This recent TV commercial is one more shot in the towing wars that have been going on between the “Big 3” for more than decades now, and it takes place in an extremely significant setting. That place is one of the most torturous highway grades in the United States when it comes to towing.

Sure, there are other highway grades that are steeper and longer, but none that exist in a location that also routinely experiences ambient air temperatures higher than 100 degrees. The Davis Dam Grade, just a handful of miles east of the California/Arizona state line, reaches for the sky like a rocket and climbs for dozens of miles in a scorchingly hot desert environment.

This grade is so demanding on trucks loaded to the hilt with cargo or trailers that it is used by many manufacturers to perform towing tests. The people who build trucks are not the only ones that come to the Davis Dam Grade for testing purposes. For years, automotive journalists (including this author) have been using this rigorous stretch of pavement to make their own decisions about the sturdiness and strength of a tow vehicle’s hauling capability.

However, probably the most impressive qualification of this testing arena is that the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) included this excruciating climb in its own testing parameters that make up the SAE J2807 “Performance Requirements for Determining Tow-Vehicle Gross Combination Weight Rating and Trailer Weight Rating.” You couldn’t ask for greater proof of the Davis Dam Grade’s certification as the ultimate tow testing environment.

It is in this very environment that the TV commercial above was created. So when you’re watching what takes place in this graphic demonstration of towing evaluation, remember that it’s being done in a place that many lesser vehicles have stumbled and failed.