Ep. 294: Going For Top Speed And Off-Roading In 2026 Ram Trucks!

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Welcome to a very special edition of TFL Talking Trucks podcast because I'm out and about. I'm in

Michigan actually at Stellantis and Rams Chelsea Proving Grounds, which is a very special opportunity.

But I want to take this chance to show you basically the entire lineup of RAM pickup trucks.

Of course, that badge you just saw on this particular truck I'm standing next to

is that V8 badge. RAM calls it the symbol of protest, but really it designates the 5.7

liter Hemi that's making its return for 2026. And these trucks can be ordered now. You can

go out and buy one already. And I'll tell you a lot about the pricing throughout this video.

But I'm also going to show you and kind of we can go for a drive in some of these trucks.

But if you look over here, ignore the wonderful engine noises though.

You could see there's a whole lineup of trucks. So I can actually show you

not just one truck or two trucks. I can show you, I don't know, five or six or seven or eight,

including the heavy duties too. Because there are some changes for 2026. There are new models,

a little bit more value oriented models, which I'm really appreciating. There are new colors.

This is called that Canyon Lake that I'll show you on a RAM RHO in a second. I'm also

going to do a top speed run in the RHO. And I'm going to try to go very, very fast, as fast as the

truck will allow here at the proving grounds. But this truck that you're seeing here is also

doing some towing. So it's pulling this really wonderful classic little Redrexpress truck,

which you probably know if you're an enthusiast of pickup trucks, you can kind of already

picture it in your mind. But it's a two-door classic Dodge RAM with double stacks. It looks

like a little tiny semi-big rig. But of course it's really small. Adventure 150, it's called really.

I mean, it really doesn't have a really big wheelbase, but it has a really fun kind of bed

with wood. You can see this wood inlays on the back. And it's really, really sweet, 1979. So

I was talking to the guys who were running the event, and well, first of all, this is just

amazing to look at. But I asked, you know, why is it here? And they're like, well, it's just

fun. But it's also showing what the RAM 500 can tow. But also it's not pushing the truck very much

because this trailer, according to the RAM team here, weighs about 6,100 pounds, just over 6,000

pounds. And the RAM Hemi can tow up to around 10,000 pounds plus. So this is not maxing out

the truck. But it's still a really fun way to show what is possible, what the RAM trucks can do.

And here's another truck I can show you right behind here.

This truck is in white. And it's pulling another little trailer. That one is a little bit lighter

and just shows kind of how RAM people and engineers might actually test their

the trucks they're working on. It's using these kind of rubber mats and some steel and

just to kind of weigh down this trailer so they can fine tune the weight. This is around almost

4,000 pounds altogether with this trailer. So these trailers that usually at these events

are not very heavy. But it's kind of a demonstration of what these trucks can do because

there are many journalists here and some of them maybe haven't towed the trailer yet. So

you can't really give them a maximum load trailer and just set them off on the proving

ground or maybe on the streets and highways out there. So just kind of a representation,

a little look behind the scenes about how some of these events, kind of first drive events,

are organized. I was looking at this trailer and one easy way to tell if how heavy it is

is to count the lug nuts on the hub here of the axle. And if it's five, it's probably a lighter

trailer. So this is a tandem axle dual axle trailer. But because I'm just eyeballing this,

these are probably like 3,500 pound axles a piece. So the capacity of this trailer,

this flat deck is about 7,000 pounds. So that's just according to my eyeballs. If you see six

lug nuts or eight, those are heavier axles and the weights of those trailers will be much greater,

of course. And of course it moves on from there. But also I wanted to show you what's on the

inside of some of these trucks. And this is a Laramie. And gosh, I think Ram is one of the

best when it comes to kind of materials, the way they put them together, the choices

they offer. There's a lot of different choices and varieties of interiors. Laramie used to be

really kind of a middle of the road trim. But now looking at this interior that I'm showing you now,

it almost seems like a high-end luxury truck, especially, you know, the way this steering

wheel looks. Also called over here, there is active driver assist, basically hands-free driver

system available on this truck. And also the eye monitor right there on top of the steering column.

