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Ford F-450 claims best-in-class towing, company abandons practice of removing items to boost payload number

The ongoing heavy-duty truck battle between Ford and Ram is showing no signs of slowing down. The Blue Oval is trying to remove at least one point of contention between the two brands by testing its 2015 F-450 Super Duty using the Society of Automotive Engineers J2807 towing standard, which Ram also uses. In the new evaluation, the F-450 is rated at a max towing capacity of 31,200 pounds. That's an identical amount as under Ford's own, previous test.
"We leave no doubt with customers that the F-450 pickup truck has best-in-class towing of 31,200 pounds - whether tested using our own internal towing standards or SAE J2807," said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president for Global Product Development, in the company's release.
At the same time, Ford is also changing how it calculates the F-450's payload. Instead of using its minimum curb weight as before, the brand is now using the truck's base curb weight. The revision lowers the pickup's rating to 5,300 pounds, compared to 5,450 pounds previously. The company said in its announcement that the reason for this is "aligning its payload rating practices with other manufacturers to make it easier for customers to compare vehicles." General Motors made a similar switch for its pickups in August.

Raminator sets world record for fastest monster truck [w/video]

Monster trucks are made for a lot of things: crushing jalopies, jumping over jalopies, wowing spectators while crushing and jumping over jalopies, and so on. But powerful as they tend to be, monster trucks are not built for outright speed. Still, one has to be faster than another, and as it turns out, Raminator is the fastest of them all. Alongside Rammunition and the new Mopar Muscle, Raminator is one of three Ram-based monster trucks run by the Hall Brothers Racing Team with support from Chrysler. It's been named Truck of the Year by the Monster Truck Racing Association a record eight times, its driver Mark Hall has been named the association's Driver of the Year nine times and its crew chief Tim Hall its Mechanic of the Year five times. And now Raminator and the Hall Brothers have claimed the Guinness World Record for the fastest monster truck, recording a top speed of 99.10 miles per hour to break the previous record of 96.8 mph. The record was set at the Circuit of the Americas, the 3.4-mile track built on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, to host the United States Grand Prix. Aside from Formula One, the track has hosted endurance racing, touring cars and motorbikes, and while Raminator may not be the fastest vehicle ever to lap the circuit, it's surely one of the biggest. Scope out the video from the record run below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Raminator Monster Truck and Hall Brothers Racing Team Shatter Guinness World Records® Record: Fastest Speed for a Monster Truck America's fastest growing truck brand breaks speed record for monster trucks at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas December 15, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Raminator, a monster truck sponsored by the Ram Truck brand, has broken the Guinness World Records® record for the "Fastest Speed for a Monster Truck" at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Hitting a new record speed of 99.10 miles per hour (mph), Raminator and driver Mark Hall secured the Guinness World Records title at 8:44 a.m. (CT), breaking the previous record of 96.8 mph. As the fastest growing truck brand in America, the Ram Truck brand is a long time sponsor of the fastest Monster Truck, the Raminator. The Ram-sponsored monster truck lineup includes the 2014 Monster Truck Nationals Champion Raminator and Rammunition, sponsored since 2002. In 2014, Mopar also introduced Mopar Muscle; the monster truck it sponsors.

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