What The… Ford’s Super Duty Leapfrogs GM’s Heavy Duty Trucks In Torque And Horsepower
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Just when The General had The Blue Oval on the ropes with its latest offering of Chevy/GMC 2500 and 3500 HD pickup trucks, this hits the fan. Starting August 31, GM can no longer lay claim to being the most powerful heavy duty pickup truck due to Ford’s latest announcement to increase every stat that matters in its Super Duty trucks.
The History
First Ford introduced its all-new Super Duty trucks, along with an all-new 6.7L V8 diesel engine, that originally cranked out 390 horsepower and 735 pounds-feet of torque. Back then, the new Super Duty lead the pack in towing and payload ratings, at 21,600 pounds and 6,520 pounds, respectively. Then came GM with its new HD and an updated 6.6 liter Duramax diesel that smote the Ford Super Duty with 397 horsepower and 765 pounds-feet of torque. Ford still had the better towing and payload ratings… until GM strengthened the framework after 100 hours worth of mountain driving with the trucks loaded to capacity. That bumped the original ratins to 21,700 lbs. fifth wheel towing and 6,635 lbs. payload in The General’s favor for the undisputed crown. Apparently, this didn’t sit too well with the engineers at Ford, who have come to dominate the heavy-duty truck market over the last few years.
What Did Ford Do?
With the new Power Stroke engine at their disposal, the guys and gals in Dearborn went back to the drawing board and increased the engine’s output by 10 horsepower and 65 pounds-feet through an engine software update. Evidently, the update tells the powertrain to inject more fuel into the engine during combustion (or as some would say, by using magical fairy dust). The newly-tuned transmission is also configured to shift and hold gears longer for increased fuel economy.
Current Owners Can Join The Fun Too
Ford also though of current Super Duty owners who wish to increase their trucks’ output numbers. They can get it done for free at their local Ford dealer over the next 12 months. But the bad news doesn’t end there for GM’s HD fans, either.
More Bad News?
By using a similar method GM used to strengthen its payload/hauling specs, Ford also upgraded the hardware in its Super Duty trucks, raising the payload and fifth wheel towing to 7,070 pounds and 22,600 pounds, respectively. For those keeping score at home, that beats the GMC and Chevy offerings by 900 pounds from the fifth and 435 pounds in the payload department. However, this update will only apply to all Super Duty pickups after August 31st, as the numbers on the original job are permanent.
Now What?
Is this it for Truck Wars 2010? Who the hell knows.
Of course, this is great for competition and all, but being the GM fans that we are, we would still really like to see crafty GM engineers do their own rebuttle in this constant back-and-forth with Ford before year’s-end. Until then, The General is in second place… on the spec sheet, of course.
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chevy sucks