“Hemi” is a nickname for an engine design with a combustion chamber shaped like a half-sphere. It’s used here to mean the older gas engine version of the Power Wagon.
“6.4 liter” tells you how big the engine is. Bigger displacement often means more potential for pulling power, and the hosts are comparing this engine’s strength to another setup.
This is an automatic transmission with eight forward gears, made by ZF. Having more gears can help the truck stay in the right engine speed for smoother driving and stronger pulling.
“Powertrain” means the main parts that work together to move the truck, like the engine and transmission. They’re saying the truck’s setup is proven and dependable.
Horsepower is a number that describes how strong the engine is. Higher horsepower usually means the engine can produce more power for acceleration and pulling.
The Ford Maverick is a smaller, cheaper pickup truck. Here, they’re comparing its price to the Power Wagon to show how much more expensive the Power Wagon is.
Articulation is how well the suspension can “flex” when the road gets bumpy. More articulation usually means the tires stay on the ground better off-road.
Wheel gap is the space between the tire and the fender. People look at it because it can hint at how much clearance and suspension movement the truck has for off-roading.
This is a Ram truck called the Power Wagon, and it uses a Cummins diesel engine. The hosts are talking about how Ram tries to make it carry and tow more by changing parts on the truck.
Load rating is how much weight a tire is designed to safely carry. If the tire has a higher load rating, the truck can carry more cargo without overloading the tires.
The Lotus Excel is a sports car made by Lotus. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as part of a wild “what if” idea—turning it into something much more extreme by using a heavy-duty engine concept. It’s not described as a normal factory setup, more like a crazy custom possibility.
Term
lower range E-tire
An E-tire is a heavier-duty tire meant for carrying more weight. The hosts are saying this setup uses a tire in a heavier load category, while a lighter-load tire would reduce how much the truck can safely carry.
Ram is the name used for Dodge’s full-size pickup trucks. The podcast mentions Ram because the speaker is talking about possible future changes or updates to the truck. It’s essentially a “what are they going to do next?” conversation.
A front locker locks the front wheels together so they both spin at the same time. It helps when the ground is slippery and one wheel would spin uselessly.
Aftermarket refers to parts and accessories made by companies other than the vehicle’s original manufacturer. In truck terms, it often means you can add upgrades like a winch even if the truck didn’t come with one from the factory.
A camera system is built-in cameras that help you see around the truck. It’s especially useful when you’re creeping forward or trying to line up in tight spots.
Radar technology uses sensors to “see” what’s in front of you. It helps features like adaptive cruise control keep a safe distance from the vehicle ahead.
A factory installed winch is a recovery winch that comes mounted from the factory. That usually means it’s wired and fitted more cleanly than a random add-on.
Synthetic line is the rope on the winch made from strong fibers instead of steel cable. It’s usually lighter and easier to manage, and it behaves more safely if it ever fails.
Recovery points are strong, purpose-built attachment locations on a vehicle—typically on the front bumper—for towing or winching when the truck is stuck. They’re designed to handle the high loads involved in pulling a vehicle out of mud, sand, or snow.
The front bumper is the part at the front of the truck. On off-road trucks, it often includes strong hook-up points so you can tow or winch the truck if it gets stuck.
The Lucid Air is an electric car that’s made to feel like a luxury sedan. Instead of using gasoline, it runs on electricity. The podcast mentions it while talking about the car’s size and appearance.
The Power Wagon is a Dodge truck made for serious off-roading. It’s meant to be recognizable and it comes with special off-road drivetrain parts, including a locking front differential you can engage when you need extra traction.
This is a switchable off-road traction feature for the front wheels. When it’s locked, both front wheels work together so if one starts slipping, the other can still keep you moving.
The F-250 Tremor is a Ford truck setup meant for off-roading. Here they’re saying it has an off-road rear locking feature and bigger tires, but it’s not the same as the Power Wagon’s front locking differential.
“35s” means tires that are about 35 inches tall. Bigger tires can help off-road by giving more clearance, but they can also change how the truck drives.
The Chevrolet Silverado is a large pickup truck made for hauling and towing, but it can also be used like a normal daily vehicle. People talk about it a lot because there are many versions, including ones meant for rough roads. In the podcast, it’s brought up when comparing different truck setups and off-road packages.
The Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 is an off-road-focused trim of the Silverado built for tougher trails. It’s brought up here as a competitor to the Cummins Power Wagon, especially in the context of factory off-road options.
Solid axles connect the left and right wheels together as one sturdy unit. They’re common on off-road trucks because they can handle rough terrain and let the wheels move a lot.
The Ram TRX is Ram’s “big, fast, and tough” performance truck. Here they’re talking about what happens to the warranty if you buy one and sell it again within a year.
Topic
warranty impact of flipping a new TRX
They’re basically warning that if you buy a new TRX just to sell it quickly, the warranty might not protect you. That matters for anyone thinking about flipping or paying extra.
A basic warranty is the standard warranty coverage for the truck’s problems. The hosts say Ram may cancel it too if the truck is resold within the first year.
Term
resold within the first 12 months of ownership
Ram is using a “first year” rule. If you sell the truck within 12 months, the warranty coverage can be canceled.
The Hummer EV is GM’s electric Hummer—an electric truck/SUV meant to look tough and drive off-road. Here they’re talking about a special bright-yellow version and what makes it different from a regular one.
GM is General Motors, the company that makes these vehicles. They’re mentioning GM’s long history with Hummer to explain why this special edition is named the way it is.
A special plaque is a badge on the vehicle that marks it as part of a limited edition. It’s basically how the manufacturer shows it’s not one of many identical builds.
