2024 RAM vs CHEVY vs FORD TORTURE TEST! Heavy towing, dirt roads - SHOCK WINNER & major problems

You guys have asked for it and we've delivered. For the first time, we are testing all the American rigs that you commonly see on our road. Now, there's no question about it, these are popular rigs. But are they better than a dual cab, a 200 series or a 300 series? Do you really need to go to one of these big American rigs? Well, in full 4WD 24x7 style, we're testing them like no other motoring journey would. We're taking them over 2,000 kilometres through the outback. We've got a couple of big vans, we've got industry experts, and we're going to be testing for fuel economy performance and overall which one is the best. So buckle in, this is going to be one heck of a test. Our mission for this adventure is to test these American utes like they've never been tested before. Can they handle Aussie conditions or are they just overpriced fuel guzzling machines? Here's what we do differently from every other new vehicle tester. We use real world experts from the industry who work on these 4WDs day in and day out, who know everything that opens, shuts, rattles and ticks on these 4WDs. Tim from Mitts Alloy has jumped on board. He's got a lot of experience at getting these big American vehicles out and he'll show you how to set them up ready for your next big trip. Next up is Tommy from Performance Tourers. He specialises in these American vehicles, in particular getting the most out of these engines and drivetrains. He's going to show us what's good and what to look out for. Our mate David at Fulcrum Suspensions dropped in as well to give you guys some hot tips on fitting the right suspension to your ute. Mike from Pacemaker Exhaust has decades of experience working on high horsepower V8 engines. He's got years of towing and driving experience and is keen to jump in the seat and tell us how it is. Lastly, we've got our mate Luke who's offered to bring his Chevy 1500 for our test as well. We'll be scoring these vehicles out of 10 from a variety of different categories that we'll tally up at the end to bring you our number one pick for American Ute of the Year. We've got two clear categories in this test. The first three vehicles you can see here are 1500s, light duty, very very popular in the States. For this category we've got the Ford F-150 Lariat, Chevy Silverado ZR2 and the Ram 1500 Laramie. And then of course you've got the 2500s. These three vehicles are what's considered heavy duty and they're even more specialised at towing. And in this range we've got the 2500 Laramie, Chevy Silverado LTZHD and the Ford F-250. We've got a sneaking suspicion that the reason that Chev didn't want us to have these vehicles is because we tell it how it is and not every vehicle manufacturer likes this. So we've sourced our own for this test. You'll notice that the three 1500 vehicles all have Cooper AT3s on them. Now we wanted to keep the tyres consistent between these three vehicles and as you know tyres play a huge part in the performance. So having an even playing field is going to be one of the best ways to test these three vehicles. One of these vehicles is not quite like the rest of them. Now what I'm talking about is the Ford F-250. All these other vehicles on the test you can walk into the dealership and actually buy it straight off the showroom floor and you can't walk into a Ford dealership and buy one of these. Now these are imported and then of course they're converted by private companies around the country. They're what the industry calls a great import but there'll be more on that later. The reason we put this rig in the test is because it definitely is an option for customers in Australia. While this is a used F-250 it's got the same platform and engine as the newer F-250s you can get imported. So it's a good one to test against the 2500s. There's no doubt about it American pickups are becoming more popular on Aussie roads. Why are people choosing these expensive big American pickups when they could choose the The main reason is because these American trucks can tow a lot more load. You see all the land cruisers and patrols can tow a maximum of three and a half ton yet these American rigs can tow a lot more. You see they're better designed as tow vehicles. They're bigger, they're heavier, they sort of dictate the tow load more than the tow load dictating the vehicle if that makes sense. They have big brakes, they also have tow functions. It's been inbuilt in these vehicles to tow and that's exactly what they're for and why they're becoming so popular. There's a little bit of a misconception around their maximum towing load or what you can legally tow because at the end of the day if you start to add the payload onto these vehicles i.e. carry any sort of weight whether that be a bull bar, a canopy, some camping gear in the back, you're going to start to reduce the amount that you can tow with the exception of the Ford F-150. We'll get on that one in a second. So take the Ram for example. It can tow a maximum of four and a half ton. Now there are certain caveats with that four and a half ton. It's got to have a 70mm tow bar instead of the 50mm standard one and of course it needs to be braked just like you'd expect. However, as soon as you reach the payload of 886 kilos, which is quite easy to do with any four-wheel drive, you know you put a bit of camping gear in the back, maybe a bull bar, a canopy, that sort of jazz, you're going to get to that pretty quickly. The maximum brake towing for this vehicle reduces down to 4.2 tons. Now I'll take you out of the Chevy really quickly. On paper it can only tow a maximum of 4.2 tons so it's I guess the lowest rated tow vehicle in this fleet of vehicles. Still a lot more than a Land Cruiser or a Y62 Patrol but it can only tow 4.2 tons. The payload of the Chev is 713 kilos. Like I said, it's very easy to reach that payload so the actual towing capacity of this one reduces down to three and a half ton once you reach its payload. Now this one here is the best one on paper for towing and in the real world as well. It can tow a maximum of four and a half ton, the big Ford Lariat. The cool thing about this one is when you do hit your payload, it doesn't affect your maximum towing so you can carry your full payload of over 700 kilos on this vehicle and also tow 4.5 tons. If you're in the market with one of these because you really want to tow heavy weights, make sure you pay special attention to the GCM and also how much payload you can have in each vehicle because you'll find with the exception of course of the Ford, the other two will reduce significantly the brake towing capacity if you start to add payload to the vehicle which most of us do. Summing up the 1500 range, the F-150 wins on paper for being able to carry its full payload and still tow four and a half tons, followed up by the Ram and then the Chevy. One thing that is worth noting is that Chevy do sell another variant that's got a four and a half ton towing capacity. However, when the GVM is reached, it can still only tow 3.8 ton. On the topic of towing, obviously the 2500 series of vehicles are specifically designed for exactly that, towing massive loads. Now there's a few legalities around this