-output version of the Cummins. We hope this unlikely scenario happens, at least before our next comparison test.
