Are you trying to find a truck with the most towing power to get any job done? While there are many pickup trucks on the market, there are very few that you should consider if you plan on doing heavy amounts of towing. Between two of the most capable pickup trucks that we have this year, we’ve taken time to look deeper into the contest between the 2022 Ford F-250 vs 2022 GMC Sierra 2500HD. Not positioned as entry-level models, it’s easy to expect excellent performance out of these trucks, but they aren’t made equal, nor are they priced equal. With this in mind, let’s discuss which of these two trucks is the one for you if you’re planning on doing much towing.
Starting with the available trim levels and pricing, there are six available trim levels for the F-250 and five for the Sierra 2500HD. There’s more room for variability with the F-250 as the six trim levels span a wide range of prices. The 2022 F-250 starts at $35,200 for the base XL model, and the Sierra 2500HD starts at $36,700 for its base Pro trim. Now that we know that Ford’s offering costs less, that should theoretically mean that the Sierra 2500HD is a more performant vehicle, right? Not exactly, and we’ll explain how this is.
Ultimate Towing
Any way that you slice it, both of these vehicles are immensely powerful, and both are capable of towing more than 15,000 lbs. Are you someone who plans on bringing your truck to the workplace? Maybe you’re a hobbyist who needs plenty of power for various reasons? Both vehicles are positioned to spark interest in truck drivers everywhere. When the non-informed think of GMC or Ford trucks, they may think about the F-150 or the Sierra 1500. The truth is, those popular models are merely entry-level trucks. Yes, the F-250 and Sierra 2500HD aren’t the most powerful models in their respective lineups. However, the best value-to-performance can be found here with these three-quarter-ton trucks.
As far as the base models go, the F-250 has a 6.2L V8 dubbed that makes 385 hp and 430 lb-ft of torque paired with a 6-speed automatic transmission. If this is all you can realistically spring for, this is certainly a wonderful performer with a towing capacity of 15,800 lbs. The Silverado 2500HD, on the other hand, comes with a 6.6L V8 by default, and this also pairs with a 6-speed automatic transmission. This engine produces 401 hp and 464 lb-ft of torque and can tow up to 17,370 lbs, so it is more performant than the F-250’s base engine, but that’s where the Sierra’s superiority ends.
The second of the three engines for the F-250 is a monstrous 7.3L V8 dubbed “Godzilla.” This engine is capable of producing 430 hp and 475 lb-ft of torque, and it’ll come paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission. With this V8, the towing capacity of your F-250 will become 19,500 lbs. But not only does this engine allow for a higher towing capacity, it only adds a roughly $2,000 premium – an amazing deal when you consider that the available turbo-diesel engines in both trucks are over $10,000 options.
Even if you are willing to pay that premium, the best of the best that you can get with the Sierra 2500HD can’t compete with these towing numbers. GMC’s available Turbo-Diesel 6.6L V8 makes 445 hp and 910 lb-ft of torque but has a maximum towing capacity of just 18,510 lbs, which is a five percent decrease over the F-250’s much more affordable 7.3L gas engine. Godzilla more than lives up to its name, and is a major selling point for Ford’s three-quarter-ton truck.
With those two engines out of the way for the Sierra 2500HD, that leaves us with no further options from GMC, yet there’s still one highly performant engine on the F-250 that we’d like to discuss. We’re talking about the 6.7L Power Stroke Turbo-Diesel V8 that pairs with a 10-speed automatic transmission and creates 475 hp and 1,050 lb-ft of torque. Because of this large amount of torque, a diesel F-250 can tow upwards of 22,800 lbs at its best. Compared to the Silverado 2500HD’s maximum towing capacity of 18,510 lbs, the F-250 offers a 23% improvement in towing capacity when fully kitted out.
Towing Tech
These days, the ability to tow is only half the battle; the other half is making this task as stress-free as possible. This is accomplished nowadays with a slew of trailering tech that manufacturers have been implementing into their vehicles, and this is exactly what you’ll find with these two vehicles here. Starting with the Sierra 2500HD, there’s a trailering app that you can opt to have installed directly onto your infotainment center.
The metrics that you’d want to know about the most can be displayed on this trailering app, including temperatures and tire pressure. Additionally, the Sierra 2500HD uses an assortment of cameras both in the front and back of your truck to give you up to fifteen camera angles when towing. A unique camera view that you can access includes an optional in-trailer cam, and the cameras can also visualize a transparent trailer by combining the viewpoint from an available trailer-mounted camera.
The F-250 has many of the same functions, with all of the trailering tech being tailored to the SYNC 4 infotainment center. Like the Sierra 2500HD, the F-250 has many cameras situated across its exterior, and this allows for a wide range of camera angles, including an optional trailer-mounted camera. Overall, you can generally expect similar towing tech on both vehicles, but there’s one unique feature that we would like to discuss on the F-250.
One of the harder parts of towing is when you’re reversing your trailer. The F-250 aims to make this easy and mostly automated. With other trucks, backing up requires you to be very careful, and you have to learn how to master those obscure angles if you plan on getting anywhere with it. The way it works in the F-250, there’s a simple knob that you can turn to tell the truck which way you want to go, and the F-250 does all the calculations itself. This is one of the most valuable features of the F-250, and when you consider its inclusion of Lane Keep Assist, which nudges the vehicle back into its correct place on the road, it feels as if we’re getting one step closer to automated steering.
We Have Our Answer
For the ultimate towing experience, which of these two trucks is the one that you should go out and buy today? After everything that we’ve discussed today, the F-250 appears to be the better value this year. Not only can you get the base model for less money than the Sierra 2500HD, but the available options allow Ford’s model to outperform the Sierra 2500HD. Realistically, both of these trucks are pure competitors, but there’s much more potential with the F-250, and we feel that it will make your life easier, whether it’s at the workplace or assisting with your hobbies.