as well and I'll do my best to try and cover it in a really easy to understand way. All these vehicles are exactly the same, they can tow four and a half ton brake towing capacity. That's with a 70 mil tow bar, they can tow four and a half ton and their payloads are not affected unlike some of the 1500s. Now the big Chevy right here for instance, a payload of 733 kilos, that's quite small when you consider what this vehicle can actually tow. But the reason for that is because if you want to operate any of these 2500s on a traditional car license, you can't exceed a GVM of 4,495 kilos, so four and a half ton. Now because these weigh so much, that's why you can see that they have quite a small payload. However, if you were to register these as a truck, which not many people do, your payload will increase to well over 1300 kilos for instance, just on this vehicle alone. However, this is where things get really interesting, because they have such a massive GCM, so the gross combined mass, you can actually tow 7.9 ton if you have a gooseneck fitted and air brakes. So nearly eight tons you can tow with this thing, that's absolutely insane. Step over to the big Ford F-250, again the numbers are very, very impressive. It can tow four and a half ton straight off the bat, braked. Payload on the F-250 is over a thousand kilos, so a full ton, and if you fit a gooseneck and air brakes, you can also tow 7,000 kilos, so seven ton. It's very, very impressive. Now this brings us on to the big Ram. Now this is probably the most impressive of the lot. Again, can only tow four and a half ton brake towing capacity, and that's the legalities here in Australia. The GCM of this one is 12,695 kilos, giving it a payload of 886 kilos, and if you fit a gooseneck and air brakes this one, you can legally tow 8.2 ton. The Ram takes the cake in the 2500 range when discussing heavy vehicle status. However, they can all tow four and a half ton with their payloads reached, so that means we've marked them all the same across the board. One thing to keep in mind with converting to heavy vehicle status in the 2500 range is you'll need to convert from an MB1 status to an MB2, which essentially means it'll get re-registered as a truck. One of the main reasons why a lot of people buy these American rigs is to tow, so we're of course going to tow two big vans. These are titanium vans, they weigh three tons each, and of course not just going to tow them on the highway, we're going to do a mixture of dirt roads and we're going to do it over 2,000 kilometres. And then the reason we're going to do that is to get some real world fuel figures for all these things and see exactly how they tow. Some of them have special tow modes and fancy electronics, we're going to put that to the test as well and see how they run. So good on this test to be able to jump in between different rigs and tow these big vans at the same time, so you really get a good comparison of how each vehicle tows. Now I've just jumped in to the F-150 with the titanium van on the back. I was a little bit apprehensive that the three and a half litre twin turbo petrol in the F-150 wouldn't stack up as a real tow vehicle. Now this thing can tow a huge weight, about four and a half ton, and I've got to say this one here is still a big step up from your Land Cruiser Patrols or any other vehicle you're used to towing in. It tows very, very easily. This thing is very effortless. I've got a 3.5 ton van on the back, very little sway, it's a really good towing package so far from what I can see. So I've now jumped into the Chevy ZR2 and not long jumped out of the F-150 towing the van, and I could confidently say that the F-150 handled it a fair bit better. It felt safer, more comfortable, smoother, quieter. In the Ford you'd be able to get away with doing 100 to 110 kilometres an hour, no dramas, and it felt fine. The other thing there you've got to be really aware of is the weights that you're going to be carrying when you're towing. If you start adding a heap of accessories to these vehicles, full bars, winches, your bigger wheels and tyres and things, your GVM is going to creep up really quick. So just something to be aware of. I've got to say the Ram is a great tow vehicle. Now it is petrol powered, you're going to burn a fair bit of fuel, but you know that before you step into one of these. So overall I think it performs well as a tow vehicle, and a bit surprising really because I thought the diesels would be much better tow rigs, but these petrols are really holding their own. You know if you compare this with like a diesel 300 series or a 200 series, this one's doing a pretty good job to be honest. One thing I've noticed pretty much straight away jumping into this Ram 1500 is it drives quite similarly to the ZR2 with the caravan on the back, but both of those vehicles don't really compare to the F-150 when it comes to being comfortable towing a heavier caravan. Both seem to get pushed around the road a little bit more than the F-150. The pick of the bunch in the light duty trucks for towing would have to be the F-150. All do an adequate job at towing, however the Ram and Chevy struggle a little bit to feel planted at highway speeds. Now let's move on to the big rigs. This is pretty cool, we just hooked the trailer up on the big Ram 2500. The first thing that happens on the dash, it actually senses there's a trailer and it's asking you if it's got a conventional trailer, a goose neck or a fifth wheeler. Now it's conventional, okay, now all the settings are done, ready to tow. So Mike, you just jumped in between the big Ford 150, now the Ram 2500, both towing titanium vans. How do you go between the petrol and the diesel for towing, mate? What's your first impressions? Well there's no hiding the big engine, there's just no hiding that. It's very effortless, a lot of torque, you know what you've got. I was pretty impressed with the F-150 yesterday, but now I can compare it to the high displacement of this engine, there's no comparison. Yeah, it's much similar to my thoughts too, mate. I must say though, I'm quite surprised that this little twin-turbo V6 can pull the van so easy. I wasn't expecting it to and it seems to have a fair bit of go just from the get-up, but it doesn't have the torque, you're right, of the big Ram. All three of its bigger trucks, they really are designed for a purpose and you can really feel it when you get into them, they're big, they really are built to tow. I can't see any other purpose really you would actually have one of these for, but if that's your gig, then yeah, you've certainly been looking at either one of these. What a bloody caravan, doesn't even know it's on there. This thing is unreal, what a nice car to drive. This would be really, really easy to tour the country in this one. As you'd expect, towing in the big Chevrolet 2500 is an absolute dream. The Duramax combined with the transmission is just a real match made in heaven. You've got heaps of unassuming power, lots of torque and it's perfect for towing. Big heavy rig, everything's nice and stable and it's very predictable. While the F250 has all the power in the world, we found it didn't tow as safely as the others. Now, there's a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it's