Pros/Cons Chevy vs. Ford 1 Ton Diesel 4x4

4x4ord wrote:
The Ford owners manual gives an indication as to the number of miles you can expect to go before adding DEF and says you can go much further between fill ups with the 3.31 gear ratios than with the 3.55. (I wonder if they don't program the 3.31 for better milage and the 3.55 more for towing because the bigger tires that come with the 3.55 almost offset the gear ratio) The DEF usage parallels fuel usage. From talking to many Ford owners it appears the 3.31 gears do, for whatever reason, provide much better fuel economy. The Platinum trim level only has the 3.55 gears available. I get about 15.5 mpg highway with my Platinum. Had I known the fuel economy was going to be this much worse than my 2011 I certainly wouldn't have bought 3.55 gears.

That's because, in general, highway gears are easier on fuel, and now the diesels have so much power (thank you, thank you mfgs for resurrecting muscle cars and trucks!) and transmissions with enough gears to make up for lower axle gearing off the line, that tjey can pull higher rear gears.
Same with half tons now. 6-8 speed trans with 10spped on the horizon and big hp allow for much higher rear gears.
The one place you don't see this yet is the HD gasser segment, since the mfgs are stretching the capabilities of gas engines to get bigger towing numbers than the half tons with the same power and no 8-10 speeds yet in the HDs.
Plus, I'm pretty sure your '15 makes more power than the '11, in the same package, same technology. So power = fuel in this case.