A limited edition means the manufacturer is only making a smaller number than usual. It usually comes with extra unique details so it feels more exclusive.
The Hummer H2 is a big SUV made by Hummer. It’s the kind of vehicle people associate with the brand’s early 2000s “big and tough” look, and the hosts are talking about when it first came out and a memorable color.
The Infiniti QX80 is a large luxury SUV. It’s built on a truck-style foundation, which helps it feel sturdy and capable. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as a big, luxury-focused option.
The Cadillac Escalade is a big luxury SUV. “V” usually means a sportier, higher-performance version. The host is comparing other vehicles to the Escalade V because it’s the kind of thing people really want.
Fast charging speed is how quickly an EV can recharge when it’s plugged in. It depends on both the charger and the vehicle’s battery/charging system. The host is saying the company teased that their truck can charge pretty quickly.
The Jeep Wrangler is a popular off-road SUV. Here it’s mentioned as the alternative to a pickup like the Power Wagon—basically, the Wrangler is great for trails, but the Power Wagon is chosen when you also need real truck hauling and towing.
Payload is how much weight the truck can carry. It’s the truck’s “carrying limit,” like how heavy your stuff can be in the bed without exceeding the vehicle’s ratings.
A fifth wheel hitch is a special trailer connection that sits in the bed of the truck. It hooks to a trailer’s front “pin,” helping the trailer tow more smoothly—especially for big, heavy trailers.
A gooseneck is a type of trailer hitch where the trailer’s front “neck” sticks up and connects to a ball in the truck bed. It’s often used for heavier trailers because it can be a stable way to tow.
Four-wheel drive means power can go to all four wheels. That helps you get traction on rough roads, dirt, snow, or mud—when two-wheel drive might struggle.
It’s a feature that can loosen the truck’s anti-sway bar when you’re off-road. That helps the wheels move more independently over bumps and uneven ground, without making the truck feel too tippy.
Traction aids are the truck’s helpers that keep the wheels from spinning uselessly. They make it easier to drive on slippery surfaces like mud, gravel, or snow.
The Ford Bronco is an SUV designed for off-road driving. It’s built to go on rough roads and trails, not just highways. The podcast mentions it because it’s a common alternative people consider when looking for an off-road SUV.
That’s how much electricity the truck can provide from the bed. More watts usually means you can run more gear out on the trail without bringing a separate generator.
The Ford F-150 is a large pickup truck that many people consider a standard for this type of vehicle. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because Ford has offered a hybrid version and added features aimed at higher performance. That makes it a big topic when talking about what modern trucks can do.
A power tailgate opens and closes automatically with a motor. If it’s not a power tailgate, you usually have to operate it yourself (or it uses a simpler mechanism).
Bed rails are the sides of the truck bed that stick up. They help define the bed’s height, which matters when you’re trying to load something heavy or awkward.
A ramp is the sloped board or platform you use to roll a bike or other items up into the truck. A steeper ramp is harder to get up, especially if the load is heavy.
Control arms are parts of the suspension that hold the wheel in place and help it move smoothly over bumps. If there are “speed holes” in them, it means there are cutouts in those arms, usually to save weight.
“Tradesman” is a truck trim level—basically a specific version of the interior and features. In this segment, they’re showing the more affordable Tradesman setup.
Term
six person config
“Six person config” means the truck is set up to seat six people. They’re pointing it out as part of the interior layout.
It’s the raised hump in the floor where the truck’s drivetrain parts run underneath. Because it sticks up, it can make the seat area feel tighter and less comfortable, especially for long drives.
The center screen is the main display in the middle of the dash. It’s where you can control things like navigation and media, and sometimes vehicle settings too.
When you tow, the trailer needs its own brakes. A trailer brake controller lets you control how strongly those trailer brakes work when you press the brake pedal.
Tow/haul mode is a towing setting that helps the truck manage gears and engine braking better when you’re pulling a trailer. It’s meant to make towing feel more controlled, especially on grades.
Traction control helps prevent the tires from spinning when the road is slippery. It automatically reduces power and can brake a wheel to help the truck move more smoothly.
Parking sensors are little detectors that warn you when something is close to the truck while you’re parking. They help you avoid bumping curbs, poles, or other cars.
“Physical gauges” are the normal-looking dials with needles you can read quickly. Instead of everything being on a screen, key info shows up as real dials behind the steering wheel.
A tachometer tells you how fast the engine is spinning, usually in RPM. When you’re towing or working the truck, it helps you understand how hard the engine is working.
MPG means miles per gallon—how far you can drive before you need more gas. If you tow or drive off-road, MPG usually drops because the engine works harder.
A “31 gallon tank” refers to the fuel capacity of the truck’s gas/diesel reservoir. Larger tanks can reduce how often you stop for fuel, but real-world range still depends heavily on driving conditions like towing and off-road use.
Locker engagement is when the truck switches from normal open-differential behavior to a locked state. It’s important because you want the traction help to happen right when you ask for it.
Term
low selection
Low selection refers to choosing a low-range gearing mode (typically in the transfer case) for crawling. Lower gearing multiplies torque so the truck can move slowly over obstacles with better control.
A reverse camera shows you what’s behind the truck on a screen when you go into reverse. It makes backing up safer and easier because you can see things you might miss with just mirrors.
Surround view uses multiple cameras to show a near top-down view around the truck. It helps you see where you’re going when parking or maneuvering in tight spots.
Adaptive cruise control is like regular cruise control, but it also watches the car in front of you. If that car slows down, your truck slows down too to keep a safe gap.
A paddle shifter is a lever you pull with your hands, usually behind the steering wheel. It lets you tell the transmission to shift up or down yourself.