a few years old and has a fair bit of wear and tear compared to the others and secondly, when this vehicle had the conversion from left-hand drive to right-hand drive, the steering geometry is very complicated, which means it doesn't tow as nice as the others. The entire 2500 range is really built for towing and they'll all do it with ease. However, the overall winner has got to be the Ram 2500. The big Cummins motor in the Ram 2500 has a stack of unassuming torque, which will pull the van up to speed limits really easily. And the fact it's so heavy and built for towing means it's sure-footed on the highway, which makes it really easy to tow. Behind me, we've got the three 1500 Series four-wheel drive utes. Now, they've all got powerful petrol motors. There's no diesel variation or option. Powering the big Ram 1500, you've got the 5.7 litre Hemi V8 and that's matched up to an eight-speed auto. In the 150, you've got the twin-turbo V6, three and a half litres, and that's matched up to a 10-speed auto. And then in the Chev, you've got the 6.2 litre V8 and it's also got a 10-speed auto. Now, when you talk about the power, we said before they have a lot of power. Starting with the Ram, it's 291 kilowatts. The big Ford, even though it's only a V6 twin-turbo, it still makes 298 kilowatts. And then the most powerful of the bunch, which is 313 kilowatts in the big Chev. So as you can see, all the power outputs are very similar, but it is a different story when you get behind the wheel of these things. I think the power delivery is pretty much still there in this ZR2, even though it is a naturally aspirated compared to a turbocharged engine. The first thing you really notice is the torque is very noticeable with the load on the back. It's very usable and they do very well in programming the automatic to match the rev range. It's a very revvy engine and it just seems to be a lot of power available pretty much anywhere you put the foot down, but that's obviously helped by the 10-speed auto as well. I guess one of the things I really like about the F-150 is it's just easy to drive. I just got straight into it. I felt comfortable straight away. The engine has heaps of pull. The gears change really smooth. We're driving on a corrugated country road right now and I am getting shaken around a little bit, but it's standard suspension. It feels really planted. It's a great car to drive. This particular car is a little bit unique. It has e-torque engine management running through the Hemi V8. It basically works by having an electric motor driving the crank or assisting the crank in much the same way that you would get if you had a supercharger or a turbocharger. So the crank has got a bit more power delivered to it, not only just through the cylinders, but certainly from an electric motor that is actually driving the crank as well. And you can feel it. It definitely assists the bottom end. That's something where normal V8s can be a little bit laggy in the lower RPM, so it allows you to set lower gears for fuel economy, but it definitely assists in the lower end power. When you take a good look at the 1500 range of vehicles, you notice that the Ram and also the Chevy have big V8s, so you'd assume that they'd be some of the best at towing. Compared to the Ford F-150, which has only got a turbo V6, we were quite surprised by the Ford F-150's ability to tow. And even with a smaller displacement engine, it's head and shoulders above the other two. When it comes to the big 2500 series, we've got the nice big powerhouses to go with them. We've got the 6.6 litre Duramax in the Chev, the 6.7 litre Powerstroke in the Ford, and the 6.7 litre Cummins in the Ram. One of the biggest advantages of the Ram is the fact that the Cummins is a straight six engine, which makes things quite easy to maintain, repair and also upgrade. There is, however, one major flaw that is fairly widely known in the States, but not so much known in Australia, and that is the fact that the heater grid has a little bolt that falls off, fractures and falls into cylinder six, causing complete destruction to your engine. So, if you were to own one of these, it probably would be a good idea to get in contact with us, so we can get that sorted before you come across that issue. Unlike the Ram, the Ford is equipped with a V8 engine, which can make things a little bit tighter to make those small repairs to minor oil leaks, and can become quite a big investment to do so. The Ford Powerstroke platform has been well and truly tried and tested to be reliable and dependable for thousands of kilometres, but there are some cons that you probably want to take note of before you go investing your money into one of these. There are some minor upgrades that can be made, such as upgraded boost hoses like we've seen other Ford makes and models, but something you really want to be aware of if you are looking to buy this F-250 is the fact that Ford are still using the CP4 fuel pump, which is well and truly known for major catastrophic failures. As there is with a lot of issues, there are solutions such as our disaster prevention kit that we can install prior to you making those bigger trips, or they can be converted to an earlier style CP3 fuel pump, which has proven to be far more reliable. With the 6.6 litre Duramax, they did suffer in the past similar fuel system issues as the F-250, but what they had done is upgrade the fuel pump so they no longer have those issues. Although there is room for improvement on all of these 2500 series, we haven't seen any major issues straight out of the box with the 6.6 like we have with the other makes and models. Another thing worth keeping in mind is these new American diesels are absolutely chock-loaded with electronics and emissions equipment. The 68 RFE 6-speed is fairly well known for its issues, having dramas with the valve body itself causing major destructions. Fortunately, we do have some solutions, including upgraded valve body to prevent those failures in the long run. The current models boast a 10-speed automatic transmission that has not necessarily been around for too long, so it might be a little too early to say how long they last. However, we do know from our experience that they can be a limiting factor when it comes to tuning and performance upgrades, and it's also worth knowing that things along the lines of deep sump upgrades and valve body upgrades may be a good option if you are going to be using this car for heavy towing. Similarly, the current model F-250 also has a 10-speed automatic transmission and features a lot of the same components and a lot of the same traits as the Chevrolet 2500. Although these big diesels do pack quite a punch from the factory, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's not a whole heap of room for improvement. Like we mentioned earlier, things along the lines of fuel pump upgrades for the F-250s, turbos, tuning and all sorts of other upgrades for the Chevrolet and the Ram as well. In the 2500 range of vehicles, one thing is for certain, all of these engines have a stack of power and torque, making them really suited for towing. The Ram 2500 has the big powerful Cummins, making it very suited to towing. However, the weak link in this drivetrain has