Sorry, but I'm not buying this.
I've gone clear through that video. What I see, in a nutshell, is a guy abusing his truck and providing documentary proof of it. Further, it proves nothing.
1) All you see on the video is this guy trying to keep up with another truck. His high temp warning from the DIC goes on. He keeps driving. His high temp audible alarm goes off. He keeps driving. Further, he's got the extra instrumentation to prove beyond a doubt that his temperature is too high. And he keeps driving, in the left lane, so anyone wanting to do the speed limit has to go around him. He's lucky he didn't get pulled over by a trooper. If I were a GM lawyer I would say, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what you see here is complete abuse of this man for his truck, which violates our warranty terms."
2) Now, let's talk about this "test." Here's a pretty hefty trailer. Not sure how much it weighs, but it is not insignificant--a bit more than your average boat trailer. It's a monster, 2,000 pounds minimum. Anybody know? Next we stick a medium-sized truck on it, backwards. Needless to say, it weighs way more than your average pickup. How much does the combo weigh? I don't know, but my guess is we're pushing the limits of the rated capacity. I wouldn't be the least surprised it's over, in which case see #1. In any case, I'm guessing the combo is close to 15,000 pounds.
3) That U-Haul is on the end of the trailer with its rear facing the wind. That is equvalent to taking a couple pieces of 4 x 8 board and pushing them through the air broadside at 60mph. Because of the nature of the trailer, that U-haul rear is 100% exposed to the wind and is doing a tremendous amount to slow that truck down. It's acting as an air brake, not as efficient as a parachute, but it's a lot more efficient than a flap on an airplane, which has the job of slowing the plane down. Same idea. If a flap did that, the plane would crash.
4) Enter, the Dodge. Don't know exactly what it is, don't know the year, don't know the HP, the torque, the rated capacity or anything at all--just guesswork. It's a Phantom Dodge. And it has a trailer tucked in behind it (or is that a camper?), and a free-wheeling jeep behind that. We've had testimony here that those trailers aren't that heavy. Any guesses? I say not over 5,000 pounds. How about the jeep? I'm thinking 2500 pounds max. Could be 2,000. It's not like it's a Grand Cherokee. It's a small Wrangler type two seater. Of course, the trailer could be loaded with lead bricks, but we don't have that information. It could be empty, too. So the weight the Phantom Dodge is hauling is roughly half that of the Duramax. That's a guess, of course, but given the lack of data, my guess is just as valid as your guess.
5) What about drag on the Dodge? The trailer is close in. It might be a couple of feet above the cab, so that will take some wind, but most of it is sheltered by the truck itself. It's front is rounded specifically to cut down on drag. Compare that to the broadside U-Haul completely exposed to the wind. Wind tunnel tests show (and they've been linked on this site somewhere in the past) that the front of the truck takes the brunt of the wind and pushes it to the side and above. The truck bed gets almost nothing (meaning a cover or open tailgate doesn't help your mileage), and that jeep get's zilch because it's tucked behind the trailer out of the way, free-wheeling, by the way. I could pull that jeep with a Ford Ranger. In terms of overall drag, the Dodge is way more efficient than the Chevy. In terms of aerodynamics, it is way more efficient just because of the way it's loaded. It has nothing to do with 'being a Dodge.' On the Chevy the wind hits the front, gets bounced up and to the sides, and comes back together well before it hits the U-haul. In other words, you've got 100% exposure of the U-Haul to the wind.
6) So what you have here in a Dodge towing half the weight of the Chevy in a much more efficient manner. An aeronautical engineer should be able to work out the drag coefficients mathematically for these two loads. I am quite sure that if this were done it would blow this issue out of the water. Given all the unknowns of this video, it should be blown out of the water already. There's no proof here of anything except a guy whining about his truck as he beats it.
Now, it may be this guy did get $30K from GM. There's no evidence that he did not, but as I said last post, I'd sure like to see the court documents on this. Was it a jury trial? Was there a settlement prior to going to trial? Were there any other arguments? What was the 'point of law' that won this case? It may be that GM thought it worthwhile to just give this guy $30K than go to the expense of going to trial. "and he got to keep the truck." Then what's the point? I thought he didn't like it! But this video couldn't possibly have proven the case. And compared to class action suits that attempt to prove a defective product (where the lawyers get most of the money), $30K is a drop in the bucket. There has to be more to the issue than that.
