Best 4WD off road truck value

[Calson]

With the ongoing electrical problems (on my 4th battery in 3 years) of my 2022 F-150 truck I started looking at Ram and Chevy trucks to buy to replace the Ford. Ram has significant and dangerous problems with its eTorque engines that can have the "module" fail and the truck stops suddenly as it does when the Ram auto stop start system fails which can be in an intersection or on the freeway in traffic. That left me with the Chevy Silverado 1500 trucks.

Checking on Chevy I learned that the 2025 trucks come standard with the Eaton locking rear differential. The Z71 off road package includes the usual shocks and tires upgrade and equipment shields, and it also provides full time four wheel drive with its Autotrac two speed transfer case. This option currently adds only $730 to the price for the new 2025 trucks.

My F-150 truck's battery is dead after two days with a 40% discharge rate overnight. Starter batteries are not designed for deep discharges and doing so damages the battery - which is why I have had to replace the battery three times in the past 3 years. The inability of the dealer to troubleshoot the problem is why my truck's mileage is less than 9,000 miles after 3 years. By far it is the least reliable vehicle I have owned in my life. Too many new features like the onboard generator and not enough in the way of engineering.

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[JExpedition07]

Lower trim Ford with FX4 will be a far better value than what you’ll find with GM, I cross shopped them. Ford is much better with a la carte options and does not gate keep anything on lower trims. To get Ford level power on a GM you need to spend $65,000 or more to get the 6.2L in a minimum RST spec truck. They offered nothing competitive to my $50,000 F-150. The locker on my STX was a $420 option standalone. I was very disappointed GM offered nothing competitive in the $50,000-$60,000 price range. Until they make the 6.2 selectable on low trims they simply aren’t competitive in this space.

I optioned the 5.0 V8 for $2400 (gets you 400 HP) the locking axle for $420, my sticker was $50,490 for a 4x4 with locking axle 400 HP V8 truck. I would challenge anyone to try and build a competitive Chevrolet product and bet money you cannot. Same applies to an XLT albeit a higher starting point.

 

[Larrymoe]

With the ongoing electrical problems (on my 4th battery in 3 years) of my 2022 F-150 truck I started looking at Ram and Chevy trucks to buy to replace the Ford. Ram has significant and dangerous problems with its eTorque engines that can have the "module" fail and the truck stops suddenly as it does when the Ram auto stop start system fails which can be in an intersection or on the freeway in traffic. That left me with the Chevy Silverado 1500 trucks.

Checking on Chevy I learned that the 2025 trucks come standard with the Eaton locking rear differential. The Z71 off road package includes the usual shocks and tires upgrade and equipment shields, and it also provides full time four wheel drive with its Autotrac two speed transfer case. This option currently adds only $730 to the price for the new 2025 trucks.

My F-150 truck's battery is dead after two days with a 40% discharge rate overnight. Starter batteries are not designed for deep discharges and doing so damages the battery - which is why I have had to replace the battery three times in the past 3 years. The inability of the dealer to troubleshoot the problem is why my truck's mileage is less than 9,000 miles after 3 years. By far it is the least reliable vehicle I have owned in my life. Too many new features like the onboard generator and not enough in the way of engineering.

Do you keep taking it back to the same dealer?

 

[Scoobtay]

I’d say you need to find a different dealer (or go to a different type of battery). I had battery issues too, 18 months ago… haven’t had an issue since, even valet parking it for 5 days in freezing temps. Also PB.

FWIW, you can’t see anything out of a Ram, and the Chevy’s feel dog slow in comparison to any of the EB F-150’s

 

[JumboJVT]

Lower trim Ford with FX4 will be a far better value than what you’ll find with GM, I cross shopped them. Ford is much better with a la carte options and does not gate keep anything on lower trims. To get Ford level power on a GM you need to spend $65,000 or more to get the 6.2L in a minimum RST spec truck. They offered nothing competitive to my $50,000 F-150. The locker on my STX was a $420 option standalone. I was very disappointed GM offered nothing competitive in the $50,000-$60,000 price range. Until they make the 6.2 selectable on low trims they simply aren’t competitive in this space.

I optioned the 5.0 V8 for $2400 (gets you 400 HP) the locking axle for $420, my sticker was $50,490 for a 4x4 with locking axle 400 HP V8 truck. I would challenge anyone to try and build a competitive Chevrolet product and bet money you cannot. Same applies to an XLT albeit a higher starting point.

