Ep. 312: We Talk To The Experts About The New Ram TRX And Diesel Power Wagon!

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who served. Happy New Year, guys. And we're kicking off this 2026 with a couple of humongous

debuts from Ram. Yeah, we've got some goodies to talk about in this episode, a few exciting

reveals. One that we were definitely expecting, which is the return of the TRX. Yes. And one

that we did not expect, but that we've been asking for for how long decades. Yeah, pretty much.

So we're talking about a deep dive video because we have two chief engineers basically or vice

presidents. I mean, they have really big titles. These these guys, I got a chance to go to the

Detroit area in Michigan and interview the chief engineer of the Ram TRX 2027 model. Yep.

And also 2027 Ram power wagon diesel. That's right. A Cummins power wagon, which is again,

something we've been asking for for a really long time. And since you were there, you got to get

hands on, which is what most of this podcast will be and actually talk with the guys responsible

for bringing these trucks to market. Yeah, this is very exciting. And so how about this?

We can kind of show you the 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX. Once again, dude, that's a very long name.

Yeah. And we can kind of explain what, you know, because SRT is back.

When the specific one that you were filming has an even longer name because it's the Bloodshot

Night Edition. Yes. Yes. And also, so we can run that interview because it's a deep dive. Yep. And

you know, this is, it's one thing to like read press release, but it's a whole other story

when you actually get to talk to some of the team members. And actually, in this case, like

basically the chief engineer behind the project, because they have certain stories and little

details that nobody else can talk about. More insight than anyone else at this point. So

that's going to be a really interesting interview that we're going to kick off with first.

Yes. And then we'll go to the Ram Powerwagon diesel. That's Doug Killian interview. And the

first interview is with Marty Jagoda. And also, I just want to preview this,

the, I think we'll have some, you and I will have some fighting words about the Ram Powerwagon

diesel. Yeah, because we pretty much agree on the TRX versus the Raptor. That debate,

Raptor are specifically, and we'll talk about that with pricing, but we're also going to talk

about the Powerwagon diesel and its pricing against this competition. And that's where we

disagree. Yeah. And there'll be some fighting. So stay tuned for that. So right now, let's launch

into the interview with Marty Jagoda. Marty, the TRX is back. It is. Here it is. 2027 model. And you,

please tell me your new title because your title has evolved a little bit over the years. It has

evolved a little bit. You know, so I think we might have talked at the five seven launching. Yes.

And there were some cryptic titles. So now I'm formally the vice president, chief vehicle engineer

for Ram and Frame for the SRT performance division. So the SRT performance division is back in full

force and frame means pickup truck, right? I mean, or a body on frame SUV potentially, right? That's

correct. So that's, that's really cool. So this is my first view of the new TRX. TFL truck used to

own the original. Okay. We were so lucky to actually have it. So we fell in love with the original

TRX, but I really want to learn all the differences, right? A little things you've done from the

engineering perspective, just to make it the next level, right? Absolutely. Because it's not just

the old TRX coming back. It is not just the old TRX coming back. It's the bones. It's the skeleton.

It's everything we loved at TRX, but a second version of it, right? Elevated the game to be the

true halo truck to the brand and the true apex predator and the off road truck segment. Should

we start under the hood or let's start maybe with a suspension, right? Because the TRX is a

couple of different things. It's style, power and suspension in my mind. So let's start because

we're here. Let's start at the suspension. Yeah, absolutely. So on the truck is our Ram Active

Terrain Dynamic suspension, leveraging Bilstein Blackhawk Gen 2 tuning. So the TRX originally

was the Gen 1 version, right? As we moved to Atlantis High Electrical Architecture and the RHO,

we leveraged the second generation of the system, learnings from ourselves, learnings of the overall

vehicle. In RHO there were refinements done in the various damping modes. The performance,

the capability is all there, but the separation between the multiple modes was more distinct.

So now as we bring TRX back, we bring all those learnings and we do the tuning specific to TRX.

What you'll notice that's different this time around is again, the distinctions between the modes

is more noticeable. Some of the road input, the everyday driving, the body float is all much

more refined, much more comfortable of what you would expect of a luxury truck, but also no sacrifices

at all to performance because this is the top performance luxury truck on the market. So the

modes are about the same as far as names? They're the same, yes. But the distinctions there are.

I want to ask you about, since we're talking about this, about how this relates to the RHO,

because RHO is still there, right? RHO is still there. So can you talk a little bit about how

did that inform you or how did that influence or maybe help you? Yeah, so I think Tim mentioned it

earlier. When you take the engine out from under the hood, there's a large mass difference.

And one could say that the V8 not under the hood offers better dynamic performance.

To me that sounds like a challenge to the engineering team. When we put the V8 back

under the hood, how do we maintain that level of damping balance? And that's exactly what we've

done. So the vehicle again to me drives very refined without sacrificing any of that capability.

And I would challenge that, you know, if you drive the two trucks back to back,

you know, between the old TRX and the new, you'll notice that difference. When you

bring the RHO into the mix as well, I would challenge that you won't notice much of a difference

there either. So all that refinement is there. But again, the capability was never sacrificed.

And I remember at the RHO event when it was first launched, you guys also talked about

kind of the tuning of the all-wheel drive settings, because it does have all-wheel drive

for high, for low. That comes into play as well. It does. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that,

honestly, there was not much changes that needed to be had from the original TRX.

