Well, 2013 has come and gone, and where do we stand? This week, Automotive News ran a story that indicates Detroit's "Big 3" have declared that come the 2015 model year, the long-awaited standards will be applied to their pickups. Yes, consumers can finally compare Ford's apples to Dodge's oranges in terms of tow ratings. To quote Automotive news, "Spokesmen for Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group confirmed last week that they will join Toyota in using a towing standard adopted by the industry in 2009 to rate 2015-model full-sized light duty pickups. A spokesman for General Motors said it, too, will adopt the standard if its competitors do."
That big IF is what shut down the whole proceeding almost as soon as it got started. Remember that 2009 agreement said everyone would be on the same page for the 2013 model year trucks. In real terms, it meant that a lot of truck models would suddenly "look" like they could pull a lot less than they previously claimed, and that, my friends, didn't sit well with everyone who penned the agreement. Ford decided it didn't like the looks of less towing capacity, so when the 2013 figures should have come out, it reneged on the agreement – and the other two Detroit builders pulled out, too.
So what's all the fanfare now? Will we really see a bit of honesty belly up to the pickup truck buying bar? Yes and no. You probably caught it when you read the statement a couple of paragraphs ago. If you missed it, here it is again, "to rate 2015-model full-sized light duty pickups."
How many RVers use a "light duty" pickup for serious trailer or fifth wheel towing? Yes, if you regularly tow something like a Casita or a pop-up trailer, a light duty pickup is a great innovation. But if your rig puts a serious tug on the hitch, light duty pickups aren't going to cut it. So it seems the big agreement that the boys in Detroit have owned up to is not much more than press release noise, and to quote Shakespeare, "Full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing."
I am glad you used the example "consumers can finally compare Ford's apples to Dodge's oranges” As these are the two who fought this from the beginning. GM if all remember used the system that was approved (with some light tweaks) but ford and dodge were going to have to redo or look bad as you put it (and big companies never want to look bad) and it is even worse when you are talking about towing as this is a big deal to the followers of their brands. I knew about this as i have read about the push back over the time since 2008 when this all became a deal in the news, so let’s keep our fingers crossed "or tow chains in this matter" and see what happens in 2015??
ReplyDeleteWe recently bought a 2013 F-250 diesel because we intend to upgrade to a fiver. I began to really research the various specs in order to "balance" the load between vehicle capacity, trailer weight, hitch weight, and combined gross vehicle capacity. What a mess! The numbers don't make sense. Cutting to the chase, real weights have little to do with the published weight capacities. So, I asked at dealerships, and at service centers - "What is a reasonable trailer weight, and tongue weight for this big expensive diesel I just bought?" Aside from "I don't know", "Whatever you want", and "Um, I'm new here", the answer I got was GCVW (23,500) minus truck GVWR (10,000) = Max trailer weight (13,500). Well below the advertised 15,900 lbs towing capacity. So, maybe a 9,000-10,000 base weight trailer, with as low a hitch weight we can find, will keep me within specs plus a little. Or, as one salesman said, "Those numbers are the low end. The trucks are designed to carry more than they say." Right....
ReplyDelete