Ford F-250 Limited vs GMC Sierra 2500 Denali Ultimate - Which Luxury Truck is Better?

Hey folks and welcome to Truck King. When it comes to heavy-duty luxury trucks, we have two of the nicest and most expensive here with us today. That is the Ford F-250 Limited and that is the GMC Sierra 2500 Denali Ultimate and we're going to compare them. We're going to load them up with start with pricing but first let's rewind just a little bit because this is actually a bit of a rematch. We had this exact Ford F-250 Limited already here on the channel and we compared it to a Chevy 2500 High Country. Now many people pointed out and rightfully so that the Ford just has more options, more content than that Chevy can even get and the prices reflected that. This Ford was about $10,000 more expensive than the Chevy was and spoiler alert, I did pick the Chevy in that comparison almost exclusively because of the price because it just didn't feel like there was that much more built into this Ford. But yes, that wasn't perfect apples to apples but we've corrected that today with this GMC because in the General Motors lineup, if you want the pinnacle of luxury these days, you have to go to GMC to get it and specifically you need a Denali Ultimate. So now let's talk about the price tags we have here. Over here on the GMC, $127,000 Canadian. Over here on our Ford, $124,000. So in this case, the GM is a hair more expensive but these things are basically right there on an even level and that's going to make for an interesting comparison. And now let's dive into the engine. So what is General Motors bringing to the table? This is a 6.6 liter V8 diesel. It's making 470 horsepower, 975 pound-feet of torque and that is sent through a 10-speed automatic. Jump over here to the Ford and the numbers do get bigger. This is the 6.7 liter high output diesel also sending its power through a 10-speed automatic and how much power? 500 horsepower and 1,200 pound-feet of torque. So yes, the numbers are bigger here on the Ford and you know what? Today we are going to load up 2,000 pounds of payload into the beds of both of these trucks to see how those numbers translate actually out there on the road doing some real work. We have more numbers to get to but we do have to mention the styling on both of these trucks. They are revised both of them recently in the way that they look. I think that the Ford is a little less polarizing. It's a little more of a familial look. It looks like the F-150 has looked for many many years. Now because this is the Limited, you're getting that unique grille with all the chrome but then you're also getting body color bumpers, little mirror caps up there that are body color so they kind of blend that body color with some of the chrome. Even the tow hooks down there are chrome too. And then over here on the GMC, we have what's called Vader chrome and yes, that is named for Darth Vader. All those long days on the Death Star, this is what he was showing up to work in. The Vader chrome does look nice even on a darkly painted color. It's sort of that even darker deeper look. I will also say this is more of a polarizing look to my eye. The GM is really aggressive, really in your face. I do, I think, lean towards the GMC when it comes to styling but that's just my eyeballs. Why don't you jump in the comments right now and just straight up tell me which one of these two trucks looks better. Let's discuss the business end of these pickup trucks now and I wanted to start up here because both of these trucks have these little side steps just beyond your cab and that's because these trucks are so tall now. So to get up into the bed, you literally do need that step. I mean look, I stand at six foot two and this bed is chest height with me so I do like that manufacturers are recognizing they're getting so tall you need steps back there too. Now GM has our classic bumper step. This is something they've been doing for quite a while. It's a great idea because it's always there and always ready to go. Nothing needs to be folded or moved out of the way and I like that. Now the other thing we have here of course is the multi-pro tailgate. So this is the tailgate in a tailgate. There's two buttons here. One for the little gate and then one for the big gate. You know what, I did that order backwards. I got to the big one then the little one. There they go and this has a bunch of different uses. One of the biggest ones is the fact that it's just a massive step down here and yes you might also notice this one has the optional kicker stereo in it so you can hook up your bluetooth and while you're tailgating I guess crank your tunes but I just like that. It's a really big wide step, easy to use and easy to get up into this bed. Now that I'm up here I'll point out a few of the features in the back of the bed. First of all LED lighting. Again pretty standard these days but it is here on both of these trucks. Now I do have a plug in this bed. It's right over here. It's only 400 watts in the GM. They haven't stepped up to big power like over there in the Ford so that's definitely a point in the Ford's favor. One point in the GM's favor though, three fixed tie downs in every corner of this bed and to me that is a big deal. It really does help when you're trying to secure different things at different levels. So one other thing I'll show off real quick because it's something that I've actually used. One of the functions I really like on this tailgate is just this right here. It's a load stopper. If you are hauling some wood or something that comes beyond the level of your gate so you need it down this adds extra security to make sure things aren't going to roll out the back of your truck. So just another one of the functions