From an all-wheel drive front rear split performance in those modes, it was very good

balance, very good capability. We honestly, that was one of the areas we did not want to change

that. We were very happy with where it was at. So again, we had to adapt those elements and

software to the new electrical architecture. But from a calibration perspective, it is what we

all remember of TRX previously. And the electrical architecture you're referring to is what came

out in 2025, correct? That's correct. That was the latest 1500 lineup. That's correct. So in 2025,

at that product action, for DT, the Ram 1500 light duty pickup truck, we brought in our new

Atlantis high electrical architecture. So TRX previously was not on it, now it is. And a lot

of it is hidden from the driver and the customer, right? I mean, it's kind of invisible. It's in

the background. It is, right? You know, when you talked about an electrical architecture,

well, does the truck still start? Does, do the window switches work? Yes. All that customer

facing, but it's really behind it, right? It's, it's, it is faster data communication,

which really enables a lot. Again, you know, L2 and L2 plus hands-free driving are now standard

on this truck. In the TRX as well. In the TRX as well. Okay. Yes. So, so we get enablements there,

for sure. Gotcha. Yeah. And I remember like the mirror controls, I mean, there's a little bit of

touch points. Yeah. Like, you know, the switches and stuff like that. Yeah. So that's a nice touch

point. Yeah. Tell me about the wheel and tire, because it looks like you did not change it

very much from the previous TRX. No, we did not change it very much. There are minute differences.

So first of all, the tire is 100% the same. So it's still our Goodyear Wrangler,

all-terrain territory tire, same tire, great tire. And, and that's what dictates the speed

limitation of the truck. So the 118 mile an hour speed limitation comes from the tire.

It's a 35 inch, basically. It's a 35 inch tire, same as what it was. The wheel design,

and on this particular package, we have our beadlock capable design. The wheel design and

the beadlock, same design, slightly different color combinations. So through the course of

TRX previously, we had multiple additions, right, with bright, bright beadlock rings,

darker ones, same with the inner wheel. This is a new combination, but the design and everything

is the same. And so the wheel is an 18 inch. I'm just looking at the tire right now,

325, 65, R18. And actually 325 is fairly wide. It's pretty wide. But you need that, right,

for the power. Yes, you do. All right. That's a good segue, I think. We should talk about power.

So the hood looks about the same. The hood is the same. Okay. The hood is the same. Obviously,

this has the bloodshot night paint package on it. So the hood has the two-tone from the body color

and Spitfire orange on this particular to the black and then the racing stripe across the hood.

That looks nice. The hood design is the same. Okay. So now what's changed? Because the numbers

you've communicated is 777. That's 777 horsepower and 680 pound-feet of torque,

which is a big bump over the 702 where it was. Yeah, 10%. Okay. Which in percent forms, some would

say it's not a lot. Others would say it's a lot. From an engineering perspective, it is. So what

has changed? A lot is going to be hidden under here. Okay. So, a lot is what's changed under here. So

actually, this is a pre-production truck. So when these reach the dealership lots in the summer

of 2026, this will be different. Okay. We're still finalizing. Just kind of like the plastic cover.

The plastic and actually the induction design underneath. So the induction design underneath

from where we're at previously to now is 18% less inlet restriction. Okay. Right? If we think of an

engine as an air pump, right? How do you make more power? Well, get more air in, right? So 18%

restriction improvement was the biggest enabler that we had. We are going to be leveraging a

significant amount of design from the RHO. So the hood ducting ultimately will be slightly different

and you'll have a big air box over on the side and the routing to support that. Well, because

before it was pretty huge, the air filter, I remember, I mean, it was already huge and you're

saying you were able to get 18% basically better airflow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Within the bends,

within, you know, our propulsion team working on this, the induction team specifically, these guys

are scientists. They can see the airflow, right? It's an art. Because they've seen so many simulations

and all this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Much like, you know, like, much like, you know, exterior dynamics

where, you know, you see, you know, videos from years ago where you have the yarn taped on, but

now there's, you know, more analytical tools. Same thing with airflow, except for an induction,

everything's hidden, right? So we leveraged the analytical tools, again, 18% restriction,

and the last iteration we did to get to the number, it was one tenth less. So, you know,

aligning very nicely with Tim's last tenth mantra. Yeah. That's what it took. What about on the exhaust

side as far as getting the air back out? Because this sounds, we just heard it. I think it blew

out our microphones a little bit, which is still good. That's still great. Yeah. So the exhaust,

from the exhaust manifolds all the way back is unchanged from previous TRX. Okay. It's unchanged

from previous TRX for a couple of reasons. One, the exhaust system flows great to begin with,

right? You're not going to find a lower flowing exhaust system at this level of performance in

the truck market. That still complies with noise regulations, et cetera. Not going to find it. So

that's the first thing. The second thing is that's honestly, to me, one of the crowning

achievements, and it's a secondary thing, is the catalyst. Again, the exhaust is fully unchanged,

but we are improving the emissions of this vehicle. So the outgoing TRX was a bin 160

emissions level vehicle. This one will be a bin 70 emissions vehicle. So we've leveraged,

continuous improvement in knowledge and controls and software and emissions and how to manage that,

and we're able to actually make that large step down with this vehicle, which we're very, very

proud about. Because this is a 2027 model year, right? I'm not really familiar with those bin

levels, but is that basically, I mean, what drives that? Is that mostly regulation? You just saw

all of the above? All of the above, all of the above, right? It's always about making improvements

within the capability of the truck. And so when we elected to bring this truck back, it was a big

mission to see how good we can get. And we're very proud of where we landed. So you got more power,

more torque, better emissions. So that sounds like you could have your cake and eat it too.

A bit. Yeah. Again, we're very proud of the work that the team has done.

And a lot of the design, I mean, I know you're not a design guy, but

the body, the fender stayed about the same, correct? I mean, a lot of the other components.

All of the body work is the same. Some of the logos are new. So we've got, you know,

some of the detail on the front. So the RAM previously was in a more gray scale tracer. Now

RAM is in a red tracer, similar with the tow hooks, same tow hooks, but with red.

On all TRXs, basically. Yep, on all TRXs. And then the biggest amount of change,

the biggest amount of change is, first of all, again, we're calling it an SRT.

