TFL Talkin' Trucks Oct 31, 2025

Ep. 303: Andre Road-Tripped 6 Trucks This Year - Which One Is the Best?

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Car

Ram 1500

The Ram 1500 Express is a type of pickup truck that is designed for both work and everyday use. The 2026 version includes new features that make it more efficient and comfortable to drive.

Car

Dodge Ram

The Dodge Ram is a big truck that can carry heavy things and is good for work. It's popular because it's comfortable to drive and can do a lot of different jobs.

Concept

Japanese Mobility Show

The Japanese Mobility Show is a big car exhibition in Japan where companies show off their new cars and technology. It's a place to see what's coming in the automotive world.

Concept

auto show

An auto show is a big event where car companies show off their newest cars and features. People can see the latest models and learn about new technology in cars.

Car

Ford F150

The F-150 is a popular truck made by Ford that is used for work and everyday driving. It's known for being tough and reliable.

Car

Ram Dude

The Ram Dude is a special version of Ram trucks that has unique features and design elements. It's being brought back for a car show called SEMA, where manufacturers showcase new and interesting vehicles.

Car

Ram 500 Express

The Ram 500 Express is a type of Ram truck that looks good and is useful for carrying things. It's designed to be more stylish than the regular models.

Term

Hurricane engine

The Hurricane engine is a type of engine that uses two turbochargers to boost power while being more efficient than older designs. It's a straight-six, meaning it has six cylinders arranged in a line.

Part

twin turbo

Twin turbo means the engine has two turbochargers that help it produce more power by pushing more air into the engine, making it run better and faster.

Car

Chevrolet Express

The Chevrolet Express is a big van that can carry a lot of people or things. It's useful for businesses and families who need extra space.

Car

Ram Express

The Ram Express is a type of pickup truck that is designed to be a less expensive option compared to other models in the Ram lineup, making it more accessible for buyers.

Term

four wheel drive

Four wheel drive means that all four wheels of the vehicle can move at the same time, which helps the car grip the road better, especially in bad weather or rough terrain.

Term

trailer brake controller

A trailer brake controller helps you control the brakes on a trailer you're towing, making it safer and easier to stop without losing control.

Term

hitch

A hitch is a part on the back of a vehicle that lets you attach a trailer so you can pull it along with your car or truck.

Term

incentives

Incentives are ways to save money when buying a car. They can be cash discounts or lower loan rates that make it cheaper to buy a vehicle.

Term

sticker price

The sticker price is the price that the car manufacturer recommends for the car. It's what you see on the window when you look at a new car.

Term

manufacturer incentive

A manufacturer incentive is a discount given by the car company to help sell their cars. It means you could pay less for a car than the sticker price, making it more affordable.

Term

horsepower

Horsepower measures how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and stronger the vehicle can go.

Term

torque

Torque measures how much force an engine can use to turn the wheels. More torque means better acceleration and the ability to pull heavier loads.

Term

MPG

MPG means how far a car can go on a gallon of gas. The higher the MPG, the less gas the car uses for the distance traveled.

Term

Canyon Lake color

Canyon Lake is a special paint color for the Ram 1500 that has a greenish tint. Different colors can make a car look more attractive.

Term

18 inch wheels

18 inch wheels are the size of the wheels on a car. Bigger wheels can help the car drive better, but they might also make the ride feel bumpier because the tires have less rubber around them.

Car

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is a large van that can be used for transporting goods or people. It's known for being reliable and can be customized in many ways to fit different needs.

Brand

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a famous car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars and commercial vehicles. They have been making vehicles since the late 1800s.

Car

Benz Patent Motorwagen

The Benz Patent Motorwagen is known as the first real car, created in 1886. It had a small engine and was a big step in making vehicles that didn't need horses to move.

Concept

Sprinter

The Sprinter is a type of van made by Mercedes-Benz that started being sold in 1995. It's popular for businesses because it can carry a lot of stuff and be used in many ways.

Car

Toyota IMV Origin

The Toyota IMV Origin is a type of truck that you can customize yourself. It's designed to be flexible and can be built in different ways depending on what you need.

Car

Toyota IMV prototype

The Toyota IMV prototype is a test vehicle that Toyota is working on. It's meant to be useful like a truck, but it looks different and more like a flat platform than a typical truck with sides.

Car

Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf is a small car that is easy to drive and great for everyday use. It's popular because it has a lot of space inside and is fun to drive.

Car

Jeep Willis

The Jeep Willis was a military vehicle used in World War II. It was small, tough, and could be easily moved around, making it useful for soldiers.

Car

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["Turkish R&B Music"]

Guys, we have a very special episode

of TFL Talking Trucks podcast for you right now.

Cause we're in the studio.

Yeah, and especially if you're watching this video,

we're going to talk through this very special guest

that we have on the podcast.

Which is a truck.

Which is even better than a regular human guest.

So a couple of things going on.

We're here in the garage.

We're next to the new 2026 Ram 1500 Express

that I recently drove just last week

from Detroit to Denver for some testing.

Yeah, and this truck is very interesting

because obviously every time we do videos on trucks,

it's one of the main comments that we see

that truck prices are getting out of control.

Those sticker prices have definitely been,

I wouldn't say creeping up.

They've been kind of skyrocketing

over the last several years.

And this truck in particular that we're looking at

behind us is how Ram is trying to address some of that.

So this is a more affordable version of a Ram 1500

that we're going to walk through in detail.

Exactly.

And also we have some news of several things going on.

For example, Roman and Tommy are in Japan

at the Japanese Mobility Show.

Which is their big major auto show.

It's a huge deal.

And they found some truck news for us from there.

A truck that you have to build yourself.

Yeah, which is interesting.

By Toyota of all places.

By Toyota.

So it's not a startup.

It's not like a...

It's the biggest company in the world.

Yeah, exactly.

Automotive company.

Also some news from Ford.

Their 2026 F-150 configurator recently went live.

And I noticed a couple of interesting things

that we can discuss.

Also there's a Ram dude.

Yeah, so this is not the most well-known special trim

from the past.

But there was a special model of Ram trucks

way back in the day called the dude.

That they're bringing back for SEMA specifically.

So we could talk about that.

Yeah, and also recently over the last 15 months or so.

Or maybe even two years of time.

We have done many different road trips and trucks.

So what I wanted to focus this podcast on is why do we

do these road trips and which is the best truck, right?

Which was the coolest truck for a road trip.

Now, one of the trucks that we're going to be talking about

is the Ram Express.

This Ram 1500 Express package that we have here in the studio

that we'll be walking through and talking through.

Again, if you're watching the video,

you'll be able to see the truck and what it looks like

and all of the features.

But we'll also explain those features

as we go through everything.

Now, the truck itself from the exterior

doesn't necessarily look like it's a very basic,

more affordable work truck.

Exactly.

It's kind of based on the tradesmen.

And the most common work truck in the world

is probably just white, basic white color

with a blacked out grille.

And very simple steel wheels.

But the truck you see here in front of us,

if you're just listening to this podcast,

it's painted silver.

The trim and the front bumper are also painted silver.

Yeah, so everything is color matched.

It's all body color, so they haven't cheaped out there.

So this looks like a pretty premium truck.

And the wheels are really nice.

They look very high end.

They look a little classic.

I almost want to say these remind me of some Ram truck wheels

for maybe the late 2000s, but in a good way.

