Now in its second year the Canadian Truck King Challenge is a non-partisan pickup truck testing event that is put on and judged by Canadian automotive journalists from across the country. This year we had judges from as far a field as Alberta and Quebec as well as our first civilian judges. Collectively they spent over 200 hours testing these trucks as well as driving over 4400 km in the next three days. (The same as driving from Toronto to Vancouver)
Why do we do it? Because there is a pickup truck culture; one that appreciates the work ethic and admires ability. This requires that trucks be tested differently than cars and till this event came along that just was not happening on this scale. It's also become obvious that this information is particularly valued in businesses that depend on fleets of pickup trucks - and few are as tough on them as the primary industries in Canada. Forestry, Farming, Mining, Oil and Aggregates use a lot of trucks and for them the kind of testing we do is more to the point than deciding which interior to buy. As much as we can we try to replicate the needs of truck buyers by towing, loading and running them off-road. And, we even spend time going through every flip n' fold option to discover just where you can put a laptop and a pair of muddy boots.
This was how I felt and what I thought needed to be done - as it turned out - its how the manufacturers felt as well. For them this event is also about winning sales in one of the largest (and most lucrative) markets in North America. In this game the stakes are as high as two and a half million unit sales annually.
Every year brings a different field of trucks to our test site in the Kawarthas but this year saw the drop of the all-new Toyota Tundra, arguably the first full-size pickup Toyota has built, and an across the board revamp of the whole GM pickup fleet. This would be the first time the new GMT900 trucks would be tested head to head and with a new Tundra elbowing in for market share. And it would turn out to be a fight. Also in the running would be the Super Duty Fords (including an F450) and Dodge, though getting long in the tooth, still fielded five trucks covering the midsize through the one-ton category. Nissan (which probably had the least to offer - as far as "new" goes) also competed in the hotly contested -ton segment. Twenty-three trucks in all were entered.
Missing from this year's lineup was Honda. The Ridgeline did competed last year, without winning its class, but the company did not respond to this year's invitation to attend. Also absent for the second year was Mazda. They have been invited and have never responded. We think that's a shame because the B-series trucks, which remain popular as one of the last compact pickups still in this market, would make a good addition to the under V6 midsize category. Mazda apparently does not agree with us.
The first day of the Challenge was taken up with eight judges driving each of the 23 entries empty on the 15-kilometer unburdened loop. This drive consists of gravel road, poorly maintained asphalt county road and finally a two-lane secondary highway. Where possible groups of judges took the corresponding trucks in each category out - so as to drive them back to back in this first evaluation. Even now, looking at my simple description, it seems unbelievable that it took us close to 10 hours each that first day to get through those loops.
With the rain still pelting us intermittently as Wednesday dawned it was decided to stay off the 4x4 course till the last possible hour as the mud would cause problems for all the trucks. Instead we went to work on the payload and towing exercises. This year we happened to have a new 2008 Jeep Wrangler on hand which we loaded onto the twin-axle North Trail trailer that served as our tow test for the HD class of trucks. The tare weight on this 18-foot trailer is 2000 lb and the Jeep weighed in at almost 5000 lb for a total of 7000 lb. A decent load for the HD trucks.