This is what I found leading up to my recent order of an XLT. Of course looking at MSRP may not tell the whole story about OTD prices.

 

[Calson]

Full time 4WD with Ford is available only with the Tremor and the Raptor. With the Tremor the two two-speed Automatic AWD is included in the Tremor High (402A) Equipment Group that adds $11,700 to the MSRP for the truck. For the 2025 Silverado 1500 trucks it is in the $730 Z71 package.

After 4 batteries and still not being able to simple go and start the truck it will be a big relief to have the Chevy truck. I found youtube videos about batteries being drained overnight that go back 20 years. With the Chevy turning off the ignition stops the engine but does not turn off the electrics. With my truck when the new battery was installed yesterday when attaching the terminal connectors there was an immediate sound of solenoids being activated.

I wanted the features with the F-150 but did not appreciate the tradeoff was having a dead battery in the morning. With the 50 amp drain my 1.5 amp hour battery maintainer was not up to the task.

 

[zx6roclet]

Those chevys eat lifters like crazy.

My buddy has a 21 6.2 with 24000 miles and the engine has been rebuilt by Chevy 2 times now. Each time every part for the rebuild was in stock. That’s how often they are rebuilding those valve trains.

Another friend with an 18 just grenaded his 5.3 at 62000 miles. Dropped a lifter and had to pay 4600 out of pocket for rebuild.

If you get a Chevy day 1 you need to bypass the cylinder deactivation, it eats their engine.

 

[Calson]

My Ford 3.5L has a battery drain of 40 amps overnight and so eats batteries and needs to be put on a charger each morning. And based on the hundreds of posts about this problem I am not alone. My truck's new battery is currently being charged as last night it was at 97% SOC and this morning it was at 60% SOC. I will be so very happy to drop it off at the Chevy dealer this afternoon where I took a $6,000 hit with their trade-in amount.

Every manufacturer has a engine with defects and that includes the infamous Ford diesels and the first generation of Chevy Traverse had engine lubrication problems that were dealt with for the 2018 and newer vehicles (and I owned a 2018). The problem is that few people distinguish between model years when spitting up comments about problems.

There are many websites, including www.carcomplaints.com, where people can check the history by model and model year and learn about which ones to avoid. I used this to decide against a Ram truck with their eTorque engine and the problem exists with their newest trucks as well and is more than a maintenance and repair issue as the trucks will stall out in the middle of an intersection or on the freeway.

A problem that could kill the driver and their passengers is at a higher level of concern for me. It is why I avoided driving my F-150 for 18 months while I waited for the wiper motor to be replaced. It is why I sold my Chevy Duramax as it would go into limp mode with the top speed limited to 55 mph which was is very dangerous when having to merge with semi tractor trailer rigs traveling at 70+ mph on the highway.

 

[Dizz]

Best of luck with your GM adventure
I hope you tried a couple different dealers on the Ford issue I

 

[JohnMcClane]

Do you keep taking it back to the same dealer?

It’s rhetorical isn’t it?

 

[JExpedition07]

See you in the rear view mirror friend

 

[Gros Ventre]

Did you put in a non-Ford battery? Or let the dealer keep installing Ford batteries... If not go out and get a good non-Ford battery. I'm partial to NAPA.

 

[24Carbon150]

Getting rid of your post covid truck (2022’s in several brands have a lot of issues) and switching brands because of a battery failure issue seems pretty extreme. GM’s really do suck, the 5.3 is a dog both In performance and towing. The 6.2 really needs premium fuel and they have been cratering with regularity. The Ram does not have Etorque issues as a whole and they are better priced right now than both GM’s and Fords with all the discounts but the new TT engine gets pretty poor fuel mileage and has already exhibited some growing pain issues they haven’t hashed out. If you can’t deal with your battery issue or fix it, then try another F150.

 

[zx6roclet]

[/QUOTE]

See you in the rear view mirror friend

I currently have another 25 5.0 rental with a 3.31 rear end. This thing ain’t leaving anything in the rearview, it’s a dog. So miss my 3.5 3.73

 

[JExpedition07]

I currently have another 25 5.0 rental with a 3.31 rear end. This thing ain’t leaving anything in the rearview, it’s a dog. So miss my 3.5 3.73
[/QUOTE]
I’m too cool, young, muscular, and sexy to drive a V6, hard pass for me. If you’re an old fart I suppose it’ll get you by ?

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