Yeah, yeah, and this is a 20 inch wheel.

So when you kind of cross that check box

and when you check the Ram 500 Express,

you kind of get this a little bit more attractive,

not a basic look, but I would say a quite attractive look.

Also, this truck has a Hurricane engine,

which is their latest three liter twin turbo straight six.

We'll talk about that a little bit.

And also, let's show the cab really quick

before we go any further.

Yeah, so because this Ram Express that we're talking about

is meant to be a slightly more affordable truck

from the exterior, at a glance you really can't tell

because it's got those bigger wheels

with a nice polished finish to them.

It's got the color matched grill and bumpers and everything.

But when you get to the interior,

then you start to see that this is a more basic truck.

So these are cloth seats

and it's a six seat configuration.

So it is a bench in the front,

which of course you can fold down

to have yourself a center console as well.

So when you're not using it,

you can use it as a regular console.

But the interior is a little simplified,

which for the most part, I actually don't mind.

So there's a few things like the cubby

that's up above the glove box,

doesn't have a cover over it.

So that's one of the ways that you could tell

this is a more basic truck.

It also has a set of analog gauges

which I appreciate because these don't look like

very cheap basic analog gauges.

They're backlit LED.

They look pretty premium.

There is a small screen in between the analog gauges.

And then in the center of the dash,

there's a screen that's not the biggest screen they make.

It's an eight inch.

But it's an eight inch screen that's plenty big enough.

Plus they've got actual physical controls for the climate

and everything.

So for the most part,

I really actually don't mind this interior

on this truck at all.

Exactly.

And when you just folded the center seat here in the front,

I wanted to point out how easy it was, right?

There's a little strap that's on the driver's side.

And I think, well, GM and Ford also have

similar configurations, right?

Where you can get kind of a bench seat

with a folding center section.

But I think this is one of the simplest ones.

Absolutely.

You just pull, just pull once.

It's convenient.

You know, I love having trucks that have a bench seat

in the front, because of course,

you don't always have to use it.

And you maybe feel a little cramped when you are three across.

But you still have the option, which is great.

So that might be a situation

where you can take one vehicle instead of two.

Exactly.

So I love having a six seat.

For maybe a short trip.

I don't think I want to do a thousand miles with six people.

Which speaking of, you did do around about a thousand miles

in this very truck.

Yeah.

So I think we have to discuss first

why we do road trips at TFL and TFL trucks specifically

and for our podcast.

Couple things, cause we want to be first.

Yeah.

Right?

That's the big deal.

So sometimes we have to go to where the trucks are.

Yeah.

So we have to go to where trucks are.

So sometimes we borrow a truck from a manufacturer like this.

So this Ram 1500 Express doesn't belong to us.

It belongs to Ram.

And I was in Detroit for an event

and there was an opportunity to bring this truck back

and actually do some detail testing

and have it for a longer period of time.

And we wanted to be first about it.

And this is a 2026 model.

So not an all new truck, right?

Because it came out, this trim and this powertrain

came out about a year ago.

But nonetheless, this is a two wheel drive.

Yeah.

So there are a couple of things about this truck

that if it were you or I spec'ing it out,

we might do slightly differently.

Exactly.

So we live in Colorado.

Having a two wheel drive truck works fine

in maybe the Southeast, like where I'm from.

But out here, four wheel drive is pretty important.

So we would both spec a truck with four wheel drive.

The other thing is this truck as it's spec'ed

does not have a trailer brake controller.

No, it does have a hitch though with wiring,

but no trailer brake controller.

So that's another way this truck is maybe

a little bit more less expensive than it would have been.

But it doesn't have two other things.

I think you would be really upset at this case.

First of all, there are no buttons on the back

of the steering wheel.

Yeah, which I've complained about in the past,

but that is a bit of switch gear that I use constantly

as I'm driving any vehicle under the Stalantis umbrella.

I love the skip track and the volume buttons

on the backs of the steering wheels.

I use them constantly.

So that's one switch that I wish they hadn't cost cut

on this particular model because I think it's very useful.

It's available on other ramps, obviously.

But there's another thing that's missing

that you might be upset about.

And I think I'm upset about is this area,

it has no recovery points, no tow hooks in the front.

I suppose you could argue on a two wheel drive truck

you shouldn't be getting into a situation

where you need a recovery hook.

Yeah.

But you could also argue that because it's two wheel drive,

you're that much more likely to need it to be recovered.

Exactly, so yeah, if you and I specced this truck out,

I think we would have added four wheel drive.

We would have added brake controller.

Which would of course bring the price up.

Yes, four wheel drive costs at least about $3,500.

So it's a sizable step up.

But I think we really need it in Colorado.

And also I think you and I would have specced

a little bit more off roady version,

probably with tow points in the front.

Yeah, and especially to considering that adding some options

like that make a truck pricier.

But a lot of trucks that are already on dealer lots

are seeing some pretty big incentives.

Especially here locally in Colorado,

you're seeing as much as what $7,000 off the sticker price

of a lot of Ram trucks that are for sale locally here.

That's gonna depend on where you live.

But that's not bad.

And the Express currently,

we usually don't talk about incentives, right?

Because they changed a lot.

But right now at least on the Ram 1500 Express,

there's like a $3,000 or $4,000 manufacturer incentive.

Yeah, so that could make up for some of those extra options

that both Andre and I would probably equip on one of these.

So I did drive it over 1,100 miles last week

with Zac, our producer, Zac and I.

So recently, about a year ago,

we kind of made a policy decision,

always to people in the truck for a road trip.

Actually, we made the decision I think years ago.

And also we're not cannonballing trucks, right?

Anymore, because we wanna be safe,

we stay wherever we need to stay.

And also this truck, I'm not gonna go into detail

on the trip because there's a video about it.

But this was one of the best recent vehicles

on fuel efficiency.

It got over 25 MPG, 25.2.

And partially cases because this truck sits lower

to the ground, you can kind of tell if you're watching.

It's about maybe two hands,

like 10 fingers off the ground.

Yeah, to the very lower part of the skirt up front.

Yeah, but also it has a movable chin.

On the highway, it retracts a little bit down.

So aerodynamically speaking, this truck is really good.

But for having 420 horsepower and 469 pound feet of torque

and get over 25 MPG, that's remarkable, I think.

Yeah, it's really not bad.

And like you said, it made for a good road trip truck

not only because of the fuel economy, because of the power,

but even though this is a more basic truck,

it actually has a decently comfortable interior.

Exactly, and the cloth seats are actually,

I would choose these cloth seats over many others,

except they don't have heated function in this truck.

In this truck, we do have a Manaroni.

Technically speaking, this truck on the Manaroni

because it also has a preferred package on it

is just over 51 grand, but like we were saying,

we would spec our truck out a little bit differently

if we were actually speccing it out.

So tell me about the difference between,

so this is an express, right?

But you also mentioned the preferred package.

So what are the details and the differences?

So we can kind of take a look here.

And by the way, EPA did rate this truck at 25.

And that's what you saw as well.

We saw at least a little bit over that.

The preferred, this is so small, dude.

Yeah, it's gonna be hard to read,

especially for the people that are listening.

Yes, we're so sorry.

But the customer preferred package is about $2,100,

just over that.

And it has a folding rear seat, which is split 6040.

It has the 20 inch wheels, actually.