So these trucks have some of the latest technologies to rival the BlueCruise technologies from Ford

and the SuperCruise technologies from GM. I just want to show you that V8 really quick while

we're here underneath the hood. There she is. So you can still see that Hemi 5.7-liter V8. You

can see this e-torque generator motor generator. It's belt-driven, so the serpentine belt in

the front of the engine to drive some of the other accessories like the AC and the water pump

and several others. It's also connected to the electric motor generator. So basically,

it can shut down the V8 when you're sitting still. All the other systems can be running,

so that's very smooth. And the engine restart, it kind of smooths it out

and then also kind of fills in some torque as you're driving. So it's a really mild system.

You cannot drive an electricity alone, but that's the way it's been. A lot of space

here in this engine bay. So even though this is a kind of a large V8 engine, this engine bay is still

huge, humongous, lots of space, lots of space here. Okay, so now what should we do next? I think

I want to show you the R8 Show, talk to you about, show you some of the new things that

Ram is doing there. And then I can show you some other trucks and then we can get a little bit of taste

of the off-road experience here at the Proving Grounds. So let's go and do that. Yes, now it's

time to drive the R8 Show. So the truck I'm in right now is the 2026 model. So the R8 Show

is kind of the top dog currently in the Ram Sport Truck lineup, at least for the 1500

half tons. And for 2026, it's still here. And the most important part, I think, is that the price

remains the same, 69.995 before destination, but destination charge is 21.95. So putting you

at about 72 and change. So we're here at the Proving Grounds, Chelsea Proving Grounds of Stellantis.

And we have a chance to experience all these trucks. And

yeah, the R8 Show is fun. Let's do a top speedrun a little bit. So I'm accelerating,

this is a closed course kind of a racetrack area. And we're hitting about

110, 114, 116, 117, 118. So 118 is a software limited number. Basically,

the truck has more power. It has 540 horsepower. But what's limiting the truck is actually the tires.

Thank you. There's somebody directing me here.

What's limiting the truck is the tire technology. And it goes the same. If you're in an F-150 Raptor,

some other high performance trucks, including some of the electric trucks like the Hummer, EV, and

many others, including the Cybertruck, the tire technology in the truck is really kind of what's

limiting you. Let's go for another quick loop. Maybe we can do a drag race. What do you guys think?

No, I'm just kidding. So 118, you just saw that. And it felt easy. And the truck obviously has more power.

All right. I don't want to... somebody's filming right there on the side of this track. So I'm not

going to go super crazy right now. But really the tire itself, as the speed grows, the satripical

force actually is actually making the tire expand a little bit. So the tire gets larger and

larger with speed. And there's a certain limit to it because it's also an all-terrain tire.

It has to do a lot of things. It has to put the power to the ground. It has to go off road.

It has to perform every day. It has to be relatively quiet. So with modern trucks,

really the limiting factor is your tire technology. But I think, I mean, if you're going 118

anywhere in the public, I mean, that's basically illegal. And you will be very likely in jail

for doing such speeds. So I mean, that's plenty quick. But cruising just at about,

you know, 75 or 80 or 85, in the sound of this exhaust system, I need to show you the exhaust.

And you have to listen to it. So I'll do a couple things. We're going to pull off.

I will kind of show you around the truck because it has a new exterior color.

The price, like I basically said, remains the same, basically, which I think is super great

because a lot of manufacturers are increasing their prices year to year. The destination charge may

have increased slightly, but I want to show you exterior of this truck. Talk a lot about some

of the other features. This is a straight six high output twin turbo, like I was mentioning,

540 horsepower. And currently, there is no TRX here, right? So the CEO of Stellantis recently at the

earnings call did mention that a TRX will be returning. And he did mention V8. So we're

all expecting a V8 powered Hellcat supercharged powered TRX to come back in this in some way.

So it's not here yet. It's not at this event. It's not anywhere I've seen here at the proving

grounds. But how about this? Let me show you the outside of the truck. And then you could listen

to this new optional Magnaflow exhaust. Let's go outside.

So this truck is still large and in charge. And this is the new color. I think, well, it's really

cloudy kind of rainy day right now. This color is called Canyon Lake. It's kind of this,

I would call it green. It's kind of the base color of this. It's really hard to kind of explain it.

You have to see it in person. But it's not one of those concrete colors. There's another one right

there. Rem 1500 driving around in the same color. I think this is very attractive. It's only

available in 2026. And this color is no additional charge. It's pretty neat. I like

when manufacturers, you know, just not do just like whites and grays and blacks,

but actually have some interesting colors and also not charging for it. So that's pretty special.

