Hemi 6.4 Ram vs Ford 6.2 (gas)

katoom400 wrote:
I came from a 2010 Tundra 5.7/4.30. (pulling 7500lb TT) I just picked up a 2015 f250 XLT for ~36k, I looked at all three for months and months...test drove each extensively and for me the GM just wasn't doing much interior wise, I thought the Ram had a much nicer interior and the Ford was "same old ford" (which is not a bad thing).

so for me it came down to the 6.4 vs 6.2 or Ram vs Ford. interior wise I felt the Ram looked nicer but the Ford just felt nicer for myself and wifey.

I have owned a Dodge back in 96 and really had no complaints about it, but many friends have owned Gen 3's and had many troubles, one even got them to buy it back under the lemon law. While I have owned many Fords without trouble I liked the look of the new Rams, so I wanted to really give the Ram a shot, but 6.4's with 4.10 gears where really hard to find on dealer lots.

my local dealer only had 6.4/3.73's on the lot and I test drove 2 that had the check engine light on. One even went into limp mode on a test drive.....I didn't think we were going to make it back. He called me a few days later and said they replaced a coil pack and everything is fine. I came back to drive it and the same thing happened.....so that truck was out.

I then located a 6.4 with 4.10's 1.5 hrs from my house, so I took a ride to check it out...even called first to let them know I was coming from a distance so they would have the truck ready for me. I get there and hop in for the test drive and wouldn't you know it....check engine light was on...that did it for me.

I'm not knocking Ram, I know any brand can have problems, it just left a bad taste in my mouth and if I had bought one and had problems the wife would have given me a bad case of the "I told you so's".

I know that many guys are reporting great things about their 6.4's and I'm sure it was just some bad luck for me.

I ended up with the 6.2 with 3.73's since I would have had to order to get the 4.30's and I think I got a pretty good deal. I'm not pulling heavy and don't plan to in the future so I went for the 6.2/3.73 combo based on many positive reviews of people pulling much heavier than I.

coming from the Tundra both the 6.4 and 6.2 feel like dogs....Anyone to who thinks the Tundra can't pull or doesn't have torque has never towed with one! The motor was never the problem for me. I wanted a Truck that handled the weight a little better than the "stout for a 1/2 ton" Tundra could.

It's true that the Ford Drive by wire took a little getting used to, it didn't have the initial snap that I was used to, but the Ram was only slightly better. And it's true what they say about it getting better the more you drive it (adaptive transmission). with only 2k on the odo it feels much better now you can tell the torque is in there....it's just not snappy like my Tundra was. which is fine by me as I drive with a very light foot most of the time.

I haven't towed with it yet and it will be a couple months before I get the chance, but I'm expecting it to do just fine!

As far as the Ike Guantlet garbage...well that stuff means nothing to me! they knocked the Ram for not shifting while they held the pedal to the floor the entire run....is that how anyone really drives? and if the tranny is not automatically downshifting to the gear I want on a very steep grade, I'll do it myself. I do like the SuperDuty's ability to both lock out gears and go into full manual mode!

I know the guys at fast lane trucks kept it floored to try and keep everything consistent between tests, but that's just not real life towing, so those tests while interesting to watch, mean nothing to me regardless of which brand got to the top first.