And it gets you the body color bumper

and the grille and everything.

So a lot of those things that make this truck look

a little bit more premium.

Yeah, a pure more premium are part of what brings

that price up, but not by a ton.

Yeah, but I did another story

where I configured the new Ram 1500 tradesman,

which comes in a really cool Canyon Lake color,

which is a little bit green tint.

We still wheels 18 inch wheels,

which means we have more sidewall.

And four wheel drive and the hurricane engine

and the towing pack with the brake controller.

And that was about 49 grand.

Yeah, which is a cool way to spec a truck

because that way you were able to keep it under 50,000

and that makes it a more interesting story.

And four wheel drive.

Yeah, and four wheel drive.

So I think that makes it a more interesting story,

but to the credit of this package, this truck has,

I would say if you're spending, again,

it's gonna depend within sentence,

but if you're buying a truck that has an MSRP

around $50,000, another two grand,

if you care about it not looking like a work truck,

if you care about it having paint matched bodywork

and nicer alloy wheels, two grand is kind of a drop

in the bucket with 50,000 MSRP to make it look

like a much more premium nicer truck.

So to me, it would be worthwhile,

but it depends on what you're going for.

Exactly, and so that's this Ram 1500 Express.

Let's hit some news before we look at some other road trips.

Yeah.

So I, let's see, I went to Germany recently,

like you and Roman did a couple of podcasts.

Is that a block of ice?

It's a sculpture made out of rock.

Oh, sorry.

Interesting, yes.

Oh, Andre is pulling up a picture of me

standing next to a sculpture.

A very interesting looking sculpture.

Sorry.

Yeah, that's, apparently it's a sculpture of a van.

It's a sprinter.

Yeah.

How abstract.

Were you at an art museum?

What's going on, Andre?

Why do you have a thumbnail of you next to a sculpture?

It's because the new sprinter is coming,

but this is a tease.

This is a tease of a new sprinter.

Well, that's a very interesting way

to tease a vehicle is to create a sculpture

that looks vaguely.

Yeah, so now, like a sprinter van.

You know, I'm kind of, I'm automotive journalist,

but now I can kind of consider myself an art journalist.

Yeah, so I wonder if, for the next Ford truck

that comes out, if they're gonna do

an oil-based canvas painting, or maybe velvet.

I hope not.

To tease the truck.

I hope not.

So, seriously speaking, so I did go to Stuttgart.

This is where kind of Mercedes is based out of,

as far as globally.

And they're celebrating 30 years of the sprinter van, right?

So 1995 was the first year where they transferred,

they advanced, of course, going back into the, gosh,

the 1800s, the first Mercedes commercial vehicle

was in 1896.

And we have a Class X video about it.

I didn't get to drive it.

So they ref, I don't know if timing did either,

but they refurbished in 1989, sorry, 1896.

Not 1996.

No, 1896, almost 130 years old,

little one-cylinder, it kind of looks

like a horse-less carriage, right?

Yeah, well, I know Tommy at one point drove

the Benz patent motor wagon, which is kind of

in the first car.

Which is similar to that, yes.

So they had vans going back to that,

but in 1995, they created the Sprinter name.

It's been very successful.

It's not the best-selling commercial van in the world

because Volkswagen, Ford, GM, I mean,

all of them sell commercial vans.

But they still sold five million Sprinters

since 1995 worldwide.

And the next one is coming next year.

Which is a big deal.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a big deal.

So even though they showed us,

they tease it with a sculpture.

Yeah.

I actually did see one,

but we weren't allowed to video it or talk about it.

Interesting.

It's still a little secretive right now.

Yeah.

So that's a piece of news from Germany.

Right.

Now we have to look at a little bit

of piece of news from Japan.

We're really international on this contest.

Yeah, yeah, especially right now,

since Roman and Tommy, like you said, are in Japan.

So can you see that?

Yeah, you know.

So if you're watching this.

So Roman and Tommy at their Japanese Mobility Show.

And in the Toyota booth, they found this.

It's a Toyota IMV Origin.

That's the name.

Yeah, so this is the build it yourself truck kit

that Andre was talking about.

Yeah.

And I've got to say,

looking at this vehicle,

it's kind of like a mostly flat platform.

Yes.

With a slight cage over the driver

and a small console and a seat, but it's all open.

It looks like it's maybe got a windshield.

It's got a couple of small lights, but yeah, no doors.

And the seat is like a camping inflatable cushion.

Yeah, it looks, the seat looks like, yeah,

an inflatable something out of a lunar rover.

But you probably wouldn't want to inflate a seat in space, but.

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This, this is interesting.

To me, this Toyota IMV prototype,

doesn't really look like a truck.

It kind of looks like a utility golf cart.

Yeah, but technically, because it's a platform,

it's technically, the entire vehicle is a bed.

Right, yeah, with no bed sides, it's just flat.

Exactly.

I'm sure you could put bed sides on it.

You could put bed sides on it.

Hold on, let me just look up a Toyota IMV Origin.

You could watch a video about this.

Well, here's another,

there's a couple of images of this.

For example, Road and Track had a couple of images

of this as well.

It really looks like a lunar rover.

Yeah, it almost looks like a space vehicle,

but it's meant really for rural markets

and also markets like in Africa.

And partially the reason, well,

I didn't get the entire story from Toyota,

from Roman and Tommy, but basically the story is,

you wanna bring the price way down, right?

And one way to do it, like the original Jeep Willis.

Is by literally offering less truck.

Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

Original military Jeep, right?

In 1941, came in a crate, it was folded down.

And you took it out and you put the wheels on it,

you folded the windshield up

and you kind of finished assembling it

and then you would drive it away, right?

There's something about a Willis MB

that looks a little better than this.

Than this?

Yeah, so this is supposed to be electric

and you could put the seat either on the right-hand side

for driving or left-hand side for driving.

And I thought it was kind of an interesting concept.

It is interesting.

Not street legal, I would say.

No, and especially not here in the States.

No, because it doesn't have like airbags.

And I can't imagine it does more than 45.

I hope not because it's completely open.

Yeah, so top speed is questionable on this.

But it could be a nice ranch vehicle, right?

To use around the farm or a ranch.

It's definitely interesting.

It's a unique concept.

Now, let's get to a truck that we actually buy

and one of the-

It can go on the road?

It can go on the road,

which is the 2026 Ford F-150.

So I've been kind of waiting for this.

I've been away for a couple of weeks traveling,

but the 2026 F-150 configurator is online.

And I don't know if you could tell the case on camera,

but the color palette got more and more boring.

Yeah, it's-

It's black to gray to silver to white.

Yeah, it's like you're shopping for a laptop or something.

There's different shades of silver and black for the most part.

And white.

Different shades of white, different shades of silver.

And one slightly blue and one slightly green, it looks like.

I don't know.

Is that even-

Marsh, that's just gray.

Marsh gray, it's called-

Okay, it's a greenish gray.

So the pricing did change a little bit

and most manufacturers increased their destination charges

to 2595, which is insanely high destination charge.

Yeah, Toyota's not quite as high.

They're a little-

Yeah.

On pickup trucks.

But I noticed a couple of things, another thing.

So remember how in 2021,

I purchased one of the first F-150 hybrids, right?

It was a work truck.

Power Boost, it was an XL crew cab, shorter bed,

which is a five and a half foot bed,

which is the most popular configuration.