That's probably near to your heart. It is very near and dear to my heart. Yes. So we're very proud

to put this badge on the truck and you see it again on the rear. But to me, I think one of the

coolest things about the new truck. So you've got SRT on the lower left. So everybody, when they

look in their rearview mirror, they see it in the front grille on the front. If they're behind you,

which I think a lot of people will be, you see it on the back. But the new TRX badge and logo.

With the kind of the head of the dinosaur there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our design team

absolutely knocked this out of the ballpark. It's, it's, it looks great. And I think it just

really fills out this tailgate in a wonderful way. Well, it's on the design team. It was also

kind of tapping into maybe the community, right? Because of course the TRX created all of that

community and owners and fans of the truck. Absolutely. Absolutely. This truck absolutely

has a following. They missed it when it was gone. We're bringing it back. And as Tim said,

you know, just bringing it back wasn't enough. One of the biggest challenges of earning a degree

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That's great. And interior is mostly design changes or did you make any functional?

No functional changes to the interior, right? So in the interior, this particular edition,

so the the bloodshot night package has red tracing in the carbon fiber. So everywhere there's carbon

fiber, you'll be able to see the little bit of red. Okay, if you do not get that package,

it'll be the standard carbon fiber look. You do get because of the Atlantis high

electrical architecture, you get the larger radio now. And let's see, leather wrapped

driver's airbag. So previously the TRX with plastic. So we're bringing that in from tungsten,

adding the red stitching, and then also from tungsten is the suede headliner.

I see. It's a little hard to see here. It is hard to see, but it feels wonderful. Yeah. So suede

headliner wrapped down all the way down through the pillars. And what about tell me a little bit

more about payload and towing? I know you probably didn't state some of the numbers yet.

Tell me about a little bit of that because this is a luxury truck, it's an off road truck,

but some people still pull a trailer. Absolutely. It's a truck and it needs to be a truck.

So we're we're actually fine tuning those details and the confirmation of those numbers

will be available a little bit closer to the launch date of the truck.

So it'll be about the same. I mean, not less, obviously. We're working through those details.

Sorry. I'll try to push you there. Yeah, that's okay. No, that's okay.

You want to be doing your job if you want. Okay. Well, I really appreciate, Mari.

Did we forget anything really? I don't think so. I don't think so.

Yeah, it looks good in this two tone. It does. In this two tone, quiet, nice. And the two tone

I was told was available in multiple colors. So this is kind of the orange two tone with black,

but you can also have other combinations. That's correct. Yeah. So this particular one,

and it's funny with the lighting coming from this side, it actually looks more red on this side

than the other side. But this is the base color is Spitfire orange. All TRX's will come with the

black two tone. And then again, this has got the bloodshot night package on top of it, which is

the wrap and also the hood, the top tuxedo and black and some of the interior elements you

and the red interior elements as well. So this package will be available

agnostic or regardless of what base color you get. Nice. Awesome. Thanks. Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Thank you for coming here today and wishing you a Merry Christmas.

You too. Thank you. Thanks. So first of all, dude, I was worried when I was going to flying to

Detroit. Yeah, I was a little bit worried because my worry was that Ram, the new TRX and the existing

RHO are going to look identical. You know, that was, that was one of my worries. Styling wouldn't

be different enough to pick up from a lineup. Yeah. So like if you saw one at this traffic light,

you know, like a block away that you wouldn't be able to tell which is, is it a TRX until

they pulled away? Yes. Until you could hear audibly, audibly hear. The RHO is great, right?

540 horsepower in the RHO, but it really sounds like a little bit like a souped up vacuum cleaner.

Yeah. Wow. That's terrible. Sorry. Both of us actually really like the RHO a lot. Yes, we do.

It's, I think it's a generally good powertrain. It doesn't maybe sound

the most exciting, but it makes a lot of power, a lot of torque. So I actually,

I prefer the Hurricane to the EcoBoost in the regular Raptor.

But one thing that we both really love about the RHO are those updated Bilstein shocks

that they put into that truck for the RHO that the TRX when it first came out had

an impressive ride. It was very smooth. You could go super fast over any surface type

because that's what these trucks are designed for. But the RHO even improved upon that,

noticeably so. And now this new TRX has those updated Bilsteins as well, which is great.

Exactly. So, and then they, what they did stylistically speaking, well, first of all,

the two tone color is, I want to hear some of your opinion on this, but also the,

like the RAM logo, the badging, the toe points, the toe hooks are in red. So I think

I'm pretty happy that they actually called out some of those badges and the different color

because those badges you will see from a block away. For sure. Nothing is quiet about this truck.

Not audibly or in its styling. Visually. Yeah, visually. It's not a, not a quiet design either.

There's a lot going on there. I think that in this day and age, for me at least, this is my

personal feeling is that a lot of two tones make me think luxury, like a my box or something.

And this two tone on kind of a rugged off road truck, I don't, I don't know if it ticks a box

for me. It kind of reminds me, and this is a bit of a deep cut, but back in the day,

the second gen Rams, they had a very similar black and red two tone that I like a lot on

second gens on an older truck like that, where two tones were more common. I think it makes

sense. And this is when, when the second gens came out, it was a much nicer, more comfortable

truck than they used to be. So a two tone kind of made sense because it made it feel a little bit

more premium. But on a rugged off road truck, like TRX, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be my first

pick. I would pick just a solid color if it was me. And I think you have options, right? So the

truck we're showing here, and if you're just listening to us, let's describe it just a little

bit. So the bottom, what is it 10%? Yeah, like the rockers, the rocker isn't black. And that is

going to be a TRX thing. So no matter which color you get on top, the rocker section at the bottom,

kind of where the bumpers are going across the middle, but then the hood and everything above

the belt line. So basically from the windows up is also black like the rockers are. So it's just

a stripe of red down the side of the truck. Yeah. And also this particular one that we're looking

at is the bloodshot night edition. The rear bedside section in the rear door of it has this

little graphic, kind of like months splatter kind of going across, which I also learned

something interesting that I didn't know before. You're not a huge fan of graphics on truck beds,

are you? Unless they're done right. Because I wasn't a fan of the original Raptor SVT Raptor

graphic. That's that's what I heard. So the first gen Raptor is the graphic on the side.