that I actually find myself using. Now let's look at the F-250 and yes you'll notice bumper steps. Where did they get that idea from? General Motors. GM was first. Ford has copied them. That's totally okay because if it's a good idea it should be copied and those work really really well. So now we drop this tailgate. One thing I'll point out that Ford has done, they've added a backup camera into the lip of their tailgate. Why? So when the tailgate is down you still have a reverse camera and then of course we have Ford's bed step which again has been around. It's actually in its second generation. The design changed from the original iteration but this step works great because it tucks totally up out of the way and then when it's down I feel like it's one of the lowest steps on the market. So the step in is even easier just a hair than even over there in that GM. Now I get back in here I can show you some of the features. We also have LED lights. They're actually operated by a button right there. We have our hookups here for a fifth wheel travel trailer or any type of fifth wheel or gooseneck trailer. And then a really important feature, pro power on board. A bank of plugs and this offers two kilowatts of power. So way more power than over there in the GM. And you might have noticed as well there's one little discrepancy in this video. It's the fact that the Ford has an eight foot bed. This is a proper long bed where the GM there is just a six foot ten I believe bed. So yes the Ford is longer but that's just the spec difference in this case. And then as we come around the side I'll show you two other things. The first one is right here. I really like these on the tailgate. These are tie downs. So again if you have lumber that comes to the end of your gate you can tie it down. Heck even a snowmobile or ATV that needs the gate down you can use those as well. So I appreciate having those. And then back at the sides another set of steps and just like the GM allows me to get in here and actually access my stuff. So there's so many features on the beds of pickup trucks these days and every year they just keep getting smarter. I don't think I could choose one bed over the other because all the features are a little varied. But I just want to drive that point home that for doing real work there's so many useful things on both of these trucks. Let's talk towing and payload now and once again we come back to my favorite sticker in the industry. It's right down here. It tells us the exact towing and payload for this truck. It's VIN specific and I appreciate that. So payload on this truck 2,984 pounds and then when it comes to max conventional towing you're talking about 18,500 pounds and gooseneck and fifth wheel is 19,100 pounds. Let's go see how the Ford compares. Now let's look at the Ford and no it's not as convenient as the GM. Ford you have to go look at their towing charts, work out your wheelbase, your engine, all of that stuff and then find your numbers. However payload is always right here on your door jamb. So payload number here 2,966 pounds so just a little bit less than the GM. Conventional towing on this Ford as it sits 22,000 pounds so when it does come to towing the Ford does take it. Before we take off let's look at the camera system. First here in the GMC so we'll go ahead and put it into reverse and that's your first view. You get the top down plus the rear but we can go through all the views now. So there's your nose camera on the top down looking straight down at the bed that can be handy hooking up a trailer or parking next to something they're straight down at your nose. That's looking forward at your front tires again especially for parking these things are really handy or maneuvering through a parking lot that's looking back at your rear tires. There's your zoomed in hitch view for when you are hooking up a trailer and you also have a chimso camera looking down into your bed plus you can even zoom it in and this view specifically is for hooking up a fifth wheel trailer or a gooseneck trailer so you can line up that hitch as well. So yeah just so many different camera views these days that we get in these trucks and you can even remove the double view and just use the whole screen for one view as well. So nice cameras here in the GM we can see how they compare to the Ford right now. Now let's see the cameras here in the Ford so I'll put it in reverse and you get the view the rear and the top down. It's funny that on this truck they reverse the sides of the screen that they use just one little difference. The one thing I like on the Ford over here is you can actually zoom in on each specific corner that you want to on the rear on that corner once again if you're maneuvering in tight quarters those views can be really handy. So now over here we can open this up again there's your top down there's your chimso camera looking into your bed and just like the Chevy you can zoom that in too so if you're hooking up a gooseneck that is nice to have. There's your wide rear view specific hitch camera another wide rear this is for your trailer camera so if you get it you can hook up an extra camera on the back of your trailer is most common you could even hook it up in inside your trailer if you really wanted to and then there's the trailer reverse guidance system which we are not going to use today. One other thing I will show you though the truck has to be in park to do this is we'll go to our rear camera and I'm going to open the tailgate which I can do from a button there it goes and there's our secondary view oh look and Sasquatch is over there in the woods right there I spotted him but this is the that secondary camera back there when you drop your tailgate you don't lose