Which New Heavy Duty Pickup is Best? We Breakdown the Latest Big Trucks from Ford, GM & Ram
All four major pickup truck brands just released updated heavy duty models all within one week of each other. Ford, Chevy, GMC and Ram have come to the table with more technology, new off-road options and more. We discuss all the new heavy duty trucks and pick our own personal winners at the end.
Hey folks and welcome to the truck king youtube channel and the end of heavy duty truck week that’s right in the last week we have seen new hds from all four of the major brands and we went down to state fair of texas to see these trucks in person and right now we’re driving back home from detroit where we just saw the new gmc sierra hd and you know what we’re
Going to talk about what’s going on in this segment what we like what we don’t like and then at the end we’ll say just based on what we’ve seen which one of these is the best so to add four new hds and we saw some trends no doubt things like off-road packages and more numbers for the diesels and we’ll get into all of that stuff right now i want to look at them
Brand by brand and again hit the highlights one of the things that really jumped out at you and we might as well start with ford they’re the big dog uh so let’s talk about what we saw the super duty do and yeah did you did you like it so what do you think super duty ford is doing more of what ford does increased capacity increase torque and horsepower they of all
The brands really like to play that game so when they finally come out with their final figures you can be certain that they’re going to be claiming uh best in class all the way across absolutely i expect 1100 pound-feet of torque that’s that’s what i think is going to happen with their diesel but no numbers yet we know it’ll be the best though like you said ford
Always does and that’s interesting because ram is the other one that likes to play they will uh they’ll compete with ford at that level whereas we’ve seen general motors has said no we’re not going to play anymore so their better numbers are already lower than the existing four numbers and they’re very quietly trying to suggest to everyone and rightfully so that
It just doesn’t matter there’s so much capacity with these engines that you know if you’re at a thousand pound feet or a 920 pound feet there’s just not that big a deal yeah yeah that’s fair but like you said ford has always been the brand to play so if you’re the guy who needs the truck with the biggest number it’s going to be the ford yeah that’s true that’s
Just the way they do things yeah now i mean outside of the numbers of course technology was a huge focus on these hd trucks and the ford did a few things that the other brands didn’t so there’s all the towing tech but there’s two things that jump up at me right away the camera in the tailgate i think that’s a brilliant addition it’s kind of an easy thing to do
But why not have that why should i have to give up my views when the gates open um and then second of all and this is you know passive technology if you want to call it that it’s the bumper step i mean we all know where the idea came from in fact other brands have had their version of bumper steps too so this is not a new idea but why shouldn’t that be on all
Trucks these trucks are so freaking tall these days that having the bumper step just makes it that much easier to get into so those two things from ford kind of really jumped out of me yeah so i mean they’re they are definitely focused on usability and hd trucks are more of a tool than any other truck out there you do not buy this truck as a fashion statement so
It is important that it will do the job that you want it to do and to your point they’re taller than they’ve ever been so you’ve got to find ways to get in and out of that bed yeah exactly now with towing technology i will say with ford they’re offering the surround view cameras on your trailer but those are four wired cameras that you’re gonna have to install or
Your rv dealership or your actual ford dealership someone’s got to crawl up there run those wires right now at chevy and gmc they have transparent trailer that only requires one camera on the back of the trailer so those are two different systems but two different looks at it and i think ford’s is a little more convoluted than chevys is but still it’s amazing now
That these brands are offering this pure like views all the way around your trailer not truck you can see right to the back well into that to that point they’re also extending it to for instance blind spot monitoring so knowing how long your trailer is and telling you when you’re clear to change lanes taking into account the length of your trailer yep um i mean
These are all just good things absolutely so yeah that’s sort of some things on the ford i know we’re talking generally but all the trucks but why don’t we jump to ram now because ram i actually feel like of all of them they did the least they didn’t come out with some huge power numbers or anything like that what they did is they released the new 2500 rebel they
Recognize the fact that in this hd segment there is a need for off-road trucks and they’re offering us a rebel now a rebel is under a power wagon so if you want the ultimate heavy duty ram off-roader it already exists a rebel is one step below but i think the reason why everyone was kind of impressed by the rebel is it comes with the diesel and that’s been the