A “passenger screen” is a screen in the truck that the front passenger can use. It’s usually for entertainment or information, and here they’re debating whether it’s better than having extra storage space.
A “115 volt outlet” is like a regular wall plug inside the truck. It lets you power things like a laptop or small electronics while you’re parked or working.
The Chevrolet Volt is a car that can run on electricity, and it can also use gas when the battery needs help. The podcast talks about it having a normal household-style power outlet (115 volts). That means you can plug in certain devices directly from the car.
A hood bump is a raised bulge on the hood. It’s usually there to make room for something under the hood, but it can also make it harder to see the road directly in front of the truck.
A fake vent is a vent-looking opening that’s mainly for styling, not for moving air. In this case, the host says it still changes the hood shape and blocks some of what you can see.
Term
14 and a half inch vertical display
That’s a big screen—about 14.5 inches tall—mounted in a vertical layout. They’re saying the camera image only uses part of the screen, so it doesn’t fully solve the visibility problem.
Instead of regular dial gauges, the truck uses screens for the speed/engine info. Screens can be customized, so you can choose what you want to see depending on how you’re driving.
Heavier springs are stiffer suspension springs. They help support a heavier truck, but they can also make the suspension feel less “soft” over bumps.
Term
articulating connectors
These are parts that let something move as the suspension flexes. If the truck doesn’t have them, some components may limit how far the suspension can travel.
RTI score is a way to estimate how well a truck can flex its suspension when driving over rocks and ruts. Higher usually means the tires stay in contact with the ground better.
Wheelbase is the distance between the front and rear wheels. A longer or shorter wheelbase can change how stable and how “planted” a truck feels, and they’re saying these two are the same.
LIVE
Today's episode of TFL Talking Trucks podcast is very cool and special because we're outdoors.
We're outdoors.
It's like a little bit of a field trip, but we're also hands-on with real trucks.
It's not that often on the truck podcast that we have actual trucks as guests.
Exactly.
This is super exciting.
We have the 2027 brand-new commons-powered power wagon.
Exactly.
We've got the truck that puts the power in power wagon because this has just got more
of it.
Yes.
And we've got the traditional, the old-school, hemi-powered power wagon right next to it.
There's a big price difference between these two trucks.
So what we're going to do is break it down, talk about the actual differences between
them, differences in capabilities, and see if it's really worth the extra money.
This is not an old-school truck.
What are you talking about, dude?
This truck in red, if you're watching us on our TFL Talk channel, is the most affordable
power wagon that you could buy brand new.
It's a 2026 model, and it's back.
It's a tradesman power wagon with a hemi.
Andre, how old is the 6.4 hemi?
Okay.
I think we have to date it by about five presidencies, and probably it's old.
It goes back.
Oh wait.
But that means it's tried and true, my friend, okay?
Yeah.
It's a big 6.4 liter, and it's got a new transmission in 2019.
They added the ZF 8-speed automatic, which this still has, and it's kind of stealth, right?
You won't find any power wagon stickers or decals or nothing like that.
Yeah.
2019 even at this point is going back away, pre-Covid, before the world was forever changed.
Yes, with that 8-speed.
So the powertrain in this truck, to your point, is tried and true.
It's a known quantity, which is great, but we've been asking for a Cummins power wagon
for such a long time, because the name is power wagon, and the 6.4 hemi has always felt
a little bit anemic in a truck of this size.
Well, it's probably because we live at a mile above sea level here in Colorado, but I see
the sea.
Yes, exactly.
So 430 horsepower and 1,075 pound-feet of torque versus 405 horsepower, which is not actually
that far below it, but 429 pound-feet of torque.
Not so many torques, I would say.
This has got quite a few more of them.
Quite a few more torques.
But here's the thing, dude.
There is almost $36,000 of difference between these two trucks, which is a lot of money,
but also the new Cummins power wagon has more capability as far as payload and towing.
So we need to talk about all those features and show actually how they're different, because
$36,000, you could buy a brand new Ford Maverick for that much money.
Yeah, that's true.
You could buy a lot of things with that amount of money.
This truck, the hemi-powered power wagon, we keep saying something powered power wagon,
which is a bit of a mouthful, but the hemi-powered wagon is about $67,000.
This Cummins truck is pretty well-equipped, it's got a lot of features, it's got the big
screen, the passenger screen, all this stuff that we'll look at in a moment.
This truck is $103,000, which is a lot.
This is not the most affordable version of the Cummins power wagon.
Granted, I'm not sure there is an affordable Cummins power wagon, because they start at
what, $80 something?
$87, yeah.
Yeah, so they're all pretty pricey.
You could get one that's got fewer features than this and still costs quite a bit less,
significantly less, but none of them are cheap.
I would say if you had a fleet of trucks, let's say you own a utility company, and you're
going out into the wilderness to fix power lines, this truck will stay on the highway,
probably with a satellite phone, and this truck will actually do the work.
Right?
Yes, and for the people that are listening.
The Cummins power wagon will stay on the highway by itself, and it will never get muddy, and
the Hemi-powered, affordable power wagon with, look at how much clearance this wheel has.
I mean, it has a lot of articulation, clearance.
It's got a lot of wheel gap.
A lot of wheel gap.
We'll actually do the work.
Sure, look, so this Hemi power wagon from the exterior.
We can go ahead and show a couple of differences.
One of them being the wheel tire setup.
The Hemi power wagon, which is a more basic truck, has a 17-inch wheel,
and this tire is a 285 70R17, which measures out in inches to about 32.7.
Since we all like to round up, we'll call that a 33.
That's what most people call it.
