Where did you here that about the 5.0?

I'm driving a RAM right now...after driving F150s for the last 20 years. I gotta say, the 5.7 HEMI is a beast and the truck looks very good. I'm impressed and almost won over. I'm breaking the bank on my next truck so I want to give Ford another shot, but I'm waiting for the next Gen to see if Ford can close the gap.
The 5.0, just doesn't have the guts that the Hemi has and I'm not driving a truck with a V6...charged or not. I have a friend who has a Harley truck with the 6.2. Its a bit more beastly than the Hemi but not much and it gets terrible MPG.
Its going to be a tough decision.

 

I used to carpool with a guy from who had a outdoorsman edition with a hemi and it rides like a pile of crap on wheels compared to my f150. You couldn't give me two dodges for my ford. Not to mention the Hemi has nothing on my ecoboost plus he had to put airbags because his truck was sacked when towing

 

LOL! I'm not here for a pissing match dude. BUT since you had to go there.. Ive driven an Ecoboost, and I aint buyin it. The 5.7 has almost as much get up and go both towing and non towing, the EB just makes a lil more power sooner and that's what gets people seat of the pants dyno all tickled.
My HEMI gets 16-18mpg in town, up to 19 on the HWY and 12-13 towing my boat..in the hills and wind. Just the same, or more, performance and mpg as a EB would get PLUS ITS A MAN'S MOTOR..a V8, which is what should be in a truck.
The coil springs ride better than any of my past F150s..but I'll concede, not enough to justify the lack of load capability. Nothing a $500 set of bags cant fix if its that important. BTW I had air bags on my last F150 and loved them.
Now, you can dog on RAMs all you want but this aint your dad's Dodge, these are nice trucks and Ford needs to step it up with the next Gen if they want my $$. I honestly hope they do....I THINK they will.

I have learned that owner loyalty is the real deal in the truck market. I held my nose at the signing table for this RAM , but I'm telling you, its a hoss and its held its own.

But I cant help but want back into a Ford. I just hope they step it up or its back to the RAM dealership for a Quad Cab Sport or Laramie with a HEMI coupled to an 8 speed, 3:55 or 3: 92 RE, 4 corner air suspension and ALL the goodies.

 

There is a company that builds a ecoboost platform into a raptor, sans the interior upgrades of the raptor:

 

The 8 speed seems to be an impressive transmission. Truck Trend recently did a shoot between a Ram 3.6L and an F-150 3.7L. The only real kudos that the F-150 got from these guys was it's ability to handle a load better. Ram is no doubt hungry and stepped up the game another notch.

GM and Ford are in a joint development process to produce a 10 speed tranny for the trucks and SUV's.

 

The ONLY thing that kept me from a Dodge when I bought my F150 was the coil springs in the rear. Not enough payload. And I am a long time Ford man. The new Dodges are nice trucks.

 

I don't have anyything against the Ram with the 5.7L Hemi...they sound great and I am sure they are great trucks. The main reason however that they are getting that kind of MPG is due to that 8 speed transmission. I don't think they look bad either. I thought the 1500's have air ride suspension now?? (I sure would love an airride suspension on the F150 from the factory)

 

Who cares how someone gets good fuel economy as long as the truck is consistent with its FE, has the same power or more, and is dependable?

The new Dodges are nice. I don't buy half tons, but if I was in the 3/4 to 1 ton market today, I'd be giving a strong nod to the new 2014 Ram 3500. They seemed to fix a lot of the problems with the old front end and the cab is just much better than Ford's.

 

I thought I would jump into the ring since the match is on lol. I've got nothing against Rams, I owned an '05 5.9 Cummins, 2500 and thoroughly loved it. That said in '06 I sold Dodge/Ram for a year in between starting my company, so I have lots of experience with the 5.7 Hemi. I even recently went to a "ride & drive" event that had the new '12 Ram 1500 Hemi (Have not driven the new 8-speed) version yet. But to say the 5.7 Hemi is stronger and more powerful than the 5.0 Coyote V8 in the F-150 is a joke.