Complaint about the power wagon forever is that you could only get it with the gas so if you’re that guy who would have bought that truck but you just needed that cummins well now you can get it in a rebel outside of that dad i don’t know the rebel looked good i think styling is there but ram already has the power wagon they already had the base model power wagon they
Already had the hd off-road group this truck is not exciting or new in really anyway it’s stuff that ram already had off the shelf they just put it together in a new package so i do think it’s a good looking truck but again of the three brands ram did i think the least overall well for ram it was important just to be able to keep up because ford of course extended
The tremor package and you’ve got zr2 over there on chevy it’s common in at4x on the gmc um and interestingly enough this is probably we can’t look at this as somebody’s going to go off-roading with their 2500 series truck but let’s face it guys who use these trucks work in forestry in agriculture in the oil patch in mining and truly in places where these trucks
Do need to get in and out of you know they weigh three tons so you kind of want to make sure they don’t get stuck so you know what locking locking axles so forth and so on these are all good things so it’s not a fashion statement when it comes to the heavy duties however like you said in the case of ram that is pretty much the one trick they could offer because
They just don’t have the same development dollars the other guys did yeah no not right now that’s for sure the one other thing we did notice on the ram though which we’ll have to mention new towing mirrors and we like the ram towing mirrors as they are today it’s the mechanical system where you just flip up that mirror but obviously they felt like they needed to
Keep up because everyone else has powered mirrors and i will admit that that the towing mirrors today are good but they are kind of small they’re skinny right they’re tall and skinny when they’re in that up position so those mirrors are much bigger wider range of view and yeah they’re powered so no more getting out of the truck and doing it yourself it seems like
A little thing but again i think ram probably said we we need to keep up in this area well and you know when we’re talking about little things that are actually big things right across all the trucks luxury items more and more luxury items average transaction price up up and up so you know 100 grand north of 100 grand is not unusual anymore when it comes to these
Trucks that’s true so but you know you all keep buying them so even though i’m sitting here going who’s buying these trucks obviously somebody is because they wouldn’t be building them so and and honestly the the amount of conveniences electronics and as i say luxury items in these trucks truly make them fascinating yeah yeah it’s a it’s an incredible blend of
Capability and luxury which you’re not going to find anywhere else right so i think finally uh we get the general motors and general motors we have the chevy and the gmc they’re both going to be redesigned same powertrains though still 6.6 liter v8 gas 6.6 diesel the gas is now mated to a 10-speed automatic that’s definitely a good thing and the diesel numbers have
Been pushed up it’s now making 975 pound-feet of torque but if you want to see the smoke and mirrors in this industry look no further than the fact that chevy owns the max towing title at 36 000 pounds so the truck the hd truck with the least amount of torque can tow more than the other two and this just goes to prove the point that it’s not just about having some
Massive number there’s cooling there’s aerodynamics there’s so many other things that go in to getting that that tow rating and chevy has proven already that you don’t just need to keep boosting the torque number and the other thing chevy did and we can’t comment on it until we drive it but they say that there’s 25 percent more torque available lower in the rev range
And that’s where you want it that’s usable power and that’s the other thing you can give me a huge number but you know if i’m never really getting into that torque because i’m not high enough in the rpm well it doesn’t really matter so chevy i like the story that chevy is telling which is that just don’t you know don’t always look at the big number they got sucked
In a little bit because they’re playing the towing game and i think that 36 000 i think ford is going to eclipse that too but the other thing we can quickly say is if you’re towing over 36 000 pounds go get a medium duty truck you don’t want to tow 36 grand with your 3500 or f-350 all the time you just don’t that is just a lot of weight man exactly not saying you
Can’t do it but do you really want to so that’s it so chevy’s kind of like i said i like their angle on that when it comes to technology i already mentioned transparent trailering i think that is a really cool feature they also still have the bumper steps they’ve added that multi-pro tailgate or multi-flex tailgate depending on the brand it doesn’t move the needle