the view which is pretty cool and it even reminds you that the area under the tailgate is not visible and then if I hit my button again and put the gate back up it'll just automatically switch to that other camera so that is a handy feature and I think in the battle of the cameras the Ford might have the edge by just a little bit but both of these systems really do show you all around your truck. All right folks now we're out here on the road in the F-250 high output diesel 1200 pound feet with our 2000 pound block in the bed around the corner and I'm gonna punch it let's feel it gosh oh my gosh and there's 80 kilometers and there's a hundred that's ridiculous the power here is just comes on so strong so low so smooth it's hard to argue with the power right it's so good I'd drive around with 2,000 pounds in my bed all the time yeah man maybe that's the most important part it's like you put a big block back there I didn't feel like I was digging that much harder into the pedal I didn't really have to floor it to get that power so yeah you're almost driving it like you know quote-unquote normal which is you know is to say that the power is so good that you don't even notice the weight well the other thing is that it smooths out the ride absolutely and of course this is you know the case across the board but you feel that right away you just lose all of that chatter out of the back end but on the flip side it's not too floaty you don't get too much of that bounce you get kind of one or two good bounce backs and then the weight is controlled yeah so yeah the suspension is doing exactly what you want it to and we're probably not over payload but we're probably close to it with the block and then the three of us up here well if we had lunch we would yeah but then based on that too you know the payload rating it feels like you could probably go even more and be fine and even the positioning of the block because this is an eight foot bed and we loaded it with our backhoe we could only get the block so far forward i'd prefer it to be another foot forward and we couldn't quite get it there so with that positioning it should even more so be working the truck and dad i don't feel any rise out of the nose at all that's another thing you kind of look for is light steering and a rise in the nose i feel like it's still sitting dead flat it is i looked at it and that was the first thing i wanted to see after i dropped the block on it and it's got a very flat attitude and it's and it feels absolutely flat here on the road totally and i think again this is the general comment but i do want to put it out there because we get a lot of questions about half ton versus heavy duty what's really the difference this is one of those big differences if you're doing heavy work and i consider 2000 pounds pretty heavy work an hd just does it effortlessly whereas a half ton would carry this block likely would be over payload but you would feel it back there and that's where that that difference really comes in when you step up to the heavier truck well let me add one other thing 2000 pounds sitting where it's sitting in the bed would translate to roughly uh somewhere about a 17,000 pound fifth wheel that's how much that's how much weight it would transmit to the truck sure so this gives you a sense if you had that big a trend that's usually that'd be like about a 38 foot trailer sure okay and how that would feel and i mean first off it's uh dead solid yeah and with this amount of power you know that it would haul 17,000 odd pounds no so you know if you're into the hd you're doing heavy work and the the takeaway has to be that the ford's going to do a good job now we do have to get into some details on a lot of the features here because that's where these trucks are going to set themselves apart i don't think the overall feel is going to be massively different but it's in how a lot of these systems work so the first thing we can look at is the mirrors very similar between the two trucks they're both powered so these are powered out and powered in which is nice now the one thing i wish most companies would catch up on they're also power folding is i wish the spot mirrors the convex mirrors were powered as well that's not something you get anywhere but ram and i don't know why these brands haven't done that so that's one thing i would like to see but the mirrors themselves are big and they do give you a really good line of sight you can see everything one way the ford though one feature i should say the ford hat doesn't have that the gmc does is a rear camera mirror we just have an old school mirror here dad and of course this works fine we're totally used to it but at this price point i do feel like that's a knock against the it's just one more system you could have in place to help with safety and i and i do think it helps with safety if you happen to be blocking this mirror let's say you got a tall box in your back seat or something if you're blocking it having the camera there allows you to still see out the rear end so that's one little system where i think the ford could have caught up a little bit and to your point because this is what i'm noticing is that at this price point and i this is a really getting you're going to notice the little things in a truck like this you're not going to notice the big things because you expect to have those at over a hundred grand right so what you're going to start noticing is the little things and right off the bat when i got in here and when i mean little things i mean preacher comforts okay the fact that ford gives you four cup holder positions with a sliding plate so you can either have two or four you don't find that in the gm the ford still gives you a 12 volt plug-in