You're not a fan? Not a huge fan, especially the one I was talking about was the white base color

on that Raptor with a black graphic that looks like mud splattering on the bed. So you would

rather have a first gen Raptor white with no graphic? No, I wouldn't go with white. Yeah. So

that was my issue, I think. I think the overall color scheme was wrong. I like the graphic on

the first you do. Yeah. Okay. But that truck particularly looked like a zebra to me. Okay.

You know, it was white with black stripes, right? Right. You know, I didn't quite appreciate the

safari. Sure. The zebra look. Yeah. But but this one, I think they did a little bit different

take on it. So I kind of appreciate the graphic here. But I'm trying to think about your two tone

comment. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. This this truck is bright red and black

with the graphic on the bed. It's got a red stripe going into the hood, the rampage in the

grill is red, the tow hooks are red. So there's a lot going on. It's it's kind of a busy color

scheme. So yeah, it wouldn't be my first pick. But what's most exciting about this truck isn't

really in the way it looks because it looks mostly like it did. It's the substance within,

right? It's that extra horsepower 777 triple triple seven triple sevens. That's a lot of horsepower.

So it now exceeds the Raptor are by quite a bit by 57 horsepower. Yeah. So 720 versus 777. Yeah.

And this is a significantly more than $10,000 cheaper truck than the Raptor are. Yeah. So

let's talk about this price. So Ram says that the base price before the destination charge

is $99,995. But that's right, literally not the real price. 100 grand. But the real price

because the destination charges $2,595, which is a pretty high destination charge actually.

And this truck is built in Michigan, by the way, is $102,590 altogether.

So almost 103 grand. Yes. So that's a six digit number, which is a big number.

It's a huge number. Yeah. The Raptor are is also about 114. Exactly. So this kind of turns the

table historically, since the Raptor are came out, even though it was more expensive, it was

more powerful, it felt like a nicer truck in a lot of ways. And I liked the Raptor are more than

the TRX, but it maybe didn't necessarily make sense for the extra money. Although TRX has got

up there in price as well. Well, because the last last editions, that was a funny thing to say,

like the final edition TRX is theoretically theoretically last final editions were actually

like near 120k. Yeah. Right. So and that's we're talking about 2024 models, right? Because that

was the last model year. At which point, I would have rather had a Raptor are, but now that the

TRX is cheaper and it's got more power. Boom slam dunk. Yeah. And we both agree on that.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I think a lot of you, I think a lot of people watching and listening

right now, probably think that one or two 103,000, let's say for a TRX is probably more than they

were prepared to think about. Sure. If you look at this, if you look at this, dude,

a Hellcat powered 6.2 liter Supercharged V8 Durango, Durango is about 80k or 85k, right?

But that's not a wide body. It's not a wide body truck. It doesn't have long travel suspension

or no, no, no. So there's a lot going on with the TRX. It was always going to be an inexpensive

truck and it always has been. And yeah, but it's still, it's, I would argue, a better deal than

the Raptor are. But I think you and I have agreed on this is that the value is still there because

I think it's 103,000 dollars because it can be. You know what I'm saying? Because I think that's

where the market could be because people are looking at the Raptor are at 114,000 and they're

wondering, you know, dude, this is a 103. I mean, it's 11,000 dollars less. They undercut their

competitor by 10 grand. Yeah. So that's, I think that's a solid move. And I'm wondering, dude,

right now, I'm really wondering what will Ford do? Yeah, they're going to, they're going to do

something. They're not going to be sitting down. No, for sure not. So this is going to be interesting.

So let's mention a couple more specs. Yeah, zero to 60 in three and a half seconds,

which is impressive. Yes. And they're claiming 118 mile per hour top speed, which inevitably

is going to come down the tires. Yeah. And really, that's pretty close to where it was

and pretty close to where the Raptor is. But 118 is probably fast enough. It's fast enough plus

at those speeds because you and I have tested those speeds at the closed track. Yeah. But because

it's illegal to drive 118 anywhere on public roads. Obviously. I mean, does Montana have any

unlimited? No, I don't think they have any more unlimited speed areas. I mean, 85 miles an hour

is really like some of the highest speed limits that we have. But at 118 miles an hour, as you

and I have tested some of these trucks, they get a little bit light, right? For sure. Yeah,

top speeds are again, typically limited by tires is the one non-negotiable where a tire is rated

for a certain speed and a manufacturer is just not going to go beyond that. But to your point,

any truck like this with soft, long travel suspension isn't really designed to go

150, 200 miles an hour. Yeah, because there's a lot of air below it. Yeah. And it's tall. Yeah,

it's very tall for sure. And it starts to get a little bit light. So it doesn't have the aerodynamics

to go really, really much faster than that. But the acceleration, which is what you would

use more often, still really impressive, three and a half seconds in a pickup truck zero to 60.

Yeah. 10, 15 years ago would have been saying no way. Exactly. And also, I mean, there are a lot of

electric vehicles out there now with massive horsepower numbers, massive acceleration,

you know, performance. But I think this is a whole different animal. I mean, when you hear it,

and we did record the rev of this engine, so you could actually hear the new or returning V8,

there's nothing that's matching this sound. Could you hear a good amount of that,

that big old 2.4 liter supercharger? Not much, actually. I think where you hear it is actually

driving. Yeah, under load, under load. That's when the supercharger really comes into its own.

