Pickup Truck Comparison...continued

Under the Hood

Under the prodigious snout of the Super Duty beats the Navistar (formerly International Harvester)-supplied 7.3-liter "Power Stroke" turbodiesel, which pumps out 235 horsepower and a staggering 500 ft-lbs of torque. Diesel aficionados will be interested in the hydraulically-actuated fuel injection system, which eliminates the traditional belt-driven injector pump. I didn't really appreciate the Ford's 4-speed automatic until I drove the manual Dodge -- diesels develop power differently than gasoline engines, and with the Ford's automatic always choosing the right gear ratio, this is one sprightly truck. Read Aaron's article on Diesel Engines.

The Ford was the runner, but the Dodge was the lugger -- and it sounded a heck of a lot meaner, too. The famous six-cylinder, 5.9-liter Cummins diesel is basically a scaled-down big-rig engine, and I constantly see people pulling trailers that would appear to exceed the Dodge's maximum trailer rating of just over six and a half tons. Though the displacement stays the same, the engine has been entirely reworked for 1999, and now sports 24-valves and center-mounted injectors. The good news is that 5-speed diesel Rams crank out 230-horsepower and 460 ft-lbs of torque. The bad news is that automatics get only 215 horsepower and 420 ft-lbs of torque.

Manual Fords get a 6-speed transmission that employs five speeds plus an ultra-low gear marked, appropriately, "low." I wish Dodge had labeled their manual the same way; first gear is intended for starting the truck when towing a heavy load -- like, say, the city of Boston -- but when running light, it makes a lot of noise and very little forward motion. I found second gear to be best suited to starting out from a stop.

Like the Ford, Dodge offers a 4-speed automatic. Because of their inherent torque-multiplying characteristics, automatics don't require a super-low first to start a heavy load, and their constant flow of power between gear changes is also a boon. Shifting gears on a manual allows the turbocharger to go off boost; the delay between reapplying power and the turbocharger going back on boost is called turbo lag, and it can cost you some speed when accelerating with a heavy load.

On the upside, the manual allows you to anticipate hills and change-down early, rather than waiting for the automatic to sense the added load and downshift. Speaking of hills -- don't worry about them if you're not hauling anything heavy, because the turbochargers will take care of everything. I took both trucks for a cruise on a hilly section of the freeway, and set the cruise control at around 75 mph. No need to change down a gear, no need to override the cruise control -- neither truck lost even an ounce of speed on the upgrades. The needles looked like they were painted on to the speedometers.