got to be the transmission, which is well documented to let go very early in the life of the vehicle if pushed really hard. There are some transmission upgrades on the market to get these transmissions not only reliable, but make them even stronger than some of the other ones on the test. However, we feel that with the price of this vehicle, it's something you shouldn't really need to worry about. And for this reason, that's why we're awarding the Chevy 2500 as having the ultimate transmission and engine combination. Now, you'll notice on this test, we haven't really talked about how well these vehicles perform in low range. Now, they've all got low range, so they've got transfer cases and all the rest of it. They're a fair dinkum four-wheel drive, but to be honest with you, I wouldn't take them off-road. And the main reason is, and I think you guys can guess it, these things aren't designed for it. Now, have a look at the wheelbase. They've got the same clearance as like a Hilux or a D-Max or a Ranger, but the wheelbase, if you walk all the way up here, this is where the front tyre is. So, the ramp over angle is absolutely shocking in standard form. I don't have a lot of experience with these vehicles. Let us know. There's probably a lot of Americans watching this going, heck, I wheel my Ram or my Chevy or my F-truck on heaps of things. Let us know what you think. Am I wrong? Are these things actually half decent in low range? Because they're so expensive, and especially this one's not mine, I'm pretty reluctant to take it on the tough stuff. But let me know if you've got a different experience to me. But in my opinion, in standard form, they're not really a true off-road machine. They're fantastic at towing, fantastic at the open road, and maybe occasional dirt roads. But that's probably where I draw the line. Let us know in the comments if you disagree. Very keen to hear from you. Now, let's talk about bush-proofability. Keep in mind, that's a made-up word that we've coined here at 4WD 24-7 to really describe how reliable these things are in the Aussie bush. Where else would you want to discuss this than 1000 Ks from the closest city around an outback fire? It's really hard to test for reliability on a test like this. Even though we are doing a couple of thousand Ks in the outback, a couple of thousand Ks won't dictate how reliable something is. Maybe 100, 150,000 Ks, you start to get a bit of an idea, but it's very hard to test that because we'll be out for a good year or two. So what I'm looking at when I look at a vehicle in terms of reliability is I start to go through it and see how these vehicles are put together and whether or not they're made for Aussie conditions because we have some of the toughest roads in this country and if there are any flaws with any of these vehicles or something's not engineered in the way it needs to be, it'll soon become quite a big issue and I can't imagine these vehicles are cheap to fix. I imagine out here in the middle of Bourke, you wouldn't be able to find too many spare parts for these things or when you start going... Well, if you look at that say with the Toyota range, if you want to use it as a yardstick, Toyota go out of their way and advertise this on TV. How many ads have you seen over the last 20 odd years and the latest one with a million kilometre ticking over as he's driving up the hill? So they're proud of that. That's not by accident. We know why these vehicles are so capable. If you look at the history of the trucks and in particular the F-150, that is the yardstick of these trucks. Every truck here offers something that's different or unique to another one but the yardstick still is the F-series. Another thing that's probably important that you quickly touched on was the availability of parts. If you're going to be taking these things in the Aussie bush, it's so harsh on all of the components on the vehicle. If you're on like the PDR, something like that, a common thing with suspension industry is we're constantly servicing and repairing cars, getting bushes, shocks, anything for these vehicles would be near impossible because the availability in the market right now is not huge. The other one too is remember these trucks were designed for a price point within the US. If you think every car company, we're such a small market in Australia, every car company designs cars in Australia for such a minority of their portion of business, they design them to be bulletproof because that's what we kind of expect. You go to the US, you've got an interstate system, you don't need a hardened chassis, box chassis. You can't have a box chassis in the US because the salted roads and all the bits and pieces there, so the salted roads rust the chassis out twice as quick. So you're putting an unboxed chassis on harsh road conditions, you're going to get flexibility issues, you're going to, you see it all the time. I think something worth mentioning as well is the fact that if you did have a plan to build one of these cars to do a lap with it, your toolbox is going to look a hell of a lot different to it would on a 79 series. You know you're going to have to be taking things like spare alternators, spare water pumps, anything that you can't reliably go into any general auto parts store and buy to replace. We are so used to driving a couple of thousand kilometres of dirt on a trip to Cape York. Because we have no choice. Well that's just because it's a dirt road, if you want to get there you have to travel on a dirt road. In the US it seems to be the case we can take tarmac roads just about anywhere, and usually they've got these vehicles because they're towing a crazy modified off-road buggy or a jeep to go and drive the gnarly tracks, but this stays in the car park. Yeah, they tow their trail car in with a fifth wheel behind a Chevy or a Ram, you know. Tell us about the story Tommy told me the other day about getting an air filter. So we had a customer of ours, he's basically bought a brand new American truck, he's come in, we've done a couple of mild upgrades to keep him on the road for longer and to prepare him for his big lap, and he just said to me, Tommy can you grab me a spare air filter? So I just rang the local dealership, I said hey here's the VIN, here's the rego, can you please send me an air filter? And they said, sorry mate, we're actually showing none in stock in Australia. It's arguably the most common American truck in Australia, plus a very, very, very commonly used part, and there was none in stock Australia-wide. So I think you're going to find places like my little workshop are going to go, okay we can't rely on them, we're going to have to do it ourselves, or you'll find there's actually a really good little network of aftermarket shops starting to get together. I think they've got a job to do, all of these American vehicles, they can tow like nothing else, there's no doubt about it. Will they ever be taken serious as an off-road tourer? Well, probably not until we get the aftermarket support, or the OEM support for these vehicles in Australia. At Mitsalu we're seeing a massive rise in the popularity of the American trucks, 1500s and now the 2500s, especially since they've started coming in factory direct through the