And obviously, the truck has just been revealed. So the driving is going to be upcoming. Yeah. So

and it's also a 2027 model. So we still have to wait about six months or so. They talked about

June ish, June ish to July ish timeframes, maybe. So it's exciting, though, because we wanted them

to bring this truck back with extra power. And they did. And that's exactly what they did. We

were hoping they wouldn't just relaunch it exactly as it was no changes. And here it is again, and

it's more expensive. So I think they've done a good job with this undercutting the Raptor R,

giving it extra power. It's pretty awesome. And the RHO is still there. They're not removing

the RHO from the lineup. So if you don't, if you can't stomach $103,000, you could still look at

RHO, which now starts a little bit higher where it was, because I think it started at like 71

grand when it came out. Now it's closer to like 73, 74 grand, I think. So that's a little bit more

reasonable. And you get the same suspension and the same four wheel drive system, and the same tires

basically for that. So when you consider the Ram RHO and 540 horsepower, where that engine, you

enjoyed some of those engines. When you consider that and the new TRX, Ram is positioned super

strong against anything that Ford currently offers, and also really anything that GM has to offer.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, because GM is not really in the same space as the TRX and the RHO and the Raptor.

Yeah. So these trucks are a ton of fun. We've tested them a bunch because we've got so much

off-roading around us here in Colorado. We love these vehicles, and we love to see that Ram is

going at the off-road space as aggressively as ever. Yeah, exactly. And of course, we do have to

mention Toyota here at the Tundra. But the Tundra, even the TRD Pro additions, the new ones, are not

really in the same space. No. As far as power is concerned, and as far as suspension capability.

Yeah, they're even more mild than the ZR2 and the 84X. Yeah. So really, Ram is super strong in this

area. More horsepower, better pricing in a lot of ways. Well, here's a controversial question.

Right now, at this very moment with these trucks coming out. Yeah. Does this mean Ram is kind of

at the front of the pack in the off-road segment, at least as far as offerings? I think so. They

might be. Yeah. Especially because of also, in a different segment, the next truck that we got to

talk about. Yeah. So let's switch gears or let's switch fuels. Yeah. We're going from gas to diesel.

Yeah, we're switching to diesel. Cole behind the camera is excited. He's a big diesel guy.

Exactly. Well, he loves banks too. Yeah. Big banks guy. Big tuned-up diesels. So when Cole and I were

actually at this presentation, right, when they were launching these trucks in Detroit. Yeah.

There's a truck on stage covered in a big sheet, the big black sheet, right? And this was one that

they didn't warn you about ahead of time. No, nothing. They just said, come in. Welcome to the

studio. You know, we walk in. There is a stage and there is a big vehicle covered in the sheet.

And everybody, I assumed it was a TRX, right? Our buddy Nick Kappa likes to give us surprises.

Yeah. So Ram, Ram likes surprises. And they said, you know what? And then I look at the outline of

the roof and it has roof marker lights. And it was like, wait a minute, the TRX never had the

roof marker lights. Yeah. Because the lights are in the either in the grill area or in the hood

scoop area, right? So it was a heavy duty truck covered in a sheet. And then they said, you know

what? You guys asked for it and you got it. And they said it's the power wagon that's powered by

Cummins. Had you heard any rumors about this or do you have any idea? No, because I hadn't either.

No. And I think Ram was very secretive on purpose. Yeah. But as excited as I got, all of a sudden,

well, should we let Doug explain? So how about this? Let's let's go to the interview,

the deep dive with Doug Killian, who is a kind of a chief engineer in this space.

And then we can talk about pricing. We could talk about our impressions. And we could talk about

the competition. Yeah, let's let's do it. Let's go to Doug. Hey, look who it is. It's our friend,

Doug Killian. Doug, do you have a new title by chance or the same title? I have the same title.

What is it? Chief engineer, vehicle development. Sweet for Ram. Yes, that's right. So I just saw

it was a couple months ago at the proving grounds. We were playing with a duly truck there. You should

watch that video if you haven't seen it. But you're introducing something very special today,

which is a I see there's a Cummins powered power wagon because it's also has a Cummins badge,

and it has a power wagon graphic here. Correct. And it's something that customers have asked over

and over for. But I've heard not from you, but I've heard from other Ram people, you know,

several things that were stopping it. You know, yeah, but I wanted to hear it from you now. What,

how did you guys do it? Okay, because you did it. Yeah, we did it. We did. And there was a point we

said we cannot put the power wagon badge down with the Cummins engine until it's going to do

certain things. It's kind of gets to the fundamental question of what makes a power wagon a power wagon.

In this case, we say there's two main ingredients. One of them is the front stabilizer bar disconnect,

axle articulation. So when you're off-roading, plenty of off-roading, you've got all this torque,

whether it's from the Hemi or all the torque from the Cummins, how do you get that torque

to the ground? If you've got a wheel hanging in the air, well, you're not going to get that torque

down very easily. So in order to keep the wheels as much in the ground as possible,

as we brought that stabilizer bar disconnect system over, that's a power wagon trait. Power

wagon's got to have that in order to get traction. So that's number one. Number two is a front axle

locker. Because that's what the power wagon was known for, right? Yeah, you lock the front axle,

you lock the T-case, you lock the rear axle. In effect, in theory, you can get all that torque

to one wheel. So it will get it, unlike a limited slip differential or unlike brake lock differential,

some of these technologies are out there that we use some of these on Ram, but not on a power

wagon. Power wagon's got to have lockers. So was that a challenge then having, because you have a

1075 pound-feet of torque now from the newest Cummins, straight six. So was that main challenge?

How does that, the locking differential, the suspension, all those need to handle that, right?

Correct. So we got to get all that thousand pounds out through the axle shafts. So we actually had

to engineer this front axle to accept an axle disconnect. It's not the kind of thing you can

just go off the shelf and buy an axle disconnect. This was something we had to engineer at Ram.