Here are those tires I was talking about. And of course, this truck has been off-road.

In previous days, we're going to take it off-road in a little bit. So you can see it's kind

of dirty. It's a 325-65R18. And the 325 width, it's one of the widest tires actually in the industry.

Some of the other tires are like 315s or 305s. 325 is actually pretty beefy. So that's pretty nice.

It's a wide body truck. It's got a lot of suspension travel. You can see the fenders

kind of bulging out. It's got that TRX style. It's got the hood scoop, high output hurricane

engine badge right here on the side of the hood. And it's got Bilstein shocks. They're semi-active.

Adjustable. Let me pop the hood really quick. So it got basically the same specs from 2025.

But what's different between the RHO and the older TRX that preceded it is that the engineers at RAM

were able to tune the suspension because the weight shifted a little bit.

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This Traits 6 that's hiding well underneath this cover is kind of low and a little bit back.

It also weighs less than a supercharged V8. So the weight distribution shifted on this truck.

As such, the engineers were able to kind of shift the suspension a little bit,

you know, retune it and also give it different modes. For example, it's a little bit more tail

happy if you set it in kind of an off-road mode and you're on gravel or dirt. So it's kind

of a little bit more fun in my opinion because you can kind of hang the tail out a little

bit more when you want to. And of course it's composed when you want it to be as well. So they

kind of tuned it a little bit. But the power remains the same from 25 to 2026. You can see

the engine bay here. Thank you for joining us. If you're listening to us, sorry, you may be

missing just a little bit. But if you're watching us on CFO Talk, also thank you very much.

And by the way, the kind of the REM airflow hood, you can kind of see the air comes from

the hood scoop. There is a little bit, I think, of a dirt. So some of it goes, some of the dirt

goes back here or some of the air goes to the back of the engine. And then some of the air

goes right here and dumps on the passenger side into this very, very large air filter

that looks to be like an oil type where you kind of have to,

you know, it's kind of reusable. So this looks pretty impressive. And you saw that.

It was so easy to reach 118 miles an hour in this truck, just in the short, you know,

maybe a quarter mile area that I was on. Then it's kind of rode back here.

But now I want to make a little pause. Oh, well, before I do that, let me show you the exhaust pipes.

So for about $2,100, you could get this optional direct connection Mopar exhaust system.

This is a five inch tip. And basically it's kind of a cat-back system. So it's still a dual system.

There's dual outlets. They look a little bit larger and, you know, they sound a little bit

louder. And I think RHO really needed this. And there's two different levels of the

Magnafo exhaust that they'll be offering. There's kind of the base version of that system,

and then a slightly more upgraded version. So, but the base system is about $2,100

optional, additional to the cost of the truck. And if you're already spending at least what $72,000

plus, I think you might just invest into that exhaust system and maybe even get that level

one package for another 10 grand. And then you have a very comfortable, luxurious truck

that's also very high performance. But what if you don't have $72,000 or $82,000? How about this?

So for 2026, the Warlock returns. So this is the Ram 1500 Warlock. And it's right below where RHO

and the Rebel are. So in the hierarchy, you know, the top dog currently is that RHO. Then there's

a Rebel. I don't see the Rebel here just this minute. And then there's this Warlock package.

And this logo suggests something. Basically, it's got a hemi under the hood.

5.7 liter hemi is coming back, as you probably already know, into the Ram 1500 lineup. And it's

eTorque system. You could see it right there labeled eTorque. And it's a mild hybrid. And it

basically, not really for efficiency, but that eTorque system has been around since 2019.

Many of you are not a fan of it. I'm kind of okay with it. I've never had a problem. We used to own

the 2019 5.7 liter hemi eTorque. And I think we put about 20,000 miles on it without any issues.

But of course, that's a limited amount of miles in time. That was about a year and a half.

But it's coming back with 395 horsepower. But let's say you didn't want this engine.

The Warlock, the way you see it here, it's a crew cab with a shorter bed,

five foot seven inch bed with a V6 Pentastar engine starts at $54,000 approximately.

Actually, exactly. I'm checking my notes, 54,010. That's a lot of value. Because look,

you have 33 inch tall tires, LT 275 70 R18s. These are really beefy tires,

Dura Tracks. You also have those blue shocks, those are Bilsteins. Basically,

very similar suspension setup to the Rebel. Of course, this is not life semi-active suspension.