I think I can't remember exactly what I paid.

This was what almost five years ago.

It was about $42,000, $43,000 for the one I purchased.

It was four-wheel drive.

Look at this.

So now in a super crew, which is a crew cab,

when you build an XL truck,

Power Boost is not even an option anymore.

On that model.

On that trim.

And I'm sure you were one of the very few

that spec'd a truck that way.

Well, I am.

Maybe I was, but you wanna be frugal

with your money, right, sometimes.

And I think commercial vehicles,

like maybe police trucks and some others,

that you may still be able to get a hybrid in an XL.

But you can't for a regular consumer anymore.

You cannot configure it that way.

And check this out.

If you did want a hybrid, for example,

STX is the next trim level that you could build,

which starts at $44,000.

And look, it includes red color.

Wow.

Whoa.

That's good.

Now you can paint your truck red.

Wait, wait a minute.

But if you paint it red, it adds on packages that.

Costs $8,200.

Yeah, increased price by eight grand.

So maybe not red.

Okay, not red.

But if you want to add the Power Boost,

which is this, which is a really cool power train,

because you can also have power export.

I'm holding my breath.

Watch this.

It goes from $47,000.

It adds $9,100.

Again, not just because of the engine.

No, no, because they're making you purchase a four-wheel drive

and then a more premium package.

Yeah, so the, what, the cheapest then

that you can get into a Power Boost now is $56,000.

So almost $57,000.

Yeah, let's confirm.

And that's before destination, right?

Let's confirm.

That's with destination.

$56,000.

Yeah, so, and you paid $42,000.

Yeah.

Well, that was before, well, that was right during COVID.

Yeah.

I mean, so a huge price increase.

And of course, some of the other price increases

are not as bad.

Oh, there's one more thing.

I think Ford listened to us.

About what?

Ramp, sorry, Roman purchased F-150 tremor

for the company, right?

We own one in our fleet.

Remember how there is a basic tremor

and then there's a very expensive one.

Yeah.

Right?

So for 2026, I just noticed,

let's go back to the tremor configurator.

So we're really going deep on this one.

Tremor.

Tremor starts at 64, which is actually similar

to where it was.

So the pricing did not jump in a huge way.

Once again, you can get 50 shades of gray.

Yeah.

Although once the destination is added on top of that.

Oof, it went to 68, which is actually what we paid.

Yep.

I mean, that's the sticker on our truck

that was on our truck.

Yeah, not when we paid out the deal.

We paid less because of the incentives.

120 bucks to get a V8?

Yeah, $120 to get a V8, which is not bad.

Not bad.

But look at this.

60 bucks a cylinder.

Look, they created a mid-grade tremor

that costs about $4,000.

And if you click to see what's in it,

it's the torsion front differential.

Yeah.

Remember how we complained about this?

Off-road, that torsion front differential

is really nice to have, but it also

has some nice luxury features as well.

Heated steering wheel, which is great.

Power adjustable pedals.

Yeah, power folding mirrors.

So what basically happened here,

because I was complaining that in order

to get a torsion differential, you

had to pay like $11,000 to step up to the premium tremor.

Now you can get a more basic truck

with that limited slip in the front.

For about $4,000, which is great.

So I'm going to claim a win on this one.

Yeah, we'll call it a win.

It's still, with that package, it'll be about $72,000,

including destination.

So it's not cheap, but cheaper than it was.

So let's walk around the front, because we've

been kind of sitting by the bed.

It was kind of a bed talk section of our podcast.

Yeah.

Finally, a piece of news, the Ram dude.

Tilt your screen down a little.

Which way?

Yes.

So SEMA is coming up.

Yeah.

Dude, SEMA is just, what, several days away?

Yeah, and Andre and I are both going.

And that's show.

And then we're just going to be there too.

Yeah, so we're going to have a bunch of videos from that.

Yes.

So the dude is a SEMA concept truck.

So you cannot buy the dude right now.

Yeah, but in the past, the dude was a trim that Dodge sold.

Yes.

So in 1970 and 71, they did have a sport trim package

called the dude.

And it seems like if people like the concept truck at SEMA,

called the dude, which is actually a little bit lowered,

so it has about a one inch lower suspension.

It's a V8.

I mean, they're showing the hemi version of it.

And then it's painted sublime green,

which is a Stalantis color.

So it's a really like a highlighter green almost.

Yeah, it's a really bright green.

I don't know if you could see that again.

Could be interesting.

And I will say that Stalantis loves

doing a lot of special additions and trims of trucks.

So I wouldn't put it past them to actually bring this

to the market.

Exactly.

And there is a little bit of a push here, right?

Because recently Ford introduced the F-150 Lobo,

which was a slightly lower truck with a V8 engine as well,

which has meant a little bit more for street performance use,

even though they did not increase the power.

Yeah, and that's an important thing right there.

Because Ford has, like you said,

Ford's introduced a couple of street trucks.

The Lobo version of the F-150, like you said,

doesn't have a power increase.

So you could make an argument that they didn't necessarily

do enough with it.

No.

But I think that if Ram is going to follow them up

with also bringing out a more street oriented truck,

if they're going to be bringing theirs to market after Ford,

I think they kind of need to go beyond.

And they do have a Mopar Whipple Supercharger package.

Yeah, but it's interesting because the Ford Supercharger

package that you could get for a Coyote Powered F-150

has some perks and makes a little bit more power.

And also dealer installed at any dealership

across the country.

Yeah, so you can get it through your dealer.

So there's some additional power and additional convenience

with doing it the Ford way.

So I think if Ram wants to be really competitive

in this, they need to find some ways

to get a leg up over the other street performance

trucks that came before it.

Hey, what if they offered, if the Supercharger is a little bit

too much of a hassle, high output hurricane?

I was going to say Viper V10.

But high output hurricane works, too, yeah.

Yeah, and there is, it seems like, some tuning potential

for the hurricane because Tommy and I

went to Roadkill Nights.

We were in Michigan.

And Dodge has a big, big presence at that event.

And they had given several hurricane powertrains

to some different tuning shops that put those motors

in a whole bunch of different cars

and uncorked them through massive turbos and intercoolers

at them, mess with the fuel systems,

and made a lot of power with those engines.

So there is some extra horsepower potential

with those engines because they're

pretty impressive from the factory.

Like when Tommy and I were looking at the six pack

chargers, the new hurricane powered chargers,

we were talking to the engineers, those turbos,

those stock turbos on a high output hurricane in that charger

are peaking around 30 PSI of boost,

which in a gas engine is a lot.

Is a lot, but people have tuned engines

to much higher levels on boost, right?

But if you talk to somebody with a 2JZ, right?

Yes, like your friend, Connor.

Yeah, like your buddy, Connor.

Arguably the tuner engine.

Yes.

And they've got their Mark IV Supra all hopped up,

and it's loud, and it spits flames.

And you ask them how much boost they're

running through that motor.

If they say 30 PSI, that's a powerful car.

That's a fast Supra.

So 30 PSI from a stock, three liter straight six,

a car you could just buy off of a dealer lot is a ton.

So those engines are already pretty stout.

And it seems like they could handle even more.

So I agree with you, with this engine.

If they throw a higher output version of this

into a straight truck, that could be something special.

It could be interesting.

I think there's maybe a lot that you could do with it.

Because again, this is an impressive engine

with how much boost it has from the factory

and even the potential in the aftermarket for more power

output.

