(Photos: FCA US) The tow rating war that had been going on between Ford and Ram has been fairly quiet for a little bit. Ford decided to test to SAE J2807 towing specification and has kept claiming that their F-450 had best in class towing. Ram, meanwhile, has never viewed the F-450 as a direct competitor to the Heavy Duty 3500, believing that Ford’s F350 is the Heavy Duty 3500’s direct rival. Using that logic, Ram soundly trounces Ford in tow rating and claims best-in-class towing. Either way, it’s a freaking headache for the manufacturers, who are currently in the middle of a verbal measuring contest for supremacy.
Leave it to Ram, then, to add fuel to the fire. Starting off, the torque rating on the 6.7L Cummins ISB has been bumped up to an even 900 ft/lbs of torque, a figure that FCA claims is the highest torque rating ever for a mass-produced vehicle. That bump in torque also bumped up the towing capacity, to 31,210 pounds, ten more than the most maxxed-out F450 and over two tons more than the F350. To take the additional punishment, Ram has upgraded the rear axle ring gear hardware, moving from a 12-bolt system to a 16-bolt system in trucks with the 11.8″ rear axle, along with strengthened materials for better durability.
While the new grille and gigantic letters in the tailgate still aren’t winning us over, watching the manufacturers continue this little spat is just fine with us. They compete, we win. Besides, don’t you need a CDL to haul anything over 26,000 pounds, anyways?
Will this new torque rating effectively eliminate the manual trans option?
I believe the stick trucks are already detuned 200tq compared to the auto right now…..
I don’t think any of the Big Three offer manuals in their current full-sized diesel lineups. As I understand it, the NV5600 was dropped whenever New Venture Gear was spun off of Chrysler during the buyup, and they finished out the production run with Getrag 6-speeds.
As far as the loss of 200 foot-pounds of torque, I think it’s less a factor of tuning as it is not having a converter: Torque converters exchange HP for torque.
I spoke too soon. Research shows that they still have the Getrag gearbox.
I don’t know the full deal about manual trans or not, but we looked at a Ram 2500 Mega Cab that had a six speed. It’s available at least through MY 2015.
I have to admit that RAM seems to be taking their big diesel trucks very seriously with an eye toward the professional and frequent-towing crowd. They offer a great deal of useful features for those who intend to haul things around and use them. I’ve also heard that they’re finally getting their automatics dialed in so they don’t burn up behind the big Cummins engine under load, which was a frequent issue.
Speaking from my own experience, the high torque numbers don’t surprise me. Inline engines are always torque monsters. They usually don’t like to rev high and take a while to get up to pace, but I’ve seen trucks with barebones Ford 300s leave their V8 counterparts behind when pulling loads uphill and rescuing stuck wheelers.
This is pretty incredible stuff. The guys at Diesel Power need to run one of these stock at next year’s Diesel Power Challenge to see how it stacks up against the highly modified trucks.
BTW, having been to that event for a few years in a row now, it’ll be a Cummins show for a long time to come in my opinion. Those guys are playing chess and everyone else is playing checkers.
I couldn’t agree more Brian. I’ve been wanting DP to bring a stock version of each of the big three’s 3,500s for a while now. After owning a couple of Cummins I felt that Dodge/Ram should offer a “SRT 6” version. Compound turbos, bigger injectors, smooth intake elbow, free flow exhaust, basically all the stuff I spent big $$ on. Special paint and/or stripes, and mopar / cummins logos galore (with a delete option). I think it would sell, no manufacturer really markets to the Diesel performance market. Also please confirm that Ram is offering an tailgate emblem/grill delete, that is hideous!
our friend came over a couple weeks ago for bbq and had his new truck, 1/2 ton with EcoDiesel. He’s loving the mileage and carrying capacity for his tile biz.
I’ve been traveling full time for two years in a toy hauler and it seems all I see are Cummins Rams. It’s not just the engine for towing, but other things like what appears to be a longer wheelbase for stability. The rear axle sure looks further back in the bed than the GM’s and Fords. I still use my old 97 reg cab Powerstroke duallie but it can’t hold a candle to these new trucks that literally have twice the power.
If Dodge’s build quality has come up to the standard of the engines they put in their trucks, I would gladly jump teams.