Within a day of receiving this truck, my kids named it Clifford. As you may or may not recall, Clifford is the hero of a series of children’s books in the form of an amiable family dog, he happens to be extremely red and extremely large but also extremely well tempered. It’s the first time that the kids have named any of our vehicles, let alone one that we were merely fostering for a week after FCA dropped it off for me.
But such was the truck that it was difficult not to like. Much like Clifford the dog, there were times when it was a little frustrating or more than what was needed, but overall a ride in the truck was a good time and welcomed by all. Whether it took us all to the County Fair (it did) or to the Post Office (that too), or out to look at some land in the boonies served by unpaved roads, it was unflappable.
This truck is a little different from many of the media vehicles in that while it was still a 2500 series Heavy Duty truck, it was the base Tradesman version, albeit with one very comprehensive and expensive option package, that being the Power Wagon Package. Usually the test vehicles seem to have every possible option, so this was refreshing.
As a Tradesman level truck this one had cloth seats, a minimal 5″ infotainment screen, no phone chargers or plugs in the back row, no heated seats or steering wheel, no dial or buttons for various 4WD system options, only partially powered mirrors (the big portion), six passenger seating via the flip and fold center front seat/armrest combo, no center console, only one camera, very minimal “nanny” devices and not much else, certainly not as compared to the 3500 Dually from a few weeks ago. But you know what? It didn’t need all that extra stuff.
What it did include in this case was the Crew Cab format with oodles of passenger space both front and rear and a 6’4″ bed, the standard Heavy Duty 6.4liter Hemi V8 Engine (410hp, 429lb-ft of torque), an 8-speed transmission, the ability to tow 17,130 pounds of your favorite junk, a floor-mounted manual transfer case lever like your grandpappy used to use (or your teenage daughter in her Jeep Wrangler), power windows and locks and not much else. Base price is listed at $39,850 in the above format and likely to be lower once you step on the lot of your favorite dealer.
Oh, and that major Power Wagon option? For $7,995 (20% !) that gets you the bigger 17×8″ black wheels with 285/70-17 Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac All Terrain tires, a 4.10 axle ratio as opposed to the standard 3.73, chrome bumpers, fender flares, fog lights, an electrically disconnecting stabilizer bar, a 12,000lb capacity WARN electric winch with a remote controller, Bilstein performance shocks, tow hooks, some skid plates, and Tru-Lok (electrically locking) front and rear diffs.
Some (a lot of that stuff actually) is available for quite a bit less with judicious juggling and choosing of optional items rather than just going for the whole package. In true U.S. truck form, spending a little time on the RAM “Build and Price” website is lots of fun but an easy way to simply make hours of an evening disappear.
I fibbed a little above, this truck did have a few other little options, the main ones being the Tradesman Level 2 Equipment Package which for $995 gets you the cloth seats as opposed to vinyl, the split front seat, carpeting instead of vinyl flooring, rear defroster and power sliding rear window, remote keyless entry and satellite radio.
For under a grand, those are well worthwhile if you are driving this instead of your employee. It also had the spray in bedliner, a tonneau cover, some bed lighting, trailer-tow mirrors and the rear park assist system; all told that added another $1700 or so. In sum, this particular one rang up at $52,450 including destination charges bit before any discounts etc.
I will say I felt a little self-conscious driving this rig, while I did like the bright “Flame Red” exterior color (one of two no-charge colors, the other being white; but there are 29 color options in total!), I’m not a big fan of black wheels, but overall think RAM did a great job with the styling vs the intended market. For once here is a VERY capable truck able to move five or six people in comfort, and able to traverse very rough ground with minimal worries. Think oil-patch worker. Or perhaps rancher.
Of course the downside of that capability is evident as well when it isn’t being used for that. This truck sits higher than many others and getting in without any steps or running boards, well, I somehow mastered the heave-ho lateral/vertical jump needed to get my 215 pounds behind the wheel. My youngest son looked more like he was trying to get out of the pool without a ladder as he clambered in, and my 5’2″ wife, well, let’s just say that if I was married to Britney Spears (I’m not), the paparazzi would have been camped out at our house all week as there was no graceful way for her to enter or exit and wardrobe malfunctions were a distinct possibility.
