Attention: TDR Forum Junkies G. R. Whale
Ford and Ram are locked in (another) semantics tussle, this time about “class” and while I don’t believe either side is going to win I think this is going to hurt Ford more than it will help. To me best-in-class claims are as useful as championship tires—when you’re the only tire available, a championship seems implicit.
Ford claims best-in-class towing comparing 31,200 pounds for F-450 (32,100 on their consumer site July 29) to Ram 3500’s top 30,000-pound rating. Ram calls shenanigans, the F-450 isn’t in the same class. As defined by government weight schedules both truck’s 14,000-pound GVWR, or empty-plus-payload, makes them class 3 but Ford’s numbers don’t seem to add up.
Ford doesn’t publish curb weight often, but told Automotive News the base curb weight of an F-450 is 8611 pounds and that they calculate payload on a base vehicle with everything that can be deleted on a vehicle order—spare tire, radio, jack, etc. Since the government standards apply to a vehicle in operating condition, that means they have to take more than 60 pounds out of a base F-450 to reach the 5450-pound payload (430 less than a 2014) and stay within DOT Class 3 parameters, but until I can find an XL F-450 I’ll never know what it really weighs. I went to Ford’s build-your-own site and found ZERO delete options available, nor did I find any asterisk the claimed payload requires said deletions.
Curiously, Ford’s 2010 body builder guide claimed a base curb weight (manual 4x4) of 8581 pounds--that before the 6.7 PowerStroke, split-cooling system, six-speed automatic and so on. It further states, “Load rating represents maximum allowable weight of people, cargo and body equipment and is reduced by optional equipment weight.” It says nothing about deleting equipment to reach a load rating.
I used to drive an F-550 with a conversion pickup box on it. Onlookers called it a nice truck, rig, or puller, but no one called it a pickup. And I think regardless of whether the frame rails are straight or beefed up pieces from an F-350 pickup, people are going to know from those parts underneath and 19.5-inch tires that this is no one-ton pickup.
Ford wants you to compare F-450 to Ram and GM 3500 because they have bigger/better numbers that way; if you compare an F-350, Ram 3500 has multiple configurations that tow more than the singular top-rated F-350. And who says Ram won’t put a box on a 4500 or GM introduce one, leaving Ford to explain why their F-450 is in a different class.
Regardless of what the class is or how the numbers fall, this is making Ford look silly in the court of public opinion. How would you like to tell your customer the ratings apply only after you’ve deleted a few useful standard pieces like a spare tire or a radio that might make towing less stressful? Or why parts are more expensive because his “Class 3” F-450 pickup is medium-duty underneath. How those original equipment tires are $150-200 each more expensive than 350/3500 OE tires. Or why it rides this way on 110psi tires rather than 80psi tires.
I bet anyone shopping in this class knows the difference between a one-ton pickup and an F-450, they’re getting bored about all the non-real-world numbers being tossed around. I'll also bet they know what SAE J2807 means. Ford would be better off not comparing F-450 to anything than to something most astute buyers know it isn’t, and that way the only thing they’d have to explain to their customers is why an F-350 costs $3500 less and carries nearly 500 pounds more than the same-configuration F-450.
In the meantime all Ram has to do is carry on with the “best-in-class” plug and a single footnote defining “class” as one-ton 350/3500-series pickups. Who could argue with that?
Ford and Ram are locked in (another) semantics tussle, this time about “class” and while I don’t believe either side is going to win I think this is going to hurt Ford more than it will help. To me best-in-class claims are as useful as championship tires—when you’re the only tire available, a championship seems implicit.
Ford claims best-in-class towing comparing 31,200 pounds for F-450 (32,100 on their consumer site July 29) to Ram 3500’s top 30,000-pound rating. Ram calls shenanigans, the F-450 isn’t in the same class. As defined by government weight schedules both truck’s 14,000-pound GVWR, or empty-plus-payload, makes them class 3 but Ford’s numbers don’t seem to add up.
Ford doesn’t publish curb weight often, but told Automotive News the base curb weight of an F-450 is 8611 pounds and that they calculate payload on a base vehicle with everything that can be deleted on a vehicle order—spare tire, radio, jack, etc. Since the government standards apply to a vehicle in operating condition, that means they have to take more than 60 pounds out of a base F-450 to reach the 5450-pound payload (430 less than a 2014) and stay within DOT Class 3 parameters, but until I can find an XL F-450 I’ll never know what it really weighs. I went to Ford’s build-your-own site and found ZERO delete options available, nor did I find any asterisk the claimed payload requires said deletions.
Curiously, Ford’s 2010 body builder guide claimed a base curb weight (manual 4x4) of 8581 pounds--that before the 6.7 PowerStroke, split-cooling system, six-speed automatic and so on. It further states, “Load rating represents maximum allowable weight of people, cargo and body equipment and is reduced by optional equipment weight.” It says nothing about deleting equipment to reach a load rating.
I used to drive an F-550 with a conversion pickup box on it. Onlookers called it a nice truck, rig, or puller, but no one called it a pickup. And I think regardless of whether the frame rails are straight or beefed up pieces from an F-350 pickup, people are going to know from those parts underneath and 19.5-inch tires that this is no one-ton pickup.
Ford wants you to compare F-450 to Ram and GM 3500 because they have bigger/better numbers that way; if you compare an F-350, Ram 3500 has multiple configurations that tow more than the singular top-rated F-350. And who says Ram won’t put a box on a 4500 or GM introduce one, leaving Ford to explain why their F-450 is in a different class.
Regardless of what the class is or how the numbers fall, this is making Ford look silly in the court of public opinion. How would you like to tell your customer the ratings apply only after you’ve deleted a few useful standard pieces like a spare tire or a radio that might make towing less stressful? Or why parts are more expensive because his “Class 3” F-450 pickup is medium-duty underneath. How those original equipment tires are $150-200 each more expensive than 350/3500 OE tires. Or why it rides this way on 110psi tires rather than 80psi tires.
I bet anyone shopping in this class knows the difference between a one-ton pickup and an F-450, they’re getting bored about all the non-real-world numbers being tossed around. I'll also bet they know what SAE J2807 means. Ford would be better off not comparing F-450 to anything than to something most astute buyers know it isn’t, and that way the only thing they’d have to explain to their customers is why an F-350 costs $3500 less and carries nearly 500 pounds more than the same-configuration F-450.
In the meantime all Ram has to do is carry on with the “best-in-class” plug and a single footnote defining “class” as one-ton 350/3500-series pickups. Who could argue with that?