OEMs. The 1500 variants have become really popular with maybe your families or your weekend tourers, the guys that are only getting away once or twice a month in their caravans. These vehicles are super, super plush inside and a lovely place to sit, so we're seeing a lot of people go away from the traditional 79 series and into these American trucks. So one of the real benefits in the 2500 range is they're basically a D-rated light truck, so it doesn't take them much to go to a light truck status and you can have massive GVM and GCMs. The other thing is, from standard you can have the largest packages that we provide at Mits, you can have all the bells and whistles, including the kitchen sink. It's a full-size single cab tray, but with the comfort of a really, really big dual cab, and proportionally they actually look great. Look at the size, eight foot tray, seven foot canopy, it's all in proportion and it looks factory. There's a few sizing differences when you go into the 1500 variants, you're going to have a slightly shorter tray than the one you see on the 2500 behind me. Some of our customers even put the short one meter canopies, put their buggies, their quad bikes on the back, or you can go a full eight foot size canopy and put a boatloader on top as well. So comparing this vehicle to say the standard 79 series dual cab, you're going to spend a lot more money getting that dual cab up to standard. You're going to be looking at wheels, tyres, suspension, engine upgrades, a clutch even to keep it up, just what this comes out standard. But is the reliability going to be there over 200,000 k's? Only time will tell. One of the great little bonuses when building out these American trucks and replacing the factory tub, like the one that used to be on this F250, it weighs 220 kilos. The tray comes in at 240. You've only put 20 kilos onto that GVM, which is minuscule on these trucks, which is brilliant because you get all this space to play with. You get to keep all of your factory functionality on the back, sensors, reverse cameras, parking sensors, and you get under tray boxes and pull out drawers as well. With the nature of 2500s with their larger GVMs, it calls for more opportunity to fit them out with a larger tray and canopy, which could be the perfect option for those wanting to travel the country full time. Whereas the 1500 range are more your around town day-to-day truck for someone wanting to purchase something bigger than a Land Cruiser or Patrol. With the light duty trucks, the Chevy 1500 has got the most unique sort of suspension out of all of them. It comes with these Multimatic DSS-V shocks. And what that means is it doesn't use a conventional shock with shims and allows oil to get through those shims. It uses what's called a spool valve. And they work a lot different to your standard shock, and you'll feel that when you drive these vehicles compared to the others. However, one thing to keep in mind with this setup, because it is a specialist type shock, it's going to be quite costly if you damage something or internally something goes wrong, as you'll likely have to get a whole new shock from Chevy or get components from Chevy. With the Ford F-150, it's an important thing to note that if you are planning on changing the suspension setup, there is no camber pins in the front, which is very untypical for an IFS vehicle. That means when you do change that suspension, you can't align these very easily. To be able to get around that, you can get things such as camber bolt kits, or you can get upper control arms to be able to help correct the alignment once you do change that suspension. Another important thing to note is with the Ram 1500, those rear trailing arm bushes in the Ram 1500 do wear out really quickly, likely due to the amount of torque going through them, and so we really recommend you upgrade those to poly bushes, so that way they're a lot stronger and last a lot longer. First thing you notice about the Chev once you take it on a really corrugated road like this one, is the suspension is really stiff. Vehicle wanders all over the road, you've got to slow right down, because it's really not designed for these sort of harsh, corrugated tracks. Now you'd need upgraded suspension obviously if you're considering this as a proper touring vehicle, but on the road of course, it handles really well. That stiff suspension makes it grip and track really nice. In this country, if you're serious about making this a tourer, you're going to go off-road, even if it is mild, off-road tracks, and the first thing I'd be considering doing is getting a little bit more clearance underneath these vehicles with bigger tyres, and that should help it a little bit as well. In the 1500 Chevy, I noticed that the suspension doesn't feel as boaty as the Ram 1500, this one feels a lot tighter, feels a little bit more stable around the corners, definitely a little bit stiffer over the bumps. So I'm cruising along about 90km's on a fairly heavily corrugated road right now, the suspension feels really good, the car doesn't feel like it wants to turn around on me or getting light and skating, which is really remarkable. These vehicles aren't necessarily built for Australian roads like this. There's a few pros and cons to each vehicle across the 1500 range. If purchasing one of these rigs to be a full-time tourer, it'd certainly be high on the list of upgrades to update the suspension. We've scored the Ford and Chevy an eight here, with the Ram a seven. One thing worth mentioning about the Chev 2500 is the suspension in the front end is actually torsion bar, which is something that we haven't really seen in the Australian market since the likes of the Rodeo in about 2007. It is a really big step backwards when it comes to the performance of your suspension, especially if you are the type of person that's going to be looking at doing a bigger lift down the track. Probably going to be perfectly fine up to around two inches, but if you wanted to go any more than two inches higher, you would have to actually do a torsion bar delete to upgrade the suspension in this car. One of the things I really love about the Chevy 2500 is driving it on the dirt. It feels really planted, the suspension's supple, you're not worn out sitting in here, and the actual noise in the cab is so quiet. Like we're running over pretty rough roads right now, and it is like a dream. The biggest feature for me is actually how direct both the 1500 and the 2500 steering is. It's more car-like than it is truck-like. The suspension in the Ram feels pretty good to be honest. It's coil spring front and rear, solid axle front, solid axle rear, so you're going to get the typical solid axle sort of steering, but it's actually pretty good from what I can tell so far. You don't have the harshness of what you get with leaf springs. This particular conversion, I don't know that they've done a great job with the steering, but it wasn't a factory direct board thing either, so it's always really important to see which company does your conversion, do a fair bit of research into those, and read the reviews, and talk to people that have owned that car. You notice it's not an IFS. It walks all over the road. It's like a very typical sort of large solid