Who's making the best half ton between Ford and Dodge right now?

[kairo]

I'm thinking of dumping my taco and going back to a full-size. I'd like to get a small travel trailer, and while there are *some* that you can pull with the taco, I don't want to stress it.

I've been a bit out of the loop on whats in the new era of 1500 class trucks. I'd prefer to stay with Ford or Ram just out of brand preference. Would probably go with a new Tundra, but they're getting a little dated, and doesn't look like they'll be upgraded until 2019 or so.

Not looking to go Diesel, so I was thinking F150 with the 3.5l Ecoboost or a Ram 1500 with the 5.7 or a 2500 with the 6.4 hemi??

I'm also going to Daily drive this thing, and I work in sales, so 30-50k miles a year. The 2011 Ram I had was pretty comfy. My taco is really comfy, and I really like the blind spot monitors, infotainment system, etc.

Any of you own either the new Ford / Ram? How's the interiors? Nav systems work well?

 

[Dirty Harry]

I like the coil rear suspension on the half ton Ram and prefer the interior on the Ram to the Ford. That said, I really, really like the Ecoboost engine. And with the support for the Raptor there are a ton of aftermarket suspension options.

I never cared much for the Hemi until I drove a Rebel with the 8 speed automatic. I think it is a feature worth looking for if you are getting a Ram. As for the gas engine 2500, they are pretty underwhelming with regards to performance and fuel economy.

My two cents!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bob]

I will admit a preference for Ford. My '11 F150 5.0 got crazy good mileage, pulled my 20' travel trailer & car trailer with no complaints. Ultimately, I would get what fits best ergonomic wise.

 

[DJRENO]

I'm going to start by saying I do not want to pick a fight. This is just me relating my experience. I'm old. I've always been a car guy and have owned so many cars I have lost count. Of those, 3 were Fords. Two were used, and one was a brand new Bronco. Absolute disasters, each and every one. As to pickups, I've owned Chevy's, a Ford, several Toys, and a Dodge. Far and away my best experience is with my Dodge. 2006 2500 4x4 diesel. I will keep that till the wheels fall off. My two cents.

 

[WILLD420]

I drive an ecoboost for work.

Pro's:
Power. Comes on at 1200 rpm and pulls hard till almost 6K. Torque is almost diesel like and the top end of a good gasser motor.

Transmission: Just flat works. You put it in sport mode, it's like driving a stick shift. Downshifts in the mountains like a race car, holds the gears till you would shift if you were making the choices.

MPG: Crazy good for a truck. It averages 18-19 and I drive up and down hills all day.

Rear Locker: What's not to like about a truck that has a factory rear locker.

Durability: Everyone I know that owns one with more than 130K miles on it has remarked how reliable they are. There are some problem areas but nothing major. Most are coil packs or EGR related. Likely from screwing up a plug change or puttering around all the time.

CONS:

Turning radius of the titanic. Mine is a 4 door longbed. It takes 4 lanes to do a u-turn in this thing. I'm not exaggerating here. If you need to do a u-turn, the opposite side of the road "HAS TO HAVE" 3 full lanes and a little bit of a shoulder or you are going to go on the sidewalk.

Factory Tires: Mine has the goodyear kevlar a/t looking things. They are hard as a rock and are horrible in slushy snow with ice. Might as well have a highway tread michelin on there.

Ride: Whatever shock development they did on the Raptor, did "NOT" find it's way to the other trucks in the lineup. It chatters on roadway ripples, hammers over roadway cracks and totally ruins the ride of what the truck should be like. Reminds me of a 1 ton truck with how hard the shocks are and how little they conform to the roadway surface.

 

[steve76t]

All the full sized trucks are pretty nice these days & all have their own high/low points. For me I like the GMC Sierras and bought a 4 door Denali with the 5.3L in September. It gets great gas mileage, 18 around town & 22 on the hwy. Its got a super comfortable ride, very roomy back seat, quietest of all the trucks I test drove. Love the large center console & with the column shift that doesn't take up any of its room. Does have a weird hard downshift from 1st to 2nd sometimes, but only happens in slow stop n go traffic. The Apple CarPlay is inconsistent and is probably the biggest problem I've encountered so far. It also doesn't have blind spot monitors or adaptive cruise control that many others do have.