We had to make sure it's durable. We had to test it. We did all of our off-road testing. We did

the same stuff we talked about at Proving Grounds a couple of weeks ago. This is absolutely bullet

proof. So we bring those two main ingredients in. The tire, the Wrangler Duratrack tire. Okay,

so we have this extremely stout tire here. It's an E-load rating, and if you compare it to the

base power wagon or the gas power wagon, it's a D-load rating. We're also on a 20-inch wheel

here. So we're effectively slightly larger in terms of OD. The Duratrack in the 285-60R20 is

slightly larger in OD. So actually compensating for a little bit of the fact that the gas power wagon

has a suspension lift to it, the diesel does not. Okay. But we're getting a little bit of that lift.

We're getting another, call it close to half an inch, just from the larger OD tire itself.

Because the wheel is a smaller diameter on the gas. So the gas power wagon still continues,

right? Absolutely. It doesn't go away. Absolutely. Okay, so if you still are a fan of that,

you still have it. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, absolutely. The gas power wagon continues this

by bringing the Cummins in, by bringing in the hardware, the main ingredients that make a power

wagon a power wagon. We've almost created a power wagon portfolio. Is this going to do

different things than the gas power wagon? So the other two big numbers, right?

Payload and towing, right? Because people, I have, I have talked about this ad nauseam over the last

12 years. Yeah. Because the power wagon gas version, in my opinion, didn't have enough payload.

I mean, for heavy duty vehicle, right? Yes. And I knew there are reasons for that. You know,

the suspension system and articulation and a little talk to me a little bit about power

and towing and payload here. Okay. So the towing and payload here on the diesel power wagon are

going to be very close to what we see on the normal 2500, I'll say the non-power wagon,

or even the Rebel version. They're very similar. Okay, so that actually is about double the payload,

or close to 3,000 pounds on this power wagon. Which is what you see in a 2500,

Rebel, Laramie. Oh, any four by four. Yeah, any four by four. We're hitting those same numbers.

Okay. In terms of 3,000 pounds payload, and we're up well above 19,000 pounds of towing. So

here we're almost, again, doubling like we did with payload. We're almost doubling the towing

capacity. So it makes this truck do different things than the gas truck would do. But one thing

is missing. I can see it in the front. Yeah. Which is a winch. Yeah. Because the power wagon has been

known over the decades to have a winch, right, available from the factory. Talk to me a little

bit about this. Sure. Okay. So one thing that I certainly will point out, I want to just reiterate

that we did the axle design, and we did the stabilizer bar disconnect design. Those are things

that are integrated. We engineer those at Ram. Those are things that are hard to go find off the

shelf. Now a winch, a winch can be bolted on. It's a different bumper. There's some, actually

some pretty good aftermarket solutions out there. But we really are focused on making sure that the

Cummins retains all of its torque, all of its power, and all of its durability. One thing,

when you see a winch on the front of a truck, it's easy to see the hook and see the strap.

Yes. But not recognizing what's going on behind the scenes. Yeah. What is going on? Well,

especially on the Cummins. Here, on the Cummins, we've got our intercooler back here. So we're

getting all of our cooling in this packaging space that's right behind the bumper. Uh-huh.

So if we block that off with a winch, in fact, we even need the area for the spool. When you think

about the steel cable that's within the winch, there's so much more going on behind the scenes.

That eats into what's really fundamental for the diesel engine to work in terms of its intercooler,

its radiator, all of its cooling capacity. So we said, frankly, that's not necessarily what makes

a power wagon a power wagon. In fact, it's optional on a gas power wagon. It's not even a standard

equipment. Whereas the axle lockers and the state bar disconnect are standard. So we kept those

as standard on the diesel power wagon. Because that's kind of the essence of the power wagon,

right? Exactly. If you could say that. Exactly. That's when the power wagon's engineered as a

full truck. Those are the key ingredients. Let's take a look at the side. I haven't been in this

truck yet. Okay. Let's take a look. Cole, do you want to jump in there? Cole, our videographer,

is going to jump in and take a look. I just wanted to see it like some of the controls

and the interior. There's a power wagon badge and then kind of focusing on some of the controls

right there. So all heavy duties now have a column shift for the transmission, right?

Correct. This is the eight speed, correct? That's right. This is the same eight speed,

same ZF eight speed, same ratios. We're still carrying over the 342 final drive that has worked

quite well with this transmission matchup. Okay. And then you could see there's a sway bar button

there. There's axle lock buttons, four high, four low. There is also drive modes, right? Correct.

Like hill descent control, for example. That's right. So all of the off-road features that

really make the Rebel a very strong truck. We only compound them here with the locker and

the stay bar disconnect where the buttons are right at the fingertips. They're very well integrated.

You get messaging on the cluster, on the radio. We have off-road pages. These are all things that

really take this chassis to the next level. That's really cool. So yeah, so mainly if you

had to summarize. Yeah. So what enabled the diesel, a power wagon? It's mostly the chassis itself,

right? Correct. Correct. And the parts that we've engineered that are unique to power wagon,

applying them to the diesel, except for the winch at this point. I mean, that's one notable

absence that's been asked a lot. But frankly, we said, you know, a winch is about recovery.

We put the bits in the truck that keep it from maybe needing to be recovered. So you can look

at it that way. Yeah. But yeah, overall, as a total package, I'll say doing some development

on this truck. We've done some off-roading. I mean, you and I have done a little bit of this

together. The gas power wagon and the diesel power wagon have a different character. They

feel different off-road. I'll almost equate it to think of the ram, the animal with horns.

The gas power wagon is a little more of a billy goat. And the diesel power wagon is a little

more of an ox. I mean, it's got extra weight in the front. And it just climbs and hauls

in an amazing way. And it has different payload and towing characteristics, obviously. Exactly.