On smooth pavement it rides great (duh), but on some of our concrete interstates a pitching and bobbing motion due to the empty back end quickly became very tiresome and had me jiggling like Jell-O. Of course that’s my fault for loading myself up instead of the truck and driving it empty, can’t really fault the (work) truck for that, even with its coil rear suspension.
Gravel roads were good as well as far as the ride goes, the ones I drove on were fairly well graded with minimal washboarding, speeds of around 50mph were easy and felt quite stable, with the exception of hearing the odd rock go pinging around somewhere due to the tires.
The 6.4liter engine lets out a magnificent growl on startup, and moves this truck with authority. While no rocket, it never felt lacking in power. The transmission is a peach, shifts were imperceptible, and it never felt like it was “hunting”, just seemed to be in the right gear and not something to be thought about. This time I drove more in town than on the highway (70/30 or so?), and averaged just under 15mpg.
In town the mileage was poor and when on the highway at over 70mph it was difficult to get it out of the high teens as well, likely due to the lifted aspect and the large wheels and tires. At speeds around 60-65mph with a very gentle foot it seemed to return over 20mpg though especially as the engine went into 4-cylinder mode which was imperceptible aside from the little dashboard light.
As an aside, the tires were not loud at highway speeds at all, but were faintly noticeable at around town (40mph) speeds as a slight hum. Nothing overly objectionable, I’ve been wanting to see how Duratracs performed from a noise level perspective and this was a good opportunity to do so with tires that had just over 10,000 miles on them (as did the truck, of course).
Inside, while not as luxurious as some of the other RAMs, is still an exceptionally nice place to be. I made a point of touching more of the plastic pieces than I usually would, and while they are mostly hard, they don’t look that way. RAM has finally figured out (alone among the big three) how to make or buy plastics that LOOK and FEEL rich.
Years ago I read somewhere in a book, (perhaps a Lexus history?), about plastics and the difference between good looking hard plastics and cheap hard plastics is the addition of various amounts of talc and a little bit of money. If that’s the case, these pieces used a lot of it, they looked good, way better than what Ford or GM are offering, and worth every penny spent.
The seat fabric is another case in point – this fabric, while undoubtedly durable, feels and looks good. (My pictures do not do it or the plastics justice). Not shiny, not coarse, but with good hand feel and excellent texture I’d be happy to ride on this fabric for the rest of my life. The rest of the interior had everything you need, and nothing you don’t, i.e. a couple of charge ports and a few cupholders in front and the infotainment was the smallest on offer at RAM, with a small but capable 5″ screen.
Once set to my favorite satellite station, I didn’t mess with it too much besides getting my phone to sync with it in order to use the Bluetooth for phone calls (excellent sound quality in that mode in both directions). The speakers though were quite good, or perhaps just quite loud, I had no problem playing whatever I wanted (Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega/DNA in this case) at much higher volumes than I usually would.
Oh, and the shift knob? Second nature by the end of the week and puts itself in park by itself if you push the ignition button off. If anything this is even more out of the way than the column lever version.
As is probably obvious, overall I did like this “base” version a lot. It was excellent to use, will likely keep a lot of its value, and isn’t overboard with stuff to break down the road. If I needed a 2500 (and I don’t), this might be the way I’d equip it, or perhaps I’d actually skip the Power Wagon Package and just get a regular 4WD one and save a lot of money, the basic package is just that good.
After sampling the 3500 and now the 2500, I’m really itching to try the 1500, preferably with the e-Torque V6. Or maybe I’m not as I think it would probably end up being the Goldilocks truck for my own use case and I don’t need a car/truck payment…Clifford was great for a week, but for me in the long run something a little more relaxed would be preferred. You, though, might think different, and you could do a lot worse than this RAM 2500 (and hardly better).