I checked out the Tundra too. It's more of a true truck and may be of all the offerings out there. More ground clearance, has a huge 38gal gas tank, love that your can roll down whole back window instead of just a center slider, also has a very roomy backseat on the Crewmax. Does get the worst gas mileage of all the full sized trucks, but the 5.7L is beefy and will run forever. Has a bit more cabin noise than the GMC or Ford.

The Ford F150 with ecoboost was 3rd on my list. Has all the bells and whistles when it comes to tech. 2nd most comfortable ride of the bunch, smaller back seat than the GMC or Toy. What really got me was that a co-worker has one and has had multiple issues. He had to replace the turbo at about the 60K mileage point due to bad bearings. Then had issues with the transmission that turned out to be a known computer control issue. More than once it downshifted to 2nd or 3rd gear while at 65mph on the freeway. Nearly lost control of the truck the 2nd time it happened. Dealership found that it was a known issue, but no recalls and since it was just out of warranty Ford wouldn't cover the repairs. Cost over $2k to fix it.

Dodge wasn't on my list, but i did drive one. It was ok but just didn't do "it" for me.

Nissan Titan, meh! Didn't really like this one, but it does have a lot of tech features in the upper trim levels. Couldn't believe the prices they were asking.

 

[willys dave]

I don't know anything about these trucks but I am not sold on Fords Aluminum bodies. Maybe that's just me.

 

[CashMoney]

Something that might be considered is it seems like the gas 2500 trucks somewhat suck for resale since most people looking for a 2500 go for a diesel. I'd rather have the 1500 gasser. I can't say much about the ford or dodges as we haven't owned any. We have small fleet of Gm's with a mix of gas and diesel and it seems like it was nothing for the ones with 5.3's to go over 200k miles with no issues. My moms 2013 yukon Denali XL with the 6.2 engine was getting 19mpg going to lake almanor and back which isn't bad for a big heavy car. One of the other local trucking companies has a small fleet of the fords with the eccoboost engines and they are pretty happy with them too. I know if I bought a new truck I wouldn't buy one that didn't have that adaptive cruise control after having used it. I use cruise all over town and that is the single coolest feature I've seen come out in the last few years since every asshole in this town can't maintain a consistent speed on the freeway.

 

[kairo]

Sweet, thanks for all the input guys.

I think I'll do some test driving this weekend. I'll even drive the Chevy.

From my (limited) online research, the 3.5L Ecoboost seems to be a monster of an engine for what it is.

Kind of a bummer that these trucks moderately equipped are running $45k or more. My 2011 Ram when I bought it new was under $30k out the door (granted, ST model).

 

[kairo]

I like the coil rear suspension on the half ton Ram and prefer the interior on the Ram to the Ford. That said, I really, really like the Ecoboost engine. And with the support for the Raptor there are a ton of aftermarket suspension options.

I never cared much for the Hemi until I drove a Rebel with the 8 speed automatic. I think it is a feature worth looking for if you are getting a Ram. As for the gas engine 2500, they are pretty underwhelming with regards to performance and fuel economy.

My two cents!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I had my 2011 Ram, the payload was really low (like 1klbs) cause of the linked rear with springs. Made it comfy to drive. In your experience, have you seen people adding airbags to them to get a bit more load capacity?

 

[Shinobi]

We like our new alumiduty

 

[Dirty Harry]

When I had my 2011 Ram, the payload was really low (like 1klbs) cause of the linked rear with springs. Made it comfy to drive. In your experience, have you seen people adding airbags to them to get a bit more load capacity?

Yes most the people I know that use them for towing have air bags. Air Lift has some nice ones with an internal bump stop.

 

[kcarlmax]

I'm very happy with my Dodge. Very reliable, and I really like its aesthetic look.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

We have like 150something trucks on the road for our company. The VAST majority are Ferds, 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton and 1 ton depending. We do all our maintenance and repair work in house (we employ 4 mechanics full time).

Once we asked our owner why he buys Ferds over Chevy or Dodge. From the 16 years of experience with our company as it exists, his answer was "they cost less, and they last longer"

Take that for what its worth. I'm not a huge ford fan, but we literally track all the dollars that go into vehicles, how long they last, etc.