TFL Truck of the year (Ike test) GMC Sierra

The GMC is also the best looking of the bunch.

I really liked the video and the results were pretty much what I expected. Nothing beats displacement when trying to slow down a load on a grade.
 
Saddle Tramp said:
Worse, the commenters are saying that TFL rigged the game by forgetting to hit the tow/haul mode on the Tundra.
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They had tow haul mode on, not just tow haul +.

Funny enough, that's the second time they forget to set it on the tundra, they even made a video specifically about it and it turned out that tow haul + was worse when coming down the mountain but had slightly better fuel economy when going up.

 
Fightnfire said:
Leave it to Toyota to have a super secret hidden in the menu Tow Haul + ...that doesn't really do anything.
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I don’t like putting my truck it tow haul plus.

It seems like it wants to make the engine lug and it upshifts really quickly to try to keep you in the torque curve band but it just makes you run out of oomph when speeding up since you’re always changing gears instead of building up speed. I also need to apply way more breaking when coming down a hill to have the engine braking come on.

I do not have any of those issues when using regular tow haul, it revs higher, builds a ton of boost and downshifts aggressively when coming down a hill.

It really seems like they inverted the programming of the tow haul modes, but at least the first mode is the best so it’s not really an issue.
 
I'll come to TFL's defense and say you can't imagine how stressful it is to do a towing video. I just did one on Friday and spent 3 hours hooking up a new hitch from Weigh Safe. Granted it took me that long to install the hitch, a GIGANTIC pain in the butt.

When doing these videos, you are trying to:
  • Get the truck hooked up
  • Figure out all the right settings for each truck
  • Make sure the load is balanced
  • Then, get your camera gear together including audio
  • Finally, tow the camper, show what you can on a secondary camera while talking calmly at the same time

Oh and watch out for other cars as well as try to pace my wife who is running another camera on her truck for rolling b-roll footage.

You do all of that and you really only get one run at it if I'm lucky especially this time of year with the weather and family commitments.

TFL is lucky they have a larger team to shoulder some of the responsibility. The one massive video I did a few years back with all 4 trucks was physically and mentally exhausting. I had all 4 trucks back to back and I remember I was literally worn out after that month.

It is so easy to miss things and you almost need a checklist. I often try to read the owner's manual the day before and really spend time planning the entire video. Now that I have a team helping out on other projects, I have more time to do that.

Ultimately, you do all that and forget something. It is just going to happen and the commenters won't ever acknowledge the difficulty of these videos, it is always that one mistake.
 
I figured TFL just did a human error that all people do. Nobody's perfect. (Which is why I LOL at comments on YT.) They do say it's, "Real world testing" after all. Forgetting things is definitely real world.

Fightnfire is right though. That feature should be readily accessible and not hidden behind tons of option on the screen.

What do you mean it's hard to set up, film and edit these videos? Don't you have three chase/camera cars, nine camera operators, the sound producers, and seven editors doing all the work for you like they did on Top Gear? 🤯:ROFLMAO:
 
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