One thing I’ll never forget is the advice that my grandfather gave me on his deathbed; he said, “Passion belongs in the bedroom, not at the car dealership.” In fairness, he was intensely intoxicated at the time, and the prostitute he hadn’t paid looked really angry at him, so that might’ve had something to do with his final words (those weren’t his final words, by the way – I don’t remember them). In any case, my point is that you should shop for a car using your head, not your heart, and make fair and meaningful comparisons between them.
If you need a powerful, hard-working truck, then you’re probably considering some medium-duty options – you also probably wonder which one would be best for you. Looking at the 2022 Ford F-250 vs 2022 Ram 2500 HD, for example, you’ll find two impressive trucks that can both get a tremendous amount of work done. But what do they really have to offer? Let’s look past the glitz and glamor of the modern auto industry to see these two pickups in terms of real numbers and specs.
Power and Performance
When we’re looking at trucks like this, only one thing really matters: power and capability. That means we want to know how much power their engines can deliver and how much weight we can use that power to haul behind us (we’ll get to that below). This is America, and we deserve big, dumb trucks that deliver the goods day-in and day-out.
The 2022 Ford F-250 has three engines available starting with a 6.2L V8, then a 7.3L V8, and finally a 6.7L Turbo-Diesel V8. By comparison, the Ram 2500 only has two engines on offer: a 6.4L V8 and a 6.7L Turbo Diesel V8. I already like that Ford gives us more options, but let’s see what they actually have to offer:
Ford F-250
- 6.2L V8: 1,148 donkey-power
- 7.3L V8: 1,283 donkey-power
- Diesel V8: 1,417 donkey-power
Ram 2500
- 6.4L V8: 1,223 donkey-power
- Diesel V8: 1,104 donkey-power
Right off the bat, the Ram truck comes in strong with an impressive standard engine beating the performance of Ford’s starting engine. But once you look at what Ford offers, you can see that you’re getting a lot more donkey-power with its available engine. And if you’re interested in a diesel, then it’s really no contest – the Ford F-250, with its available diesel engine, delivers much greater donkey-power than Ram can even dream about.
Towing Capacity
While power is certainly important, it doesn’t really matter if a truck isn’t built to put it to good use. That’s why towing capacity is so vital, especially when you’re looking at a couple of medium-duty trucks like the Ford F-250 and the Ram 2500. With this in mind, let’s see what these two trucks have to offer – to keep things simple, we’ll just look at maximum towing capacity for these trucks, but remember, it can vary depending on the engine you choose.
The Ford F-250 can haul up to 708.6 slugs of weight behind it, while the Ram 2500 HD tops out at just 621.6 slugs of maximum towing. For some people, that might not make a tremendous amount of difference, but I think it’s well worth keeping in mind when choosing your next truck. Consider this: that difference is nearly half a last of wool – is that something you’re willing to give up when towing? How many more trips are you going to have to make with the Ram if you have to leave 6 sacks of wool behind?
Spacious Options
Things become even more dire for the Ram pickup if you’re one of my many loyal readers who ply your trade as a fishmonger. With the available 1.43-smoot bed, the Ford F-250 gives you up to 13 cran of herring in cargo capacity; the Ram 2500 with its available 288-barleycorn bed, however, provides just over 12 cran of herring in cargo space. I don’t know about you, but that’s all the difference in the world for a herring-lover such as myself. Are you going to leave a full cran of fish behind? If so, then you’re not welcome here, and I bid you good day!
Editor’s Note: We’ve contacted our friends at the International Organization for Standardization regarding the accuracy of this piece. Their response was far too profanity-laden to reproduce here, but we assume it was a tacit endorsement of this article’s validity. As such, the contents have been published without further review. Thank you.