axle vehicle. One thing we learned on this test is that when the F250s get converted in Australia, there's multiple companies that do the conversion, and each conversion is done a little bit differently. In the vehicle we were testing, the steering geometry was very complicated, and it didn't handle to the likes of the Chevy and Ram. Our pick is the Silverado for suspension in the 2500s. By now you would have seen that all of our 1500 range of vehicles have been equipped with the Cooper tyres. Now the reason why we opted for that and not the original OEM tyres, which you can see here and here, is because the Cooper tyre is a light truck construction, and it's heavy duty. It's usually one of the first modifications you sort of do to a vehicle, especially if you've got a four-wheel drive. Now I'm here with Simon. Now I just want you to explain, mate, to everyone at home exactly why we would opt for something like a light truck construction instead of a passenger tyre. Now these tyres look very similar, just if you look at them straight away, but they're not the same tyre. They're not made the same, and why would you upgrade to something like this? Yeah, look, at the end of the day, look, most people think, you know, tyres are all about tread depth and that sort of stuff, you can see it, but actually 70% of the tyre is actually made up of the construction of it. So I've got a little snap section of a tyre we've got here, so you can see the steel belts, but also there's this cord construction here. Now it's quite hard for people to see the difference there, so what I did was I brought this rope along for you to have a grab of there, and you've basically got two differences. So you've got a thinner cord and a thicker cord, so both of them being two-ply, but if you think about it from a cord construction, they're running a thinner cord versus a Cooper, which is running the thicker cord. Yeah, right, so straight away the strength is a lot different in the thicker cords, even though they're both two-ply, the strength of this one is far better. Okay, that makes sense. And the best way to do it, to test it, is look, you know, big strong guy like you, is get in there and give it a good slam, and let's see what you can do pushing it down. Here we go. Okay, oh yeah, we'll push that one down pretty easy. Yep. Oh yeah, again. Yeah, righto. Yeah, look, and you can see the difference, hey, look, I mean, if you look at this tyre, so it's a highway tyre, two all-terrain tyres, but even on the original tyre you may just get a sort of a passenger casing tyre. Now, if you've got a nice big truck like that, you're going to throw kids in, you're going to have caravans off the back, you're going to want a stronger tyre. Now, the benefits of that, of course, is going to be when you're going off-road, puncture resistance goes up immensely. You've also got, when you're carrying all that weight and you're cornering, you're going to get better performance through the vehicle as well. And the other big thing that actually really comes out with the Coopers especially, we all know about the mileage, when you build a stronger casing tyre, you can put more tread on top, and that's why the Coopers always last longer as well. Well, thanks for that, Simon. That's a fantastic explanation, mate. It really explains why you want to upgrade your tyres from a passenger tyre to a light truck construction, which is more suited for outback driving and touring, towing, all the things we want to use our rigs for. At 4WD24.7, we rarely make a big deal about the creature comforts of a vehicle, because as far as we're usually concerned, they don't help you get further off-road, and that's usually how we judge a vehicle. But you've got to understand that these American rigs, they're not designed for rock crawling or hard 4WD, and in fact, I'd go as far to say, do not take them in low range hard 4WD. They're designed to tow, they're designed to maybe tour in, and that's what we're trying to figure out in this test. Gone are the days where you need to fit electric brakes to a vehicle and all your mods to start towing, these vehicles come equipped ready for it. But even more advanced than just your typical electric brakes, yes, you've got electric brakes that are really easy, but get this one on the F-150, what you can actually do is actually add a trailer, so your vehicle can remember a trailer. So if you've got, you know, maybe a big box trailer, or a car trailer, or a big caravan, or something like that, you can actually add in all the parameters of your trailer. You've got automatic trailer sway control, you've got connection notifications, cameras usually on most of the vehicles that, you know, you see what you're towing. It's quite amazing to see how well these vehicles, not just tow a caravan or a big weight, but also how they're built to tow, and the features they come standard with. Then you've got all this functionality, like this one for instance, on the F-150, you can put the gear stick down and make yourself a little table if you should need it. Again, just trying to, they're trying to think of everything to make your driving experience a lot more comfortable. You obviously wouldn't do that when you're driving, that you might stop somewhere, you might be working on your vehicle and you do some paperwork or something, I'm not sure what this is really for, but it's cool to see the ergonomics of these vehicles are just head and shoulders above just about everything else I've ever driven before, and it makes for a really good driving experience. The best way to describe the interior of the Ram is like stepping into your lounge room and your favourite sofa, because that's exactly the feeling. It's very spacious, very comfortable, and it's perfect for going on long distance touring trips. I'm on a dirt road right now, I'm comfortably sitting on 80 k's an hour, towing this van behind me, and it is quiet in here, it's very comfortable, and the amount of space you have in this interior is something you need to see to believe. The fit and finish on this Ram 1500 is really, really nice. I had the model before this one, and it was just some sketchy stuff, like you could see where they double-sided tape some carpet in and fit some pieces like that, and it was just a little bit more flimsy, but this looks really, really thought out and nice, so yeah, well done Ram. This Chevy's probably got the nicest interior of the lot. It feels really well put together, it feels like it's really well built, and it's really laid out in a way that as soon as you get in the vehicle, you feel comfortable in it, and this one here is the off-road pack, so it does have lockers front and rear, it does have a lot of your different assists and parking sensors and lane control and all this other jazz, which is easy to reach at the dash, so you can turn it on and off really, really easily, and again, we've talked about this before, but it has all the technology if you are towing. It's even got a maintenance schedule for your trailer, so once you input a trailer into it, it'll remind you that you need to check the tyre levels, you need to check to make sure you put your jockey wheel away, all that sort of jazz. It's got a whole program built for towing, so I think