Related Reading:
2019 RAM 3500 Limited Crew Cab 4×4
2019 RAM 2500/3500 HD Intro-Sampler
There’s a lot of problems with this truck. Big, heavy, expensive, not too fuel-efficient. I like it a lot. If FCA offered the Power Wagon/Tradesman configuration with the 1500, it would make me very interested as a replacement and for my Tacoma. With the gas V6 or maybe … maybe … even the EcoDiesel. I’m still a little skeptical about long term reliability, but at least there’s a RAM dealer in my town.
My uncle drives a giant red RAM 3500 dually that used to haul livestock trailers. It’s a current generation model and is one of the silliest things I’ve ever seen. I work in the concrete industry and am used to guys driving their massive trucks to and from work.
In a sea of lifted Rams, Silverados, and F150’s, his sticks out like a sore thumb! Especially because it’s parked next to a slightly lifted 1970’s C-10. It’s amazing how far trucks have come in 50 years
The market for this, with or without the Power Wagon package (a wonderful name I’m glad FCA is recycling), is likely much bigger than for the 3500 you recently had. A 3/4 ton does hit a sweet spot of sorts between towing ability and maneuverability.
Agreed on price; for giggles I just spec’d out a 3/4 ton crew cab for $44k that was about what a person truly could use most of the time. A regular cab came in at $38k.
About the ride quality when unloaded on concrete pavement….a gentleman I know is a member of a multi-state highway research consortium. Some time ago I asked him about the bouncing effect (affect?) on concrete highways as I’ve noticed it in several different pickups. He said this has proven itself to be a challenge as the joint spacing typically used on concrete highways is 30 feet. He told me they have noticed on pickups with longer wheelbases, beginning with pickups simply having extended cabs, is the combination of wheelbase and this 30 foot joint spacing creates a harmonic that the driver notices. He said this is not an issue on pavements with 15 foot or 60 foot joint spacing. However, pavements with that joint spacing are overkill, thus more money (15 foot) or sometimes insufficient (60 foot).
Keep in mind these joints are for expansion during temperature changes and in many cases are simply saw cuts made after the concrete is poured. So there no actual bump in most instances.
So I’d say it’s a function of the road, oddly enough, not of your driving it unloaded. However, having it loaded would have camouflaged the harmonic to a certain degree. He said it’s weird how this same pavement can be glass smooth for those in a passenger car but it isn’t if the wheelbase is within a certain range.
Overall, it sounds like a great pickup. Like you I don’t need a 3/4 ton but it looks like that is one of the few ways to get a regular cab pickup from your FCA dealer.
The thing with joints and wheelbase is interesting.
I agree — absolutely fascinating. Too bad there’s not federal funding out there somewhere for upgrading highways to 15′ joint spacing… that would get support from motion-sick car passengers everywhere.
The market for this, with or without the Power Wagon package (a wonderful name I’m glad FCA is recycling), is likely much bigger than for the 3500 you recently had. A 3/4 ton does hit a sweet spot of sorts between towing ability and maneuverability.
Most farmer’s pickups around me are ¾ ton units, leaning heavily toward Fords with probably an even split between Chevy and RAM. And more than often either a single cab longbed or an extended cab longbed, usually sporting a diesel pump tank to refill farm tractors in the field.
For price comparison, I hunted out the sticker for my ’15 RAM 2500 Tradesman 4×4/5.7l/single cab longbed. Base price was $34,630 (with destination) and my truck had the Snow Chief Group (180 amp alternator, aux circuit switches, skid plate), Power & Remote Entry, “Popular Equipment” (basically cloth seats and carpet), electric shift-on-fly transfer case, tow mirrors, 18×8 steel wheels and a rear view camera. All that brought the total (with destination) to $37,415. I paid $33,455 (before T/T) as it was a year old truck with ~700 miles that a Chicago dealer had used to plow several of their lots.
Like you, I love that they’re using the Power Wagon name again, which I adopted on my truck after doing the upgrades I’ve mentioned in previous comments on the recent RAM truck posts.
I haven’t noticed the expansion joint harmonics, but since my truck has the stiffest springs available (to carry a snow plow), it goes airborne if I hit a dime in the road (and I can tell what year it was minted, too!).
