Chevrolet’s Silverado HD beats Ram, Ford in Performance Tests

The rivalry among heavy duty manufacturers of trucks continues, with Chevrolet recently calling out to Ram and Ford on its website, comparing its one ton and three quarter ton trucks in an HD to HD video series. GM’s executive of global vehicle line for full size pickup trucks, Rick Spina, said that they wanted to do something different from plain spec-sheet comparisons, and wanted to showcase the performance of these trucks in real world.

For this, they worked with an independent company who tested their Silverado HD truck with its V8 Duramax 6.6 liter engine and its Allison transmission in competition with Ram and Ford and also recorded these tests so that everyone could see them. The tests which were carried out included sea level acceleration comparisons as well as at a height of 6,000 feet, brake fade, passing the highway speed, squat measurements when under load, performance of exhaust brake as well as gauging of the frame stiffness in twist-ditch simulations.

All of these tests took place after cargo was placed in the pickup truck beds or heavy trailers simultaneously in both of them. Most of these tests were carried out by Chevrolet themselves during the events Heavy Duty Shootout and Rumble in the Rockies held last year. The real test which showed the mettle of these trucks was the twist ditch one. The open c super duty channel frame shows a notable amount of torsional bending when compared to the fully boxed Silverado chassis.

One of the things worth critiquing, in these tests, was the fact that they did not cover the fuel economy department. This is one of the main features of Ford as they claim to offer the best truck in its class when it comes to diesel mileage. An the new version of the High Output truck, the 3500 Ram wasn’t used in the test, as it will not be sold till June.