it's a fantastic vehicle. All of the vehicles sport some very plush interior and modern technology, however the Chevy is our pick in the 1500 range. I've just jumped in the big Chevy 2500, and I've, to be honest, I've been really excited about driving this one because on paper I thought it was going to be my favourite, but jumping in, I've got to say I'm a little bit underwhelmed with the feel of the vehicle. I mean, it's nice, don't get me wrong, it's a very expensive rig, but for the price of this thing, I thought it'd be a little bit better appointed. I mean, it's got a very basic interior, it's nothing that us Toyota or Nissan drivers wouldn't be proud to own, but at the same time, for the money you're paying, and when you see some of the interiors, the other ones, it leaves a little bit to be desired, but at the end of the day, you're buying this vehicle because of its towability and that big Duramax combination that it's got in it. The whole Ram package in Australia, whether it be the 1500 or the 2500, they both feel very, very luxurious inside just from a comfort level. So yeah, I'm really liking this vehicle the more I drive it. The Ram 2500 definitely has the better dash. That being said, the F-truck is a little bit older, but the Chevy is fairly new, and the Chevy's interior is much worse compared to the Ram, so interesting there's such a large gap with these big trucks. One thing I've been really blown away with all of these American utes is the amount of features these things have. Now, keep in mind, I've got a 200 series, which is a flasher model VX as well, and it doesn't even have a quarter of the features and luxuries that these American vehicles have got, and I mean, there's so many buttons, there's so many features in all these vehicles, you need a university degree nearly just to learn how everything works. I am literally getting a butt massage right now. My back's getting massaged, the seat's just kneading out the hams, which is unreal because I need the stress relief because the steering box in this thing is wild. The Ram 2500 was our pick in the heavy duty range. The Chevy felt a little underwhelming, and the F-250 is a few years old now, so can't really be compared like for like. Now it's probably a good time to talk about warranties and servicing. Now, if you're going to be spending a lot of money on one of these vehicles, which they all are quite expensive, probably the first thing on your mind is how much are you covered for in terms of warranties and servicing. Now, in your line of work, you get to see a lot of these things. You guys have a workshop and you do focus on a lot of American vehicles. In your experience, what's it like for the servicing and warranty of these vehicles? I think ultimately, busy people don't have enough time to plan ahead to get maintenance and servicing from a lot of the dealers when it comes to these American trucks. And similarly, with the repairs of them as well, you know, it's like you have to think six, eight, ten weeks ahead if you want to make any repairs or have any maintenance done to your American truck if you go to the dealer. Yeah, right. So I guess it's a big consideration if you are looking to buy an American vehicle, and there's a lot of good things about them, there's no doubt about it, but because they're quite new in this country, even though they're very popular right now, the support isn't quite there. So I think that's great words of advice to plan ahead and if the vehicle does need servicing, don't think you're going to be able to book it in on a Friday and get it back Friday afternoon with a whole bunch of repairs done because it simply won't be the case. You'll be needing to order in a lot of parts. So, you know, planning these things is probably a big consideration. I'd almost say as well too, if you're planning a lap, you probably want a maintenance plan as you're doing your trip. It's something you want to factor in before you hit the road. So keep that in mind if you're looking at purchasing one of these, that you'll need to get the right network of support around you. So finding the right specialised mechanic is going to be probably your best bet. Just filled up the big 2500. We're doing a bit of a fuel test as well. Now it makes sense that we're going to be testing fuel economy because a lot of you guys want to know what these big American rigs do use when they're driving normally under normal touring conditions or when they're towing. So the way we're going to do it is reset the odometer right now and we basically fill them up at every server. We try and do 100, 200 k's between each server to try and get the right data, record it all down, we'll work out all the maths behind it and we'll be able to get some fuel figures. So you don't only have to fill up with diesel, you've got to fill up with this stuff, save the environment. And yeah, going on a trip out west, this is the only server we could find with AdBlue. So Timmy's actually run out and top him up and hopefully this lasts him until we get to the next server with a little bit more AdBlue. We've done about 2000 kilometres now so it's a pretty good time to really talk about fuel economy. We've got a good gauge what all the vehicles are doing and there's going to be a couple of surprises and some things that are pretty obvious. You've got big thirsty vehicles. Are they going to be really thirsty at the Bowser as well? Well here's what we've found out so far. Let's start with the 1500. So of course we've got the Ram 1500, we've got the Chev 1500 and the Ford F-150. They're all petrol vehicles, two of them V8s and one V6 twin turbo. Now on highway driving with no load, those things have actually been really surprising just how economical they are. They're doing about between I think phenomenal for the size of the vehicle and being petrol motors as well. When you do put a load on the back of those things, the big caravan which weighs just roughly three tonnes, fuel figures go through the roof in the sense that all vehicles are doing between 25 and 30 litres to the 100. Now that's somewhat expected with a petrol vehicle in their tow. As soon as they get a big load, typically the fuel economy goes out the window and that's exactly what we've seen here. Now you also load the vehicle up and put a few extra bits and pieces in that caravan and you can see that fuel economy will go even further through the roof, which is not that surprising for those petrol vehicles. Now if you go to the big 2500s like the Ram, the Chev and the big F-truck. Now these things, like we keep saying, are designed for towing. What surprises me the most though, around town, highway driving, dirt roads, these things are getting between 12 and 15 litres to the 100. They're sipping diesel. For the size of these vehicles and what they weigh as a tare weight, it's absolutely amazing. As soon as you put a caravan on the back, you do expect it to use more fuel, but the Ram and the Chevy and the F-250 are using roughly up to about 20 litres to the 100. So 17 to 20 litres to the 100. Now that's typically what I get in my 200 series when I'm not towing. So it has surprised me how economical these things are. Just driving around and when you get three tonnes on the back, it has surprised