At any rate, it fits my use case well, and I’ll keep it as long as we live where I need to haul large, heavy stuff on occasion. Pic is from the week I bought it, pre-mods.
Clifford The Big Red Dod! Wait, it’s not a Dod anymore. Oh well.
It would be interesting to sample the total strippo. Sorry, I guess I’m old enough that anything with power windows is well equipped.
The idea that anything other than red and white is extra cost is interesting. I get the white, but why red of all colors for the second option?
I find it hard to think of anything sold here that doesnt have power window locks AC etc, roll up windows are reserved for the back of some European cars of the 90s, but the last car I had with manual windows was built in 91 and classed as a van, apparentlt Japanese delivery slaves could roll their own.
Red would be a non-metallic colour, and all others metallic/pearl/etc. It’s reasonably common.
Interesting review Jim, and like others this is similar to how I would equip one given the need, although I’d also probably not need the PW stuff.
Does the base model really have a one-piece bench? Haven’t seen one of those in a new car/ute for about 20 years.
Sorry if I was unclear on the seat. It is a 40/20/40 split bench seat on the base model too but it’s covered in “work grade” vinyl. The option list specifies that the option is for a “cloth 40/20/40 split bench”
Red must be for the Nebraska market. Drive through there sometime and it’s like EVERY. DAMN. PICKUP. IS. RED. If the Huskers changed their team color to purple you’d think it’s 1987 again on the highways and every truck maker would have a purple.
It seems that whenever I shop around for a new vehicle, I longingly eye pickups, and one equipped similar to this one (though not a 2500) would be the sweet spot for me — cloth seats, basic convenience items, etc., but not the ostentatious stuff. I found it interesting to read this review, because like you noted, nearly all pickup reviews are of fully equipped models (actually all car reviews in general — it’s awfully hard to find reviews of any car that’s not fully loaded).
If I actually had a consistent use for a pickup, I think I’d spec one similar to this, though I think I’d also skip the Power Wagon package. And my view of Ram has improved a great deal in recent years too… not long ago I’d never have considered a Dodge pickup; now it would likely be at the top of my list.
And about the pitching and bobbing motion, it reminds of friends we have who own a 3/4-ton pickup because he’s a contractor. They rarely take the truck on family trips, though, because the highway manners make everyone nauseous over a long journey. Definitely something to keep in mind before actually one.
I find it hard to believe why 99% of ordinary mortals would want something like this. Much less shell out twice what it cost me to build my entire house, not that long ago.
There are estimated to be 7.7billion ordinary mortals walking around earth currently. Even if only 1% of mortals want this, that still makes 77 million people which is FAR beyond RAM’s sales projections, let alone capacity. I think they would be very pleased to sell a tiny fraction of that.
I’d like to see this house that you built for $25,000 and have to wonder how “not that long ago” that really was. I’m a fan of “tiny houses” and just don’t see it… Setting aside land cost, a normal house with a foundation in an average place would cost around $250/square foot to build, not including the land. This truck may be roomier than the house (?)
Jim, no offense on the truck if you like it. But as to building your own house, you might be surprised how little it costs if you, the owner, do most of the work yourself. The house I am referring to was 1050 sf, not big, but not “tiny”.
The reason houses cost so much today is that they are part of an alternative stock market, America’s primary “investment” venue. Builders build to the market, owners upgrade to the market, flippers flip to the market. Build, enlarge, flip, upgrade, adorn . . . .the syndrome keeps rising . . . until it collapses. Just like the stock market.
Meanwhile basic building materials have not risen much in decades.
Most people would be astounded how cheap it is to actually build their own home. Like our forefathers did.
(The real problem today is finding a jurisdiction where you can do it yourself. But that’s another story).
You can build your own home here in Colorado, i.e. you can act as your own General Contractor if you live in the home. Not bad if you really built a 1000sqft house that meets building codes etc for $25k on land you owned. Dabbling in it myself and using my own labor I for sure see huge savings in DIY if you have the time and that time isn’t more productively or necessarily spent otherwise which is likely the problem most people have. Same as fixing your own car…
In most jurisdictions around here you’ll eat up a good chunk of that $25,000 before you can even get started.
