The Best Trucks on the Road
These 8 pickups each have one characteristic that sets them head and shoulders above the competition.
Americans love their trucks, and each truck buyer has a different reason for needing one. Drivers might need a truck to tow a boat, camper or snowmobile, or as an everyday workhorse on the job site, or simply for the occasional trip to the garbage dump. Traits valued in a pickup may include power, towing capacity, off-road capability or passenger space. Here we bring you the best, most capable pickups in eight categories.
Most Powerful Heavy-Duty Pickup
Ford F-Series Super Duty
Over the past few years, there has been an arms race in the heavy-duty pickup market. Power and torque numbers for diesel engines have grown significantly. Chevrolet and its GMC truck brand have reached 397 horsepower and 765 lb-ft of torque with their 6.6-liter Duramax turbodiesel engine. Dodge Ram's 6.7-liter Cummins V8 turbodiesel has 350 horsepower and up to 800 lb-ft of torque. But the winner is Ford. The Power Stroke 6.7-liter V8 turbodiesel in the 2012 Ford F-Series Super Duty wrings out some nice round numbers: 400 horses and 800 stump-pulling lb-ft of torque. As we'll soon see, though, more power doesn't necessarily mean more hauling capacity.
Best Heavy-Duty Hauler
Chevrolet Silverado / GMC Sierra 3500HD
The 2012 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups may trail their Ford counterparts by 35 lb-ft of torque, but thanks to a beefy ladder frame, they boast the highest towing and payload capacities on the market. General Motors' heavy-duty duo can each tow up to 18,000 pounds on a conventional trailer hitch or 23,000 pounds using a bed-mounted fifth wheel. Payload capacity tops out at 7,215 pounds. The closest competitor is the Ford F-Series Super Duty, which is within 500 pounds for towing and 105 pounds for payload capacity. To aid towing, the GM heavy-duty pickups also offer an integrated trailer brake, an exhaust brake, dual rear wheels and 4-wheel drive.
Best Light Truck
Ford F-150 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6
In most barroom bull sessions, admitting that you have a V6 engine in your full-size truck is like saying you wear a skirt. But not when you're talking about Ford's EcoBoost 3.5-liter V6. It can outperform most V8s, churning out 365 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque, while delivering 16 mpg city/22 mpg highway. That's less horsepower than the GM 6.2-liter V8, the Ram 5.7-liter Hemi V8 and Ford's own 6.2-liter V8, but the torque numbers are similar and fuel economy is roughly 3 mpg better. Better yet, the EcoBoost is more responsive on the street, delivering quicker acceleration than any other light-truck engine.
Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
With the SVT Raptor, Ford has put the full extent of its off-road engineering knowledge into a single vehicle. This is more than just a standard pickup with a lift kit. It is a fully realized off-roader in the vein of the pre-runner trucks used to scout courses before off-road races. Ford engineers widened the F-150 by 7 inches, which helped them increase suspension travel. That travel, 11.2 inches up front and 13.4 inches in the rear, lets the Raptor clear extreme obstacles while maintaining traction. Fox Racing shocks handle hard off-road impacts, and the stability control system is tuned for off-road demands.
Must-See on MSN
i have to agree with Mustangwilli, some guys just don't get it... I'm a Mopar guy and I buy Dodge trucks but I'm not going to sit here and say that they are without problems, all vehicles have their issue's, I am 50 years old and have owned my share of all of them and by personal preference I have been loyal to Chrysler/Dodge.
i work in a repair/parts shop and I can tell you that it seems like each make has their issues... Ford a little bit of everything, mostly cooling but I do have to say that we see more Fords than any other make, GM's tranny/alternators/and cheap interior design, Dodge a/c compressors/heater cores, and rtgsc123, not sure what you were smoking when you posted this but we get a lot of Toyota's in with u-joint issues/O2 sensors (which aren't cheap)/water pumps/ head gaskets etc...
My conclusion when it comes to some of the issue's with Japanese trucks is that they are not designed to haul to the capacity of the American trucks but these type of owners think their trucks are the next best thing since sliced bread and are indestructable so they over work them to a point of damaging them... unfortunately these trucks are weak compared to American trucks but the owners don't see that because they have a "Japanese" truck, and the ones that don't work them simply buy them to "have a truck" and drive it on the hard ball 90% of the time so of course they aren't going to need any major repairs... because they don't do anything with them that would require it. I live in a farming community, if you live any where near one or ranch community etc... take a drive out there and see what these farmers are using to haul their supplies in, tow their horse/cattle trailers, pull stumps etc... it sure as *&^% isn't an import truck. Leave those trucks to do the sissy work like haul "a" quad, couple of dirt bikes etc.
This comparison, these guys from MSN simply get their info off paper, they don't do any kind of testing themselves thus the reason the "real" trucks that win these categories aren't listed in the correct order if at all...take a look at their best cars categories when they post them, they always pick the imports over the American cars because they go of what people want to hear... todays American cars are much better and longer lasting vehicles than a lot of the imports, we see less American cars in our shop than imports, European cars are the worst, they see our shop on a regular basis and come back for repeat performances constantly, people only like Japanese cars because of their reputation in the 70's, that empire has long been toppled and Americans should once again stand proud of their product. If I was a car manufacturer you can sure bet I would make my car out to be the best on the street. A lot of the comparisons you also see are by "independent" contractors hired by who... the car manufacturer wanting their vehicle to be better than the rest... who is the contractor going to select as the better vehicle... the one who hired them, they want to make sure they get the nod again when the car manufacturer needs another test done... it's called job security.
When you see these kind of reports/test/comparisons, check to see who the sponsers are and then look to see which product gets the nod.