Ford Ranger Super Duty Vs Chevrolet 2500 HD ... Move over Toyota

In this head-to-head brought to you by Club 4x4, we are doing something different with a Ranger Super Duty. So we went big, real big, to an American 2500 series truck. And my personal favourite, the 2500 HD. In stock form, the 2500 is over a tonne heavier than the already not lightweight Ranger Super Duty. And price-wise, you're looking at about 190 grand drive away and 110,000 drive away. Now in this head-to-head, we're doing things a bit different. We're doing a bit of towing, but we're also going to go off-road. Under the bonnet of the Super Duty is a 3 litre turbo diesel V6 with 150 kilowatt. Now that is less than other Ranger and Everest V6s because this one has been tuned for durability and hard work. It has 600 newton metres of torque coming out of that donk. Now behind it, 10-speed automatic, proper 2-speed transfer case, locking diff front and rear. Now big dog, this has a 6.6 litre turbo diesel V8. Yep, that's more than twice the size of that one. And it also has more than twice the power at 350 kilowatt and more than twice the torque at over 1300 newton metres of torque. Also has a 10-speed gearbox and it does have a 2-speed transfer case for proper low range off-road. Only has an automatic locking rear diff in the back. Critically though, this is over a tonne heavier than the Ranger. Both these vehicles have a GVM of around 4500 kilos, which is your car licence limit. Now this weighing over 3700 kilos means when you're towing a van like we are behind me, your payload ends up being around 500 kilos, so it's very limited there. But there is a way around it. You're talking NB2 registration or light truck spec. So if you're with me so far, what Ford have done with the numbers on the Ranger Super Duty are freakishly impressive. But that's all paper talk, so let's hit the road and tow. Wonderland RV make capable, dream worthy vans and the Solara 2100 leans right into that brief. It's a 21 foot two bunk full composite off-roader with a 4 tonne ATM and a 3000 kilo tier, giving you 1000 kilos of payload and it runs about a 200-250 kilo ball weight. Underneath is a 6 inch A-frame, 12 inch truss chassis and a 4.5 tonne rated XT Level 5 suspension. What will that sit you back? About 186 grand. Let's get back to it. Alright, jumped into the Super Duty with the trailer behind us. Towing is not a race. Towing is about keeping distance between the people in front of you, knowing who's coming up beside you, taking your time and getting to your holiday destination safely. You're not going to win a race towing with a Super Duty, but you're going to get there. In terms of tech, Ford have done a really good job, I think, for people who tow. So just like other Rangers and Everest, you've got a checklist built into the infotainment screen where you can enter in data about the type of trailer you're towing, its weight and whatnot, and you can program in the gain you want from the factory integrated brake controller. That's fantastic. The factory mirrors aren't quite big enough for towing, but you can get clear view as an option from the dealer. Why this vehicle stands out is the combined mass and the high GVM. We've still got near on a tonne of payload before we are running into GCM issues. So that means I can put a canopy on the back of this and still be legal to tow. And there is nothing apart from that 2500 that can do it legally as easily as a Super Duty. All right, so we're in the Silverado and straight away the difference is, as you'd expect, massive. I've got a lot more torque, I've got a lot more power, I've got a lot more weight on the road in the tow vehicles. There's some really cool tech in the 2500 as well. The Americans, they get towing. We've got profiles for trailers, we've got the ability to use a tow mode obviously, which is a simple press of a button, integrated brake controller. We even have an exhaust brake in the 2500. In terms of criticisms, it's just the suspension. It's been calibrated for Australia, but I still feel like there's too much weight over the front axle and particularly the front of the car just wallows a bit when you start hitting undulations and bumps on the road. It is an easy fix. You can go to someone like Fox who will do a replacement suspension setup for these, which just helps dampen the front end quite a bit. But the one thing I love the most is with the factory extendable mirrors, the cameras, when you use your indicator in tow mode, will show down the side of your vehicle and down the side of your trailer. And it's just small details like that that make this thing, for me, the king of on-road towing. Right, tow verdict. I actually did a few more miles since my pieces to camera while driving and both of them, fuel economy came down a bit more. Definitely into the high teens in this girl and low 20s in the big dog. The big question, $80,000 difference, but also twice as much power, more than twice as much torque. You really need to go to the MB2 registration to get the best out of it. It comes with a few caveats when you do that, but this would be king of the road if you had the time and patience and the money. Day two, day one, towing is put to bed. Today is all about going off road in the big dog and the Ranger. Now these both have low range. This has an automatic locking rear diff. The Ranger has locking front and rear diffs. I don't expect the 2500 to go everywhere today, but we will find its limit. And with the Ranger, I'll try and show you a few tricks on how to get the best out of it. All right, we're in the 2500 heavy duty from Chevy, actual off road from an articulation point of view. Oh yeah, bit of wheel slip. Oh yeah, OK, so it's a side step already on the exit to where we test these cars. All right, I'm going to go down the same climb I just came up where I caught the side step. Oh yeah, I can see where I caught it as well. This vehicle was graciously loaned to us by GM Australia and I told them what we're doing, but I also promised them to not go and break it. All right, sliding around a little bit. That's not too bad. I'm starting to form an opinion already on the 2500 that low range is really there for slippery boat ramps when you're hauling a big boat out of the water. All right, let's see how that auto locker works on the climb. Yeah, all right, I'm finding a lot more grip going up than I was down, but I'm still spinning the wheels a little bit. Yeah, it's very floaty. OK. All right, well, the auto locking rear diff definitely helps off road, but first conclusion after only a couple of drives is the 2500's