It was actually $22,500 including the septic system.
I emphasized premium materials (plywood sheathing, not OSB, metal roof, hardwood floors on first floor, cedar shingle siding, etc.) but eliminated most of the fancy appliances, entertainment centers, HVAC systems, communication/information interfaces, smart technologies and so forth that eat energy and seem to be expected in today’s homes. Definitely no stainless steel cladding, granite countertops or crystal chandeliers!
It was a quality small home intentionally sized so that one (occasionally two) people could handle the heavy parts (meaning rafter spans, wall heights, etc).
Given today’s runaway housing prices, for many of us, even acknowledging the time involved, it is a very productive way to build wealth.
I think it is worth mentioning the sticker prices of these trucks, which are mainly used to motivate the driver and occasionally do other things. I see younger folks all the time driving trucks like this. A 1500 truck in Canada is now upwards of C$55,000 plus tax. That is sixty large out the door. The truck featured here is $70,000 plus tax. This must be a lot of money for the average working stiff. I am not an average working stiff and the C$30k I spent of my Golf seemed like an enormous extravagance to me.
Yet I see them all over the place. There are even two at my complex, driven by young man. It reminds me a lot of circa 2005, when everyone was getting bigger and bigger trucks and SUVs and then it all went “pop” and it was gone.
The vehicle featured gets 15 mpg. If fuel prices were to double, that would really matter.
I did mention the sticker price in paragraphs 5-9, base is US$39something. Presumably your neighbors can afford the note and are either creditworthy enough or perhaps they paid cash. Maybe they work in tech or don’t have other payments or obligations that some other people do. Or maybe they do and figure this is how they want to spend their money. Not my place to tell them not to. They possibly figure $30k for a Golf is a comparative waste of money too, you should ask them 🙂 There are a LOT of young people out there that have earned a lot of money and are spending it, they are all over Vancouver. I probably should have studied computers and coding instead of reading Car&Driver during class in high school…
At 15mpg if a driver drives 15,000 miles a year they buy 1000 gallons of gas. My current local price is under $2.50/gallon. If it doubles that driver now pays an extra $2500/yr. Likely they wouldn’t care, it’s an irrelevant amount in the grand scheme of things if you’re able to swing a $39k base truck. It’s almost as likely that fuel prices could get cut in half again, then what? It was good to be young once and have fun…
Hey Jim, some of us did study C&D AND coding. Then again, I drive a Buick Encore, so I guess we know which side took hold more in those years.
Jim, if someone holds a different opinion than yours, there is no need to insult that person.
You have no idea what I do, Jim. You don’t know how much money I make.
I was working on a couple of CC pieces. I don’t think I will continue.
What part of that comment did you feel was consciously intended to be personally insulting?
Don’t you ever get tired of posting from that same script over and over again? The owners of those trucks don’t care what you think, and you’re fooling yourself if you think anyone here does, either.
Yes, I see those “same” comments a lot of times and get tired of it, namely the trucks exported to Europe. Ironically, those trucks aren’t bigger than the biggest delivery vans from Mercedes-Benz, Iveco, etc. They’re for a niche group of people who either want to show off or have real use for them (mostly in the Scandinavian countries).
I lived in Texas for twenty years and could see the real need for bigger and meatier trucks, especially in the rural areas where you would go for miles without seeing any souls. Not every rural road is paved.
What lot of naysayers doesn’t realise is that the cost of buying and operating work trucks is partially tax deductible as business expense.
Yes, heaven forbid anyone have a different opinion to yours, right?
Easy now. No one ever said that. We’re just wondering what you think you’re accomplishing by constantly saying the same thing on every truck-related article. Yeah, they cost a lot–but how does what other people choose to buy affect you negatively? Yeah, MPG is lousy–but how good are you honestly expecting from a 410-hp gas HD pickup?
I appreciate that my friends have different musical taste than I do. However, I (and everyone else) would strenuously object to someone playing the same song. Every. Single. Time.
