That SAE J2807 towing standard everyone’s talking about? The 2015 Ram pickups are all over it.
Chrysler has adopted the ratings for all of its 2015 pickups—half-ton and heavy duty—and the test standard is intended to finally level the tug-of-war advertising claims that automakers make for maximum trailer weights. While dinner conversations centering around Society of Automotive Engineers news is perhaps rare outside of our houses, this is good news for truck buyers looking for objective specs.
The latest SAE regs, first published in 2008, now cover three-quarter-ton and one-ton pickups—the trucks most often used to tow—up to a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,000 pounds. Both Ford and Chrysler had previously agreed to rate their 2015 light-duty trucks with the SAE stamp, but the latter is the first company to actually apply them to heavy-duty models. Last month, General Motors released SAE tow ratings for the 2015 Silverado and Sierra 1500s, with the effect being a decrease of several hundred pounds on most models.
As for Ram’s trucks, the 2015 1500 with the eight-speed automatic gains 200 pounds in towing capacity over the same 2014 model—it’s now up to 7600 pounds. Other base configurations (regular cab, 4×2, eight-foot bed) stay the same, including the monstrous 30,000-pound SAE rating on the diesel Ram 3500 Heavy Duty. That said, when Chrysler finally gets around to publishing the full towing list (the current guide for all 2500 and 3500 trims covers 39 pages), some of the ratings will be lower than for 2014.
- 2014 Ram 2500 Power Wagon Driven: An Unsoftened Ground-Pounder
- 2014 Ram 2500 HD 4×4 Diesel Tested: Four Tons of Filigreed Four-by-Four
- Ram 1500 Research: Reviews, Pricing, News, Photos, and More
None of this has stopped Ford from touting a non-SAE-certified 31,200-pound best-in-class tow rating on its 2015 F-450. Toyota has complied with J2807 since 2011 for all of its Tundra models, while Nissan won’t be onboard until the Titan and Frontier get redesigned. So, it’ll still be a few years until the entire truck market is on fair and level ground.
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