Interesting question... Here's what I can tell you.
Up until the week before last, we had an'09 F250 with 6.8l V10 and 4.10 gears. Owned it for 7 years and we've towed all over heck and gone up and down the west coast mountains from CA to Jasper and once over to Utah & Nevada. The V10 never let me down and could always maintain 65 mph on any grade. No TT, FW or semi could pass me!
Unfortunately, the V10 bottom end exploded 5 hours from home with the TT behind. A mechanic deemed it was terminal and not worth repairing. A replacement V10 was almost impossible to find and the two we did were too expensive and that was before labor to install.
Luckily (very) we were heading to my BIL's house 5 minutes away from where we broke down. He owns an auto parts shop and hooked us up with a friend who had a nice '12 GM 2500 Sierra for sale. Has a 6.0 V8 and 4.10 gears. We needed a replacement truck to keep our camping season alive and to get the TT home. The price was too good to refuse so we snapped it up. Very few used 3/4 tons for sale in decent shape around here as many are now going to the US due to the $$ exchange and many are beat up work trucks.
The V10 is rated 362 HP & 457 ft-lbs while the V8 is rated 360 HP & 380 ft-lbs torque. The Sierra has the 6 speed.
Our TT is 7K lbs and 29'. On the way home, I had to tow up BC's infamous Coquihalla hwy - more than a 100 mile long mountain pass with grades between 6 & 8.5%. The V10 worked great on the Coq. hwy. Plenty of power/torque and no issues maintaining 65 mph (speed limit is 75 mph for cars & trucks).
However... The V8 struggled to maintain 65 on 6- 6.5% grades. As the grades got steeper i got slower and slower and at one point I was only able to make about 55 mph WOT. Quite disappointing! I even had quite a few loaded semis blow me away uphill.
Assuming both engines were putting out the advertised power & torque, the 82 less ft-lbs of the V8 makes a VERY noticeable difference. The tranny didn't seem to downshift as the truck slowed as the grades got steeper. The truck is new to me and I need to check the throttle position sensor. I'm not quite used to how the tow/haul and +/1 button on the column shift works yet and need to play with it. With the F250, I could just turn T/H on and get engine braking on downhill sections but the Sierra doesn't work the same way.
So it seems to me that torque matters. I already don't miss the F250 but sure miss it's torque! Don't know what kind of torque other 3/4 tons have these days? Sure don't want to pay 10s of thousands more $$ to get a diesel just for the torque. If we ever buy another truck to tow the same TT, I'm going to be looking very close at HP & torque numbers.
I have thought about installing a chip but google seems to say the gain isn't all that much and then you have to run high octane.
On payload, the F250 sticker said it was supposed to be 2800 lbs but after going to a scale, it was more like 2K lbs. It had a canopy which would have accounted for a bit but not sure where the rest went. It was a super cab 4x4 with 8' box. The 2500 Sierra is crew cab, 6.5' box, 4x4 and no canopy (yet). Has a sticker payload of 3K lbs but haven't gone across a scale yet.
I would much rather have a 2WD. They're 5-6" lower to the ground, less maintenance and with less weight of the drivetrain, have more payload cap. VERY hard to find a 3/4 ton with 2WD. I've never once needed the 4x4 anywhere.
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