These are not Bilstein black hockey twos, but this is a little bit more basic. But the price

is also lower. You could also get the Hurricane, so the three liter standard engine, SST straight

six turbo. That's 420 horsepower and that costs about $1,800. And then over that,

I'm sorry, SST is $1,700. And then this is $1,200 more than the V8 is $1,200

above that SST turbo. But what does that include? That also includes GT high performance exhaust

straight away and also a 33 gallon fuel tank. So every Hemi, when you order the Hemi,

you get the bigger tank. So you're upgraded from 26 gallons to 33, which gives you a lot more

usable range every day. And also, if you're pulling trailers with your pickup truck,

you also have that available to you. So actually, that sounds like a lot of money. So you're paying

over the base V6 SpentaStar, $1,700 plus $1,200. That's about $2,900. But I think you're still

getting value. You're getting that V8 performance, great sound. And then you're getting the bigger

tank and that exhaust system that used to be optional and now is standard. Plus in the

warlock, you're getting really an off-road capable vehicle straight out of the box. And also,

we can peek in here, somebody else has their camera set up, six person configuration. So

you see that seat in the middle right there. I'm not going to move it right now, but you

have that as well. So that started about $54. But how would I order my favorite Ram truck?

I'll let you know near the end of this podcast. I'll let you know how I would configure if I

was buying a truck today from all of these. I'll tell you how I would configure mine.

Over here, here's another warlock. We're not going to spend much time here.

But here, now there's something interesting. Now we're getting into the heavy duty portion of this

podcast. And here you see a lineup of 2026 Ram heavy duties. I have a little bit more deeper

kind of first drive with the Ram heavy duty. But the truck you see here looks pretty fancy,

but it's actually a lot of value built into it. This is the new 2026 Ram heavy duty 2500

black express. It's basically kind of a sport appearance package, but I would wager it offers

a lot of value, but it has that look monochromatic. So body color, grill surrounds blacked out grill,

sport hood with that unfortunately fake hood scoop that scoop on the RHO was not fake.

It is unfortunately fake on the heavy duty. This is a commons.

Commons is a quite an expensive option, almost $13,000 for the commons.

But if this was the 6.4 liter Hemi, that's also available in these heavy duty trucks.

This truck would start at just over $53,000 for a two wheel drive crew cab

truck that looks similar to this with a Hemi. So that's a lot of capability.

You're getting a heavy duty vehicle. You're getting four doors, room for six.

Once again, this has that middle seat that can be used as a for passenger.

You're getting a 12 inch infotainment screen, fairly nice interior for kind of a more of a basic

truck. This is really kind of built on top of a tradesman. So it starts life as a work truck,

but then Ram adds a few of these kind of little tasteful features and technology features.

They also add the tubular side step. So on the outside, you can see the side step as well.

And this is a four by four commons. So this is not 53,000 because the commons is almost

13,000. Then the four wheel drive system is like $3,500 or maybe a little bit less. So this

is closer to like 70 grand, but still I think a lot of value here. This is 26 heavy duty black express.

And over here, right next to it is the new heavy duty warlock. So that light duty warlock I just

showed you has a bigger brother now. This is the first time that Ram is introducing a warlock

package on their heavy duty. And it's actually very similar to their

rebel heavy duty rebel package because using basically the same 20 inch wheel and this 34 inch

tall good year Wrangler tire, although the aspect ratio of this tire is pretty small.

Overall, it's a pretty large 34 inch and it's got Bilstein shocks here as well.

And off road ready. It's got limited slip rear differential. It's got very similar interior

to the black express. And also the price of the heavy duty warlock four by four with a gas v8

starts at just over 57 grand. So once again, quite a lot of value baked into this truck.

But of course, once you add the commons and a few other options like the tonneau cover,

bed liner, 2.4 kilowatt power export system in the bed, the price ratchets up and up

and the sticker on this puppy, this particular heavy duty warlock is at around 75 grand.

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So, which is actually almost identical to what we paid for 2025 Chevy Heavy Duty

2500 Silverado Trail Boss. So this, I would say this is a direct competitor to the Duramax

Heavy Duty Trail Boss that we have in our long term test fleet. And then also,

if you look at the grills here, we have a heavy duty rebel. And then because it has a

unique grill, by the way, this is kind of controversial. It looks to me, it looks like

a heavy duty, like almost like a fence. But some people don't like that. And of course,

the power wagon returns basically the same way the way it was. It returns for 2026.

