Firing it up via the dash-mounted starter button produces a quick, sharp bark which then subsides into a throaty rumble. However it’s not nearly as loud as the Challenger with the Redeye version of this engine that I drove last year. Inside at idle it’s quite pleasant and even at full throttle it’s loud but not outrageous. The best part of the noise is actually the supercharger whine. I recently re-watched the original Mad Max and it’s very similar to how his Pursuit Special sounded when he flipped the (fake) switch to engage the Weiand supercharger in that car.
It’s a glorious noise, and a very large part of the character of this engine. Stepping on the throttle just raises the level of noise, power, and fury as the nose rises a bit and the huge 325/65-18 (35″) tires dig in to the asphalt through the 3.55 rear axle ratio and launch this thing like a golf ball off a 3-wood. No worries about driven wheels here as the default for the TRX is 4-Auto, although 4-HI and 4-LO are also selectable, there is no dedicated 2WD option.
Frankly that’s how I prefer to drive large trucks in the winter as it gets tiring switching back and forth between two and four wheel drive depending on how the terrain or road conditions change. Just let the computer figure it all out, I’ve got more important things to do like deciding how warm I’d like my seat to be.
But back to driving it, the power just Does. Not. Abate. It pulls all the way to the redline, shifts into the next gear and does it all over again. While limited to 114mph due to the tires, which I got very close to on a clear and empty road before my Spidey-sense somehow correctly warned me of a State Trooper over the hill (who pulled out just as I crested the rise to pull over a hopped-up Civic I was presumably gaining on), it’s completely composed even at those kinds of speeds. Note that this wasn’t some hugely long run to V-max, but rather just a solid stomp while already traveling at 70mph, and several seconds later the fun was over, the engine wasn’t anywhere close to breathing hard.
But of course it’s also a heavy beast (6,400 pounds), and while its large brakes haul it down in a hurry, the weight is always there. As such, even with the wider track which will and does enable the truck to carve surprisingly fast lines through turns, it’s very easy to get up to a given speed and then find the need to scrub it off in a hurry. Then the weight makes itself known by just making it take a bit longer than expected initially to slow back down in time for a sharper curve or whatever.
The ride is very well controlled on most surfaces, the big tires obviously help smooth out the road but much of the credit should probably go to the Bilstein Black Hawk 2.5″ Adaptive Damping aluminum shocks with remote reservoirs. The rear is engineered to allow the Dana 60 axle up to 13″ of travel as opposed to the 9″ on a more normal RAM.
Of course it’s coil sprung like the rest of the RAM 1500 lineup but the frame is beefed up significantly compared to those and the overall suspension is re-engineered and optimized for this truck; the front is all new for example using mainly aluminum components. It’s far, far more than just a lift kit, big engine, and different fenders.
The only place where I noted some discomfort was when I was on a section of very broken pavement with little chunks of it coming up all over the place and it felt a bit jiggly, however I only encountered that once. The rest of the time on the freeway, snow and ice covered roads, as well as some dirt roads it was very comfortable and composed, no surprises there really. The truck is meant to tackle all terrain at speed and be able to jump significant distances/heights (don’t try it if not properly trained) although it does just as well at slower speeds as well, sort of an ultimate PowerWagon in addition to the actual PW option in RAM’s range.
Of course with all that power and fun, someone needs to get paid at the end of the day and that’ll be the gas station owner. The good (?) news is that it’s rated at 10city, 14highway, with a 12mpg average. I call that good news as it’s something to aim for and is all double digits.
However, here’s how MY week went (your mileage may vary): The first 70 miles were around town and up near my local lake and its road for some picture taking. 8.3mpg. Then to the skiing spot which first involved another 65miles on level freeway, so now we are at 135 miles total and the overall average was up to 9.5mpg. Yay. Then we started climbing the mountain, got there, and I drove around while my kid snowboarded, took more pictures and then we drove home back down the hill and on the freeway, nothing crazy.
The elapsed mileage total was now 282 with an overall average of 10.8mpg. I then drove another 90 miles both on level highways around here and on a few errands. When I gave the truck back I had driven a total of 372miles and it was displaying a 10.9mpg average. I was able (on the last day) to actually break 11mpg but it was a fleeting aberration, it quickly went back down as I hit my residential street.