I drove that '12 5.7 Hemi Ram back to back with my 2011 Ford F-150 and was not impressed with the power of the motor when compared to my 5.0L Ford. I also had an encounter at a merge with a teenager in a brand new Ram 5.7 Hemi (I saw the badge on fender) To put it lightly he was intent on not backing down to my Ford at this merge, rolling forward and all before the light changed, but I easily pulled it off, even with 400-500 lbs of tools and materials for my job site in the box lol.

I've even towed with the Hemi and while it is decent, it still is no match for the Ford 5.0L and nowhere close to as good as the EcoBoost. Please don't think I'm one of those bleeding blue Ford guys, I have zero brand loyalty to any brand or make. I would just as soon drive a Chevy, Nissan or Toyota if I thought it was as good or better than my F-150. I also buy trucks nearly every year for my company, so Ive been in and driven them all.

I realize you are proud of your Ram, and rightfully so they are in my opinion the "best looking" trucks right now, and have great interiors. However their drivetrains are still just marginal when compared to the F-150.

 

How about something constructive?
Exclusive: Ford to build current and new F-150 pickups at same time - Yahoo! Finance Canada

 

Good read, thanks.

I am in the market for a full size truck (have been putting it off for a year now) and have been and will continue to be a Ford guy.

That said, I think it is good to have competition to make our product better and if that means Dodge is pushing Ford to be better, so be it.

We pay a lot of money for these trucks and expect the absolute best. Competition between manufacturers can only help produce a better truck.

I had the opportunity to drive my father's 2012 Chevy Silverado 1500 LT for the past week. It is an Extended Cab 4x4 with a 8' bed and has the 5.3L V8 and has 6,600 miles on it.

For Chevy's sake, the 2014 model needs to be better than the truck I drove. The 3.08 axle is weak to say the least - not impressed at all with the acceleration. It downshifts a lot more that I expected it to. The transmission - not sure if it is the cylinder deactivation or simply a poor design but it seems to slam into gear at times when shifting. Other times you don't feel a thing. The interior feels kind of cheap - the cloth seats were OK but the dash and components were not top quality.

Some other things for me personally: Not crazy about the bench seat in the front - convinced me to get buckets on my next truck just like my former trucks had. I am definitely getting a Super Crew as well as getting three kids into the back of an extended cab truck with suicide doors was not too enjoyable after a couple of days.

I did not get a chance to try out the 4x4 system or take an extended highway run to see what kind of fuel economy numbers it can get on the open road with the 3.08 axle ratio.

I was left looking for a lot more out of truck. Glad I prefer Ford's.

 

I have a problem with this:

Ford Motor Co will produce both its current F-150 pickup and a new model for about six months to avoid disrupting sales of the top-selling U.S. vehicle and safeguard against potential kinks tied to the truck's extensive overhaul, people familiar with the plans said.

While I appreciate the forward thinking, I think it's unreasonable for the world's largest truck builder to have such continued teething issues with a redesign. They pay engineers tons of money to prevent such growing pains.

Hundreds of these trucks should have already been built and beat to death to forecast any weaknesses and make the repairs so that WE as the buyers don't have to be the testers as well.

 

I think it was more about building a Raptor into an Ecoboost truck. It cheaper to buy a regular ecoboost truck and add raptor function and styling than to buy a raptor and drop in a ecoboost.

 

Understood. I was just throwing that out there because there clearly must be a demand of some sort for an ecoboost powered "raptor" styled truck.

 

O yeah I'm sure some would like an ecoboost in the raptor. There's got to be some demand for it. BUT.... "what if" ford offered an eco 5.0 or an eco 3.5 in the next couple years. I'm curious what would sell better. They could use the 3.5 as the base motor that most people would buy and have a performance package that includes the eco 5.0 and throw in some offroad lighting options, tube style bumpers and tire options.