i'm mark williams for pickup trucks .com and we're here near the Arizona Nevada
border right near the infamous section of highway 68 commonly known as the
Davis Dam section for tow testing we brought to 2013 ram 1500 to do some toe
testing ourselves but for right now let's take a closer look and see what
each of these trucks has to offer our blue ram 1500 4 doors two wheel drive
short rear bed
SLT trim package as a consequence not a lot of frills
this truck has the 321 gears for extra fuel economy front bucket seats split 40
20 40 with a movable center console and it does have the UConnect but no nav
screen so it looks very bare bones and actually is a pretty good deal at just
under thirty eight thousand dollars are red ram 1500 just under forty four
thousand dollars are red ram has a lot of similarities to our other truck ford
or two wheel drive short bed v6 eight-speed SLT model but there are
several differences not the least of which are the bucket seats center
console does have the you connect and 8.4 inch screen
nav system also offers the air suspension package and the ram box
option just for this truck alone but probably the most significant difference
and one that we intentionally made for this tow test because this is the truck
that's going to be towing 250 500 pound trailer 3 55 years instead of the
shorter 3 21 years
so you've seen the trucks but we're here to do testing
behind me is the Davis Dam grade we're going to be taking these two Rams with
and without trailer up and down this Hill to find out how well they tow for
those long time pickup trucks . com readers
you might remember that about a year and a half ago we to took two f150 fx2 on a
huge 23 24 hundred miles circuit to test the new EcoBoost to its maximum we're
taking a portion of that test and putting these new 2013 ram 1500 to the
same test our first series of tests were conducted on the Davis Dam grade that
averages over five percent along that specific section of highway 68 on the
day of our testing there was a slight westerly breeze and temperatures were
about 55 degrees are red 4 by 2 SLT towing are 5,500 pounds
american horse trailer which put us just above ninety six percent of our trucks
gross combined weight rating pulled the Davis damn Hill Climb strong and
confidently with a 17 point 74 seconds 0 to 50 time on level ground
the same truck and trailer combination ran 20 to 50 time of 11.5 four seconds
neither of these two numbers may sound interesting by themselves but when
compared to the two truck road test we did with a pair of 2011 ford f-150
ecoboost interestingly these Davis Dam and level ground towing numbers are
practically identical quarter mile times and speeds were right on top of each
other as well with our Ram v6 and trailer combination finishing in just 24
.
35 seconds at 55 . 47 miles per hour
of course we should note that although both tests have their respective
vehicles very close to their gross combined vehicle limits the f-150 is
twin turbo ecoboost was towing a nine thousand pound trailer
whereas the Rams naturally aspirated v6 was towing a 50 500 pound trail that's
important to make sure we understand but of course we didn't just test the ram
1500 with the trailer we actually tested both the 3 21 21 geared blue ram and
3:55 21 Red ram at Davis Dam and on level ground to compare their numbers
with each other as well as the Fords ecoboost story we did previously
and the results were again quite interesting in fact in both testing
situations empty trucks on the Davis Dam grade and on level ground
the two ram pickup trucks were within hundreds of a second of each other
making us think that the new ZF eight-speed transmissions are working
very hard to transfer every ounce of engine power no matter what the rearend
gear and as to overall fuel economy on our two-truck ram road tests are empty
blue ram achieve 23 miles per gallon over our 1,400 mile trip while our red
ram v6 towing at max gcw are achieved well over 10 miles per gallon
not bad at all in either case
so there you have it that's the story that we've put together on these ram
these sixes
but if you want to get all the details performance fuel economy and even our
roots go to pick up trucks . com for the full story