And the pricing is as such. Let me check my notes really quick. The heavy duty rebel

starts at around, but the Hemi starts at around 70,700. So a truck like this.

The power wagon starts, it only comes with the Hemi, still no Cummins,

74,000. So that's the progression. About 57,000 for that Warlock, about 70,000 for heavy duty

rebel, and 74,000 for the power wagon. Now the power wagon has a slightly smaller tire than the

rebel. That's approximately a 33 inch, maybe a little bit less. But you could see a lot more space

between the tire and the fender. And that's because it has a lot more articulation, a lot more.

And Cole, if we can come around here, if you could show this area. So this area is different

on the power wagon than all the other heavy duty rams. And that this little area, this

articulink kind of connection allows for more articulation, which we've driven power wagons

over the last couple of decades. And we've shown them to you. And like Nathan says,

power wagon don't care because front locker, rear locker, selectable, disconnectable front sway bar,

lots of articulation, V8 power, the shortcomings of the power wagon, I think,

still maybe the tire size, payload and towing are not very good on the power wagon.

But a throat capability and a heavy duty vehicle, there's almost nothing like it,

especially because also comes with a winch, standard winch on the power wagon,

which is included in that 74,000 price. So that's the heavy duty lineup

for Ram for 2026. Of course, not every truck is here because I don't see a two door,

two wheel drive base, Ram heavy duty. That truck starts, if I check my notes,

that truck starts at 47,660. So if you wanted just the most affordable heavy duty truck,

with a V8, two wheel drive, eight foot bed, two doors, very simple, 47,6. I'm not talking

about incentives and discounts or dealer discounts or anything else. I'm talking about

sticker prices, MSRP prices, 47,6 is where the Ram heavy duty lineup starts.

And just like that by magic, I am sitting behind the steering wheel of the new 2026

Ram heavy duty warlock. This is the first iteration, at least in the modern era,

of a heavy duty truck with a warlock off-road package. And the idea is to make an affordable

off-road package, but still have it in a heavy duty truck. So it slots in below the

rebel heavy duty and below the power wagon. And I'll tell you more detail about this

truck in a little bit, but here I just wanted to kind of show you the off-road experience.

And the first obstacle here are the concrete steps that I have to climb. So once again,

diesel engine, I have four low enabled. This has a limited slip rear differential,

so I cannot push any buttons, but the truck will be able to detect slip. And also, yeah, I mean

just low gearing and off we go. Okay, so now I have got David here in the cabin with me. David

works at Ram and he's kind of showing me the route basically, because I haven't been here

much, so I need some help. So the idea is if I can go diagonally, I should be able to just

make it. And I did. And these tires are the Goodyear Wrangler Dura tracks. They're mounted on a 20-inch

wheel and it's basically the diameter is about 34 inches. So that actually looked pretty easy.

The whole key is when you're doing a step like that, if you come up to it

at perpendicular angle, you kind of have a giant obstacle that both tires have to overcome.

And if you're diagonal, one tire overcomes it and then kind of brings up the other tire with it. So

that's kind of an easier line. So that was pretty nice. This is one of the trails, right?

There's more trails than this. Yeah, this is one of the trails. Yeah, so as David is saying,

sorry if you cannot hear him all the way, but as David is saying, this is one of the

primary off-road trails for validation of new vehicles as the Stalantis engineering team is

developing and validating some of these new vehicles. But the heavy duty truck is not something

that's very compact. Obviously, this is a crew cab vehicle with a six-foot four-inch bed.

And some of these bushes and trees are overgrowing a little bit and it's raining slightly off and on.

We've been seeing some rain. So this trail is pretty tight. But the wheelbase of the REM heavy duty,

at least in this configuration with a six-foot four-bed, the wheelbase is a little bit shorter

than some of the competitive trucks from Ford and GM. So from that standpoint, this truck

is a little bit more maneuverable, in my opinion, as far as just overall size.

So now we're going to go over this mound and we're going to dip down into a water feature,

which is actually a little tiny, well, I don't know, puddle, but it's part of the trail.

And it may be hiding some rocks. So I can't fly through here at a higher speed. I have to,

if you want to show that call, I have to go very slowly through this feature.

