I drove some trucks.

[CJ]

Today, Ford hosted an event at Texas Motor Speedway and I attended it.  There were many many many trucks available for us to drive.  There were a few F150s with the 3.7 V6, a few with the 5.0 V8, a few with the 3.5 Ecoboost, and one with the 6.2 V8.  Ford also provided a few Rams with the 5.7 and a few Silverados with the 5.3 V8.  Here are my impressions:


F150 3.7 V6:
This engine ROCKS.  The steering's a bit light, but it's a truck and not a sports car.  I did an 8.460 in the 1/8 mile, which is hardly bad for a truck of this size.  Seemed to handle pretty well in the small little course they had setup.  Not much feel of what's going on, but it's a truck...not gonna get that in a truck.  It rockets off the line with EXCELLENT low-end torque.  From a stand still, it beats the Ecoboost with its turbo lag.  I only drove it on this pseudo track, but it was VERY strong.  I really enjoyed driving it.  The interior was spartan, but it was a base model...so that's expected.  Had a fairly smooth ride too.  You can hear the engine very well, but it's never intrusive and it sounds excellent.  

F150 5.0 V8:
This shit's quick.  Immediately upon starting this 5.0 V8 up, you can tell it has oodles and gobs of power.  I like this a lot.  Doing the same little drive as the 3.7, I can tell that it's different.  The steering is a little firmer, but just barely so.  The interior is nicer, with its leather wrapped steering wheel.  I get to the staging point and do a little burnout at the insistence of the Ford people.  This thing's got some power.  Holy balls.  Yellow lights start lighting up, and I punch it just before the green.  .590 second reaction time.  Excellent!  I don't remember the time on this one, but it was much faster than the 3.7.  This shit's QUICK and it sounds EXCELLENT.  It gets to 60 very very quickly, and my trap speed was almost 70 MPH.  It loves to go.  

F150 6.2 V8:
This shit's even quicker.  Again, you know it has power when you start it up.  And holy crap does this thing have power.  It's HOLY BALLS quick.  60 came and went, and I trapped 70 MPH at one point.  Damn.  The steering has much more heft and feel to it in this Harley Davidson edition truck.  The brakes are excellent, like the other trucks.  I did another little burnout in this thing and it loved it.  It'll roast the tires all day.  I did a 7.89 in this truck.  Not bad for a hulking mass of truck!  The interior was superb with excellent materials all around.  I drove this one the least.

F150 3.5 Ecoboost:
Here's the party piece.  This shit's the quickest.  I drove it multiple times and it just goes.  There's a hint of turbo lag off the line, but then it goes...and it GOES. It chirps the tires off the line, then roasts them as you get into the boost.  It gets into boost very quickly, mind you.  And the sound.  It sounds GREAT!  You can hear the turbos, but just barely so.  It's an excellent powertrain.  I did a 7.840 in this.  That's faster than the 6.2.  Interior was, again, excellent.  Visibility in all of these trucks is excellent.  Mirrors are excellent and there's lots of glass.

Silverado 5.3:
Let me put it to you this way...it's shit.  It had the new 6-speed automatic in it, and that helped it be marginally quicker than the 3.7 V6 in the F150.  The steering is too heavy and it's just slow.  It isn't as nimble as the F150, and it just doesn't drive as well.  It just didn't feel like a good truck.  The V8 sounds nice, however.  The interior was laughable.  I like the steering wheel, though.  Feels nice.  Good luck seeing out of this thing.  It's very hard to do compared to the F150.

Ram 5.7:
I like this truck quite a bit.  Ride was smooth, had some good power, and the interior was fairly nice.  The steering wheel was excellent, but holy balls does this thing feel every bit as big as it is.  The Silverado was difficult to see out of, but this was on a different level.  The hood is just massive!  This is what I liked about the F150.  It was super easy to see out of.  The Ram is midpack.  I liked it, though.


TOWING:
Ford brought out some 24 foot trailers loaded down with 6,700 lbs of whatever it is that was in there.  Here's my impressions of how these vehicles tow.  Mind you, this was just on a simple loop around TMS.  It did include getting on a road with a 60 MPH speed limit.

Ram 5.7:
Good mirrors on this thing, wow.  Fairly easy to get around the parking lot and out on the road.  On the road, I can feel that there's a 6,700 lb. trailer behind me.  I can feel every bit of it.  The Ram didn't really struggle at all.  It was pretty confident, actually!  I thought that the Ford has some competition right here.  This one was a higher trim level than the one I did the acceleration runs in, so the interior was nicer.  The rear suspension is...well, it's not bad, but it didn't feel quite right.  Not sure why.  The ride was not what I had expected from it.  I only had this one up to 50, and it didn't feel too bad.  Minimal bobbing and being thrown around.  Not bad at all.  Turns fairly well with a trailer, I'd say.  Not too bad to park either, with the excellent mirrors.  A good, solid truck.

Silverado 5.3:
The mirrors are absolute SHIT on this thing.  I couldn't see jack shit.  This is a problem.  I liked the steering wheel and column shifter.  This thing struggles big time.  Have to practically floor it to even move.  It did not inspire confidence at all.  It was everywhere on the road.  Merging onto the 60 MPH road was not fun, and there were no cars on it.  It bobbed, jerked, and was just downright scary.  I didn't exceed 40 with this truck.  It's not a good towing rig.  

F150 Ecoboost:
The Dodge's mirrors were excellent, and these are even better!  It's easy to get out of its spot with the 24" trailer, and the trailer brake assist was excellent.  Getting on the road, this thing has a lot of power down low.  It's better than the good Dodge.  You barely feel like there's a trailer behind you.  I was driving a King Ranch edition, and the interior was just superb.  Excellent, excellent, excellent.  At 35 MPH, it feels excellent.  The whole truck is very confidence inspiring.  The brake assist feature is excellent! The brakes inspired confidence.  The whole truck just oozed confidence.  Getting onto the 60 MPH road was very easy.  The turbos spool quickly and the power is there instantly.  It's excellent.  The whole vehicle was much more controlled than the Silverado, and a bit more controlled that the Ram.  It was excellent.  I had it up to 65 before I knew it.  It was incredibly smooth and incredibly good.  Brakes are excellent.  It's just an excellent towing rig and absolutely the best in its class.


So there it is.  I drove some trucks today.

[the Teuton]

I thought the F-150 (4.6) was the most solid of the three, but I thought it was a bit isolated. I wasn't a huge fan of the Silverado particularly. And I the Ram, except I couldn't find height adjustment on the rental spec seat, so I could see that hood issue you were having as legit.

You really like the Ford that much?

[CJ]

It's not that I really like it that much, it's just that it's really that good.  Okay, well I did like the Ford that much.  It's just leaps and bounds better than the Chevy, and better than the Ram.  The Ram was actually quite good.  I experienced this strange white noise issue in the Ram that I towed with.  It had the nav system that the Edmunds Insideline Long-Term tester had, and it made that noise too.  It was very very odd.  It stopped when I turned the vehicle off and on again.

[68_427]

What was the mileage while towing?

[Mustangfan2003]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYSU3l91g3s