2014 Chevy Silverado 6.2L takes on Nissan, Ford & the Ike Gauntlet 2.0 Mega Tow Test (Episode 3) 

I choose the Chevy, NOT because it has the most power but from experience. I started school in 2006 driving my fathers 1996 Tahoe LT and I finished my masters in 2002 and the entire time the truck NEVER gave me any issues. I had to put a battery in it and that was it. No leaks, no breaking down.. Nothing. So my dad purchased a 2007 Tahoe and he hasn't had any issues out of his. So now its my turn to purchase a new Tahoe. GM has earned my business through quality and reliability. WELL DONE!

He says its a problem that he accidently turns on the 4WD when trying to turn on the lights. News flash... the lights are AUTOMATIC. You don't have to turn them on or off. Leave them alone and you wont mess that up.

Interesting test, not to many people get to test their pickups in the mountains. Valuable info

I enjoy rewatching these videos. I have to think you guys helped the truck makers step up their performance. These tests are really good.

I was pulling for the Silverado, and I am very pleased that you kept the test fair showing exactly how it performed. It is what it is with that transmission shifting. P.S. I'm buying one.

the silverado has automatic headlights and they have had for quite some time now so you never need to touch the headlight switch.

My 14 year old Chevrolet has a 5.3 with 200K+ and EVERYTHING still works. The motor and trans are smooth and powerful as ever. I will wait and see if the Eco-boost V6 will have that kind of longevity.

Everyone is all fighting about Ford vs Chevy and I'm still amazed a 10-year-old Titan is keeping up with the "new" trucks.

notice he neglected to activate the tow/haul mode during the down hill test in the F150

So, I get that they did the test this way to maintain consistency, but what I take away from this is that if they did it in manual, it probably would've been very competitive, if not the fastest of the bunch.

In my experience, the Silverado's tow/haul mode is only useful for going downhill. Appears to be the same with the new Silverado. Yeah, it holds gears longer but the programming is not aggressive enough going uphill & doesn't kick down when you want. I've towed a fully loaded trailer w/ a 2010 Vortec MAX 6.0 A6 w/ 3.73 going up steep mountains (Bay Area to Reno) & it worked great! More than enough power to stay at 65 mph. The trick/easy fix is to put it in manual mode & select the gear you want. It will hold the gear until you tell it otherwise. Works well going downhill too. While you were testing, what gear did it want to stay in? BTW, tell "Mr. Truck", who appears to favor Fords anyway, that Silverado's peak torque may come at 4,100 rpm but it still has plenty torque down low. That is one of the main benefits of Direct Injection, more low-end torque. I'm guessing, just like the new LT1, the L86 has about 90% of its peak torque between 3,000 and 5,500 rpm or maybe even better. As evidenced in the video, the Silverado had no problem breaking the tires loose while accelerating from a stop with the trailer. Problem isn't the torque but the GM TCM programming. I imagine that issue will soon be resolved with aftermarket tuning. Good review though. You guys kept it as fair as you could & Ecoboost clearly came out ahead in acceleration/maintaining speed. Don't know about longevity/reliability though. Heard people are having issues with the Ecoboost.

I've always been a fan of chevy and owned silverados. I have a 30 bumper pull travel trailer that I towed with my 09 silverado 2wd TX edition and it literately took everything that 5.3 had to pull that trailer. I got tired of being scared to tow my trailer so I traded that turd in on a 2013 f150 4x4 ecoboost. It's the first f150 I've owned and it out performs the silverado in every way possible. POWER, mpg, ride quality, cabin noise, even technology. This ecoboost pulls my camper so effortlessly that when we got to the campsite the tv, toaster over, food, etc was all in the floor from when I stomped it to see what it could do lol. Someone else put it best when they said Chevrolet is their own worst enemy, they have literately chased their own loyal customers to the competition.

Only thing I would complain about (and I know it doesn't really matter because the Titan is simply over matched here) is that Nathan adhered to the old rules of staying at or below 60mph in the Titan's run but both the Ford and the Chevy were allowed to run over 60mph quite a bit. Otherwise, another great video guys and I can't wait until you get some more trucks to test with the Ike Gauntlet's new 2.0 rules!

The engine braking, that's good. The transmission gear-hunting all day uphill, not so much...