Objectively that’s terrible. However. Yes, there is a however and here it is: This level of performance does not come cheap in regards to fuel. Show me something else with this level of size, power, space, and likely reliability that does similar. Never mind that the body is of course less aerodynamic than a base truck, it’s heavy, extremely fast, and optimized for everything except fuel economy. So whatever, fuel economy will likely not matter one bit to those who will buy this truck. In fact it’ll likely be another talking point. Oh, did I mention that it requires premium fuel? Yup.
So about that price, this thing starts at a fiver under US$70,000. Then of course there are a plethora of options starting with Billet Silver paint for $200 with the lowers painted black for an additional $250, and then the Tech Group ($1,095 – Head-Up Display, Digital Display Mirror, LED Third Brake/Cargo Light), Trailer Tow Group ($195), Advanced Safety Group ($995 – Pedestrian/Cyclist Emergency Braking, Adaptive Cruise Control w/Stop&Go, LaneKeepAssist), and Bed Utility Group ($845 – Deployable Bed Step, Spray-In Bedliner, Movable Cargo TieDown Hooks).
The TRX specific packages include the Carbon Fiber Package ($1,295 – Leather and CF flat-bottom steering wheel, CF accents), TRX Exterior Graphics at $495 and then a whopper of $7,920 for the TRX Level 2 Equipment Group consisting of about 20 items including Leather Bucket Seats with Ventilation, Wrapped handles, Luxury Door Panels, Full Length Premium Upgraded Floor Console, Premium Wrapped Instrument Bezel, Instrument Panel LED Ambient Light Piping, Accent Lighting everywhere, Preset Memory for seats, radio, pedals, mirrors, Power everything, Heated seats in both rows and heated steering wheel, Power adjustable pedals, Park-Sense park assist front and rear, Rain sensitive wipers, keyless entry, Remote start, Power tailgate release, Rear 60/40 folding seats.
The Dual Pane Panoramic Sunroof devours another $1,495, and the Rock Rails (with minimal but appreciated step surfaces) rampage through the wallet for $995, the 19-speaker Harman Kardon Premium Sound runs $1,195, and the Bed-Mounted Tire Carrier is $995. Lastly this one carried 18″x9″Bead-Lock capable aluminum wheels for $1,895 (for six of them in this case). Add in the destination charge of $1,695 and the total comes up at $91,555.
There isn’t much there that most people wouldn’t choose so I’d guess the average transaction for the TRX will end up hovering around maybe $85-90k. I also don’t see dealers needing to discount these much, if at all, and certainly not like regular trucks.
While it’s not a configuration I would have use for, it is certainly an impressive truck and was oh-so-easy to live with (besides the fuel part, yes, I did add gas). It didn’t put a foot wrong in its stay here, and appears to be factory-equipped with everything anyone could ever need should they choose to go far, fast, and hard off-road, preferably in areas with wide open spaces.
As large as it is though, it was still very usable for normal everyday pursuits to the post office, grocery store, whatever else, 702hp is just perfect for all of that. There was never any sense of this being too large to work on a daily basis (assuming you’re at all used to trucks in general), and as such I’m sure RAM will easily sell every one they produce. Of course Ford will be upping their game shortly as well but as we can predict, surely RAM will fight back quickly by giving its T-Rex at least a set of little Red Eyes…I can’t wait!
A very large Thank You to RAM for providing us with their newest toy and a 33-gallon tank of gasoline to enjoy it with!
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A German managed to drive a new RAM Laramie truck with 5.7-litre Hemi V8 on the Autobahn close to 195 km/h. Quite impressive…for a vehicle with larger frontal drag area.
Who knows how fast the RAM 1500 TRX could go on the Autobahn?
Wow, somebody had some fun! As someone who spent some time many years ago trying (without success) to find enough road to get an emissions-choked 74 Luxury LeMans up to 100 mph, what you describe is mind-numbing. Come to think of it, 10 mpg was not an unusual number in that LeMans when I was driving it that way. We have come a long way.
That’s odd. I had a ’73 LeMans with the two barrel Pontiac 350 V8, and it had no problem exceeding 100 mph.
Not a vehicle I’d want to own, especially at $91k but would I want to drive one for the day? Absolutely.
Lessee here 702hp works out to 17.5 VWs, so I should be getting 210mpg. Yep we’ve definitely come a long way.
Be still my heart. Jim, I continue to live my automotive life vicariously through you, so keep these goodies coming.
In all seriousness, it is amazing Ram has built such a great overall combination of what would seem to be conflicting traits. Ford planning a reaction says a lot about the TRX.