I think one of the big hurdles for anybody

who's an enthusiast who's working with one of these engines

and planning on making it faster and louder and everything

is that they don't sound very good.

I don't love the way that these Hurricanes sound.

They've made it a little bit louder in the charger in the RAM

pickups.

And the RHO is a little bit louder.

Yeah.

And I don't think it's a great sounding straight six.

You know what?

Here's the thing.

Let's bring it back to the road trip.

Zach and I were driving it from Detroit to Denver.

This hurricane powered RAM 1500 Express.

And we commented that we were actually kind of glad the engine

was quiet as a mouse.

Yeah, sure, for a road trip.

For a road trip, it's nice.

But for a high performance, raw vehicle,

you need to have more sound.

Yeah.

But on a road trip, we were having just a really calm

conversation at 80 miles an hour,

just cruising down the road very comfortably on the highway.

And that was nice for that purpose.

Yeah.

I don't know if this is ever going to take off as a tuner

truck, not because the engine doesn't have that ability.

And I think from the factory, again,

RAM could take this motor and take it to the next level

from even where it's at now, which is already

pretty in high output form.

It was a pretty impressive engine.

I don't know if it's really going to take off

in the aftermarket community, because like we said,

it doesn't sound that good.

But functionally speaking, Hurricane

is a good motor.

It's smooth.

It makes a lot of power, a lot of torque.

Wasn't there a tuner viper with a Hurricane drill leader?

There's a viper not that dissimilar from ours.

But instead of the V10, it had.

But that was what, like 800 horse or something?

Yeah, it had a hopped up Hurricane in it.

Yeah, and several other tuning shops

had done the same thing with those engines.

And yeah, I mean, they can handle quite a bit of power.

It just doesn't have that sound that grabs you.

That raw sound, yeah.

Yeah, they were loud.

Yeah, well, let us know what you think in the comments below.

If you heard it tuned one of these engines in a special tune,

or maybe if you're an exhaust manufacturer, right?

And you can even.

Like Magnaflow or somebody else.

And yeah, and you could go even find videos

if you were wondering about how these engines sound.

You can find some videos of how the Charger 6-Pax sound.

Especially, well, like you said, the RHO has some extra sound,

but as do the Charger 6-Pax.

And it's a different kind of noise.

It's a different noise.

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So I just wanted to kind of finish this podcast.

You know, we're kind of in the midpoint of this podcast,

but I made some notes, in case,

about all the other trips we took over the last year.

Yeah, so we could talk a little bit more

about road trip trucks,

which is probably the original concept

and not how 3-8-6 is sound.

I realized something.

Here's my raw notes.

You're getting behind the scenes kind of look at this.

I realized that over the last 15 months,

I've road-tripped six trucks and five of them are Rams.

Yeah, I don't know how that happened.

What is up with that?

I don't know.

Why aren't Ford and Chevy giving you more trucks?

I can explain. Road trip.

I can explain.

Well, yeah, you road-tripped that duly, the Ford, right?

Well, you and I tripped it.

Oh, but I mean the red one, the single cab.

Yeah, yeah, but that wasn't a duly.

Remember, that was an off-road version.

Was that a single rear wheel?

Yeah, it was an F-250.

So...

The single cab long bed?

Yes.

Yeah, that was a while ago.

But we road-tripped that.

No, no, but it's on my list.

Okay.

It's on my list.

That was just recently.

I mean, this was the summer in 2025.

So that truck, so let's get there chronologically speaking.

So we talked about the Ram 1500 Express two-wheel drive,

amazing efficiency at 25-2.

That's the truck we have here in the studio.

By the way, because it has that more efficient rear axle,

which is a 321-21 instead of an aggressive axle,

like a 392-21, the towing ability on this one

is only about 8,400 pounds.

So you have to be mindful of this.

So when you purchase, or let's say you're walking down

a dealership row and you see a lot of vehicles parked,

a lot of trucks parked, and you're jumping in and out

and you saw the attractive price,

you have to ask, stop and ask,

wait a minute, what axle does this have?

What's the towing rating?

What the payload rating is?

Payload rating is easy

because you could just look directly into the sticker, right?

So payload rating is really easy

because on this yellow and white sticker,

you could see it, which is about 1,700 pounds

on this one, right?

Yeah, but like you said, the tow rating is gonna vary.

But the axle is gonna be different

and the tow rating is gonna be a little bit more

hard to find.

But the trade-off there as well is part of the reason

that this truck has good fuel economy

is because of that rear axle.

So if you're not towing a lot, 8,400 pounds,

it's still a decent rating.

Sure, yeah, yeah.

For like, I tow a 6,000-pound boat.

This will be plenty for me.

Like, I don't need much more.

Plus, I get better efficiency.

Now, the Warlock, here's the video.

So we have a playlist on TFL Truck,

which is called Road Trip.

So you could see a variety of road trips

that we took in different trucks.

Yeah, and that was very recently.

We had the Ram Warlock.

That was a couple of months ago.

Also Detroit to Denver.

Dude, I know that road pretty well now.

Yeah, you've made that drive a lot, Tom.

It includes some, by the way, nothing, this is sponsored,

but I do like my Reds, Root Beer, and Hot Dog.

You're not sponsored by Reds, Root Beer, and Hot Dogs?

No.

You're gonna go out of pocket for those?

Ah, that's heartbreaking.

I also like stopping at the I-80 Truck Stop,

which is a pretty cool place.

Yeah, the Truck Stop.

World's biggest.

Oh, can I make a side note?

Yeah.

I found my next dream truck at the Truck Stop.

In this video?

Not in the Warlock.

Well, yes, in the Warlock video, too.

Is it a semi?

It's a 19, I think it's a 1940.

So pre-war, cabover, Ford, semi-truck.

Yep, that's pretty cool.

I mean, proportionally, it looks good.

It's got nice fenders.

It's got headlamps.

It's all in a load of washer fluid.

Well, that's the one they have at the Truck Stop,

but these are hard to find.

Yeah.

I tried looking for these.

These are very, very hard to find.

So if you're listening or watching,

if you're selling a 1940s cabover truck.

Andre will buy it and then he'll do like a cool,

some cool Detroit diesel and a twin-stick.

I'm gonna do a chassis swap.

Yeah, that'd be cool.

You and I talked about this.

True, yeah, you could drop that body

on another modern chassis.

And get functional brakes and powertrain

such that you could actually tow a trailer

with this to this day.

Anyway, that was a side note.

Now, going back to our videos,

hold on, let me bring that up again.

Let's see.

Here we go.

So in the warlock, this MPG story was way different

because I got 16.1 when I drove with Cole,

our producer, Cole.

On that same stretch of highway.

Yes.

So that's nine MPG difference.

That was a Hemi-powered truck.

Yes, which was a lifted Hemi-powered truck.

Four-wheel drive.

Four-wheel drive with aggressive tires.

They'll have those Durer tracks,

I believe, Goodyear Durer track tires.

So that's just to tell you,

and an aggressive rear axle that had a 39221.

So it's a big difference between trucks

and how they're spec'd.

Yeah, and let me bring this laptop to the front.

So as much as we like the off-road trucks

because we live in Colorado,

that's a big penalty.

Yeah, that's a big penalty in fuel efficiency.

Then the next on our list is that F-250.

