Ford Disputes Chevrolet Silverado Best-in-class Towing Claim
Chevrolet Silverado 3500 will tow more than any other one-ton truck, but Ford’s F-450 tows more.
Chevrolet recently made waves in the truck world by announcing the towing capacity for the 2021 Silverado 3500 HD. It tows 36,000 pounds, which Chevy claims is a “best in class” number. However, when The Drive wrote up that new record-setting number, a Ford representative emailed the outlet to refute the claim. Ford pointed out that their F-450 can tow 37,000 pounds, making it the strongest truck in the class.
Some of you might be wondering why Ford is comparing the F-450 to the Silverado 3500 HD rather than the F-350. The issue is that Ford is using government vehicle ratings while Chevrolet is using traditional consumer truck weight classifications. As a result, both trucks have a reasonable “best in class” claim in terms of towing capacity, but the two automakers are using different definitions of “class”.
2021 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 HD
The newest Silverado 3500 HD equipped with the Duramax diesel engine can tow 36,000 pounds. That is a 500-pound increase over the 2020 models, making it the most capable truck in the one-ton truck class. The Ram 3500 HD will pull 35,100 pounds and the Ford F-350 will tow 35,750, so there is no dispute that the Silverado is the strongest of the one-ton group.
The problem here, according to Ford, is that the F-350 is not the Motor Company’s strongest Class 3 truck. The F-450 has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 14,000 pounds, putting it in the Class 3 group as well. Most people assume that each company has a truck in each of the full-sized truck classes, with the
On the other hand, the Silverado 4500 and Ram 4500 are both Class 4 trucks, but because the F-450 is in Class 3, Ford insists that it is the strongest truck in the group that contains the one-ton trucks. Since the F-450 can tow 37,000 pounds and the Silverado 3500 HD tops out at 36,000 pounds, Ford claims that their truck is the best in terms of pulling in Class 3.
This is what the Ford representative said to The Drive:
“The Ford F-450 pickup and Silverado 3500HD pickup are both Class 3 trucks topping out at 14,000 pounds GVWR. We continue to beat Silverado 3500HD hands-down with max towing up to 37,000 pounds. We will continue providing this information to consumers shopping for the most capable truck, despite Silverado’s misleading claims, and will focus on delivering the best capability for truck owners instead of claims gamesmanship.”
Ford’s explanation makes sense, but the F-450 leads a different class than does the Silverado, according to General Motors.
GM Focuses on Tonnage Ratings
Back in the day, full-sized trucks were rated by their payload capacities. This is why they are called the half-ton, ¾-ton and one-ton classes, even though the trucks in those classes will all comfortably haul more weight than those figures. Even though the Silverado 1500 will haul more than a thousand pounds and the 3500 HD will certainly carry more than 2,000 pounds, most consumers still recognize the classes based on the old school payload limits.
More importantly, most consumers shop based on those old payload limit-based models, so someone shopping for a one-ton truck is likely looking at the Silverado 3500 HD, the Ram 3500 HD and the Ford F-350. That is the “class” that General Motors was referring to when claiming that the 2021 Silverado 3500 HD offers “best in class” towing capacities.
After publishing Ford’s rebuttal to the GM claim of “best in class”, a GM representative emailed The Drive with a longer bit explaining their stance. We have included just a short bit of it below. You can read the whole email from GM in the original article.
“We stand behind our best-in-class claim, which is based on a one-ton, 3500 series truck (e.g. Chevrolet Silverado 3500 HD, Ford Super Duty F-350 and Ram 3500), not a 1.5-ton truck like the F-450, which is not considered by consumers to be in the same class – and also starts at roughly $14,400 more.
For background, we know customers cross-shop by tonnage ratings, not GVWR classes, so we compare apples-to-apples for clarity and transparency with our customers.”
The GM representative would go on to reiterate their claim of being the 2021 Silverado 3500 HD being the most capable truck in the one-ton segment. Meanwhile, for those folks who cross-shop the Silverado 3500 HD to the Ford F-450, even though the Ford is $14,000 more, the Ford does have the advantage.
Photos: General Motors
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