These LWB Dodge pickups start at well over 100k here, but there are quite a few about, though most that I see are LHD used imports rather than fresh from the box, slightly cheaper to buy though the fuel bill remains the same, my wallet couldnt stand the strain even if I could find a regular use for one.
I would call this Ram the medium wheelbase, as Ram HDs only come in 140″ (regular cab/8′), 149″ (crew cab/6.5′), and 169″ (crew cab/8′) wheelbases.
Please stop these new-pickup reviews, or frankly any future new car reviews. There are many venues that do new car reviews far better. I feel they are downgrading the experience on curbside classics, and are off-mission for what draws me here. I much prefer to hear people’s personal stories/life stories with their cars or experiences/info with historic vehicles. These reviews do not spawn great vehicular recollections. Drop them now.
PF – I do appreciate your concern, and rest assured that we will not likely make new vehicles our overarching priority here at CC, however new vehicles are of interest to a large portion of our readership. All new vehicles eventually become old vehicles and all old vehicles featured on this site were once new in a showroom somewhere.
I’d like to point out a fact – Of the 28 stories/features we published last week, only this one was about a brand new vehicle.
While I rarely check the stats, I decided to do so just now in order to answer you thoroughly and was surprised as to what I found. Of the four stories we ran on Sunday, the RAM story was the most popular based on the number of people choosing to read it. (note also that the number of comments on a particular post has zero do with how many people read a story, we’ve found there is no relationship whatsoever).
Of ALL the stories we ran over the last 30 days (about 120 posts), the RAM story had the 17th highest total readership count and please note that it has only been available to read since yesterday, there are 113 other stories that have had more time for readers to look at them.
Now, I personally don’t care about the stats, I’ll write about whatever I like (and ONLY about whatever I like) and publish it. A couple of weeks ago, for example, I wrote about a tree. It was a great story in my opinion, but I’m sure some people chose to skip it. That’s fine, they can see it again when we rerun it in about five years or just scroll back a few pages. I also write plenty of old car features. The point though is, if you don’t want to read the one new-vehicle story out of the 28 or whatever we did last week, just skip it. We have some readers that can’t stand certain older cars, they skip those posts. I personally am pretty much bored to tears by anything built before the 1940’s and generally skip those posts myself. But I realize others may enjoy them and there is plenty of other stuff to read.
I would also like to invite you to write about your own experiences with cars and submit them. I don’t believe you are a prolific commenter and that’s totally fine, we have plenty of readers that do not comment. However, it’s also a community and we are happy to entertain publishing actual stories that people write for others to read. It’s how every one of us contributors started out here; we read the site, and eventually we decided to give back. None of us is in the auto industry, none of us is a professional writer, and none of us does this as their main job, we all have other obligations/family/commitments/whatever.
Thank You.
I am not sure I agree with you. I don’t follow the new car market that closely and I like getting impressions from people whose opinions I know and trust. I like the real-world perspective the reviews here provide. These reviews are written by people who like what we like and are written for people who like what we like.
Paul’s fan, here’s a solution: if you don’t like them, don’t read them. We’re not replacing the classic content with new car reviews, these are merely an addition to the site like articles we’ve run in the past on boats and planes and bikes, as well as industry analysis pieces Paul (among others) has published.
I fail to see how they’re “downgrading the experience”. What nonsense. You criticising the writing of my colleagues here is downgrading my experience here, so I could ask you to drop these comments now…
Even though it isn’t relevant to this site, I’d like to see a link to Norm’s house building blog, If he made one. I think that a lot of us here are “hands on guys” or at least admire hands on guys. There are lot’s of folks that believe in thrift and efficiency and there are those that like to splurge once in a while, or a lot. I don’t think that we’re going to change each other’s minds. I scroll past plenty of posts that don’t appeal to my interests.
I think Clifford is the default nickname for anything big and red. While our Mazda CX-5 is officially the chi chi (Japanese for my daddy) it also goes by Clifford the big red car since my wife said it was huge when we first drove it.
I look forward to the first time my 5’1″ wife drives a 3/4 ton pickup, although a 1/2 ton is much more realistic for the amount of stuff we intend to haul.