We're immensely
thankful to the manufacturers and our sponsors that supported us in
putting together this event. We sincerely hope that you'll consider
their products when you are shopping for your next truck or aftermarket
modification. You owe it to yourself as a consumer.
We'd also
like to thank the very professional and competent consultants from
Ricardo Inc. who instrumented all the trucks and certified the test
results.
And of course,
we're very thankful to you, our readers. Many of you still remembered
the original Shootout from a few years back and asked us when we would
do it again. Well, here it is. This story is for you guys.
All of the
gas and diesel pickups we tested are amazing vehicles - worlds better
in performance and capability then their predecessors were less than
10 years ago. Summarizing our results was difficult, because each truck
has strengths and features the others can't match - that go beyond
pure performance scores. We'd tow and haul with any one of them on
a regular basis and would be proud to own and drive all of these rigs.
But we know
at least some of you are curious about which gas and diesel truck we'd
select if we were in the market for a hard working hauler.
Out of the
three-quarter-ton trucks we'd go with the Ford F-250 V10 Triton. It
may not be the quickest performer on the flats but if you need a solid,
proven powertrain that can pull hard in
the hills with diesel-like performance, this is the truck for you.
We think
the one-tons are an easier decision. We'd park the Chevrolet Silverado
3500 and its Duramax in our driveway tomorrow and not give it a second
thought. For our reasons why, just read the results below and our assessments
from each test.
And the
Ford F-450? It's in a class all its own. With the form factor of heavy
duty pickup and the towing power of a medium duty, this is one bad-to-the-bone
pickup that begs to be used for towing and hauling only the biggest
payloads. We think this is the first of new class of one-and-one-half-ton
trucks we'll also be testing from Dodge and GM next time we do the
Heavy Duty Shootout.
