2023 Power Stroke vs 2023 Ram Cummins Towing Challenge

Ah, a somewhat real world YouTube video. I did watch most of it, and was pretty good.

He's kind of full of poo. He claims the reason the Ram didn't want to pull the hill better was because the 6 speed transmission would have caused the Cummins to over rev if it had downshifted from 5th to 4th. The 68 RFE could have dropped to 4th gear no problem... That said, I like the transmission programming just the way it is. I would rather climb the hill at 105 km/hr, be slightly under the cruise control set point, and at 2000 rpm vs downshifting to 4th and accelerating to 2560 rpm to just to maintain 110 km/hr. If having an F150 pass me were to bother me I could always manually select 4th. He says the Cummins has all sorts of low end torque, but, in reality it was the lack of low end torque that prevented him from climbing the hill with the ease that the Powerstroke was able to accomplish the climb with. I think the Powerstroke climbed the hill at 110 km/hr and about 1900 rpm.

Yes I thought there was some room to downshift as well, but I would have preferred it to downshift to give a little more power to work with going up that hill.

At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.

Me Again wrote:
At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.

Nothing wrong with that...

FishOnOne wrote:

Me Again wrote:
At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.

Nothing wrong with that...

Considering how many times I have stalled out in first gear blowing up transmissions thru the last 40 years of towing.......I'm happy to get to the top of the hill at any speed! Especially the steeper grades here in puget sound that get upwards of 30% in grade.

Being to top heavy in power vs nothing at the bottom is not good either. Best if the truck you drive has the proper low gearing for low speed maneuvers, and HP for freeway hauling when and if you do a lot of that. Otherwise, you have the wrong tool!

Marty

Where I live we don't have any hills. The closest would be the Texas hill country area.

Me Again wrote:
At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.

I'm half your age and think speed up a hill towing among any of the diesels has been a draw for at least a decade now, if not more. The exhaust brake is an area Ford and GM can still meaningfully improve, imo.

IdaD wrote:

Me Again wrote:
At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.

I'm half your age and think speed up a hill towing among any of the diesels has been a draw for at least a decade now, if not more. The exhaust brake is an area Ford and GM can still meaningfully improve, imo.

I agree with you there about the exhaust brake. Ram has always been strong there. But that being said, I have a friend who runs a 2020 SRW F350 with a Jayco Pinnacle. He stated on his way down Black Mountain (NC) all he had to do was set the exhaust brake to auto and he never had to touch the brake one time. It held a constant speed all the way down.

I'm not 100% sure how that auto setting operates but whatever he did, I'd be happy with that result.

lawnspecialties wrote:

IdaD wrote:

Me Again wrote:
At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.

I'm half your age and think speed up a hill towing among any of the diesels has been a draw for at least a decade now, if not more. The exhaust brake is an area Ford and GM can still meaningfully improve, imo.

I agree with you there about the exhaust brake. Ram has always been strong there. But that being said, I have a friend who runs a 2020 SRW F350 with a Jayco Pinnacle. He stated on his way down Black Mountain (NC) all he had to do was set the exhaust brake to auto and he never had to touch the brake one time. It held a constant speed all the way down.

I'm not 100% sure how that auto setting operates but whatever he did, I'd be happy with that result.

The "auto" modulates the exhaust break to maintain a specific speed and the "On" position is full exhaust break and try's to slow down the vehicle.

Having said that, the cummins does have the strongest exhaust break.