At the start of the new car season, Chrysler Group LLC on Monday introduced its latest versions of the Ram 2500 and Ram 3500 Heavy Duty pickup trucks, claiming superior torque rating, payload capacity, and tow rating over rival heavy duty pickups from General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). In the war of specifications, Ram has the lead — for today.

The Ford Super Duty series of pickups claimed the lead in the torque sweepstakes with 860 ft-lbs, until Ram’s announcement yesterday. The new Ram claims a torque rating of 865 ft-lbs. The new Ram pickup’s payload capacity is 130 pounds more than the Ford’s and it can tow 3,300 pounds more than the Ford and 6,800 pounds more than a Chevy Silverado Heavy Duty pickup. The new Ram also beats the Chevy Silverado Heavy Duty truck by a mere 16 pounds in payload capacity, but it’s a beat nonetheless.

A blog post at Car and Driver sums it up:

[T]he thin victories for Ram are nevertheless huge in the pickup game, where bragging rights are incredibly important marketing tools.

Are the specs important to buyers or just to the marketers? One way to look at the continuing specsmanship battles is that they push the automakers almost continuously to make improvements. That’s generally good for consumers. But a difference of 5 ft-lbs. of torque and the payload improvement equal to the weight of a couple of sets of golf clubs hardly seems like a lot to shout about.

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