whereas the gm has now gone away from that you either got a 110 or just usb you know they're continuing to give you these sort of little things and just in all points as you mentioned for instance earlier uh with the drive position the drive position here not only sets your seat but it'll change the angle of your steering wheel right whereas i know over in my truck it's still manual right and that's it right so the steering column here is powered i have adjustable pedals which are powered of course the mirrors are powered so when you hit the preset it adjusts all of that stuff the gm can't do that because the steering column is not powered and these pedals are not adjustable at all so yeah in that way i think the ford is superior and again talking about creature comforts i think the seats in the ford are a clear step ahead of the gm these seats are so supportive so adjustable a lot of people actually on the internet especially really hate on general motor seats i don't hate them i don't feel very strongly negatively about them they're just kind of okay whereas these ones are noticeably good you get in and you just feel that support and that's something that over a short drive might not present itself but over a long drive across the country you'll definitely notice so yeah overall comfort i will give to the ford based on the seats so looking at some more of those features and some of the differences we do have a head-up display here in the ford we do have that in the gm as well in the ford i do like it it's nice and clear one important thing for me someone who's a little taller i always needed to adjust down low enough and here in the ford it absolutely does that my only knock against the ford as compared to the gm is here i have to go into my screens to adjust the information i get off the hud whereas in the gm there is a specific bank of buttons that you go to and i like having those hard buttons which are just always ready to change it so i like the controls on the head-up display a little more in the gmc but overall i just like that we have a head-up display now another thing the ford does which the gm doesn't and again we're going back and forth here the ford has a lane keep assist system on general motors you do have adaptive cruise control but here the ford is actually going to find the lanes for me and then steer me back into the center of the lane now i will say in my experience the system works well and now this is the subjective part i always turn it off i don't like the feeling of the vehicle wanting to drive mostly in a different part of the lane than i do generally it just doesn't want to be exactly where you want to be so you end up feeling like it's fighting against you i don't like any of these systems so i just shut them off but you do have to say and admit that the ford has it and the gm doesn't and again over a long long drive on the highway yeah sometimes it is nice to have because you have that little extra peace of mind of knowing that if i do slip for a second if i do stop paying attention for just a second it'll pull me back to where it wants me to be so in terms of the driver assistance systems yeah the ford has a bit of an edge there too now we discussed the power and getting going is very important but arguably stopping is more important especially when you're hauling a load so the first thing i'll mention is here on the super duty and this was new when the super duty was updated it has an exhaust brake but it also has an automatic setting that was added and that's something that ram always had and now ford has it too and the idea behind the auto setting is i can lift off the gas like i just did and you don't feel any engine braking but then as i apply the brake you can hear it start to come on and help me and that wasn't a very aggressive brake let me get back up to speed and i'll hit it just a little bit harder just so we can get a good sense for the stopping power here in this truck around the corner and here comes a break oh man and that feels really solid that was on auto you felt the engine braking kick in basically right away i'm also in tow haul mode so they had a pretty aggressive downshift there too um yeah you know i just thought a massive trailer but with this block at the back the brakes feel good and now folks here we are in the gmc coming around the same corner we did in the ford and accelerate oh man and there's 80 and there's 100 kilometers an hour so this is it's an interesting kind of conversation to have dad because the ford felt more powerful clearly it got up to speed a little bit quicker and i didn't feel like i had to put my foot as far into it to get to that power so that's maybe obvious it's got more on paper and it feels like more in the real world even hauling 2 000 pounds however i think these days the conversation has evolved to this truck has 975 pound feet of torque compared to the hds of a decade ago the power has almost doubled if not more in some cases so how much is enough how much is too much are we fully into the era of just absolute overkill because this accelerated plenty quickly to merge onto any highway any interstate without a second thought so i guess yeah more power is always good i did like feeling it in the ford there is a feeling of confidence that comes along with more power but when does it end do you do you have any sense for you know are we at the ceiling or are these things just going to keep going because people keep asking for more it'll never end and somebody will always want more that is just the way it works fair enough and and now in this comparison we can also say between these two trucks ford is offering you more power for slightly less money not a big difference but you know three four