Ford F450 Power Stroke VS RAM 3500 Cummins Towing Test: Here Are The Results, Did RAM Win???

Now this is going to be part two of the test against the Ford F450. I have a 2016 Ram 3500 with the standard output comment that truck had 131,000 Mi. This one has 124,000 Mi. Now I will say that truck wasn’t quite through the shop yet, but people say that Ram trucks are trash. Man there’s a lot of haters in the world.

This truck is perfect and let me show you guys something crazy about this one ready for this. You guys see the distance for miles for the trailer tow. This truck has 124,000 Mi out of the 124,000 Mi 101,000 of it was Towing. Now this truck does have the air suspension from the factory and let’s go ahead and check out some of the toe features. I think I’m too far up with the trailer hitch, so that should fix it.

So just like on that Ford I mean back then, and you know technology wasn’t that important, but today it is, and you can tell they’ve come a long way with [ Music ]. That that four dropped 1.37 in and that was 87 in but, as you guys probably saw in that footage it lifted back up because of the factory suspension, let’s go ahead and get down the road we’re going to go ahead and head down the road. You know something that’s really hard about doing these tow tests is every truck is different and I haven’t owned a ram truck now in what 2 years right so now that I’ve had a chance to not live with these trucks. I find these a little bit more harder to set up, which is probably crazy.
Like the mirrors like on these older trucks, like the convex aren’t powered, you have to flip them up yeah. They were a little bit more cumbersome compared to the competition for sure but hey it is what it is. You live and you learn, but I have to turn on the exhaust, brake and toall mode. So that’s done but yeah, I’m not a huge fan of these. These mirrors anymore, you know like having to get out of the truck and go on this side and this side you have to flip them up and, of course, when you flip them up, the mirrors are not even in the same position that you need them to Be in so that’s cumbers.

This is, it was a lot of work. I was like oh wow, like that’s, why I always kept my mirrors out and that’s why people made fun of me for saying I had a ghost trailer behind me. But yes, I don’t really care, I like them like this and that’s how? If I got another Ram, they would always be in toe mode because I typically do 40 50 %, but you know you have a CS. You know Cummins.

They they have that sound like. I I tell you when I drive my Duramax I’ve driven a lot of Ford trucks this year. You just got to love that comments. That comment sounds healthy, sounds like a diesel. Sh right got those big old Pistons, oh yeah.
This truck feels good. Now this truck is down on horsepower for sure now the torque is not too bad and that’s kind of rams M Mo like because of the stroke of this engine. I almost wonder if that’s, but no it’s not that I’m thinking about something else. I’M thinking about the transmission, the 68 and the Isen don’t have that horsepower and that speed capacity that Ford has on their Transmissions. Even back, then I would say: they’ve always just been down on power compared to the other two.

It comes on the horsepower that is yeah. This truck, oh wow. This truck feels good guys, like you have to love Ram. You have to love their trucks, I mean having the air suspension and watching that bad boy lift back up. It’S just crazy, like this is truly the best towing truck bar like it really is like the stability everything about it now, this truck has Cooper tires, and I feel as though these tires have no noise, I’m not even sure if they’re new, I’m not sure, if The dealer put these on, I would think they would put the NEX and tires back on these trucks because they’re a cheaper tire but yeah if you’re looking to get the same tires.

These Coopers are amazing, but let me go ahead and give this truck wide open throttle real quickly. I I just want to see how it feels. Oh man that exhaust Rak that’s an exhaust R right there guys it puts a smile on your face now wide open, throttle. 50. 55.
60 H interesting. That wasn’t bad now back in this time frame. At least I know from my 2018 that I had they came standard with 342. I hated the 342 on these trucks. You know if they had an 8-speed, it probably wouldn’t matter, but because it was only a six-speed transmission.

I felt like the truck suffer a little bit with Towing. I always feel like there was a dead spot in the RPM range and I feel like it needed an extra gear every single time when I tow with those trucks, now don’t get me wrong. They went to the 373 and 2019. I still feel like they needed an extra gear, but with this truck it’s even worse, like it’s, it’s awful, I don’t. I don’t really like the 342 on these trucks.

I think that if I were to ever get an older Ram again, I almost want to rear it to like at least a 410. You know, but all in all I mean the Cummings is louder compared to the Ford truck. That’S the first thing I noticed, but that Ford having those overbuilt tires. They were super loud and they were like. Oh man, they were bad in my opinion and they were a little bit more knober too compared to what comes on the trucks, so that could have been.
Why as well. So you have to keep that in mind but yeah. This truck handles great the air suspension. It keeps the truck level if you’re putting 3,000 4,000 lbs back there boom this truck’s going to take care of for you, you don’t have to go, buy airbags after the fact, and I think that Ram trucks overall have really great stability like this is such an Easy truck to just jump into and tow it that’s why so many people do it because they’re cheaper up front and they just have more available options for them too. So you guys can see right at 65, mph we’re at500 RPMs.