We're men.
Yes, we're men.
So we have to round up.
So this is a 33 in the same way that I'm six foot and 200 pounds.
Yes.
You know, don't ask for any specifics there.
Yeah.
So we'll also call the tire on the Cummins power wagon a 34.
This is a 285 60R20, which measures to about 33.5, but it is on a 20-inch wheel,
which is not especially conducive to going off-road because especially the design of this wheel,
the cover, actually that's not a cover that's integrated into the wheel itself,
but the center of the wheel is, it sticks out a bit.
Yeah, it's sticking out pretty far.
But I think it's almost the same design as on the Hemi power wagon, as far as the cover.
But look at the tire.
It's bulging a little bit more here.
Although the Hemi power wagon tires, come on, let's face it, they're tiny.
Yeah, for the size of truck.
For the size of the truck.
But here's what I learned from the Ram folks, right, looking at the Cummins power wagon,
because people have been asking for it.
They wanted to bring it out as quickly as possible, so they had to do something.
And what they did was they wanted to give it more payload and more towing capability.
So this tire is actually different load rating, right?
So it enables them to actually load it up with up to 2,700 pounds of payload,
which is a really good number actually.
Yeah, which is great.
The impractical side of me would love to see this Cummins power wagon on at least a 35,
not 37.
Maybe even a 40, because the Cummins prospector trucks are pretty rad.
And this Cummins power wagon as a basis for a prospector excel would be insane.
Yes, but there is a lower range E-tire versus a lighter load tire.
So this is what enables them to bring it out.
But Ram, if you're listening, if they're making an update like in the future,
maybe 2028 or 2029 model years, please do more.
At 35s at least would be nice.
At least 35, because these trucks are humongous.
They are huge.
They could use some more tire.
There's a couple other funny differences.
Well, one of them I find pretty funny.
At the front end of the truck, let's look at a couple things.
There is no winch on the front of the Cummins truck as stock,
which is fine because you're not going to get stuck anyway, Andre.
Obviously with the front locker.
So no winch as stock on the front of the truck,
but of course you could turn to the aftermarket.
You could get a winch pretty easily.
That wouldn't be a huge deal.
This truck is pretty well equipped.
So you've got a nice camera system.
You can see the front camera right underneath the A in the Ram logo.
Yeah, look at this grill on the Hemi power wagon.
There is also a spot underneath the A, but it's a blank.
Yeah, so Andre has a, on the Hemi power wagon,
a pretty unsightly camera bump with no camera in it,
which is a little embarrassing.
Because I'm saving money, my friend.
Right, right.
But look, I still have Ram radar technology
because every new heavy duty Ram also gets adaptive cruise control, right?
So they're not skimping on that.
But look at this, a factory installed winch.
It's a worn winch, 12,000 pounds, synthetic line.
So it's a good piece of kit.
Yeah.
You know what it's, what it's here for?
To help others.
Other people.
Yes.
Because there's no getting stuck in a power wagon.
It's to help others.
Both trucks have pretty sizable recovery points on the front bumpers.
The Cummins power wagon does have a nicer headlight.
So the headlights are slightly different.
This one we can see illuminated if you're watching along.
Yeah.
And if we look along the sides of the trucks,
the Cummins power wagon does have the decals and graphics on the side of it,
which I kind of like because otherwise this truck is pretty subtle.
The tires aren't massive.
It's not like it's jacked way up in the air and it's a silver exterior color.
So nothing else about it stands out a ton.
To your point, and I think for a lot of people,
this Cummins power wagon versus like an HD Rebel.
Yeah.
They look almost identical.
Yeah.
Visually you don't see a ton of differences.
Because several years ago they introduced the HD Rebel,
which was a one step up from kind of a regular four wheel drive,
ram heavy duty.
But I guess the power wagon here, it identifies itself with the decals, right?
There is a decal on the side of the bed, which is vertical.
And there's also a decal in the back, which says power wagon.
So people behind you will know what you're driving at least.
Yeah.
So that helps differentiate it a little bit more.
But we should say that this is the only heavy duty truck on the market
with a front selectable locking differential.
Yeah.
Period.
So you can get obviously an F-250 Tremor.
Yes.
And the Tremor has got a rear locker, it's got bigger tires.
You can get it with a factory winch, which is nice.
Yes.
And you can also get it with 35s.
Which is a bigger tire.
Which is also nice.
And you could get a Tremor in like XL through almost any trim level.
Yep.
But you could also get a power wagon like we're showing here in several different
trim levels, at least two, right?
And also you can get a Silverado, I was going to say Super Tremor.
No, the Tremor in like F-350 as well as F-250.
So there's a couple of different ways you can get them.
But GM also has their trucks as well.
You could get a Silverado ZR2.
And you can even get them kitted out with AEV parts.
By some parts.
Which is also nice stuff.
But what I love about the Cummins power wagon is this is again,
the only diesel truck on the market you can get with a front and rear locker.
And a sway bar disconnect.
And I like the fact that this truck is on solid axles like the Ford,
unlike the GM trucks.
Yeah.
That combination makes this I think a really good platform for building an even more
capable HD truck if you want to go that route.
Because you can very easily get 35s for this truck.
Without any mods really.
Yeah, exactly.
I think this truck would handle 35s pretty easily.
Like yourself, surprise they don't do it from the factory.
And they probably should.
But they don't.
That would be the first upgrade I would make.
All right.
So before we dive even deeper, do you want to do like a news segment really quick?
Because there have been a little bit of truck news.
Some of it is REM related too.
Yeah, that's true.
And we have GM news.
We have a little bit of infinity news, believe it or not.