thousand dollars you do have to admit that in that way the powertrain war goes to the ford but it is a slim margin i do not want to sit here and feel like i'm knocking this truck because the power here is also incredible nice and smooth nice and quiet so yeah both are great powertrains but the ford has the edge it's worth mentioning however you've got it right is it enough is it actually more than enough in both trucks yeah so we're fine there but and without trying to be a smart ass about it there's always the guy who's got to have the most yeah a bigger number you know what the customer is always right it's your money and ford realized ford of all people realizes that they've got a customer base who will pony up the dollars for bragging rights sure and that's at this point that's all that is sure because it's not like you need it yeah so but then again you know this is who we are this is north america and you know more is better yeah and in fairness to ford of course we have the high output but they also have a regular output diesel as well so you don't have to go up to those crazy power numbers and gm doesn't do that right this diesel only comes in one flavor so there's also a difference there and just how they approach the market but overall power wise edge goes to ford so the other thing that is immediately noticeable is just like the ford this truck rides better with the 2000 pounds in the back it's just a little bit smoother takes the harshness out of the bumps i will say though that the chev or i keep calling it a chev this is a gmc we're in sorry gm the gmc here it does still feel a hair stiffer than the ford i'm getting more feedback up through the body i just feel like again it's not chattery at all but i feel more of those bumps part of that could be the wheelbase we do have a shorter wheelbase here and the ford has the long bed but i just think of even the three hds i can make this statement the gms are the stiffest they do ride the stiffest by just a small margin and again i think dad can speak to it he has a 3500 chevy that's here on the channel quite a bit and he just got back from a big road trip so again you have a feeling on the suspension feeling over a long period of time now you nailed it the gms in general are a stiffer ride again it's incremental as compared for instance with the ram particularly with the 2500 that's got coil spring suspension much better ride the ford is just across the board in my opinion a little bit softer which probably also plays into the uh the dilemma over or should say the debate over the seats yeah and that's when we can get into because yeah jumping in here the seats are just not as comfortable they're stiffer they're harder they're flatter they are and and to me it's not a deal breaker some people we've read comments where they won't buy a gm for i just did 2 000 miles on those seats and yeah i'll tell you they're a little bit stiffer but at any point was i like god i gotta sell this truck no so you know that's very individual but the ford does have a cushier seat so if you're more of the lazy boy guy the ford will be more to your taste fair enough so now i think because we already mentioned a lot of things in the ford you know that that truck had that this truck didn't and vice versa i want to sort of go back to that what features are here in the gmc that weren't in the ford and i'll tell you the first one that jumps out at me is four-wheel drive auto we have an auto setting here in the gm which means it'll be two-wheel drive it'll run in rear-wheel drive but then if it does said slip it will adjust into four-wheel drive automatically and i do actually think that's a pretty big deal especially for someone somewhere like here in ontario where we have slick wet roads for almost half of the year it's important that you just don't have to think about it you put it in auto you never think and then one day if you do get in a tricky situation the truck will do it for you so i that is one area where i think gm has an edge because i know ram and ford don't have that in the hds no and it's it listen it's a good feature it just happened to us now i was pulling the ford out of the parking lot and it's in two-wheel drive and it's it's real slushy and it just starts spinning and it's like okay i come to a stop put the brake on put it in four high wait for it to shift you know the whole enterprise is like 15 20 seconds fine now it's in four high get out of the parking lot if you got an auto setting it does it automatically yep so yeah there in it's one of those little things that can be a big thing yep and then i also mentioned this in the ford but we'll drive it home the rear camera mirror that's here in the gmc it's not over there you can adjust the brightness you can even go up and down and then the funniest one dad is you can zoom in so you can really see what people are doing in their cars behind you when you're sitting at a stoplight you watch them pick on their noses yeah but i already said it i'll say it again i do think in some cases that's actually a lot smarter because yeah if you can't see out your back window and this can well then that's safer and maybe the best feature of all still you can just shut it off if you do that it becomes a regular mirror again so if you don't like it you don't have to deal with it but it's nice to know that it is there so another difference sunroofs that i know you're not a sunroof fan here in the gmc we just have the little sunroof the ford has a massive panoramic sunroof it's huge it's like a greenhouse isn't it so if you're into the sunroofs that's definitely a point in the ford's favor as well so now we'll come back to another feature we can test and that is the exhaust brake so here on the gmc