If you go back and watch the Ford video, you guys know that we were a lot higher and that’s because you have that 430 rear end. Now, if I were to go to 70 Mi, I don’t know if I would be able to get there here. Let me see I’m going around a curve right now. Here we go. I definitely hear the fan coming on it’s 98 a little bit warmer than it was earlier today.

I have the AC blasting too. So, let’s see man like I, I cannot get up to 70 guys so at some point, I’ll show it to you in the video, but maybe I’ll show it to you right here. If I remember to do it later, but yeah, I can’t get up to 70 cuz, there’s traffic but yeah this truck and me running at 1500 RPMs. I don’t feel feel like you need much more power than this, but that 6 % grade might say otherwise. It just might now before we get to that 6 % grade.
I want to make a few points. I know this isn’t 20,000 lb, but I will tell you this. Trailer is a sale. I say this in every video because it’s something that needs to be discussed when you’re towing this type of weight on this type of trailer. It’S really a challenge for these trucks, like I’ve only had one or two trucks do well going up the street and I’m really shocked by it, because you know it’s not that much weight back there for these types of trucks, I mean these trucks can go 25 Plus th000 lbs right so for them to struggle to get up to 70 mph, which I’ve seen it’s pretty crazy, especially with the turbo diesels.

But I do like the Ram trucks guys like. I know that a lot of you guys think I’m I’m a fanboy of some sort. I don’t think I am. I just think a lot of you guys are fanboys and you get offended by what I say so don’t take that the wrong way. But I don’t really care which truck is better or not.

I’M just doing testing and when I note something it’s not because I like a truck because I’m a fanboy it’s because I can tell that, there’s a difference, but this truck with this cumins the feeling is different. You have to tell with a ram truck if you’re, a Chevy guy, GMC guy or a for guy. I stressed this so much RAM Trucks totally the best, and this is a 2016. I just towed this trailer with a 2016 portl 450 and I can just tell you the stability that this truck has and it could be the air suspension that could be the culit 2o, but that Ford had aftermarket airbag. So there could have been some help there.
As well, but I’m not really sure I didn’t set those up, but I’m serious when I say this – this truck tows absolutely the best and if Ram can somehow get this truck to get more horsepower. I think that’s where this truck would just shine at because then it would be able to blast up those steep grads and get up to 75 80 mph, I’m. I don’t normally do this, but I’m going to try to say I’m willing to bet you, even though this truck has a 373 I’ll be shocked if we can get up over 70 mph, because the Ford topped out at 67 mph. I think this truck might do the same or worse, so I’m thinking, maybe 65, Maybe if it gets to 70, though I I’m going to be honest with you I’m going to, I might become a r Fanboy cuz. That might be insane, but I know it won’t.

I know it won’t be able to, because it’s so down on horsepower and that’s what you need to get up these drains and it’s only at 350, which you guys are here here at the second. Currently, this Ram is for sale at $ 39,239. The Ford was for sale for about $ 44,000 and, as far as the Carfax goes, it shows two owners, but it’s only one owner and you guys can see the miles there. No accidents window sticker. This is the original pricing at the time was $ 68,276 and just be sure to pause it for some of the options on the truck now this did have the 373 and the cumins.

The standard output was $ 89.95 and, as I said, this truck does have the air suspension too. Here’S the specs for the truck here. So this does have the standard output uh comings. So it’s going to have 370 horsepower 800 lb feet of torque.

This one had the 68 R Fe transmission, which is right here, so it shows the gearing for that and because it’s a dual rear wheel, it does have the 373 rear end all right here we go guys. So I got a Dr down to about 50, see how fast it’s doing it because of that exhaust breake all right, you’all ready here it is so we have to beat 67 mph. If we don’t beat that, then the Ford wins this 10 more miles to go. I am in oh, why do it not show me the gear yeah we’re in fourth gear? Are you serious, 63?

Okay, I feel like it has a little bit more in it there. It is, and that’s the other thing about these Rams. They don’t RPM, like the other two do because of the stroke. That’S what I was talking about earlier, or I was thinking about it in my mind, but yeah the stroke is what hurts these trucks here, because they don’t RPM. Oh, my goodness that Ford had 440 horsepower man we’re almost there if they can get the 67.