So do you want to start with Ram?
Yeah.
So we were just talking to the folks over at Ram.
Yes.
And we heard an interesting tidbit of news that is important to know for buyers,
specifically buyers of the new TRX.
If you get a new TRX.
Yes.
And you try and buy it and flip it, resell it for more money,
that will actually have an impact on your warranty.
Exactly.
Or the next person's warranty effect.
Because Ram announced that they will basically cancel basic and powertrain warranty
if the truck is resold within the first 12 months of ownership.
So why are they doing this?
Obviously to prevent speculators and quick buck makers.
Yeah, flippers.
To flippers, to flip these trucks because they increased the horsepower on that truck.
You know, they made it more luxurious.
It should be still a very desirable vehicle.
It starts once again also at $102,000, very similar to this fully optioned Cummins power wagon.
And hopefully it prevents markups, right?
Yeah.
So dealerships don't try to like preempt them and make more money as well.
But what if you're a regular person and something happens in your life.
Yeah, exactly.
And you want to sell your vehicle, right?
That could also potentially hurt some people.
Especially because 12 months is a pretty long term for that.
I almost think maybe 6 months would be a better term.
Yeah, because a lot of people in that segment, right, they have a lot of money.
But a lot of them like switching vehicles a lot.
Or maybe they just lost their job.
You know, some stuff happens.
So it's an important consideration.
If any of you out there are shopping around for one of those trucks,
if you go to sell it within that first 12 month period,
then you're going to be dealing with that as a little bit of an issue.
That was the news over at Ram.
Yeah, but not to worry.
Our good friends at Granger Warranty could step in and you could talk to them.
You can, we usually talk about them on our truck channel, right?
Yeah.
But nonetheless, if that was to happen, there's other solutions potentially
where you could save some money, but also maybe extend your warranty a little bit more.
There's also a little bit of news on the GMC front.
It's a pretty minor piece of news.
But they're doing a special edition of the Hummer EV in both truck and SUV form.
They're calling it the Hummer EV icon because
the brand for GM has been around now for 25 years.
So what they did is they basically made a version of the Hummer EV
that is in that same shade of yellow that the H2 was famous for.
Originally launched as, right?
Exactly.
So that was kind of the hero color.
So they've made this bright yellow version of the Hummer EV.
The interesting thing is, if I was reading correctly, but I think it was,
it sounds like that same yellow paint color is also just going to be available for 2027 Hummer EVs.
You could order one no matter what.
So to get that color, you don't have to get the special edition.
But the special editions have other little tidbits to them, right?
They have a special plaque that are limited edition.
And then also there's like a black skid plate, right?
Yeah, I think that's about it.
But you know what?
If you're buying a Hummer EV and actually we see quite a lot of them here in Boulder, Colorado,
in this region, I think you want to stand out.
Sure.
I mean, it's one of those vehicles.
It's not a subtle vehicle to begin with.
So when you paint it bright yellow and you have a limited number, like a plaque,
I think some of those customers would really appreciate that.
And it looks like they might make as few as 250 of those special edition trucks.
But you know what?
I didn't really believe it at first when they said Hummer brand,
because Humvee existed decades before.
Yeah, exactly.
But the Hummer consumer brand is 25 years old because it doesn't seem like it was been that long.
You know what I'm saying?
I knew we used to own an H2.
It was an 03.
But I forgot that they introduced them in 02, which was I guess the year prior to that.
But I remember that yellow color.
I think it was everywhere, right?
It was on every magazine.
It was on every poster.
I think Arnold Schwarzenegger came out there and said, yeah, when it first launched.
Yeah.
So they brought back that color, but you don't have to get the special edition to get it.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's not a huge piece of news to me.
Also, Roman went to Las Vegas, I think a year or two ago, maybe a year and a half.
And Infinity had some news that the QX80, their truck-based SUV, there's a luxury machine,
they were going to put a high horsepower engine into it, basically almost like a GTR spec
engine with 600 horsepower.
But they're slightly delaying it.
Yeah, they're saying that essentially they're delaying it to make sure that when it comes out,
it's actually going to be really good.
And it sounds like they might be committing to making a pretty serious performance version of it.
Not like the Armada Nismo that was more or less an Armada.
With just some visual aspects.
With like a track suit on.
Yeah, with a track suit on.
Adidas, should I say.
But also, I think Infinity is also like trying to fight up against like the Escalade V,
you know, that's a very desirable hike.
But today it seems like we're only talking about big money machines.
I mean, that's kind of what most of the news are about.
Yeah, other than Slate.
Other than Slate.
Also, a little bit of news from Tello.
Really?
I haven't seen this.
Well, news per se.
I mean, they're publishing more and more videos about what their truck development is like.
Yeah.
They teased us with a fast charging speed, like a couple of weeks back.
And then they talked about towing, it will tow about 6,600 pounds.
They're standing behind that number.
And they're saying by the end of this year, first trucks will roll off their partners.
Because they're partnering with a different manufacturer, right?
Yeah.
They're going to roll off their line.
So I'm just hoping they make it, right?
Because their starting price is about $41,500.
That's why I brought it up.
Because we got to come back down to earth eventually.
And $41,000 for a little compact pickup with four doors and five seats.
I think that's a pretty good deal actually.
Yeah, especially considering some of the crazy things they're doing as far as the design goes.
Some of the performance specs that they're talking about.
Because if you look at at this point, a Ford Maverick, a base Ford Maverick,
is closing in on 30 grand.
It's high 20s.
When it used to be under 20.
Yeah.
So and also the Slate is pressuring some people, right?
With the $25,000 starting price.
