Forum Discussion
- The tests are interesting but not really statistically valid. Changing the parameters about driver manually shifting or letting the truck do all the shifting and, of course, testing on different days, different wind, temperatures, etc. all makes for a subjective test. What is interesting is how far tow vehicles especially pickup trucks have come in the last ten or fifteen years. Fifteen seconds at the top one way or the other is moot for me. They all are monster torque engines.
patriotgrunt wrote:
I wish they'd stop changing how they test the trucks. Let the truck do the work so that each test is an apples to apples comparison. Every time they change an independent variable the tests become subjective to human manipulation.
The problem is that each truck is designed to work in a slightly different manner.
My Ram has very aggressive exhaust braking with the slight touching of the brake pedal. This allows driver input to decide between moderate and aggressive braking. Personally I think a driver has a better idea of the upcoming roadway changes than the truck does. I like that I can get to the crest of a hill and simply take my foot of the accelerator and allow engine braking to control my speed... but if I encounter sharp turns and have a desire to have more braking, a slight tap on the brakes engages a much more aggressive exhaust braking.
Ram designed their EB system to work that way... why not allow the testing to feature the Ram EB the way it was designed to work? Test the GM products in the way they were designed to work. Test the Ford products in the way they were designed to work. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know how each product was meant to operate at its highest capability...- I ALWAYS use the gear that keeps the RPM's in the high 2,000's going down 6-14 percent grades and use cruise control. Works great!
- It's hard not to be impressed by the newer crop of diesels.
They had trouble in the past test with the exhaust brake because they had it in full mode, not auto. In auto the truck will downshift itself as needed. It won't do that in full so if you run it in full you need to downshift manually, which they didn't previously do. I've run mine in auto down lots of grades in the western mountains with no issues keeping the speed in check at all. I only use the brakes to slow for corners. ShinerBock wrote:
If it was able to hold 20k+ lbs with its exhaust brake going down a grade seven, then I wonder what happened to the Ram in the comparison GM did a few years back where they showed that it could not even slow down half that amount of weight. I guess I was right in the fact that they were purposely not using it correctly to make it look worse than theirs.
Not too bad of a time. I personally would not want to tow anything that heavy, but nice to know it will get it up the mountain if one needed it to. I kind of don't want Cummins to continue this perpetual e-peen competition of more power with Ford as was stated in the video, and would rather see the big three start focusing on better fuel mileage from these rigs along with reliability. Reliability/dependability and fuel economy were higher on my lists of wants over more power (since all three had more than enough to easily move what I tow) which is why I chose what I did.
I believe the difference in the exhaust brake performance is Mr. Truck manually down shifted the truck whereas in the past test they let the truck decide when to shift.
I agree with Patriotgrunt that they should be consistent with the test methodology.- I wish they'd stop changing how they test the trucks. Let the truck do the work so that each test is an apples to apples comparison. Every time they change an independent variable the tests become subjective to human manipulation.
- The solution is the flexfuel Ford V10 Ecoboost 600HP!/Lotsa torques at 1800rpm...
- I almost wonder, if all 3 stopped going for more power and did some sort of "Gentlemen's agreement" on power and torque figures (like the Japanese used to do with supposedly 280 horsepower cars) if they could optimize the emissions systems so we could maybe get rid of a few parts, like EGR and more passive regenerations for the DPF? Thereby increasing fuel economy as well.
- If it was able to hold 20k+ lbs with its exhaust brake going down a grade seven, then I wonder what happened to the Ram in the comparison GM did a few years back where they showed that it could not even slow down half that amount of weight. I guess I was right in the fact that they were purposely not using it correctly to make it look worse than theirs.
Not too bad of a time. I personally would not want to tow anything that heavy, but nice to know it will get it up the mountain if one needed it to. I kind of don't want Cummins to continue this perpetual e-peen competition of more power with Ford as was stated in the video, and would rather see the big three start focusing on better fuel mileage from these rigs along with reliability. Reliability/dependability and fuel economy were higher on my lists of wants over more power (since all three had more than enough to easily move what I tow) which is why I chose what I did.
