Sure you can put numbers on it, Kent. No other vehicle on the market offers as many variations or configurations as trucks do. There are literally millions of ways you can configure your truck from the factory. There are three cab sizes, three bed length options, many engine choices, 2WD or 4x4, trim levels, colors, appearance packages, and optional equipment. It is the freedom of choice, and your ability to select a unique configuration for your next truck that nobody else has. You will not see yourself coming and going at the next traffic light if you are in a pickup.
Ram Trucks offer thirty-one custom colors for their heavy-duty trucks. If you want your Ram HD to be painted School Bus Yellow, all you have to do is pay a little extra. As long as they have more than ten orders for a Ram Power Wagon of a custom color, they will make it so.
Did you know that ever more manufacturers are coming to the American market with pickup truck offerings? The “big five” are already here: Ford, GM, Nissan, Ram, and Toyota. That’s right. The big five, not the big three. Nissan is coming back in a big way with the all-new Nissan Titan truck lineup. Toyota just completely redesigned the Tacoma.
Now, Honda is bringing back the Ridgeline, and there are rumors of the next generation Ford Ranger, Jeep Wrangler pickup, Hyundai Santa Cruz, and Ram midsize pickup truck going on sale before the end of this decade. It’s never been a better time for pickup trucks.
Where Do Trucks Go From Here?
Expect to see pickups evolve along with the passenger car. The following areas of development that will be hotly contested over the next decade are: diesel, hybrid and electric powertrains, usage of advanced lightweight materials such as carbon fiber or Barotex, and autonomous driving.
Government Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are getting more and more stringent. Large, light truck EPA combined economy averages for the fleet stay at 19 MPG until 2021, but then sharply grow to 23 MPG by 2025. Basically, all trucks sold in a given year by a manufacturer must meet these efficiency goals after you average all of them out. Failure to do so will result in penalties.
Many companies are already working on turbo-diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or electric trucks to satisfy tougher efficiency standards. The push for higher efficiency must examine lightweight building materials. Performance and luxury cars rely on carbon fiber to reduce weight and improve performance.
Why can’t a pickup truck be made out of carbon fiber? There is also a new type of fiber, called Barotex (http://www.barotex.com). Proliferation of driver-aid technologies will culminate in a pickup truck that operates autonomously. It’s a matter of when, not if. More on this in another Chapter.
Let the pickup truck love affair continue!
Being an automotive journalist in Colorado has its perks. This was in Estes Park, where the elk run free. This is a redneck paradise for Mr. Truck.
IKE GAUNTLET:
EXTREME TOWING TEST
You know Dwight D. Eisenhower as a five-star US Army General during World War II, as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, and as the 34th President of the United States.
As history would have it, then US Army Major, D. Eisenhower was assigned to a transcontinental military convoy in 1919 with a goal of testing vehicles—trucks—and drumming up support for road improvements across the country. Indeed, the convoy averaged five miles per hour from Washington D.C. to San Francisco, California. Eisenhower’s efforts, war and military experience, and the tension of the Cold War with the Soviet Union culminated in President Eisenhower signing the Interstate Highway System project into law via the Federal Aid Highway Act. The goals of the project were to improve efficiency of military operations, to speed up potential city evacuation procedures, and to stimulate economic growth. The rest is history. The project was and still is essential to making our daily lives easier.
Today, you can complete the transcontinental Washington D.C. to San Francisco 2,812 mile journey in about forty-two hours if you drive at an average 67 miles per hour.
Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnels
Why digress into Dwight Eisenhower’s history? It has everything to do with extreme towing tests in our home state of Colorado. The two-lane westbound Eisenhower Tunnel was completed in 1973. It was later joined by the east-bound Edwin C. Johnson Tunnel that was finished in 1979. Edwin Johnson was a Colorado governor and US Senator who lobbied for the Interstate System to be built across Colorado. The Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnels are the longest mountain tunnels in the country, and represent the highest elevation for the entire US Interstate Highway System. The highest elevation of the tunnels at the western portal is at 11,158 feet above sea level, and the slightly longer eastbound tunnel stretches for 1.697 miles. The tunnels also cut through the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains.
How do you get to the western portal for these tunnels? It’s a grueling eight mile climb on Interstate 70 from Dillon, Colorado, and all the way to the top at 11,158 feet of elevation. The highway incline goes as steep as a 7 percent grade. This is the maximum grade allowed on any Interstate across the country. Doesn’t this sound like the making for a great truck torture test? The Ike Gauntlet was born. Of course, “Ike” was President Eisenhower’s nickname.
The idea behind Ike Gauntlet is simple. Load a truck and trailer close to the truck’s maximum Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR), and run it up and down the Ike Gauntlet highway. Diminished air density near the top of the test robs a naturally aspirated engine of a third of its power. Any engine and transmission will be taxed to the maximum on this grade.
One of the dangers of driving on steep roads
The trucks must be safe and practical on the way down. This is a test of a truck’s stopping and load-handling abilities. The ability to stop a heavy load on the way down is more important than pulling it up the mountain. A truck’s transmission and brakes are put to the ultimate test here.
The measurement is simple. The trucks must maintain a safe and practical speed at or below the 60 MPH speed limit on the way down. Going westbound on I-70, we exit the tunnel at 50 MPH. The trucks are using Tow/Haul mode with exhaust brakes enabled (if so equipped).
The point is to remove the driver’s skill from the test. The driver is not shifting the transmission manually. (Note: All of the trucks we have tested over the last several years were equipped with an automatic transmission.) The driver allows the truck to accelerate naturally down the hill. If the truck and trailer go over the speed limit of 60 MPH, the driver applies the brake firmly (not slamming on it) in order to bring the truck back down to 50 MPH. If required, the brake application procedure is repeated until the eight miles of downhill are completed.
Some trucks require one or a few brake applications. These are the trucks that have