And Ford said they're coming out with their electric truck next year
at around $30,000 starting as well.
So there's a lot of action in that space too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we have a lot of that to look forward to.
But in the meantime.
Should we continue with the power wagons?
Yeah.
In the meantime, we've got a couple big trucks right here.
And we like talking about big trucks.
And by the way, so we're doing more.
Not just this podcast with these trucks.
We're going to be having some fun at the airstrip.
Figuring out, you know, the exact performance of these trucks.
We're going to take them off road.
Oh, yeah.
And actually show you articulation and capability of both of these trucks.
Where do you want to go next?
Because I was going to say,
well, we can't show articulation now.
So I guess that's a mute point kind of.
Yeah.
But we can talk a little bit about capability.
Because let's go there.
It's the rub on the Hemi power wagon.
Yes, you are buying an HD truck.
But when you actually look at a lot of the specs and the capability
for it doing truck things, it's not the most capable machine.
If we look at the payload, it's exactly 1500 pounds.
I think our Maverick was close to that.
Yeah.
So for a truck of this size, 1500 pounds is not a lot of payload.
The towing figure on this truck is also what, 10,900?
It's approaching 11 grand.
But it's also kind of a half ton truck spec.
Exactly.
Like most half ton trucks have the same towing.
And Ram always said that this is kind of focused,
you know, directly focused on maximum affordability.
And that's why it's losing some of those numbers.
But I want to have my cake and also eat it.
Because at the end of the day, if you're buying a power wagon
instead of a Jeep Wrangler, for example, presumably you're making that decision
because you want something that can also function as a pickup truck.
And with 1500 pounds of payload and 11,000 pounds of towing,
there's still plenty of things that you can accomplish.
But what excites me about the Cummins Power Wagon,
Yeah, let's go look.
If we walk over to the payload sticker on this truck,
it would be pleasantly, at least I'm pleasantly,
surprised to see 2700 pounds of payload.
So almost 2x what the Hemipower Wagon is rated at.
And similarly, towing spec on this truck is around 18,000 pounds.
Maybe a squish over that.
Yeah, so not quite 2x the tow capacity of the Hemipower Wagon,
but almost, almost 2x.
So really, I mean, this truck could be used for,
like, if you're going out and you want to get a little bit further off the highway,
off the road, maybe you have a fifth wheel.
By the way, this has a fifth wheel hitch.
It does.
And I don't think I've ever seen it on a power wagon ever.
No, because on a typical power wagon, it wouldn't be quite as useful.
No.
But on this truck, because it can tow close to 20,000,
it's potentially worthwhile.
Yeah. So although this bed is six foot four inches, right?
So if you put a massive fifth wheel behind this,
when you're making tight turns, it may come closer to the cab.
But you can put a giant gooseneck on this, right?
And you could haul many different toys behind you, right?
Like maybe you have a rock crawler, maybe you have a couple of side-by-sides.
So you could bring a lot with you.
And that's a good point, because you might wonder, well,
why get an off-road version of a heavy-duty truck at all, right?
Because for a lot of people, a heavy-duty truck, maybe depending on where you live,
doesn't even need to be four-wheel drive.
It's a towing machine exclusively.
Yeah.
But if you look at our situation, we live up here in the mountains.
There's plenty of places we need to haul a trailer to that are rugged places
that are difficult to access.
And you don't want to get stuck in an 8,000-pound truck with a almost 20,000-pound trailer behind you.
Yeah, exactly.
This truck gives you that flexibility to have the rugged side of things with a sway bar disconnect
with lockers.
You've got a lot of traction aids and ways to keep this truck and your trailer that you're hauling
from getting stuck while simultaneously giving you that ability to still.
haul around a good amount of weight.
This truck isn't so compromised in its ability to tow and to haul.
Exactly.
So it kind of gives you all of that capability.
And also, we used to get questions for a duly.
Why do you need a four-wheel drive system on a duly tow rig?
Well, for example, let's say you arrive at like a gravel yard to pick up some, you know,
whatever cargo you're going to be hauling on the trailer or muddy yard,
you're going to get bogged down in the mud, right?
It happened to me at Mr. Truck's old place, you know, and the four-wheel drive duly actually
got us out, right?
If it was two-wheel drive only, it would just start sinking, sinking, sinking, down and down and down.
So you really need that in some instances.
Exactly.
And you're already spending a lot of money.
So four-wheel drive system may cost you four to 5000 let's say, on a regular truck.
Might as well invest into that and have a more capable machine.
Yeah, because ultimately, I would not be cross-shopping this vehicle with a Jeep Wrangler
or a Bronco, even though this is designed to be an off-road capable heavy-duty truck.
It's still a heavy-duty truck.
It's still incredibly wide.
And very heavy.
And very heavy and long compared to other vehicles.
So it's not the most nimble thing on a trail, nor is it really meant to be.
To me, all the off-road features are just another tool in your toolbox that you have available to
you if you need them.
Speaking of tools in the toolbox that you have available, this truck does have 2400 watts of
power accessible here in the bed.
Yeah, and also has right there.
That's a really great thing because Ford kind of broke the mold a little bit with their F-150
hybrid offering high power export features.
And now everybody is going higher and higher and higher.
And the Ram is offering a little bit more as well than just the 400 watts that they've had for many years.
And if I'm not mistaken, the Hemipower wagon does not have that.
No, well actually, let's show that bed.
They're the same size bed, right?
Yeah.
But the features are a little bit different.
Yeah, exactly.
So you have similar tie-downs and similar lighting, but this truck has 400 watts in the bed.
Yeah, so a measly 400 watts, which means it will not run your blender for your smoothies that you're
making on the trail.
