There simply wasn’t enough room to add the words “quick” and “impromptu” to our “2015 Ford F-150 3.5 EcoBoost vs Chevrolet Silverado 6.2 vs Ram 5.7 [Towing Video]” title. We had less than an hour to pull this video off, so we had no way to test all three trucks against each other in a proper test. That will have to wait until we get the new 2015 Ford F-150 up to Colorado and to the Ike Gauntlet.
What we did get a chance to do was take the 2015 Ford F-150 3.5 EcoBoost vs Chevrolet Silverado 6.2 vs Ram 5.7 and do a seat-of-the pants test for towing feel.
The 2015 Ford F-150 3.5 EcoBoost had a 355 rear end while the Chevrolet Silverado 6.2 had a 373 and the Ram 5.7 had a 392 rear end. All four were 4X4 crew-cabs and, despite having different towing capacities given their rear ends, all four pickup trucks represent competing powertrains. Sure, in the video, the big Chevy and boosted 2015 Ford F-150 tow about 1,000 lbs more than the Ram, the overall driving sensations felt on par.
Ram’s ubiquitous 5.7-liter Hemi makes 395 horsepower and 410 lb-feet of torque and it goes through it’s new-ish eight-speed Torque-flight transmission.
The Chevrolet Silverado’s beefy 6.2-liter V8 makes 420 horsepower and a massive 460 lb-feet of torque. This power is connected to a six-speed automatic transmission.
For 2015, Ford kept much of the same drivetrain from last year, opting to have less weight and a stiffer frame help the powertrian. The 3.5 liter twin-turbocharged EcoBoost makes 365 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. All of the 2015 Ford F-150 variants are attached to a six-speed automatic transmission.
Results?
Once again, we had very little time, but we were able to make some conclusions given our back-to-back drives.
Ram 5.7L Hemi:
Despite being the older vehicle in this comparison, the Ram feels like a more cohesive package for easy towing. It doesn’t like being rushed under full load as accelerating for passing is met with a glorious rumble, but little movement. The eight-speed transmission works well, but the hockey-puck rotating gear-select is a bother.
The brakes feel pretty good, and there were no mush or fade issues.
Internally, it is the most comfortable with an ergonomic design that’s well sorted and excellent feeling components. It is a bit loud under load and looking over such a high hood makes it feel big-rig-ish… which is a good thing for some.
Overall, the Ram is still an overall winner but power is a bit down. Check out our drag race to see its 0 to 60 times vs the 2015 Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado 6.2 (here).
Chevrolet Silverado 6.2L:
The Chevrolet Silverado 6.2 had no problems towing nearly 10,000 lbs. Off the line and when passing, the Chevrolet Silverado 6.2 dusted the Ram. It sounds great and the driving feel is the best among all three if you like being lowest to the ground. The six-speed transmission was smooth even under full load at takeoff, but it needs a few more cogs to shift through. The only issue was the spongy feeling brakes. They worked fine, but many people prefer a firmer pedal.
Love that big V8 sound. Slam your foot down and get a “Lord-have-mercy” howl out of the old Corvette mill. Sweet. It needs more gears to optimise this power.
GM’s interiors have jumped leaps and bounds recently. The Chevrolet Silverado 6.2’s interior is the most logically laid out and was the easiest to adjust to in a short amount of time. It’s the second quietest and the ergonomic logic was hard to dispute. Once again, the Silverado had the lowest hood and felt much lower making it easy to see out of, place in traffic and most ‘car-like’ amongst the competition.
Overall, the Chevrolet Silverado had great power, good noise control and an easy cockpit to live with. It still needs more gears.
2015 Ford-F150 3.5L EcoBoost:
You know that the folks at Ford wouldn’t sponsor this test if they didn’t feel confident in their truck… for good reason. The 2015 Ford F-150 3.5 EcoBoost pulled like an ox with no issues off the line and lots of extra power for passing. It was the towing king for overall ride, power delivery and ease of driving. Roman and I even liked the standard mirrors above the competitors. Then again, you should always have extensions if you’re towing all of the time.
Brakes are firm and easy to modulate.
The new interior is the quietest – by far. The components feel much better to the touch and the materials are on par with the class-leaders in every way. Ford finally padded the door panels (on the higher end models) and, with the manly-sized gear select, everything feels purpose-built. Seat comfort is on par with Ram and all of the new gizmos power pass the competition.
You feel like you sit very high and the hood is similar to Ram’s hood in terms of height. The big-rig-feel is definitely part of Ford’s design motif. Overall the only downside to the 2015 Ford F-150 3.5 EcoBoost was the lack of a real V8 howl and, for some, it’s kind of tall in the saddle.
All three trucks perform well under a beefy trailer load. The big Ford felt like the load weight was never an issue and its overall power delivery felt class-leading.
Can’t wait to get these puppies back together in a REAL towing test – TFLtruck-style!