low range feels more suitable for a slippery boat ramp or hauling a big caravan off a tight site, whereas off road doesn't feel like that's this thing's forte, but it's still a bloody comfortable place to be. Let's see how the 2500 goes. So just in low range, off road mode, which takes off traction control, the rear diff is automatically locking. Let's see how we go. OK, right, we're starting on them, but I did catch the sidesteps straight away. Just going to check with my camera guy and spotter how the front looks. Can you tell me about how the front's going to look? I've got a decent camera, like I've got a 360 on, but I just want to know I'm not going to flop into that bank. So the big thing for me is I've already caught the sidesteps a couple of times and I'm not that keen to do it again, you know. I might not even get to it. I don't know, maybe. Alright, you might start sliding in the front now. I'm more concerned about your mirrors than your panels. Mate, I don't even have any grip. I've got throttle on right now, I'm just spinning tyres. Front tyre's spinning and back left is full park. You've got a little bit of momentum now. Nah, I'm just going to tear this track up and risk putting this thing into that bank. I'm going to back it out. Wow, team. Yeah, I can see in my mirrors that I've got passenger side tucked right in, driver side's right up and I was just getting wheel spin. Now, I don't think I'm going to make it through the moguls in this big girl. Alright, well, I got a little bit further than I thought I would. I didn't expect to even get into that first mogul, just with it being a bit wet today and this being as long and as big as it is. Straight away caught the sidestep and interestingly, I ended up getting a wheel off the ground and I couldn't find traction even with the auto diff lock just trying and grabbing. I could have given it a boot full and just try to push through it but here's the thing, this is someone else's car. It's $190,000 to replace it. I don't want to put that front corner straight into a bank on my first try. I think we call it here for the big job. Now, mud and ruts mode locks the rear diff but it stays in four high which I find quite interesting so going to give me the opportunity for a bit of wheel speed which I don't necessarily want or need but you know, this is what you guys want so I'll do this the first time around and then I'm going to come back and use trail control which is Ford's off-road cruise control and I'll show you how easy that is to use. Okay, so yeah, we're up through the first bit and we are crawling and this is just the rear diff locked in mud and ruts mode. I'm holding quite a bit more wheel speed. I'm in high one and it's just, yeah, it's grinding its way through. Grinding's not the right word but that was just constant wheel spin through that. That was pretty easy. So this next run, I'm going to go lock the front, keep the rear locked but put it in low range instead of high and I'm going to use trail control because I reckon that's a pretty awesome bit of kit. Neutral, four low, trail control enabled, set button to set speed. So using cruise control buttons, simple as that. I have trail control mode set at two kilometres now. I'll go up to four for this. Now, it's basically like cruise control off-road so it's going to maintain about four kilometres now at each tyre and I've got the front diff locked, rear diff locked and it is going through this. Absolute ease. So yes, mud and ruts, I got through it but with more wheel spin. Sometimes you need to know which mode to use than just to jump straight into the factory modes. Wow. The first time up the moguls, I ran in mud and rut mode which left it in high range and locked the rear diff and as you've seen, I got quite a lot of wheel spin but I made it through. Second time around, I used trail control which is Ford's off-road cruise control and I locked the front diff and ran it in low range. It made it through easier with less wheel spin. Trail control is pretty powerful people. You just sit and forget, point where you want to go and let the car do the rest. This is a harder climb. We've done this one many times but this time it's wet. And here we are, we are all four wheels spinning. Alright, actually need some momentum. Interesting times. Got to put a bit of momentum into it which is something I'm trying to tell everybody at home not to do because that's when you put yourself in trouble but I just want to try and push past this first hump. Once I'm past it, I reckon I'll get enough traction to go all the way through this climb but it is very different in the wet than what we normally see here in the dry. Alright, there we go, just past the first part. Now we're going to get some traction to get through the second. Come on, come on, there we go. Yep, so tyres are on the ground, getting traction, through we go. Yeah. Alright, happy times. It's the first time we've done that climb in the wet and it is very different. I had everything locked there, front, rear, in low range. I don't recommend driving like that often but it's good to know that this thing actually did it quite comfortably at 42 psi. Once again, a special thanks to Club 4x4 for partnering with us on this head to head series. Now off camera, I had to return that big beautiful Wonderland caravan and I chose to do it with the Super Duty. And in the climb out of Kilmore, I saw oil temperatures start to rise. Now water temperature stayed low, transmission temperature stayed low but as other people have started noting, oil temperature started to climb on the Super Duty. There is no denying that the 2500 Heavy Duty is built to tow but it did surprisingly well off road as well. We found its limits early on with the length of the wheelbase and its overall weight and its quite soft suspension but it actually had quite a lot of grip on those good years. Would I take it off road stock? No, I think a lift and some bigger tyres will help it dramatically but if you're just straight out towing, the level of comfort and luxury in that 2500 and that over 1300Nm of torque, yeah it's unparalleled. Off road though, chalk and cheese. The lighter, comparatively speaking, Super Duty on much grippier tyres with lockers front and rear made light work even on wet, muddy day like today. The numbers on paper that the Super Duty has are frankly absurd. That Ford can get an 8000kg GCM and a 4.5t GVM out of a 2.4, 2.7t ute is astounding. So please like, subscribe and comment with what you want to see us do next and if you thought putting a 2500 up against the Super Duty was a good idea.