Oh, my God at this, that’s with a 373 versus a 432 man. I feel like it’s topped out guys. It’S topped out. Oh, we lost one. No, it gets a little bit steeper right here, yep, that’s it!
It’S steep right here, yep. We are pretty much at the end, guys wow, so we lost 1 mile an hour, interesting interesting when thing little about the rim, though they give you all these temperatures right here, but yeah we did 181. Their Transmissions always run cooler than the competition. As far as the field economy goes, I think we’re at like 5.1 5.

on that Ford about the same spot. I don’t think I showed it to you guys in the video, but I do remember seeing that number around this spot here and let’s go ahead and tap the brakes a little bit. You see that my foot’s, not even on the brakes right now now I just put my foot on the brake. Oh man, that’s just just amazing. It literally will stop you now: let’s go a and check out the temperatures on the outside, so these outer 116 is what I saw inner 127.

So yeah. You want to run those iners there a little bit lower PSI cuz they take more of that Grunt, and we saw that on the Ford too. 180. 5 yep 185 on that rear diff. It’S not too bad, actually front tire about 122 brak’s about 159.

That’S one option that got take away from all the newer trucks by the way. So on this side that’s some of the emissions crap turbo is down here. Oh yeah, oh my gosh. 500. My hand got hot, my bad woo, that’s hot yeah.

You guys can see the coolant right, it’s pretty much full! Oh we one last thing intake intake right here was a little bit cooler compared to the Ford. Lastly, AC pretty much the exact same as the Ford, what’s more important speed or stopping I’ll. Let the ram answer that question real quickly, so the exhaust brake is on right now. You guys see how I’m maintaining the speed it just downshifted.

I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing just now. I did nothing now. All I got to do is tap the brakes. Oh, you guys can’t see the gear in so you guys can see that right, I’m doing nothing.
Now, I’m going to tap the brakes there. It is that a turbo that might be the belt. That’S a belt right. There yeah I’m just slowing down and actually I have to hit the brakes now because yeah, I think that’s the you’re hearing the belt right now that sucks sucks yeah when I um accelerate it goes away but yeah and when it comes down to it, there’s no Comparison, the ram has the absolute best exhaust brake and it’s the best at slowing down. I mean I did absolutely nothing.

All I did was took my foot off the gas again downshift [, Music ] it hold holding the speed, I’m not I’m not in cruise control or anything, I’m just just foot off the gas. That’S it and it’s assuming that, oh maybe they want to slow down. Cuz, it probably can tell that we’re getting pushed by the trailer. Now, if you put this in Auto, it won’t come on for you. It’Ll just do what all the other trucks do, but if you tap the brakes on auto, then it comes on a Little Bit Stronger Yeah.

But I don’t know what that sound is. It sounds like the the belt, or it could be a part of the exhaust rate guys it could be a part of that doesn’t sound good, though yeah that sound is coming from the exhaust brake so yeah, I’m not sure why it sounds so bad. I mean never heard that before on any truck, you guys can see right here, exhaust and turbo, so it shows you, the exhaust brake is working right. There really cool now under, unfortunately, there’s a guy that wants to look at this truck, so we’re pretty much going to beat the field economy for the Ford I’ll check back. When we get to 37 Mi, I’m going to go the same route and then I have to head back to the dealership.

So I’ll show you guys the final number here when we’re all done. Here’S the final for the ram. I will show you a trip. Computer snapshot to really quick that we have an idea of what it showed about 35 miles and 8
9 MPG was the final, so did beat out the Ford. However, the Ford did beat out the RAM for Speed.

Now the temperatures were a little bit different, but it’s not enough to really justify that’s why the ram lost, but I will say both trucks. You know over 100,000 miles they were traded in, they seem to be pretty stout pickup. So you know when it comes down to diesel engines, even at 100,000 mies. These trucks are going to perform pretty flawlessly if they’re taken care of and both both trucks had emission controls intact. I don’t think I mentioned that in either video but yeah both trucks were pretty much bone stock, with the exception of the airb bags on the Ford at 450.

But uh, like you, see here, you’re going to pay a little bit more money on fuel cost for the 450 and that’s no surprise you have lower gearing out back, you know so and it’s a heavier truck too, which is what you see here. Actually, this is wrong. This is actually the payload for the Ram truck. I wanted to mention that, to you guys the the payload. I forgot to get that because I had to rush the truck back to the dealership, so I figured, I would just show it to you here, but if you take the 14,000lb GVWR that it had subtracted from 5183 is 8817, which is a curb weight so yeah.
I want to show you what the payload is basically and then here is the actual, so the Ford did have a better uh gross axle rating too. So, at the end of the day, if you’re playing on to 20,000 pounds, I would definitely pick an F450 for sure. I mean 20,000 plus pounds that truck’s going to do better because of that gearing uh. I think the Ram truck you’re going to have to go high output for sure um, even though the standard output will get the job done. I think that the biggest strength in the high output is having that Isen transmission, but I hope you guys, like the video, be sure to subscribe to your channel.

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