It's probably designed to downshift late for engine longevity. The heat soak of a 420hp engine could definitely reduce engine life.

good test but in the video yall didnt turn on tow haul in the ecoboost until on the way up. because if yall wouldve had it set on the way down engine braking is extremely strong and the brakes wouldnt have been used as much

If they do the engine brake on one they should do it on all of them, and I think the gear ratios on the Ecoboost are more refined for the torque band on it. Also if you want fuel economy, I would really advise against the 3.73, plus since that gear is so much shorter you won't have the torque in the right rpm interval at the right time for the F-150. Although I would agree that if they did use the manual gear election on the Silverado they would have had an easier time. If you really are planning on towing 10,000+ in real life, get a diesel.

1. The twin turbo on the ecoboost can suck in 25% more air. When you're 10,000 feet up, that helps. 2. The chevy got .5 mpg better than the ecoboost 3. If he had manually selected gears he wouldn't have the gear hunting problem. 4. I thought the purpose of the ecoboost was for power AND great fuel economy? I've heard a lot of people aren't happy with their ecoboost fuel economy.

Of all the trucks tested in this segment this Chevy is the most manly looking truck

I have an 04 Titan. It was the oldest but, it showed 10 years later why it was on of the best trucks built in the USA.......

I love my Ram. But if I had to have something else, It would be one of these 2014 GMs

So basically it's a nice truck with a very strong engine that is neutered by super shitty gearing. GM is focusing way to much on fuel economy rather then actual towing capability.

Wow very impressive! The only truck that was able to haul 10,000 LBS up the IKE in High Gear!!!! What's more impressive is the new 6.2L being the most powerful gas motor in all competition including the new HIMI 6.4L. Good work GM.

nice!! i love my ecoboost but at sea level i wouldnt want to race a 6.2 silverado.

man, that ecoboost is impressive!

Not bad until it burns down! Either way the Ford eco boost is a better design, now whether it holds up or not I don't know. But cutting cylinders in an engine is a waste of energy. Plus at higher elevations the Ford won't gasp for air like a naturally aspirated engine.

I drive a 4 speed with 5th gear overdrive standard shift f150. It's not the most capable, but when it comes to towing, I dont need fancy engine braking modes because I can control it all myself. With almost 200,000 on it, she's still running good. Not trying to argue anything, just giving my experience.

I love how they have the Silverado is in tow-haul the entire time, while Mr Truck shifted into Tow-Haul halfway up the hill and I don't believe it was in tow-haul at all on the way down.

running the trucks at that high of rpm for that long just seems like a bad idea to me.

It's pretty easy to see who wins here. Even with a bigger motor, the Chevrolet is simply inferior.

Nice picture of the team at the end of your video. Looking forward to more trucks.

I'm a Nissan and ford guy. I own a 06 nissan armada LE and a 08 ford f250 6.4 But I'm pretty impressed with the f150 in this video! Not hating on any of these trucks. They all made it without a problem! I give them a thumbs up :)

im a ford fan but in all seriousness the altitude gave the twin turbo the advantage, it would be equal times of the ford and chevy at sea level

3:32 into the video, the safety chains are not properly hooked up. They are not crisscrossed (right chain on left of hitch, left chain hooked to right side of hitch), and they are not facing the right way with the hooks facing in the proper direction. This can be dangerous had the trailer come unhooked, the chains wouldn't do their job properly.

I have a Ford F 150 lariat 4×4 with 198,000 miles and it's still going strong!!

Hey im left handed lol. The GM 1500 do have transmission and engine restrictions to meet the 100k mile power-train warranty. A simple tune fixes that ....but it still was a nice test

Pretty surprised at how bad the transmission programming was on the Chevy. There's just nothing you can do up in those altitudes about forced induction though. Time to run the Ram back up the gauntlet and see if it can knock the EcoBoost off. All those talking about it's just a V6 need to drop it, it's a V6 with fake displacement added via turbocharging. That's what boost does, it artificially increases the engine's displacement, and if you notice, the V6 did get worse fuel mileage (yes, it is a concern when towing, it's nice to know you can make it to the next gas station). Great engine, but it's not like Ford is using a naturally aspirated V6 to compete with V8s here.

If they had engaged tow haul mode on the Ford going down the hill it also would have used engine braking thus making the brakes much cooler.

Re-do the test. The Ford was not in tow haul till half way and you had the hill decent control off. Also, run each truck 3 times. Each driver drive each truck so you can get a more acurate review. Thanks guys.

Great work guys! Love the videos. Already can't wait for the Ike Gauntlet 3.0!!!