Yeah, yeah.
So it won't do that.
For sure.
Or it won't, you know, help you like maybe power some items on your trailer in a pinch.
But it does have, well, basically there is no, it's not a power tailgate, right?
So it just kind of falls.
It does have a step.
So at least it has a couple of utility points to it because these trucks are very tall.
They are in the bed rails or shoulder height.
So getting anything in the back of the truck, not necessarily easy.
We use this Hemipower wagon to go bring a couple of small motorcycles out to Moab
and getting them loaded into the bed.
Was it a challenge?
It's a bit of a challenge because the angle on your ramp getting the motorcycle up into the back of it
is pretty steep and it's still doable.
But the taller a truck is for that especially because motorcycles are heavy, even small ones.
Yeah, it's not ideal.
You and I pulled off the side steps on this truck, even though it doesn't belong to us.
But we were doing some pretty intense off-roading.
Yep.
And we needed those because they would hang down about this low.
They would have been mangled.
So we're going to put them back before Ram gets this truck back.
But this Cummins Power Wagon has a different step.
It does.
It's got a more low profile step that also looks like it is pretty sturdy.
So I'd wager that you could rub this into some rocks and it would be okay.
Oh and look, it has speed holes in the control arms.
Yes, the control arms do have speed holes which contributes to the lightness of this truck,
of course.
Which weighs 8,300 pounds.
Yes, somehow.
I realize a Cummins is notably heavier than a Hemipower.
This Cummins Power Wagon weighs 1,300 pounds more than the Hemipower.
That's tradesmen.
Which you are going to notice off-road.
And yeah, this truck's got leather seats.
I think that Cummins weighs around 1,200 pounds if I'm not mistaken.
But there is still like probably a six or 700 pound plus a winch.
Hemmy and the winch on the other trucks.
So I'm surprised that this is so much heavier.
And look, they put a new plaque on this Power Wagon, the Cummins one on the dash.
Just to remind you what you've got.
Yes, which I do kind of like.
Nice.
Which interior do you want to look at first?
Well, let's start with a more affordable interior, shall we?
Let's jump into this tradesman.
Here you go, Cole.
It's a little bit of a jump to get in.
Yeah, no more steps.
And like you said, these are tall trucks.
So this is a six person config.
So really this front bench is a bench.
I mean, the transmission tunnel is really huge.
Yeah, it's not going to be the most comfortable place to sit,
especially for any long period of time.
But these are cloth seats.
It's a bench in the front and a bench in the rear.
So it is six person seating.
And even though this is a more basic truck,
you still get a pretty sizable center screen.
But one thing that I like is this truck gives you physical controls
for the plus and minus on your trailer brake controller for your gain.
You also get a physical control for your tow haul mode,
for your parking sensors, for traction control.
So it's not all integrated in the screen.
Yeah, but the screen is nice and it's, I mean, looks pretty premium, right?
So if you just looked at this area here,
you wouldn't think you're in a work truck.
You know, it looks a little bit nicer.
There's a tiny bit of piano black, which is not a huge problem.
Usually I hate when the piano black extends to the console
and it reflects light into my eye and always blinds me.
But this is a little bit better integration.
The steering wheel is also not like the cheapest plastic ever made.
You know, it's still a little bit plasticky, but it still feels decent.
It's decent, but in general, the dash, the door cards,
most of the materials that you're looking at in here,
are pretty hard, pretty plasticky, very utilitarian.
So there's nothing on the interior that feels luxury spec in front of me as a passenger.
So on a lot of, of these trucks,
they have a little door, a little cover for this upper cubby on this truck.
It's just open. There's no cover there.
So you've got a little shelf where you can stick some things.
I don't think that that's particularly a big deal.
And then you actually have quite a few physical gauges in front of you.
I do physical tachometer and of course my coolant and several actually different needles.
And a tiny, tiny screen with information.
By the way, the information I'm looking at now is my MPG, which is a sad sight.
Because a lot of the truck use usage that we've put on it,
and then we actually put, I want to say, 4,700 miles on this truck already.
This is a long-term loan. It's showing 11.6 MPG right now,
but the truck was towing yesterday.
Yeah, we've towing with it.
We've taken it off-road, both of which are not fuel efficient.
But I'm getting a little bit tired of going to the fuel stop.
Because I've been to the fuel station quite a few times.
This does have like a 31 gallon tank, but obviously I don't want to run it completely dry.
So like every 25 gallons, I have to go back, which is about 300 miles.
So I've made a few stops at the gas station.
So it's definitely not fuel efficient.
But one of your trade-offs for that is the fact that you do have the rear locker,
the switch for the front and rear locker to both be engaged, your sway bar disconnect there.
So those are the off-road features that most people opt for a power wagon to get.
Exactly. This is, especially that button right there.
That's not fake. It's real front and rear lockers.
And by the way, we've used this truck many times.
You mentioned going to Moab.
We've done some off-roading red cone trail, for example, here.
That video is coming out this weekend.
Did Ram off-road park?
Did Ram off-road park on this?
And actually, you know, some vehicles take a while.
They're a little finicky how to lock engagement or for low selection
or sway bar disconnect engagement.
This truck seems to be kind of on point.
When you ask for something, it just does it.
And I wonder if company-wide some of that could be because they've had
so much practice on the Jeep side of things.
Maybe they take some of that R&D, knowledge from them
and apply it to this truck because the locker engagement, sway bar disconnect,
everything on the Wrangler is very well sorted out.
So yeah, maybe they took some of those same lessons and applied it to this truck.
But it is a really capable machine for its size.
The size of a truck like this is always going to be a factor when you're off-roading.