So it does different things. It's that sort of powerhouse side of the portfolio now,

where the gas truck's a little more nimble because it's a bit lighter and it gets a little more

articulation. Very cool. Well, thanks for the time. Of course. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Really appreciate it. Thanks. So once again, it's very special to hear about from the people

about these trucks who actually, you know, were there creating them and testing them.

And once again, this is a truck that we've been passionate about for a long time. Power wagon

don't care that goes back way before I was even here five, six years ago. That's a tagline that

Nathan kind of created goes back like 10 years. Yeah, while he was climbing cliffhanger 2.0 trail

and the rocks were moving underneath his power wagon. And he said power wagon don't care and it

became a t shirt actually. Yeah. So we really appreciate this brand. For sure. Always loved

the power wagon. But the low point was that especially up here at altitude. Yeah,

64 Hemi is pretty anemic. So you wouldn't want to ideally you wouldn't want to pull a big trailer

here in Colorado in the mountains with a 64. Yeah, and also the thing about the power wagon,

it's a three quarter ton heavy duty vehicle, right? But it never really had the payload

or the towing capacity to back up its heavy duty name. Yeah, right? Because it's a heavy duty

pickup truck because the payload was usually around what 1400 pounds ish, which friend and the towing

was like just under 11,000, which is really kind of a half ton territory. Yeah, right as far as

capability. But what power wagon was always great at triple locked. So front locking differential,

of course, a center locking transfer case, rear locker, and also this connectable sway bar in

the front. And for the longest time, we wanted the combination of 2500 capability, diesel power,

and the power wagons off road goodies. And now we've got it all in one truck. Now on their press

release, yes, they said just under 3000 pounds of payload and just under 20,000 pounds of towing.

Which is a little vague. Did you get more specific numbers than that? That was about

what I got from Doug as well. But those are competitive numbers. For sure. Let's not,

you know, those are not small numbers. So we'll see what the exact figures are. But that's not

bad. Yeah, I would be happy with those figures personally. But I've been thinking about this

so long. So because I saw the truck, what about two weeks ago, right? So I've had two weeks to

kind of stew over this and really think about it. And I was thinking about it almost every day.

When they showed it when the sheet came off of it, right? And we saw the truck,

it's rolling on 20s. It's basically rolling on the same wheel and tire package that the

heavy do your rebel truck. Yeah, 20 inch wheel and about a 34 inch tire. Exactly. So the look

of it when it first appeared, and it does have the power wagon name badge basically on the bedside.

Yep. When it appeared, it looked like a heavy do your rebel to me. You know what I'm saying?

I get that. And they also, as you just heard from Doug, they removed the winch because the way

that the diesel and the intercoolers and all everything they have in the front of this truck,

you'll see the front of this truck in a second here if you're watching this as well.

That's my problem with it. It seemed like they added a locker, front locker and the

disconnectable anti sway bar in the front to our heavy duty rebel. I'm okay with that.

You don't need a winch if you never get stuck, right? Granted, winches are very useful in a

lot of situations. So that's not strictly true. Sure. And I'm sure you'll be able to turn to

the aftermarket get something like what we did with trailhound. Our truck didn't have a winch

originally, but that Cummins, we added an AEV front bumper, rear bumper, we did BDS suspension,

we did all kinds of stuff on that truck to kit it out for our needs. And it worked really well.

And that included a big 16,000 pound winch. So I love this truck because I think this would make

the perfect basis for a similar thing. If you imagine doing a prospector build out on one of

these, you would build yourself an impressive truck. And I think that's the point Doug was

trying to make. Yeah. You know, when we, when we, you just heard this is that when he talked about

this truck being developed, this is not like they went out and like plucked a,

you know, a front axle off the shelf somewhere at the warehouse. They actually tested all of this

together. So the, the axle strength, the suspension, the front locking differential,

because that Cummins is throwing a lot of power, a lot of torque.

And a thousand, yeah, 1,075 pound feet of torque, 430 horsepower.

So if your front differential explodes, that's not the right thing to do.

And they were talking about big 38 millimeter axle shafts. Yeah. Yeah. So, so this truck is beefed

up to be able to handle the combination of the kind of loads that you end up with when you have

lockers and the amount of torque that this powertrain puts out, but this combination of the

new ZF8 speed, the updated Cummins, front and rear locker and disconnecting sway bar that's

all integrated from the factory. So it works as well as it can because it's not developed in

the aftermarket. It's developed by Ram themselves. It's probably going to be a pretty good combo.

This makes this basically the most capable off-road HD truck that you can go out and buy.

I would challenge your statement. Really? Oh, well, okay. So let's, let's think about this.

Let's talk about price and then let's move on. So, so now for the diesel power wagon,

because we have precedent for this, right? They have the regular power wagon. So we know how

much that costs. We have the diesel rebel, diesel rebel heavy duty and the gasoline rebel heavy

duty. Yeah. So we have all those prices. So, so you can compare the diesel power wagon. They listed

including destination charge. So this is not, this is it, 88,470, which is a lot, which is,

which is approaching 90k. Because the base power wagon Cummins is still cloth bench seat

upfront, right? It's not a super specced out truck in its entry level form. Well, they didn't

talk about, you know, how there is the tradesmen with the power wagon package with the Hemi.

I believe I saw in the press release though. That's, that's the case. Yeah, clock seat. Okay.

So that's my issue. I think the price is getting up there, even though, okay,

there's a lot of fans of this, right? Like you were saying, you know, people have been

thinking about this and wanting a triple locked Cummins powered factory truck. And this is what

this is. So I'm wondering though, I'm, I'm afraid, I'm afraid that this price is really high when,

when you consider where the competition is. Well, yeah, if, if affordability is anywhere in your

top five priorities, this is not going to be the truck nor nor is its competition, even though

some of its competition is substantially less expensive. But we'll talk about that.