So you guys are getting kind of a behind the scenes look of, you know, the areas that REM

and other Stellantis brands like Jeep and others can be using to validate some of the

off-road vehicles they're working on. Really cool. The next feature is rock pile.

I mean, we're already on rocks, but now even more rocks. And I do have,

even though this is kind of an affordable trim, the 4x4 Warlock heavy duty with a

Hemi 6.4 liter starts at just over $57,000. I still have a pretty nice screen. It's a 12-inch vertical

display. I do have some gauges, including some of my vital signs here, transmission

temp, oil temp, cooling temp, oil pressure, battery voltage, but also pitch and roll.

And I have to go very slowly here because there are some sharp rocks.

I think I'm scraping just a tad. Sorry, David.

Yeah, no, that's what the vehicles built for. That's why this package comes with the

off-road skid plate group as well, right? And so it does have the tubular side steps too.

So they're kind of nice because you can climb up them, you know, makes entry into the vehicle easier,

but when you are climbing over rocks, you just have to be mindful of that. Those steps can hang

down. And if you're in a power wagon, for example, you have other options in the REM lineup,

the power wagon may have like a rock slider or kind of a rocker protector,

a little bit more tucked in. So you could have different options for side steps.

This particular truck as a warlock package does come with those tubular side steps. So

it's okay. We're one little touch, one touch, and then we're moving on. We're off to the next

obstacle. So this podcast, the video podcast is really kind of showing, I wanted to show every

single REM build, a REM truck build, but we are kind of focusing on certain trim levels.

The trim levels that are here are primarily some of the more off-road ready trim rail

trims. Also basically all crew cab and some of the fancier trims that I showed you in the

beginning. Like for example, there is not like a basic work truck I could show you,

or there's not certain other trims that you might be wondering about, but this is a great

representation nonetheless of what's available from REM right now as we speak. And this is,

we're talking about 2026 model year, which is actually 2026 REM heavy duty trucks already

dealers. I was just recently looking at our local dealer in Colorado. They had many different

2026 heavy duties on the lot in their inventory. The REM 1500s, the 2026s are coming from the

factory as we speak. So they should be available quite soon. Some of them may be already arriving

at some dealers. So this is not like a future thing. This is kind of what's happening right now.

So now we're going to be approaching a couple of mounds and this is really a test of

break over angle and also the test of our skid plates. And so we'll try to figure out,

by the way, I'm in this Cummins powered heavy duty.

Yeah, there's a little bit of scraping here, but not actually a lot. Not a lot of scraping.

Got the extra ride height with the heavy duty that really helps out in obstacles like that.

Yeah. So David is saying that we have a little bit of extra ride height. And it's probably just

the way the vehicle sits, you know, the bigger frame and just the bigger, bigger components

really that kind of help this truck. Yeah, 34s instead of, you know, a smaller tire.

I was just saying about this Cummins engine. Of course, this is the new Cummins that came out

then for the 2025 model year. So new power rating, new transmission, which is an eight speed

ZF automatic. It's the column shifter that I have here in front of me for 2025 and 2026.

They're all column shifts. So it's kind of a one, you have to remember one way to interact with

this vehicle, which I think is nice. And actually, I prefer this to other shifter

solutions like knobs or buttons or something like that. So that's pretty nice. And also for 2026,

Ram re-certified certain heavy duty vehicles, including this one, for a higher gross vehicle weight

rating of 11,040 pounds, which gives it more payload. So it's a lot more usable payload.

They re-certified it, verified everything. So this truck I'm in right now has about 2,900

pounds of payload, which is just a little bit over that, which is quite competitive, quite nice.

And now I'm going to go over the logs. Cole, do you want to get out maybe a little bit and

see it from the outside in the rain? Cole is very excited. Okay, so now we're

going over this log feature, just kind of testing the traction really, right? Just kind of bumpy,

bumpy area that kind of challenges the vehicle a little bit and challenges are also a little bit.

Thank you, Cole, for sacrificing yourself and walking in the rain over there.

And yeah, and David was just saying the difference in suspensions between different

classes of truck. Obviously, this is a 2,500, so it'll have harder springs. But that allows you to

bring more stuff, right? I mean, you could put maybe a little camper in the back of this truck

and carry a lot more payload and actually use all that suspension that you actually have

at your disposal. And of course, Ram does also something interesting because

they have a different selection of suspension system in their heavy duty lineup

from coil springs to leaf springs in their 3,500s and also like air helpers,

air helper springs in certain models. So it's not like one solution fits all.