To show how things have gotten better, the ’87 D-250 ancestor to this TRX, one I owned for several years, got an equal 10 mpg from its smaller 5.9 liters, was revved up like a chainsaw by 60 mph, and was much lighter. So while the TRX’s fuel economy isn’t great, your assessment of finding comparable is spot on.
The only quibble I have with these is the bed size. Everything else? Sounds fantastic!
To appreciate what these super-trucks have become, one just needs to come here to the UO campus area, where the Raptor has become the vehicle of choice for rich young male Chinese students, the same demographic that used to buy Lamborghinis, Maseratis, and such. And every one of these Raptors is impeccably clean; one could eat off their undersides. And like their Lamborghini predecessors, they get driven around town a mile or two invariably at very modest speeds.
The latest toy of choice. I’m sure the TRX will do well too.
I’m a truck guy, owning two now, but even I think these are excessive. I wonder if I could rent one for my next (off) road trip. When do we see a test of the new 392 Jeep? Jeep/RAM certainly seems to be writing the last chapters in the domestic IC truck saga with a bang. I can’t wait for a shootout between this, the V8 Raptor, Cybertruck and Rivian. When you need help with that Jim, let me know.
You should drive one, it’s remarkably composed and normal feeling, while very fast and capable it is not compromised for daily use, beyond the size depending on your circumstances. I would bet that someone will have one on Turo sooner rather than later. It’s big and wide but as long as the trail isn’t narrow it should work well.
The 392 Jeep sounds quite interesting and more or less something plenty of owners have done themselves. It’s interesting that seeing as how Stellantis has been stuffing their big engine(s) into everything, and getting criticized a bit from environmental factions for it, both the TRX and 392 Jeep would seem to be direct responses to Ford, i.e. Raptor and 2021 Bronco and not things that Stellantis themselves led the segments on.
I’ll make a note as to your availability for the showdown. 🙂
Nice ride, even if it’s not my cup of tea. I think it was a good call to bring back the shift lever. Only experienced the dial gear selector in a rented 200 and I liked neither the shift dial…nor the rest of the 200.
I’m such a dork, I just now got TRX = T-Rex. When I first heard of this variant I thought of the metric wheel Ford used in the 80s.
Great review as always! These sort of trucks are a little outside my comfort zone but I love that they exist.
Thank you! Yes, there are many aspects to the automotive spectrum, and something for (almost) everyone. It’d be boring if we were all forced to drive the same exact vehicle.
Yeah when I first saw talk of this in print TRX made me think of those wheels, the most commonly seen for the TRX tires.
I must not be firing on all four cylinders today, because I completely missed the TRX=T-Rex analogy, even after seeing the airbox graphic here. I just thought TRX was yet another abbreviation… like TRD but more Xtreme.
It took mental gymnastics for me to make the connection, I think it’s that Dodge has been typically overt with naming in the last several years – Hellcat, demon, redeye, trackhawk etc. – TRX is almost a throwback to the Omni GLH “wink wink” name. T-Rex didn’t hit me until I had the side thought about the climatic scene with T-rex beating the raptors at the end of Jurassic Park, which seems to be what the engine cover is portraying(spoiler alert).
There have also been TRX trims/models before but I believe in those cases it was in fact just a few letters rather than trying to evoke the T-Rex thing, which only really makes any sense in relation to the Raptor, but is pretty clever all things considered. I recently saw an older Dodge Ram Pickup with a TRX-4 badge on the bedside and also a decade-or-so old Dakota with TRX stickers on the sides. Neither of those were anything special performance-wise. Now you will undoubtedly see some as well.
Did you have to add gasoline while you had it? If so, what percentage of the range was the truck indicating remained and how many miles had you covered? Gas mileage may not be important, but range certainly is in many of the places that off road trucks are enjoyed. It’s pretty funny that Pemex carries 93 octane gasoline in Baja California, but you need to buy racing fuel to get anything better than 91 octane in the state of California.
We refilled it after the first 70 since we were going on the longer trip right after that so I can’t really answer the question accurately. However with a 33 gallon tank and the 8.x I was seeing locally would indicate a pretty short range. The final number of 10.9 would indicate about 360 miles before running dry. Of course 11mpg would seem optimistic off-road. I’d probably carry some jerrycans for a long off-road trip.