Sure. So almost 90 grand for this truck starting 8,500 basically.

Yeah, that, that is a lot. I look forward to 10, 15 years from now.

When you could go out and pick one up when it's a few bucks less.

But it is interesting when you compare this to a Ford F 250 XLT tremor with a high output power

stroke with the high output power stroke, which I will give you has more power and more torque.

You can get into a truck like that for 76, 470, so 12 grand less.

But it also doesn't have the front locker and it doesn't have the disconnecting front sway bar,

which makes a big difference. So you're paying a lot extra for that. But

those are two features that the tremor doesn't have. And the front locker alone,

that makes a big difference. I don't know if it's worth $12,000 to 99% of people.

Yeah, that's that's where I am. That's where I am. Because if you are buying a heavy duty

to F 250 tremor diesel, you're already getting a lot of capabilities. So you get you get a slightly

higher truck, right? With pretty beefy tires on that tremor, right? So you're getting all that.

Of course, the winch is a dealer installed thing for the tremor diesel. So and that's really expensive.

I think that's like $4,000 or more to get a winch on a tremor. But you can still go out to the

dealership and do it. The diesel power wagon doesn't have a factory provision for that. You could do

aftermarket, like you said, on on the Ram, but $12,000 difference for a base super duty tremor

diesel versus this diesel power wagon. That's a humongous difference. The GM is closer. Yeah,

the year two. Yeah, the year two heavy duty. I'm not talking about the bison, right? The bison

is a little bit more trimmed out. A little bit more fancy. The heavy duty diesel Duramax,

zero two Chevy is $85,985, which is almost 86. Now that's a lot closer. Yeah, so the power wagon is

very competitive against the ZR two. Yeah, I would even say with some of the extra features

because the year two doesn't have a front locker. Yeah, so I would I would give it to the power wagon

that it's better value to me than the ZR two. Certainly that that XLT tremor for 76. You can

make a bit of a value argument there. But at the same time, I think it's hard to make a value argument

for any of these trucks because they're all pretty pricey. And I'm not sure that the majority of

people need all this extra capability. I think this extra capability in these features are for

people that that want them this power wagon diesel could be the basis for an unbelievably apex

off road truck that can still do a lot of work. Again, if you were to build off of this power wagon

to make a prospect to put it on 40s, give it a big steel bumpers and everything you would have

an unreal truck, a super cool truck. I almost think about this in like

muscle car versus supercar terms, right? There's there's muscle cars you can get for less than

100 grand that go almost 200 miles per hour or even over. Or you could get a hypercar for

several million dollars that goes 300. Does that difference actually matter for for you know,

several hundred thousand dollars price difference? Probably not. But people still do it because

those are those apex vehicles. And if you got the money, then more power to you. And I kind of

think of this truck in the same way. I don't think anyone that shopping around for a Cummins

power wagon is doing it because it's the best value. I think they're doing it because it's

kind of the peak off road HD. I gotcha. I gotcha. I see where you're coming from because well,

so I agree and disagree. So I agree enough in the way that if you went out to any Ford dealer right

now, you probably would not see the $76,000 trimmer anyways, because all of them are either

Lariat's or they even fancier maybe like my friend Jeremiah in Florida. He just purchased

Super Duty trimmer. Yeah, I think he paid or the sticker price was like $105,000 on his trimmer

because he got a King Ranch. He's got all the options. He's got a front. He got a winch,

you know, dealership installed winch. I mean, it's really hard to find those kind of like

those more affordable if that's even the term for the $76,000. So in that respect,

a lot of people who are buying these trucks are actually optioning them up, right? And they're

actually, you know, the people who are buying these ZR2 heavy duty are probably buying the Bison

or they're buying the GMC, which is even more expensive, right? The Sierra. Yeah, so most

of the tremors to your point that you'll probably see on dealer lots will be more,

more similarly priced to these diesel power wagons than that much cheaper, even though it is possible

for you to go on and the configurator spec that truck in special order for yourself for a lot less

money. But yeah, ultimately, all of the trucks that we're talking about on these lists, you can't

make a practicality or value argument for any of them for the TRX, for this diesel power wagon

for a $76,000 XLT F 250, right? They're all, they're all pretty insane. Yeah. And that's kind

of the point. Yeah. And I, and I just hoped I, I guess my, my, when I was thinking when I was

dreaming about the diesel power wagon, I was envisioning something like on 35s, something that

looks different, something that is a little bit more special and unique. And I saw a heavy duty

rebel with a front locker and a disconnectable anti sway bar. So I think it's just my dream

versus where the reality came in was, was not quite there, which I can understand. Yeah. And

it's, it's a little, I don't want to say bland, but it doesn't look different enough in factory form.

But what I see here with this diesel power wagon is blank canvas. Ah, okay. So let us know what

you think. So do you see a blank canvas where you could add some AV bumpers to it or are you

a little disappointed? Not sponsored by AEV or anyone else. No, we're not sponsored by Ram or

Ford or Chevy. No, but it would be cool to see this diesel power wagon on 40s.

Yeah. So because we just, you know, I appreciate the AV parts. I mean, that's kind of what's

used them before them. Yeah, for sure. So 40s on a diesel power wagon. We just, we just got to

have a conversation with with Roman. We got to get aligned so that we can make that happen. I think

we need to sell a few things and probably pick one up, sell the ranch. Yeah. No, we don't have to

do that. Yeah, just we have, we have a couple of trucks we could probably turn in. Yeah,

maybe we can make it happen. That'd be cool. I kind of doubt it. All right. Well,

let us know what you think in the comments below and we'll see you next week. I appreciate it.

Dedicated military support and advising services and credit for your military experience.

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Ep. 312: We Talk To The Experts About The New Ram TRX And Diesel Power Wagon!

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