So here was the, let's see, that's Roman and I.

Yeah, so you road tripped a very,

admittedly very basic F-250, single cab,

vinyl floors, cloth seats, long bed,

but it was a great towing rig

because you guys actually used this F-250

not only to drive cross-country,

but to pull our Deuce and a half

from Utah back to Colorado as well.

Yeah, exactly.

So we picked up our General Giant,

which is a Bob Deuce and a half in near Salt Lake, Utah,

and we drove down towards Moab

because we have to go to Moab, right?

I mean, it's an amazing place.

And also we wanted to off-road

our General Giant truck over there.

But when I pulled up, can you see that?

Yeah. Oh, sorry.

When I pulled up, when Roman and I pulled up

in an F-250 two-door regular cab truck

with a Gooseneck trailer, by the way, Silver Spur,

a dealership trailer, dealership here in Colorado,

let us borrow this Gooseneck trailer.

So shout out to Silver Spur.

That was a pretty amazing deal that we had.

The people were there were like saying,

will this truck even pull this?

Because it looks a little small.

It looks small. Yeah, it's short wheelbase,

but it does have a power stroke, right?

So it does have a V8 turbo diesel with a ton of power.

So the power wasn't the problem.

And this truck was rated to tow, I think,

just over like 20,000 pounds the way we had it configured.

And our trailer was near there.

I think our trailer with GG on top,

who weighs approximately 11,000 pounds.

And the trailer itself weighs about 8,000 plus.

We were pulling like 19,000 pounds cross country

in a little baby two-door truck.

But it's still pretty well. And it did really well.

But what didn't go so well, it got 8.2 MPG.

Pulling the trailer? Pulling 19,000 pounds.

Look, well, think about this.

What does the Deuce get on its own?

Not even that probably. Not even that.

So we saved money.

Yeah, you burn less fuel pulling that truck

on a trailer behind another truck.

Yes. So that's what you can expect.

I mean, we've done many different iGontlets, right?

With many different heavy duty trucks.

Think about that.

This F-250 is not only more efficient

pulling the Deuce on a trailer

than the Deuce is on its own, also faster.

And more comfortable.

Yeah.

So the top speed of the Deuce and a half, I'm sorry,

this Bob truck is like 55, 57 miles per hour.

So the fastest and most efficient

a Deuce and a half is on a trailer.

Is ever is on a trailer behind something else.

Yeah.

Which is kind of funny.

So that was an interesting trip, very unique.

Obviously we don't do a lot of towing trips cross country,

but that was one of those trips.

And once again, why did we do this?

Cause it's an interesting truck, right?

So you don't see many of these.

They had an off-road package, which is a 33 inch tall tire.

It's got a rear locking differential.

It's got a winch in the front.

It was kind of pricey, remember?

It was just over 70 grand.

Yeah.

Which for this type of truck is a lot of money.

But nonetheless, it was an interesting truck

and we wanted to be first once again.

Then, so the reason why we've done

so many Rams recently is because Ram

has been revamping their entire lineup, right?

In the spring or a few months back,

I was in Las Vegas with you.

Yep.

We did Davis Dam.

Actually, well, we went from Vegas to Davis Dam, right?

And then we told a bunch of trailers with Ram at the event.

Then you and I flew home.

A day later, I got on the plane again.

I flew to Vegas again.

And drove a truck back at the end of the event.

Yes.

Which was a heavy duty rebel.

It was the white truck, if you remember.

And I met Roman in Moab again, our favorite place.

And he brought a Duramax.

So he drove our Silverado Duramax there.

Our company truck.

Let's go to that video.

Yeah, so we have also done some road trips

in our company-owned Duramax as well.

Several, yes.

Yeah, which is not necessarily on your list,

but that's something that we do regularly.

Yeah, but when I say road trip,

I mean like more than 350 miles.

Like something more substantial.

Sure.

But we did this GM, the Silverado 2500 versus Rebel.

And the big news about the heavy duty truck from Ram

is it's a new transmission, 8-speed ZF.

And it's a new Cummins, right?

I mean, updated Cummins.

Yeah, pretty heavily updated.

So, and the reason why you see dogs in this video

is I actually delivered dog food from Vegas

to this shelter in Utah.

Yeah, because Ram wanted to have something in the bed

of some of the trucks so that journalists

on the launch event would be able to test out the trucks

as they were hauling something.

So they decided to get a bunch of big, heavy bags

of dog food and then-

And we had to do something with that.

Yeah, at the end of that, it made sense to donate that

to an animal shelter.

Exactly, so that was really nice.

This was kind of during the winter months

or actually still kind of at the end of the winter.

So we hit some snow, as you may have seen

if you're watching this.

Yep.

But dude, my heart was a little bit broken

because the new Cummins with the new transmission

got slightly less, one MPG less than the Duramax on that trip.

So it got 17.3 MPG.

Yeah, so even with the updated transmission

going from a six-speed to an eight-speed,

maybe partly because the Duramax has a 10-speed,

fuel economy wasn't quite as good.

Yeah, but now they have the same rear axle ratio,

340 to 2 to 1.

So we thought they're going to be very,

if not the same, the Cummins may be a little bit more efficient.

But the Cummins makes more torque and more horsepower than,

no, no, more torque, but less horsepower.

Yeah, about 100 more torque than the Duramax.

But what, 40 less horsepower?

Yeah, 430 instead of 470.

So, yeah.

The other thing about it is that Cummins was more or less

brand new when you started the road trip.

And Duramax was more broken in.

Yeah, and we've seen consistently that fuel economy

gets a little better.

So the actual numbers might be a little closer,

but maybe not a one full MPG.

Yeah.

So the other new truck that was launched was the RHO.

We kind of alluded to it already, right?

Yeah, and you and Jen went cross country in the RHO

after the event launching that.

Palm Springs.

Yeah.

So we were in the desert.

And brought it through Moab once again.

There is a pattern developing.

Well, when you go from West to East and you're passing right

by Moab, why not stop?

Yes.

So that was one of Jen's first events,

maybe not the very first event that Jen did.

Yeah.

But that was a lot of fun because we

got to go top speed 118 miles an hour

across a dry lake in the desert.

That was really amazing.

And then we drove, drove, drove for a very long time.

And on a road trip, the RHO has a couple things going for it.

Maybe nothing more so than very comfortable suspension.

Because a suspension that works well off road

is also pretty plush and comfortable on road,

especially some of the stretches of highway we have.

Like where we do the Ike gauntlet, that stretch of I-70,

it's pretty beat up.

Not the smoothest road surface.

So a suspension setup like what you find on the RHO

actually works really well for that.

And there's another feature that made that road trip really

nice, which was the hands-free driving system.

I know a lot of people hate it.

Some people love it.

I'm a little bit towards the like side than hate side.

Because to me, like this morning I drove the Hummer EV

truck that we have on loan here.

And that has supercruise.

And supercruise works really well.

Yeah.

I won't tell David you said any of this, by the way.

Because our friend David Morrow would not agree.

No.

And a lot of people don't agree with me.

Like Roman really dislikes a lot of these hands-free systems.

But I think when you're going 1,000 miles,

you know, like you and I drove that F350 duly.

A long time ago, yeah.

About two and a half years ago.

It does relieve a little bit of stress.

Yeah, especially if you're a bombing cross country doing

a really long drive and you're pretty tired,

some of those features take a bit off your plate,

which is nice.

