A majority of pickups are purchased for their abilities or better yet, their capacities. It would be pointless to evaluate these trucks without giving them something real to do.
Before I go on about how these truck fared loaded and with a trailer, consider the sheer importance of these trucks in the automotive business world. As I outlined in Part I of this comparison test, trucks are beacons of the industry's success, and here are numbers to support what I wrote.
The following stats stem from 2012 sales in Canada. Are you ready for this?
Ford Motor Company Canada delivered 275,953 new vehicles of which 106,358 were F-Series trucks. They therefore accounted for 38.5% of all new Fords sold. In other words, nearly 2 in 5 Ford vehicles were trucks... Think about that for a moment.
In the same period, 226,825 GMs sold, including 78,655 Sierras and Silverados. Their share of all sales was 34.7%. Chrysler's RAM trucks accounted for 69,255 out of a total 243,845 units or 28.4%. Now for Toyota... 3.8% total sales were branded Tundra or 7,241 out of 192,058 deliveries. When I said that Toyota is not a truck company, this is what I was referring to.
Workhorse, part II
The thousands of small- to medium-size companies that depend on their work trucks need them to perform and deliver the goods -- quite literally. Other than those with a business -- be it an electrician, plumber or delivery guy -- there are also those who purchase pickups for leisurely reasons.
Our very own, Miranda Lightstone's family has a hobby often associated with trucks: Horses. It is thanks to this connection that we were able to pretend for a day that we were all horse-people, lugging around horse trailer and hay.
The weight
The drills were quite simple, actually. We loaded each pickup with 10 bails of hay or roughly what two 1,000lbs horses would consume in a weekend. The weight represented by the hay was somewhere between 450 and 500lbs.
The trailer weighed in at just under 2,000lbs and in it, we stuffed 25 bails of hay or another 1,250lbs, or the equivalent of one average American Standard horse. There was no way we were chancing harming a horse. Had we taken the chance, my head would have been on the chopping block care of Miranda's Mum... The final total weight added to each pickup reached 3,750lbs.
Some knowledge
Each truck received comments on the same exercises, and all were driven back-to-back on identical roads in the same conditions. Of note: all were equipped with a back-up camera, ABS brakes, stability control, towing packages, and automatic transmissions. The RAM featured the optional air suspension and the Sierra an off-road package. The F-150 was equipped with the EcoBoost V6, the RAM had the 3.6L V6, and the others, V8s. All specs can be found in these pages.
The quarter mile flat-out run with the total load was measured solely via the speedometer. No special equipment was used to verify terminal speed or time at the end of the 400-metre run. Braking comments are the result of stopping drills completed on a dry, paved surface with the trailer in tow.
Before I go on about how these truck fared loaded and with a trailer, consider the sheer importance of these trucks in the automotive business world. As I outlined in Part I of this comparison test, trucks are beacons of the industry's success, and here are numbers to support what I wrote.
The following stats stem from 2012 sales in Canada. Are you ready for this?
Ford Motor Company Canada delivered 275,953 new vehicles of which 106,358 were F-Series trucks. They therefore accounted for 38.5% of all new Fords sold. In other words, nearly 2 in 5 Ford vehicles were trucks... Think about that for a moment.
In the same period, 226,825 GMs sold, including 78,655 Sierras and Silverados. Their share of all sales was 34.7%. Chrysler's RAM trucks accounted for 69,255 out of a total 243,845 units or 28.4%. Now for Toyota... 3.8% total sales were branded Tundra or 7,241 out of 192,058 deliveries. When I said that Toyota is not a truck company, this is what I was referring to.
Workhorse, part II
The thousands of small- to medium-size companies that depend on their work trucks need them to perform and deliver the goods -- quite literally. Other than those with a business -- be it an electrician, plumber or delivery guy -- there are also those who purchase pickups for leisurely reasons.
Our very own, Miranda Lightstone's family has a hobby often associated with trucks: Horses. It is thanks to this connection that we were able to pretend for a day that we were all horse-people, lugging around horse trailer and hay.
The weight
The drills were quite simple, actually. We loaded each pickup with 10 bails of hay or roughly what two 1,000lbs horses would consume in a weekend. The weight represented by the hay was somewhere between 450 and 500lbs.
The trailer weighed in at just under 2,000lbs and in it, we stuffed 25 bails of hay or another 1,250lbs, or the equivalent of one average American Standard horse. There was no way we were chancing harming a horse. Had we taken the chance, my head would have been on the chopping block care of Miranda's Mum... The final total weight added to each pickup reached 3,750lbs.
Some knowledge
Each truck received comments on the same exercises, and all were driven back-to-back on identical roads in the same conditions. Of note: all were equipped with a back-up camera, ABS brakes, stability control, towing packages, and automatic transmissions. The RAM featured the optional air suspension and the Sierra an off-road package. The F-150 was equipped with the EcoBoost V6, the RAM had the 3.6L V6, and the others, V8s. All specs can be found in these pages.
The quarter mile flat-out run with the total load was measured solely via the speedometer. No special equipment was used to verify terminal speed or time at the end of the 400-metre run. Braking comments are the result of stopping drills completed on a dry, paved surface with the trailer in tow.
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| Photo: Philippe Champoux |