it's just on or off there is no auto setting which means unlike the ford if i just simply lift off here you can feel the exhaust brake come on and then once you brake it seems to come on heavier but yes it comes on right away although i will say it's not that strong feeling but now let me get back up to speed and we'll do a bit of an emergency brake to feel the brakes ready here we go and stopping okay so i'll tell you from the driver's seat there was a difference the gmc didn't stop as authoritatively as the super duty did i just felt like the grabbers on the ford grabbed harder than this truck did how did it feel over there any difference i can say really just from my experience with my 3500 right now is that i've been noticing i gotta dig deeper the brakes are there but somehow it's like the travel of the pedal it's just you gotta dig deeper yeah to get to get as much braking out of it as once again my ramp was because that's what i have the most experience with sure yeah no that's what i just felt here too between the super duty and this truck immediately yeah like for sure when i dig into that pedal it's there but i definitely had to put more force into it and and i think that just equals a little less confidence you just when you don't have to push that hard and you really feel it grab it makes you confident that you're going to stop every time so in that in that area yeah it's a tick to the ford as well it should also be noted that gm the way they set up their exhaust brake it really does work in tandem with the gearing so you'll notice that as you're braking and the transmission is gearing down the exhaust brake really sort of blips harder on the downshifts so you notice it particularly when you got the trailer sure now we have fully digital gauge clusters in both of these trucks that's pretty much par for the course on a truck this expensive but i will say the gm offers more customizability i am able to change more of the information in more different areas there's also just four overall layout changes whereas the ford doesn't allow you to change the way the gauges look so yeah the gm just offers more information and you can really get everything you could ever imagine out of it actually dad it's even silly enough that you can set the info on the left to be the same as the info on the right i'm even surprised it allows you to do that but it kind of just drives the point home that gm allows you to set this gauge cluster up exactly as you want it well it's personalization of course that's always been a big deal in trucks period yeah uh any aftermarket company will tell you i mean they're making a fortune because guys want to set their trucks up to be very personalized yeah well now the manufacturers have taken that one step farther and let you do that inside the truck too with things like your gauge cluster and i'm all for that yeah absolutely and it's actually it's obviously one of the advantages of going all digital is you can have those different layouts you can have more fun with it change them up more rather than just being limited when you have a physical gauge right so yeah in that way i'll give the edge to the gmc not a huge difference but the difference is definitely there so we have been diving into those little details and really trying to compare feature to feature but let's just zoom out a little bit get super subjective and and just tell me your feeling on the interiors next to each other um i'll just say that the gmc is quite nice but i don't see it as being sort of a level above the ford i think they're almost on the same level i think they are on the same level um they are a bit different though this uses more of the wood more of the natural tones the ford feels a little bit more i don't know pinstripe suit or this feels more like old library with lots of mahogany and leather bound books i don't know if you get that feeling but anyways my point is the level of luxury feels right there with each other well i think you just pigeonholed me because yes they're both nice but if you were to say howard which one do you want to buy i'd opt for the gmc this one word always pops into my head with the denali it's elegant and that's yeah that's what this interior says to me i agree with you there the the etching in the wood is a really nice touch too that really kind of draws your eyes and it does look good um but again this truck is a little bit more expensive so is it worth three grand just for the look of the interior well i guess we're gonna have to leave that up to you guys to decide because it is just yeah it's totally subjective without a doubt well folks we have arrived at the end of this video now i do think one of the general statements i can make if you're buying either one of these two to haul payload tow a trailer you're not going to be disappointed in the way they work however at this price point when we're talking about luxury trucks those little details matter and quite frankly the ford f-250 just does those little details better it offers more for the money a little bit more value and then just more things that are automatic that go ahead and take care of themselves and that equals more luxury for the driver so yes in this one i would absolutely lay my money down on an f-250 limited over a sierra denali ultimate but now i need to hear from you so please go down into the comments let me know which one of these two trucks looks better to you and as always while you're down there don't forget to hit the like button hit the subscribe button hey hit join and become a member of the truck king channel we do try to upload some members only videos for those folks so make sure you check that out and then come right back here to see what we're testing next see you