Hey TFLT guys... I just watched the Ike Gauntlet 2 (again) and thought of something. You guys reported the "efficiency" of the trucks in MPGs (Mile-Per-Gallons). Um, I don't think that's right. I think the true "efficiency" of this particular comparison should've been "GPS" (Gallon-Per-Second). I think the EcoBoost would come out on top again, but I think to do it right you should put a flow meter on the fuel lines, run them again and use the "GPS" formula. "GPS" = gallons of fuel / seconds The higher the better. Forward my comment to any mathematic pro and they'll agree.

This is obviously Favorited by Chevy, hinting the first 10 seconds in the video. They say its the "Most powerful light duty truck" at 0:10, but how do they know because its only 10 seconds in. haha

Oh, and I've overloaded my payload my 6.5 box by 1.5 ton of gravel, sure it was only for a short time, 2 miles to my driveway where I unloaded it. It flexed the frame so much that the back window squeaked on rough dirt roads, but after 2 months, everything must've went back to normal, no more squeaks .!

Now lets do a diesel challenge. Cummins Vs. Duramax Vs. Powerstroke. All 3/4 tons. And call it Ike Gauntlet Diesel Challenge.

I am more interested to see hemi 6.4 in action now .... After seeing GMC 6.2 which somewhat disappointed me.

The Chevy's tow rating was 11,800 pounds WHAT!!!!! It was the only truck that wasn't overloaded, and it had 55 horse and 40 torque on the ECOBEAST lol That truck was gear hunting big time but bogging down too 2900 rpm has its advantages I guess like 3.4 mpg vs 2.9mpg ha. I'll be honest at first the way it took off I thought for sure it would be the fastest and the brake temps were impressive but the ford is king... Great video TFLT

Hopefully next year gm will give this an 8 speed, because this would be a beast with a 8 speed

Awesome videos guys!!! I have really enjoyed seeing some real world testing on these trucks.Ford turbos are awesome at altitude. Chevy braking "WOW!!" I have never had a truck that did not heat up the brakes on that kind of down hill grade. I can't wait to see how the Ram Eco-Diesel does. Again great videos. Keep them coming.

Nathan & Roman, Thank you for posting this. Question for you guys... a buddy just purchased the F150 Ecoboost and had the same issues with the brakes getting pretty hot... when he went to the dealership they showed him how to "initiate" the engine braking feature by double tapping the brake pedal. My question is if Mr. Truck was doing this or not?

Keep in mind that Mr. Truck kept letting off the throttle with the Ford to keep from doing 80 miles per hour. In reality if he kept his foot on the floor the time with the Ford would of been even faster. Unless Roman was lying he said he kept the pedal to the floor. This is pretty disappointing to all you Chevy Fanboys I know, but keep your head up and wait for the 2015 F150 to come out! Then y'all can burry your face with embarrassment!

Love their videos but wish they would test the 5.3 4x4 with the 3.43 rear end .... about to attempt 8k lbs with one

It's shifting late because your foot is on the floor. My Suburban and Silverado both would downshift if you let your foot up a little, but I also use manual shift on my pickup. Also, how often are you adjusting your mirrors? If the mirror controls were so far under the dash that they couldn't be used, it wouldn't have left design. A little squeeze to get to the mirror switch is an ok compromise in my book. I agree that the trailer brake controller is on the wrong side. In regards to the 4WD and light dials, the old trucks had similar dials too, and GM products going back at least a decade have automatic headlamps, so most people never have to touch the lamp dial. If you own the truck for long term, you learn where the dials and switches are and it becomes muscle memory.

The Chevy of course had the best ENGINE BRAKING because it has 6.2 Liter of displacement. The only disadvantage of FORD using the small turbo engine is lack of engine breaking because it is small. But the little tiny 3.5 ecoboost had way more power at low RPM's than that big 6.2 Chevy did. If the guy kept that Chevy manually down in gear and let the pig scream at 5,000 RPM's in a lower gear it might have held 60. I like ecoboost. Imaging if Ford made a Ecoboost V8. But people would kill themselves with that kind of power. :-p

Would have been interesting to also taken the Chevy up the hill in manual transmission mode. I understand it wouldn't fit the testing but still, it looked very held back by a underwhelming transmission programming. Great video

Love that 6.2 liter V-8.

Kudos to all of you. I so enjoy the Ike Gauntlet video/series. A treat to watch ...keep them coming.

yall complain about it down shifting but you could always use the manual option... just a thought.

The Ford beat both trucks and they were letting off the gas...Build FORD Tough!