me. These large American engines surprise us with their fuel consumption, performing better than most dual-cab utes on the market when it comes to towing a big three and a half tonne van. So we've given all the vehicles a rating of eight for fuel economy. Let's have a go at the prices of these vehicles, starting with the 1500s we've got on the test. These vehicles are far from cheap, so I hope you're sitting down when we give you these prices. It'll cost you $137,000 to get into a Chevy, $141,000 for the F-150 and $142,000 for the Ram. The entry-level models are a bit cheaper, but certainly aren't affordable. Moving into the 2500s. The models we've got on this test will see you getting a Chevy Silverado for around $163,000, $173,000 for the Ram 2500 and get this, for an imported 250, you'd be looking around $250,000. Yep, you heard that correct, $250,000. If you're living overseas and you think that we've got our facts wrong for how expensive these vehicles are, this is what you need to consider. All these vehicles will be well under $100,000 in the US. If you're wondering why these vehicles are so expensive in Australia, it's because firstly, you've got to convert US dollars to Aussie dollars, pay shipping, the cost of converting them from left to right-hand drive, add exorbitant taxes from the government, add profits along the way, and you start to get an idea why these are so expensive. Now Luke, you've actually gone out, this is your vehicle, you've put your hard-earned money behind the big Chevy 1500. So far the test has been a fantastic vehicle, mate, and thank you for allowing us to drive it as well. Now, the big question I want to ask you, why did you buy a Chevy 1500 in the first place? Appearance is a big thing for me, I really like the look of it, it does have a pretty cool street appeal, but this one here is like their new off-road version and it's kind of already a little bit set up, a little bit higher suspension and a few other diff locks, front rear diff locks, a few little different things that I was happy with and didn't have to upgrade. So now I suppose the big question, having driven now all the American vehicles in the 1500 and the 2500 range, what have you learned about these American rigs that you didn't know before? Well, they're all definitely cool big cars to drive and fun and comfy and whatnot, but what I've learned, I would definitely have it set up for just a touring vehicle with a canopy, rooftop tent possibly, happy with it like that. Towing, I would definitely go for the 250 because they're just built for it. Yeah. Ram, Chev, 250s, both great vehicles, very hard to pick between the two, but for the 150, I'm definitely happy with what I've chosen. Yeah, well said mate, I totally agree and I just want to say a big thanks for coming along as well because you've actually put your hard earn out on one of these vehicles, so it brings a whole new level of experience as well with the team. So I suppose if your requirements are for a vehicle that can tow over three and a half ton, you really don't have many choices other than these vehicles behind me or a light truck. Now when you do get into the 2500 conversation and you bring up value for money, as far as I'm concerned, those two things don't really belong in the same sentence. Now, if you're living in the US of course, things are a lot cheaper over there. You can get a 2500 for about the $60,000 mark. So the question I want to ask many of the Americans in the audience, would you pay nearly $200,000 for one of these vehicles? You're probably laughing. Therefore, I think value for money, it doesn't really exist with these vehicles. If you're going to get one, it's because you really want one or you need to tow a big heavy load. End of conversation. The reason these trucks score lower is that they're almost double the price of a dual cab and you're not really getting double the value for that extra cost. Don't get me wrong, they're brilliant for towing and some touring applications, but for the average punter who needs a rig for work during the week and a bit of forward driving on the weekend, a dual cab is probably a better choice. Now for one of the most important parts of the test, the results, where we declare a winner in each of the categories, the 1500 category and the 2500 category. Now, the experts and I have sat down for many, many hours discussing and debating this. All our results are in and like we said at the beginning of this test, there can only be one winner and there's going to be no punches held back. We're going to tell you warts and all, exactly the results. Now, at the start of this test, a lot of our experts actually tipped the Ram 1500 to be the winner of the test. After a few days and a lot of kilometres behind the wheel, unfortunately, the Ram didn't really live up to expectations. It surprisingly didn't tow that well and left a fair bit to be desired and that's why it took out third place. Not saying it's a bad vehicle, but when you pit it up against the other ones in the test, it came out in third place, unfortunately. Now, second, and this was very close to first place, it was almost neck and neck for a bit there, the Chev 1500 comes in in second place. Now, that can only mean there is one winner in the 1500 class and that is the Ford F-150. The reason why the Ford F-150 edged in front slightly of the Chev 1500 is because of towing. Now, let's face it, at the end of the day, if you've got to put your hard-earned money down on one of these vehicles, it's usually because of towing. On paper, the Ford F-150, it's got all the right things in the right places and it wins on paper as the supreme tow vehicle of the lot. When we jumped in on the driver's seat of this thing and actually started towing some big titanium vans, it was soon really evident that this really is not just the best on paper, but the best tow vehicle in the 1500 class. It's well appointed and it's very sure-footed on the roads and that's the reason why the Ford F-150 won the 1500 class of vehicles. So that, of course, leads us to our heavy-duty class of vehicles, the big 2500s. Now, let's start off in third place. Now, while this vehicle is a fantastic vehicle, we decided that it couldn't actually be in the running for our vehicle test because there's no dealer network and, of course, they're labelled as grey imports, meaning there's no support in Australia. That, of course, is the Ford F-250. Now, moving on into second place. Now, this is really tight between first and second place. Only a slight margin separated these two. So in second place, you've got the Ram 2500, a fantastic tow vehicle and it ticked a lot of boxes in its range. But number one, of course, the big Chevrolet 2500. Now, that was fantastic and I think the main reason why that edge in front of the Ram was because of its bulletproof Duramax 6.6 combined with a 10-speed auto. That was a far better package than, of course, the Ram 2500. Well, anyway, that's our results after two and a half thousand kilometres of outback driving and a few days on the road. But let us know what you think. Which one would you have in your driveway if price wasn't an option? Let us know in the comments below. Anyway, that's enough from us. We'll see you next time on 4WD 24-7.