Sizing up the Dodge Ram and Ford F-150

Dan Carney • E-mail

In recent years, competition among pickup truck makers has led to a macho competition to prove which company has the biggest, most impressive, er, badge.

In addition to the grotesquely swollen brand badges on the grille and tailgate, truck makers are also striving to earn the most hyperbolic performance claims for cargo and towing capacity. In television commercials they reach for ever more ridiculous stunts, “proving” their truck’s superiority over its panty-waisted competitors.

This month I’ve decided to take a closer look at two of the latest entrants in this muscle fest: the Ford F-150 and the 2009 Dodge Ram. Ford and Dodge debuted these still-more-burly machines this year in a scrap for a share of this shrinking market.

In the “mano a mano” clash between the new F-150 and Ram, the F-150 has prevailed, winning North American Truck of the Year honors as well as Motor Trend’s Truck of the Year award. This is because, of the two trucks, the F-150 is indisputably the “truckiest.”

The question, however, is this: “How much truck do you need?” This is an important consideration because the Ram is brawnier than the toughest trucks of just a few years ago, and drivers who really need more capability need to be shopping in the heavy-duty pickup aisle, not in the half-ton department.

Today’s full-size, half-ton, light-duty pickup trucks pack capability that shames not only the half-ton trucks of the recent past but also the older, heavy-duty, three-quarter-ton models, trucks that have been more typically bought by commercial customers and drivers who tow large trailers.

Today’s trucks’ capabilities, all of today’s trucks’ capabilities, dwarf those of pickups that consumers found satisfactory for decades. As a result, the latest models are bigger and heavier than ever before. They are also more opulently outfitted and are much safer, thanks to fitment of a raft of technologies that should help slash the pickup’s traditionally high real-world crash fatality rate that is a consequence of their customer demographic.

The fact is that both the F-150 and the Ram are supremely capable trucks and that a shopper’s choice between them should hinge on things such as amenities, price, or their experience with the dealership and not on specifications that likely far exceed the requirements for any work the truck will be asked to do.

Of the two models I tested — the Ford F-150 King Ranch 4 x 4 crew cab and the 2009 Dodge Laramie 4 x 4 crew cab — the Ram is the more daringly innovative of the two trucks, with a slew of nifty gadgets and features aimed at delivering unexpected benefits to truck buyers. Like the company’s popular minivans, the Ram now has storage bins under the rear-seat floor of crew cab models, providing hidden, secure storage space, which is typically in short supply in pickup trucks.

The company also created lockable storage space outside the cab with the available RamBox storage bins that are built into the sides of the cargo bed. Each RamBox will hold five cases of, um, beverages and ice to keep them cool (yes, there is a drain plug). That means the Ram will hold 240 drinks, which should make it THE tailgate party vehicle.

Dodge RamBox storage bins are built into the cargo bed.

The RamBox does narrow the bed area slightly. It is still wide enough to hold 4 x 6 building materials, so it should be fine for construction chores. Destruction chores proved to be another matter though, as the narrow bed didn’t hold much of the brush and branches from overgrown shrubs I took to the dump to be mulched.

Fingers cold from all that outdoor work? The Ram has an optional heated steering wheel. Kids raising Cain in the back seat while towing the boat to the lake? “Zombiefy” them with the XM Sirius BackSeat TV, which shows the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network on the overhead video screen, so they don’t have to watch that Ratatouille DVD again. Now if they would add, say, ESPN, the BackSeat TV system would also boost the Ram’s tailgating capability.

But Dodge’s trickest truck parts are underneath. The Ram is the first full-sized pickup since the Chevrolet/GMC pickup of 1967-1972 to use car-style coil springs in the rear suspension for a smoother ride. It still has the bouncy ride of a truck, just a little less so than before. Engineers accomplished this without giving up any payload or towing capacity compared to the previous Ram, but the Dodge’s 1,850 lb. maximum payload and 9,100-lb. towing capacity do fall short of its leaf-sprung competitors.

The F-150 can be configured to carry as much as 3,030 lbs. and to tow 11,300 lbs., but the company said it expects only 2 percent of F-150s to be built with those specs. Anyone who really needs to carry or tow that much weight should be looking at heavy-duty pickups.

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