Some of their solutions are kind of based on the task at hand. So David, which

articulation section do you think I should go over? Should we do the humps? These are called

the Kimmel humps. And these are concrete bumps that are staggered, basically showing

or trying to challenge the truck to show the kind of the maximum articulation.

And David was just telling me that the support team is actually in a power wagon.

So we might be able to ask them if they could run a power wagon with a disconnectable front

sway bar over the same area. You feel that wheel slipper getting right?

Yeah. That's that limit. It's let versus the locker and the like.

Yeah, but it's not that jarring actually. It pulls it in quick and then you're able to get that

forward momentum. So actually, it's not too bad. Of course, we don't have a selectable rear

locker or the front locker in this trim level but or disconnectable front sway bar in this

trim level. But we're still making progress. We're doing good.

And we're kind of flexing and David, you have to hold on.

We're flexing and flexing and I'm gaining confidence as we're moving.

You know what I'm saying? All right. I mean, we did kind of the toughest obstacle that you

have here. I mean, as far as articulation is concerned.

So now can we talk to your friends over there?

Yeah, we're going to talk to a couple of other guys who are in a brand new power wagon

and we can do more. So Cole, we're going to ask some of our friends in the power wagon

to show what the power wagon can do on a very similar obstacle and could see the

articulation. All right. So now David and I are in the new power wagon. This is a brand power wagon.

I mean, I mean, technically speaking, mechanically, it's the same as before. So you got 33s, you got

front rear locking differentials and the sway bar disconnect.

All right. And that's really what you're going to feel in this event.

Is the benefit of that sway bar disconnect compared to what we just did with the warlock.

Wait a minute. I'm not even feeling us tipping as much. Exactly. Right. So that's that's where

you get that large improvement in articulation, which really, really helps both capability

and just customer confidence off the road. And you know what? I don't we do we have locking

different. Yeah, we do. They're engaged. So because it's very smooth. I don't feel

like the wheels are lifting as much as any other vehicle we've tested with.

Yeah. If you just look at your horizon, right, how much the body is moving compared to what

the suspension is actually doing. A lot less. Yeah. And basically the power wagon is still

kind of king of flex. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I'm flexing my arms right now. So yeah. And our

RTI numbers as well, you know, show that, right? Yeah. Whether it be our own internal products

or the competition. Right. Yeah. And RTI stands for Ram Travel Index, basically,

where one side of the vehicle drives up this ramp. Yeah. And you can kind of measure and

calculate how much articulation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so essentially, right, the line of

running gear we have on the power wagon is mirrored to what is on the Rubicon, right? We have the

locking differentials that Swaybar disconnect really allows the customer the extra level

of performance and capability. It makes this kind of the top dog when it comes to off-road

performance from a heavy duty perspective. So there's one more thing we're doing. So David,

who's one of the Ram heavy duty development and validation engineers,

he's going to show us a site tilt test, which is fairly extreme.

It's basically just driving on the side of, oh my goodness. Hold up. We have to see it from

the front. So that may not look really interesting, but let me show you. I'm standing normally

and you can kind of see the truck. Let's see how many degrees.

I'm holding you. How many degrees? Just about 30 degrees. Oh, look at the screen.

About 29, 30 degrees of site tilt.

That's something that a lot of people don't experience. Right. Yeah. And in the vehicle,

it feels almost unnatural. It feels like the vehicle shouldn't be able to do it,

but it's well within the bounds of the vehicle. I'm a little nervous. I guess I could get in when you

step off this. Yeah, we'll pull off. Okay. He did. Thanks for working with us today. Of course.

So we're approaching, what is this called? This is the Russian mound. It's not sure what the

technical term is, but essentially where we check our kind of rollover angles, right? Yes.

And we're doing development work. You know, I was born in Russia, so this mound is for me.

So you can see the angle we're at, you know, usually 30-ish degrees.

And it's well within the vehicle's capabilities, right? There's nothing the vehicle can do

even more than this, but this is kind of what we validate too, right? Oh, don't do it.

If we're going to jump out. Where are you going? David just left. No, he's rocking the truck back and

forth. David, please don't. They say it's well within the vehicle's capabilities.