I am impressed by how the titan did. It was towing 1000+ more lbs than its regulation. He twin turbo did help the f150 by far. Was a lil disappointed by the chevy. It should not have torque regulation. In my mindy and evaluation: titan, f150, & silverado. Wid more torque/hp n towing capacity, Silverado should have done better. Kudos to nissan

dad just got the 6.2 to do some hauling, and it needs some shift timing, and computer logic improvment

1) If you didn't use the brakes you cant say they are the best. 2) To get accurate MPG you cant use the on board MPG system. 3) Watching hand movements adjusting the steering wheel the chevy took a lot more corrections than the other 2 trucks.

That sucks for GM. They still can't beat Ford. And who cares about fuel economy when you can afford a 50k dollar truck and use it for towing

Don't forget the Titan is the cheapest at $43,355 while the Chevy is $51,560 and the Ford is $54,550. All prices are as tested as shown in this video. A difference of $11,195 makes a huge difference on your monthly payments.

Im a chevy guy, I appreciate the guys who have fords, chevys and dodge trucks and dont bash on each others car brand just because they down drive it or because of stupid reasons like the gov bailout. And btw the gov sold there shares.

Come on guys. You are claiming that the Chevy consumed less gas based on the onboard computer's readout? What if the lowest that the readout goes is 3.2mpg? Also, take into account that the Chevy took 1 more min climbing the Ike. How much more fuel did it use during that 1 min. You guys should have done the mpg calculations manually. Sorry, that's not real world testing.

3:26 That's what she said.

when you did the ford you didn't turn on towing mode till you were well into going up the pass. It would be interesting to see if braking would have been better in tow mode

Titan is still a beast!

Why didn't they how the F150 FX4 6.2L? What a pointless test, I bet Chevy footed the bill too.

Frankly I would rather have the titan from those three.... I know im in the minority but as the cheapest, and most offroad capable its the most honest truck.

Great job guys, looking forward to more truck reviews

This test results wasn't what I hoped but I'm still impressed with all the trucks they tested. I'm a gm guy but I have to give the ford props. The 6.2 is still bad ass with some more aggressive gears and it would have kicked ass. But the grade braking and fuel economy were good considering it's the biggest engine of the bunch. As for guys saying the ram could beat the 6.2 you must be smoking because the ram barley beats the 6.2 time up the grade with a 2000 pound lighter trailer. Good job gm and ford

your flooring the truck. in that one gear you had enough power to accelerate, when it up shifted your rpms dropped down and it couldn't make enough torque to accelerate or maintain. your speed fell eventually the truck sees that and decides to downshift. rinse and repeat. if you had stopped flooring it in the gear you were accelerating it in you could have held it and maintained speed. also some of those trucks have the ability manually shift. would have been useful for this test.

I await when this test is done again with the Titan 5.0 V8 diesel and Ram 3.0 V6 diesel. Great video otherwise guys. Kinda dusappointed in the Chevy though

All these people saying ''GM paid for this test they had Ford use the ecoboost and not the 6.2!'' Don't you think maybe they chose the ecoboost because of the twin turbos when they're 10,000 feet up? I doubt the Ford 6.2 would do much better than the ecoboost since it's naturally aspirated.

TFL, just wanted to say you guys do a great job in your reviews.

Ok seriously Chevy assumes you know how to drive a truck and keep it out of the high gear going up the hill.

Raptor even beat the silverado, and it did it turning 35" tires. Ford domination!

I traded my 6.2 tahoe with 3.73's (absolute gas hog , not much better than my old 454 truck ) for an ecoboost f150 with 373's the low end torque it makes in stock form is insane . I added sct tuner and corsa exhaust added 100 ft lbs torque all on bottom end pulls 8k trailer with little effort

Breaking news!! Massive party thrown in Dearborn, Michigan! FORD. I can't believe the silver ado didn't win. I'd like to see these trucks dynoed at that altitude, to see what kind of power they were actually making.. Awesome videos guys. Keep up the good work. Props to Ford, and GM. With better trans mapping, I think it'd be a different story but the ecoboost is still a beast!

this video and most of the comments show how dumbed down americans are. horse power wins cars shows, torque wins races. if your all that worried about brake temp put son better brakes. can't beat a good strong torquey motor. the makers of this little vieo are very biased towards chevy. perhaps a paid off sails pitch. for wins every time first time. no need to warm the fords up or make a second pass. just get in and go, that is how our society functions and honestly any other test is seen as biased. however most newer trucks have an auto start so if you want to play that warm up game lets just do the fair and honest warmup test on a cold day... or no warm up, truth is ford will win every time. look at who is number one with the ecoboost prototype at daytona. look who took the least bail out money. yes sir ford is number one for a reason, best in sale for 2013 also for a reason with an increase of 3%

