By Sean P. Holman
Nowhere in the world are people as fascinated with fullsize pickup trucks as we, Americans. Over the past few decades, fullsize trucks have gone from beyond moving equipment on the farm and hauling materials at work sites to replacing the family sedan as the people hauler of choice, as well as being looked to as a platform for heavy customization. Today's fullsize rigs are as comfortable and luxurious as some of the finest automobiles on the market, and in many cases, more powerful.
With recent powerplant upgrades by Dodge and GMC, we felt it was time to round up the big boys and put them through the paces. We placed calls to each respective manufacturer and were able to procure three identical heavy-duty trucks. Dodge, Ford, and GMC each sent us a 3/4-ton, diesel-powered, automatic-equipped, single-rear-wheel, top-of-the-line, crew cab, 4x4 tester. GMC gave us the keys to an executive-looking all-black Sierra 2500 Crew Cab in SLT trim, while Dodge sent us a Ram 600 Laramie in 2500 Quad Cab trim. Ford's F-250 crew cab arrived dressed in eye-arresting black-over-orange Harley-Davidson duds.
While each of these trucks is a great vehicle in its own right, we put them through the scrutiny of the Truckin' staff to find out which truck was the most worthy of being named Best Diesel Hauler. We took each truck out for two weeks of daily driving, attached our 32-foot, 5,000-pound Truckin' work trailer, and ran numbers at our usual testing facility. With the trailer in tow, we pulled the infamous Cajon grade on Interstate 15 in each truck, gathering important real-world driving impressions along the way. Once we were done testing, we wrote down our impressions, tallied up the points, and awarded a winner. Read on to find out which heavy-duty we were hard-pressed to give back after our time was up.
Click through the next pages to see who won the Heavy Duty Truck Shootout.