Intrduction to Diffrent Trucks
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008It’s bizarre, pointless and strangely appealing, so much so we decided to conduct our own World’s Strongest competition. Rather than scouring the Ukraine for guys who can bench-press BMWs, we used the vehicles themselves as contestants. And not just any vehicles: the biggest, strongest, most abnormally pumped-up pieces of street-legal machinery you can buy without a special license.
We’re talking about heavy-duty trucks, and the bigger the better. There were no rules against foreigners, but it was an all domestic field consisting of the 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 3500, the 2006 Dodge Ram Mega Cab 3500 and the 2006 Ford F-350 Super Duty.
Like the bald-headed big men on TV, these trucks would be subjected to plenty of heavy lifting. Most of it came in the form of towing a trailer up the steep Jacumba grade near the U.S./Mexico border in Southern California. There would be no cheering crowds and no prize money: only the distinction of being crowned the World’s Strongest Pickup. Let the grunting begin.
Since this was going to be a test of serious hauling capability, all three of our 1-ton trucks were equipped with dual rear wheels and four-wheel drive. An extra set of wheels in back helps stabilize loads when you’re towing, while the ability to send power to the front wheels is added insurance when the pavement ends.
We also specified crew cab body styles and the longest beds possible for maximum passenger and cargo room. The Chevy and Ford trucks were your standard crew cabs, while the Dodge was a super-sized Mega cab. The extra-large Mega Cab adds serious passenger room, but reduces the bed length to 6 feet, 4 inches. Both the Chevrolet truck and the Ford had full-size 8-foot beds.
Our final criteria were diesel engines and automatic transmissions. With their massive amounts of torque, diesels are the ticket for heavy-duty hauling, and although all three trucks come standard with manual transmissions, we tested automatics since they’re easier to live with on a day-to-day basis.
Going with diesel power isn’t cheap. On the Chevrolet Silverado, the Duramax V8 is part of a $6,705 package which, along with a few other extras, boosted our test truck’s price to $48,855. Ordering Ford’s Powerstroke V8 and Torqshift automatic for our F-350 tacked on $6,240. It also had the King Ranch appearance package and several stand-alone options that upped the total price to $52,575. Our Dodge Ram Mega Cab came standard with a 5.9-liter Cummins inline-six turbodiesel, but when combined with a long list of additional options, the final price topped out at $55,715.