Yeah.

So that was a nice feature.

And like you said, the suspension is really comfortable.

The truck was very comfortable.

We got 14 and a half MPG.

So not great.

Probably the worst out of most of these trucks.

But it is.

It's on 35.

It's a truck on 35, which is a wide body, giant heavy vehicle.

So are you ready for one more?

Yep, let's hear it.

It's another Ram.

Oh, God.

Yeah, you've really road tripped a lot of Rams.

Well, because Ram is revamping their truck lineup.

And they seem especially, which we're not upset about,

they seem especially willing to give us

trucks to drive away from events, which

doesn't always work out.

But also GM and Ford are also for that.

Like you and I drove that F-350 from an event as well.

So this is a work truck, a tradesman.

This was what just over a year ago.

Gavin, our producer videographer, Gavin.

Was this a Panistar?

No, also Hurricane.

Also Hurricane.

But the aggressive axle 392 to 1.

We drove it from a work truck event in Detroit.

And same route, Detroit to Denver, I-80.

We got 21.6.

Yeah, so once again, one of the primary differences

between that truck and this truck would

be what, four-wheel drive and the axle ratio?

So that matters.

Yeah, so the truck that you had that was four-wheel drive

with a more aggressive axle ratio got 21.6 with the same engine

as this truck, two-wheel drive, with the more fuel economy

focused axle ratio.

So 25 MPG versus 22-ish, over time, that adds up.

That's a significant difference.

So it is worth figuring out, is four-wheel drive something

you're going to use?

Do you live in a place where you need it?

Or that axle ratio, do you need more of that peak towing

figure, or are you going to just be driving long distances

and towing lighter trailers?

Because it really does make a difference.

And GM has a similar thing going on.

They have, I think, a 308 to one and a 342 to one.

So GM has that.

Toyota, I believe, only has one axle ratio,

if I'm correct, on the Tundra.

And by the way, we've done a couple of Toyota trips as well.

For example, we purchased the Tacoma in Houston,

Houston area, Roman and I. We drove with Houston to Denver,

also pulling a tiny trailer, a little teardrop.

I drove a Tundra from Houston to Denver

because we wanted to be one of the first people

to have a new Tundra.

Yeah, but that was a couple of years ago.

That was 2022-ish.

So we do that with every brand and every new truck possible.

So with all of that recap in mind,

if I were to ask you, Andre, personally,

your own personal take, what would

be your favorite of maybe all the trucks in the last, let's

say, two, three years that you've road-tripped,

which was the best?

I think it may be the truck you're looking at now.

Really?

Interesting.

And I think the reason is I'm a little bit more frugal,

I think, by nature.

So I like the fact that this was a little bit more

affordable than most other trucks that we drove.

I liked the amazing MPG this got.

And I also really love the seats.

The seats in this truck were very comfortable.

So I think this was maybe one of my more favorite vehicles.

I don't like a lot of GM seats on a long trip.

And also that Tundra, the original Tundra,

2022 model, the new one.

Also, for my legs or my body, the seats

were less comfortable than this RAM.

Yeah.

OK, so that's fair.

Now, what I'll say from my perspective,

which is a little different because Andre ends up

doing a lot of the drive-aways from these events,

because if there's a new truck being launched,

obviously Andre is going to go on it

because he is the truck channel.

I'm the managing editor of the truck channel.

Exactly.

So if at all possible, Andre's kind of

got to be there when the new trucks are launched.

So you're going on a lot of those events

and driving these trucks home, oftentimes, unladen.

And oftentimes, they're not broken in.

Yeah.

Right, low miles.

When they're brand new.

Yeah.

My experience is a little different

because I do a lot of our power sport stuff.

I do help Andre on the truck channel right now.

Yes.

But most of the time, when I'm road tripping cross country,

I'm pulling a trailer of some kind to go to California,

to pick up a side-by-side, pick up some motorcycles,

maybe to go out to Moab and film something

on the classics channel with Tommy, like a 70, 80-year-old Jeep.

You've pulled a lot of trailers, yes.

Yeah, not as many trailers as Andre's pulled.

But at work, if I'm going to be driving cross country,

it's usually going to be pulling something.

So personally, when I'm thinking about what trucks

I've had the best experience with driving cross country,

my mind goes to an HD.

Yes, but which one?

And that's a tough call.

Well, because we used to own the Cummins at the company.

So we used to have the Cummins.

And we have a Duramax.

I haven't pulled a trailer cross country

in one of the new Cummins.

But with our old Cummins, I drove that cross country

a bunch of times, went to California,

and back pulling trailers.

With Alex a lot of time, yeah.

With Alex, and we did some videos with that.

That truck did great, and the new Ram

is just an improvement on that.

I agree with you that the GM seats are a little hard.

To me, it's not necessarily a deal breaker.

Still pulling trailers cross country with our Duramax

has been a good experience.

We've had a good time with it.

We haven't had any issues with the transmission on our truck.

So it's been fine.

I was very, very impressed with that F-350

that you were mentioning earlier,

that we drove from Michigan back here to Colorado.

We weren't pulling a trailer with that truck.

But that was a very high end duly with a, what, 48 gallon

tank, so massive fuel tank.

When we filled up that truck from empty to full,

and we had no trailer behind it, and it was estimating.

Here's the camera.

I have some notes.

Yeah, it was estimating how many miles to empty.

It said over 800 miles until the tank was dry,

which is almost too much.

Because I don't know about you, Andre.

I can't sit in the same seat without stopping for 800 miles.

No, I don't think any human can do that.

I'm sure there's truckers out there

that could do 800 miles like that without stopping.

But you or I, too soft.

Well, maybe our body then Atkinson might.

He might.

But I wrote this down case.

When we filled up, when we did our calculation

after our trip, we drove 685 miles,

and we had 90 miles remaining, at least on that trip.

Yeah, so that was massive range.

Pretty impressive.

I'm also impressed that we did that many miles

without stopping to fill up.

Well, we stopped actually.

Yeah, I think we did stop to switch drivers at one point.

We switched drivers.

We took a snack.

We stopped for food.

Because that was an MPG loop where when we filled up the truck,

it was 4 AM or something.

So it wasn't necessarily a great day,

but it was a very impressive truck for road tripping.

And also, the Super Duty, the new ones, right?

2023 and onward, you can get it with Lane Keep system,

where it actually will put you in the middle of the lane.

And GM and RAM heavy duties don't offer that feature yet.

So Ford is kind of unique in that feature.

Which especially when we were pretty tired,

and that truck is also very wide.

So you kind of got to keep it right

in the middle of the lane.

The Lane Keep was actually helpful.

It's not usually a tech feature that I like.

But on that particular trip, it was nice.

So yeah, it's tough.

It's a game of margins.

I think all of the HD trucks make for really good road

trip vehicles.

If I'm going to pick one for myself,

I'll probably lean RAM especially,

because I love the exhaust brake on the Cummins.

Is my personal favorite.

And we also tow in the mountains,

because to go to Los Angeles from here,

you have to cross so many mountains.

And some steep grades.

And so you're using that exhaust brake quite a bit.

So I really like that feature on the RAM

and the way that it's configured.

I think the new 8-speed makes the new RAM a lot better

than it used to be, that old 6-speed.

So that would be my personal pick.

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say.