I have a car that supposedly can carry 13.2(IIRC, but definitely more than 13) gallons of gasoline. I’ve run it dozens of miles past when it is showing empty, but have never put in more than twelve gallons, and maybe more like eleven and a half. Various other cars I drive have ‘miles to empty’ declarations that have yet to lead to me replenishing their rated capacities. I guess what I was hoping to learn was whether or not the gas gauge or trip computer promote full utilization of the listed capacity. Thirty-three gallons times eleven miles per gallon is plenty for getting to the gas station closest to your destination, but that goes out the window if the idiot-proof gas gauge holds five gallons in reserve instead of one and a half.
Oh, I see what you mean. Sorry, that should be something that can be figured out over time with maybe three tankfuls of fuel and doing the math of remaining range vs what it accepted. I’m subject to a (fairly generous) mileage limitation with most test cars that precludes me from generally filling it completely more than once after using up what it was delivered with. They arrive “full” but you never know if the person dropping it off just stopped at the first click when refilling it for me at the closest station to my location or consciously brimmed it…
It is annoying that actual capacity is advertised, not the usable capacity.
My pickup has an advertised capacity of 38 gallons. It doesn’t have a DTE but it does have a low fuel warning. On my other Fords the low fuel light comes on a 50 mi range. When I refill shortly after the light comes on I get 30-32 gal. When I’ve let the low fuel come on several times and ran it down to ~5% according to the scan tool the most I’ve ever managed to get in is 34.x gal.
Of course there are reasons that they show E or 0 mi to empty so soon. First of course is they don’t want people getting angry when they run out of fuel, and a certain number of people will always push it. The other side of it is that with fuel injection if fuel sloshing around results in sucking up some air it will result in a miss at a minimum and possibly a stall. So they want to set E on level ground so that when you are going up, down or sideways on a hill there is still enough fuel to keep the pickup submerged.
That makes perfect sense. As always, thanks for dispensing your considerable knowledge here 🙂
Thanks Kyree, I should add that tank shape and orientation plays a big factor in how much they leave in the tank when showing E. On my pickup the tank is located between the frame rail and driveshaft. so it is pretty long. So it needs a greater minimum to keep the pickup submerged when going up or down a hill.
It also isn’t unusual for them to fudge the DTE too. I know in some Fords I’ve seen PIDs for DTE calculate and DTE displayed. I did pull both up one time on a vehicle that was showing 10 on the dash and the calculated number was 14 if I remember right.
I’ve seen many, many fuel pump failures in GM trucks and BOF SUVS. I don’t recall Ford truck fuel pump failures to be at all common. I’ve been told by multiple mechanics that the GM fuel pumps overheat when there isn’t enough gasoline in the tank to cool them. Could this be related to Ford’s conservative fuel gauge range?
Here you go, extra effort put in to give you better accuracy in the relevant range. https://hooniverse.com/last-call-z-exactly-how-much-fuel-you-have-left/
The extra gas gauge probably seemed like a great idea when the car was in its planning stages and fuel rationing was fresh in everyone’s memories.
I think it needs to be bigger, have more power and use more fuel.
Do you mean like the private jets and mega yachts of the people who are scared about the impact of middle class lifestyles on the climate?
What does my post have to do with a yacht?
Yachts are bigger, have more power, and use far more fuel. They should satisfy your desire for conspicuous consumption, according to your own specifications.
I was thinking more of a used 747. Lots on the market now.
I realize I’m disagreeing with pretty much everyone here, but I see this thing as a douchey, macho, boy-am-I-ever-compensating-for-something joke. I’d be embarrassed to drive it.
And HOW much does it cost to insure this?
Every third person here in OK thinks they need a lifted truck, so I look forward to seeing one of these fill up my rearview mirror, tailgating me even as I pass in the left lane at a perfectly decent clip.
I suppose I’m glad something like this can exist, but if the Raptor is any indication, its clientele will largely consist of inconsiderate fools who have no business driving something so large and with so much horsepower.
A few weeks ago there was the review of the Godzilla powered Ford where one of the commenters was shocked at the 4.30 gears it was equipped with. Well on this I’m shocked at the 3.55 gears and 35″ tires. I’m not sure on the ratios they use in the trans but it must be loafing along in top gear on the freeway.
Did you happen to note what RPM it was showing at 60 or 70 mph?
I’m pretty sure at 70 it was under 2000. I spent a fair amount of time around 80ish and it wasn’t much over 2000 at that point as I recall noting. But flex your toe, it would drop (at least) a couple of gears, let out a bellow, and take off.
I believe in 8th it’s 0.67:1, 7th is 0.84:1 and 6th is 1:1 per Car&Driver.
Man, this thing’s so damn fast it’ll get to Planet B before everyone else has to.