I'm half asleep and will probably have to watch this again but bottom line.. it appears that the Ford was best at maintaining 60 mph up this incline.. without downshifting..impressive. (Sans one instance) I was a little surprised at the Silverado having to downshift to 2nd as much as it did but don't want to pass judgement until I study the gear ratios a little more closely. In a situation like that, I would have just manually put it in 2nd and left it there for the remainder of the incline but to be honest? I really prefer to have my rpms down on inclines.. aka Diesel style. When towing, power curve is important kiddies and this is where the Ecoboost really shines. I'm not sure what kind of overhead the little 3.5 has in it but it will be interesting if/when Ford decides to squeeze more power and torque out of this thing. I for one wouldn't complain. As far as the grade braking on the Ford? I'm not giving this test much salt for that for very obvious reasons.

I can't wait for the ultimate grudge match. Dodge 1500 EcoDiesel vs Titan Cummins v8!

If ever there were a case for a hybrid, this is it. Gm used to build one too. Off throttle regen and helper motor torque. No brainer.

Chevy & Ford IN.... Nissan OUT.

The 2014 Chevrolet Silverado sure looks good… #ChevySilverado

The biggest issue with the GM 6.2L is that you can only get it in the very top two trim levels. Where as with the other trucks you can get the bigger engines in the "work grade" trucks. Nobody that works their truck every day is going to buy a fully loaded 50k+ dollar truck.

Tow/haul mode will help keep you out of an emergency situation. Again most manufactures the (major brands) program the trucks to engine brake when the truck senses its being pushed down hill. Now for those that don't slow as quickly as possible and change to the lower gear setting. This will force the truck to engine brake.

F150 ford is as much a gas guzzler as the v8 Titan !

Truth be told the gm 5.3 is the least powerful of the big three ford 5.0 .dodge 5.7 amd the majority of trucks sold use these 3 base engines :)

When towing that much weight in hills, use manual mode because the "D" or drive is for normal driving. When you activate tow/haul mode, it will change the shifts but it is still trying to balance fuel economy and power. If you want full power, take control of the transmission; it's easy, and GM will actually tell you that in your owners manual: "Shift the transmission to a lower gear selection if the transmission shifts too often". If that would have been done, it would have at least matched the Ford in time if not beat it. It was the best down the hill and would have been the best up the hill if operated properly...

First of all the Chevy did not truly have the coolest breaking!!! Did you guys forget the driver of of the Ford forgot to turn on the tow mode until partially into the Gaunlet, therefore the engine breaking was not engaged before the temp reading. So who knows what the Ford's temp would have been.

I notice that the F150 6.2L was missing. Hmm, wonder why Government Motors HAS to run their truck against a V-6 FORD truck? Oh, that's right, so it might have a chance of winning. ONCE. ROTFLMFAO@ GM!!!!!

Crack's me up that he had to keep pulling pedal on the FORD, to slow it down !! Meanwhile, in Super Chevy land, 460 lbs of torque kept diss-apearing somewhere, haha !!! ANY ONE who thinks the Chev's all that, must like GUTLESS !!

Just curious as to why they used the Ford Limited with a max tow rating of 7300. There are many other F-150 EB drivetrain options with much higher tow ratings.

Congratulations, you beat trucks with almost a liter less of displacement.

Nice looking Chevy. Too bad the government owns them now.

Ecoboost waxed that ass! No contest!

As a ford owner I find the braking performance of this truck impressive. This was the same result with the Ike Gauntlet 1.0 test. Its a shame the ford was not in tow haul mode. It would have been interesting to compare. Its funny because Ford use to advertise their braking performance. I remember that crazy commercial of them stopping a C-130 by throwing a F150 out the back and stopping the plane and truck with their brakes. What is chevy doing to get that braking performance, or is it just a configuration issue by the reviewers. I dont know about you, I rather have more whoa than go.

that ford has attractive headlights and is formed straight, incredible how the much smaller engine has more power with the turbos and it will be much fun to drive similar to a sportscar when it responds much quicker to the pedal. i would like the f-150 with the aluminium alloy body with a closed back as a RV (with a full size normal bed in it, a shower and a small kitchen).