A lot of people come up to me, usually my friends,

or just people I meet at events,

they say, Andre, what's your favorite truck?

And I answer with a question.

I'm like, but for what purpose?

Yeah, because your favorite off-road truck

is not your favorite towing truck.

Or my favorite road trip truck, right?

So it really kind of matters exactly what the use case

you're looking for as far as a pickup truck.

I choose this one right now, because I really

got amazing efficiency in this hurricane.

It's really powerful, so it's also really fun to drive.

And it's comfortable.

Now, it is worth noting, since in this podcast

we've talked about road tripping a lot of Rams.

You just picked a RAM 1500 as your favorite road trip truck.

And I picked a RAM HD as mine.

It is worth noting in the background over here,

there is a GMC.

And in fact, this is not the GMC Canyon that we own.

But we do own a GMC Canyon AT4X.

We have in our studio right now as well an AT4X AEV edition

on loan from GM for a couple weeks to test out.

This is one bad mama-jama.

Really cool truck.

Arguably one of, if not the best, rock crawling

mid-sized trucks, because the amount of space

underneath this truck, the amount of clearance.

Remember I showed the clearance on the RAM,

and I went like this.

Yeah, with two hands to show how low the front splitter was.

There's two, three, four, five, five and a half hands.

Yeah, to the bottom of the bumper.

And tons of underbody protection,

rock sliders, 35s on a mid-sized truck,

which is awesome from the factory.

So this is a pricey truck, but a nice one.

But it's worth noting, again, just to show that we're not.

Well, but Case, people accuse us of being like Ford fanboys

and GM fanboys.

We get accused of it all.

And RAM fanboys.

So right now, we've got our F-150 tremor.

We have the Duramax, so we've got a Chevy.

We've got the GMC Canyon.

We've got a 1920, what year is it?

We've got a Model T pickup as well, if that counts.

We had a Ranger Raptor before we got the Canyon.

So it's actually been a while since we've owned a RAM truck

as a company vehicle.

So I just wanted to balance things out a little bit.

Yeah, also Honda.

Yeah, that's true.

So this is not, doesn't belong to us,

but this is a long-term test vehicle

that we have here in the studios.

We have it for a couple months, maybe three months.

And there's a Honda Passport trail sport.

It's bright orange.

It's got knobbier tires, recovery points,

some underbody protection, and a really good

all-wheel drive system.

Not tons of clearance.

You know, I just, I was online a couple of days ago

and I saw some news come across where somebody saw

a facelifted pilot with camouflage testing in the wild.

And they, this is unofficial.

This is just a spy photographer finding a vehicle in the wild.

They said that the pilot may have

the latest hybrid system from Honda.

And you know how the new pilots

have kind of squinty headlamps?

Yeah.

I was imagining, what if they did that hybrid system

in the new Ridgeline?

That could be interesting.

You could get some efficiency, some power,

and also the new styling, more aggressive styling.

I think that could be a really cool thing for the Ridgeline.

I agree, especially for the use case for that truck.

I think it could be really useful

because in the Ford Maverick, for example,

that makes that truck that much more practical and usable.

But yeah, so I just wanted to cover the fact

that even though Andre and I, in this podcast,

we're talking about ram heavy.

We were ram heavy.

We're, yeah, this is a ram heavy podcast.

Wanted to remind that we drive everything,

we buy everything.

Yes.

Dude, this is, Roman and Tommy took this GMC 84X AV

off-road on our Ironclad's trail here

in Colorado Rocky Mountains.

And they compared it to our 84X

because a lot of people don't understand

what the AV brings you.

It sounds like it's just a couple of bumpers

and maybe a snorkel raised air intake,

but you have a slightly different suspension.

It's a little bit higher and also 35s.

Yeah, better underbody protection.

And better underbody protection

with all kinds of boron steel.

All the way, boron steel,

all the way down to the rear pumpkin,

which also has a boron steel skid plate way down there.

Yeah, so that's a lot of what makes this Canyon 84X

a fantastic rock crawling truck.

And we love a rock crawling truck.

Protection in Colorado.

Protection underneath, really good torque.

Tons of clearance, 35s.

There's one thing missing in this truck

is it has the same horsepower as every other Canyon.

Yeah, so that's the toughest thing is

when you get out of a Ranger Raptor

and you've got what, from the factory 400?

Five horsepower, four or five, yeah.

Or if you do the factory tune for $800 or so,

455 horsepower, then get into this truck

with 310 horsepower.

It feels down on power,

but this is a better rock crawler than the Ranger Raptor.

But this is also 70,000.

Yeah, it's a lot of money.

With everything on it.

And a Ranger Raptor is 55 to start.

So for $70,000, I just wish they, I don't know.

Put a V8 in it.

Hey, V8s are coming back, right?

Yeah, why not bring it back to the mid-size?

And they're investing into V8 technology

at General Motors.

It does sound very likely that a V8

might make its way into a Gladiator.

Yes.

Which would be the first mid-size truck in a while.

In a long time. In a long time.

In quite a while.

But was the last one before that,

some of the 5-3s in Colorado?

I think so.

And also, Dakotas had V8 options as well.

In the second gen, right?

Not in the third gen.

I think 2011 was the last Dakota.

And correct me if I'm wrong.

I may be getting my years wrong.

Yeah, we're pulling from memory here.

So we're not perfect.

We're not AI.

We're not historians.

Well, yeah, AI is maybe worse than us.

By the way, AI, AI can be really good at some things.

Like image identification.

But it can be also very terrible at truck data.

I have heard that.

No, no, because trucks are very specific.

Like the way this truck looks, this Ram 1500,

like if I asked AI,

tell me the toll rating for Ram 1500 Express,

it would give me a number like 11,000 pounds.

But that would be wrong, right?

Because AI didn't consider the rear axle ratio,

the configuration of this truck,

the cab configuration, the engine configuration.

And that's why we've got Andre.

That's why. Andre intelligence.

Is that what AI stands for?

It does here.

So there's still hope for UNI case.

I think we still may have a job for the next,

at least a year.

For several more weeks.

Through the end of 2025 at least.

Okay.

Yeah, but no, yeah.

So we get to test and drive a little bit of everything.

We do like a couple of rams that we've driven

as road trip trucks.

So now for next year,

I think I need to stop driving rams.

Apparently, well you've driven them all.

But wait a minute.

There are two other rams that are coming next year.

That's true.

That I may have to drive.

Yeah, so you're probably not actually done road trip rams.

The new TRX is rumored to come very soon.

And also they have the new range extended hybrid.

Yeah.

Both of those are gonna be important ones to test.

Yeah.

So those will be very likely trips and videos

that'll be upcoming.

All right, well thanks for joining us on this episode

of TFL Talking Trucks.

I know this was not kind of our normal format,

but I think this is fun, right?

I mean, we're walking around.

Yeah, I mean, it's fun not only talking about trucks,

but actually looking at them.

Yes.

In person.

Well, in person for us.

Should we rename our podcast TFL Looking at Trucks?

No.

Okay.

It doesn't have the same ring to it.

Okay, TFL Talking Trucks.

Thanks for joining us once again.

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67:53

Ep. 303: Andre Road-Tripped 6 Trucks This Year - Which One Is the Best?

Ram Dude

Ram 500 Express

Ram Express

Toyota IMV Origin

Toyota IMV prototype

Jeep Willis

About this episode

Original notes