He's saying it's well within the capabilities, but it's not within my capabilities.

All right. So we're going to exit this 33-side tilt.

So when they say they can do it, you guys mean it. Correct. Yeah. So all of our

development validation, right? We do out here really to make sure that whatever a customer

might want to do with the vehicle, or maybe even shouldn't do with the vehicle, right? The

vehicle is capable of it. That's very cool. All right. Well, that was an exciting portion

of this podcast. So now as I promised you, I need to tell you what would be my favorite

truck build. So as you may know, in the summer, what I do is I tow a 6,000 pound ski boat.

My wife and I own a boat, our 2004 Tiger. So I don't do a lot more heavy stuff. So I wouldn't

pick a heavy duty truck as much as I like some of these. Would I pick the RHO? No. Personally,

speaking, it's a little bit too excessive for what I need or want. I actually, I think

this Hydra Blue Warlock is really in a sweet spot for me. As you know, I used to own an F-150

Excel work truck that I kind of did the leveling kit. I got it a little bit more height,

and I put 34 inch tall tires on myself. That combined kind of power efficiency was very fast,

was off-road capable, so it combined a lot of different good things. I think this Warlock

package for the Ram 1500 also combines a lot of those elements that I care about.

Some off-road capabilities baked into this truck. You have, by the way, you may be hearing

some noises in this video. These are all Ram trucks that you're hearing throughout this entire

video. As it's starting to rain on us here in Michigan, let's continue. So the Warlock

combines, I think a lot of these things, off-road capability. Payload? Let's take a look.

Just really quick. 1,330 pounds. Okay, maybe not the best payload in the segment,

but also not awful. If this was closer to 1,000 pounds, I would say that's no good. But 1,330

in a truck equipped with the V8, that's not bad. But I don't know if I would choose the V8

actually because it is $1,200 over that straight-six turbo. Oh wow, they're doing a burnout over there.

Wow. Because I kind of am liking the straight-six. The straight-six turbo still has that

eight-speed automatic transmission. In the Warlock, you're still getting all of the

off-road goodies, but I would have to pay extra for that 33-gallon tank, which is about 400 bucks

or so. But nonetheless, I think the way I would configure mine, because I live in Colorado,

at higher elevations, we go into the mountains very often to go skiing, to go to the lake.

Different things. We're usually at about 6,000 feet above sea level to about

11 or 12,000 feet above sea level, depending on what we're doing in the mountains.

So I'm thinking a turbocharged twin-turbo engine is more up my alley.

Plus, that accelerates a little bit better. I know I don't have the V8 sound,

but I think I would configure it with this color, Hydra Blue, straight-six turbo, twin-turbo

as a Warlock with a larger tank. What else would I get? Yeah, that's it. And I think

that truck would be about 57 grand, which is, well, before incentives, which is not an expensive,

but it's also, I think, a lot of value. So let me know what you think in the comments below as

we're closing down, and as we're seeing some of these V8 power trucks kind of exercising here

at the Proving Grounds, let me know what you think. Which Remtruck is your favorite? Do you like what

they're doing with the RHO as far as the updated exhaust system, optional exhaust system, and the

new colors, and also the heavy-duty Warlock? Let me know if you like that. And all of the,

of course, options and interiors, and all of the kind of the entire truck lineup,

what also is missing, by the way, is a mid-size truck. Still, there's no mid-size truck here.

There is no compact truck here. There is also no RAM charger, range-extended hybrid,

or an electric truck here. So there's still, that's still coming, right? The RAM charger,

RAM still promised that's still coming probably in early 2026 calendar year.

But the way we have these trucks now, this is kind of the current RAM lineup. So once again,

let me know what you think and come back next time. And by the way, check out Carish,

one of my favorite podcasts, not because it's produced by Cole, who's behind the camera,

and the TFL team, but because it's really fun. So thanks for joining me and I'll see you next time.

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Ep. 294: Going For Top Speed And Off-Roading In 2026 Ram Trucks!

Audi R8

Dodge Ram

Ford F150

Hummer Ev

Tesla Cybertruck

Challenger Hellcat

Chevrolet Express

Jeep Wrangler

Chevrolet Silverado

Dodge Power Wagon

Ford Flex

Wrangler Rubicon

Lotus Excel

Dodge Charger

About this episode

Original notes