Too much for me i think it’s kind of neat but it’s you know just one extra little feature but then the truck that’s really kind of might blow you away is that new gmc sierra denali ultimate and just like in the half tons they brought that interior up to the hds and it’s gorgeous i mean i think it is impressive i’m pretty confident in saying that it’s the nicest
Interior i think there is right now in a heavy duty pickup finally you’ve got an interior that’s worthy of the name denali finally absolutely and the story of i think it’s been at least three or four years now where we’ve been saying the interior game just goes to ram don’t look anywhere else yeah that is absolutely changed ram pushed the whole industry to get nicer
And everyone else is caught up and yeah just the wood that they use in that ultimate the vader chrome is cool i’m definitely a fan of the styling there and then i think dad they also made a clear statement that if you want the nicest luxury truck from general motors you have go gmc like high country is nice on the chev but it’s not as nice as denali ultimate no and
They’re not going chevy and gmc you’re not going head-to-head on this they very quietly decided that gmc is going to be the top so you know what even chevy guy will tell you sure we got our high country it’s nice but if it’s not good enough for you head on down the road because gmc will give you what you want yeah so thing it’s it’s fun it’s very rare that all the
Releases line up in a single year this happens maybe once every 15 20 years where we’ve got in this case all the heavy duty trucks all 2023s all new gms are 2024s just a footnote however they’re coming in early until you get it in 23. i think they’re nervous about when it’s going to show up to be honest because the other two brands call them 23s but gm said 24 so
I think they’re looking at the supply constraints and saying well if it comes in mid 23 then we’ll call it a 20. well even they’re saying by spring right correct okay so point being is that cross shop every single brand knowing that you’re seeing the latest and the greatest all next year that’s just a good thing yeah no i absolutely agree with that so i think we
Saw it the focus on technology is huge we’ll focus on luxuries there and then off-roading you mentioned it quickly but yeah chevy’s bringing out a zr2 hd gmc is bringing out at4x hd you have the rebel and the power wagon and the trimmer so that off-road heavy duty space is absolutely packed and then i think one last surprising thing that and i saw this this sentiment
Echoed in the comment section as well none of these trucks have been electrified i think a lot of people myself included were expecting something a hybrid a plug-in hybrid if they really wanted to go out there maybe a fuel cell powertrain and we saw none of that and i think that is just reinforcing the fact that you know what electric is great electric trucks are
Awesome but they’re not ready today to do the work and the and the demands put on them today now right now this is what you need still these trucks tow they almost all tow and we know what happens to electric consumption when you tow and furthermore a majority of these trucks are being bought by businesses so you’ve got to be able to produce that truck’s got to
Be able to go and it needs to run seven days a week and you can’t have time screwing around because i just bought this new hybrid and i’m not quite sure it’s all going to work and every time i throw a trailer i got a i’m down half the day charging so consequently let’s go with the tried and true it’s diesel it works we have the infrastructure i don’t think that is
Going to change very much for quite a few years all right we’re gonna we’re gonna approve the new electric technology on cars yeah okay that’s where that’s going to get proven lightweight just moving people around but this is like this is my business i’m not taking chances with my business sure give me what i know give me what works it’s just it’s interesting how
They’re definitely approaching this segment much different than the light duty segment i think that wraps it up there’s so much and we’re gonna get to drive all these things over the next hopefully six months yeah so you know and honestly that’s when we can tell you more once we get our butts in the seats yep i will agree with that however dad we’re gonna put you
On the spot anyways if you had to pick one of the four trucks that you just saw just based on what you’ve seen do you have a brand that you’re leaning towards yeah you know what if if i was spending your money yeah then i would definitely do that gmc denali ultimate okay yeah i was leaning that way too but you know what i think i might go for a super duty i just
Feel like ford the the little smart technology things they have on that truck make it a bit bigger bit bit better and hey i want a big number too so i can tell you that my truck’s got more than yours so folks that’s it for this one of course uh now we need to hear from you i’d go forward dad would go gmc which truck would you buy please let us know down there in
The comments why you’re down below don’t forget to hit like hit subscribe get joined to become a member of our channel and then come right back here to truck king to see us hopefully drive all of these hds in the not too distant future see ya thanks thank you
Transcribed from video
Which New Heavy Duty Pickup is Best? We Breakdown the Latest Big Trucks from Ford, GM & Ram By Truck King