Because it's so heavy, because it's so wide, long,
you're limited on line choice, everything like that.
But it can still do a lot.
And I do have one camera here.
It's a reverse camera.
Very basic camera.
Yeah.
But the lines move when I move my steering wheel.
So I kind of see I can back up to my trailer very easily.
So that's of course mandated, right?
You have to have a rear camera, but you don't have to have surround view.
Do you see a bug just fly by?
Yeah.
We're like being infested by moths right now.
Anyways, so this is kind of what you get.
But by the way, adaptive cruise control is here.
I was showing that radar in the front.
So I've been using that a lot, and it's pretty helpful on the road trip.
And my gear selector is a little bit weird.
It's this little button here.
I would have liked to see a little bit of maybe like a paddle shifter or something.
And there's also no volume knob buttons on the back of the steering wheel.
So you got to reach over to the screen if you want to skip to your next song,
or if you want to do the volume.
I really like the volume and skip controls on the back of the steering wheel.
And to me, it's a bummer that they cheap out on a truck like this.
It can't cost them very much to include those.
So that's not really an area where I like to see the cost going.
And this truck does have a couple of fun dashboard pages for off-roading and kind of
your accessory gauges where you can monitor temperatures and vehicle dynamics for off-roading.
We've been using that.
And also the towing page, even though it's maybe not the class-leading
full functionality that I like to see.
Like for example, there's no MPG for your trailer here,
but still a lot of nice gauges and a lot of nice information here.
Yeah, which is all pretty good stuff.
Should we go over?
We should look at the commons.
The better equipped truck.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
It is hands down a nicer interior.
You know what?
It smells nicer.
Yeah, well, it's because it's leather.
We haven't been road tripping this one so much.
No, that's not what I meant.
Eating talkies and hamburgers.
No, that's not what I meant.
I meant like I can smell the leather on this.
Yeah.
So immediately jumping into the interior of the Cummins Power Wagon,
of course, because this is a much more premium truck, you get a lot more features.
It's got dual wireless chargers built into the console here.
So of course there's no seat in the middle here.
This is not a six-seater truck.
You get this console instead.
Two wireless chargers and a bigger center screen.
But this is what bumps me out a little bit.
So the plus and minus for the gain on your trailer brake controller.
A digital.
Digital built into the screen.
Your exhaust brake, your tow-haul mode, your parking sensor switches.
All of that is integrated into the screen instead of physical buttons,
which kind of bums me out.
And also this is missing.
Sometimes they have auxiliary buttons here on some models.
And this particular model doesn't have that, which is a tiny bummer as well.
They do still give you physical controls for all of your climate functions.
Yeah, that's nice.
Yeah, which that at least is nice.
And of course, on the HD trucks, you actually have this column-mounted shifter for the transmission.
Well, that one also has a column mount, except yours looks nicer with nicer stitching and a
little bit of silver.
Yeah, so all of the materials in this truck.
It's one of the main things you notice jumping into it.
The steering wheel is much nicer.
The dash is leather-wrapped.
Nice and leather-wrapped.
The seats have some pipe bings and nice stitching on them.
And the power wagon.
Says power wagon on it.
If you can see that.
Boom, yes.
It also says power wagon on this badge on the center console.
And you've got a passenger screen as well.
Yeah, so this is probably not necessary.
What would you rather have?
A cubby or a passenger screen?
A cubby.
You know what, I forgot to mention the net truck.
Gavin and I brought it here from Michigan.
And on that Hemi-Traitman power wagon, there was a 115 volt outlet right here.
So he was actually sitting here with a laptop plugged in editing a video while we were moving
because we just saw the rumblebees, remember?
Yeah.
And we had our hard drives and our phones all on the shelf.
It felt like an office.
This feels like it's a mirror where I can see my old aging face mostly.
But I can click this button and you will never see it.
But actually, all you see is me.
Yeah, from the driver's seat, I can't see the passenger screen.
But it is on right now.
And I do have a few features.
For example, I have navigation.
I can listen to some music or I guess I can select video.
I can plug in my HDMI device.
I guess if I brought my PlayStation console, what am I supposed to do here?
I don't know, man.
I have a suggestion.
Yes.
Ditch the passenger screen, but give me a sunroof.
Oh, because this truck is simple.
$103,000 and it doesn't have a sunroof.
With no sunroof?
That's kind of bummed me out a little bit.
If you're going to be paying this much money for a truck, I'd like it.
But it does have cameras.
Digital rear view mirror.
And to your point, yeah, lots and lots of camera systems on this truck,
including some that you can hook up to your trailer as well.
So we could select, look at all the options.
Let's see.
Where should we start?
How about we start with that?
You know, that's a not picture because, oh, the tailgate is down.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, there goes Andre.
So lots of camera views.
Look at that.
I can even watch Andre monitor him as he goes around the truck.
So it does give you a ton of options, which is kind of nice,
because at this point, the visibility on these trucks is not fantastic,
especially because the Cummins power wagon does have this hood
that has a hood bump and a fake vent.
Yeah, that's not necessary.
No, it's not necessary.
That blocks some of your visibility.
The Hemipower wagon doesn't have this hood,
so its forward visibility is a bit better,
even though both of these trucks obscure everything
that's within like 100 feet of the front of your truck.
Can't see.
Short at that.
It is true.
But this 14 and a half inch vertical display,
I think the odd part about it is that the camera view
is only what like a top almost third of it.
Yeah.
Right.
Which seems odd because you have so much real estate,
but at least it's high.
So it's kind of high in your vision online, but it's a small image.
But you could also back up to your gooseneck.
Look at this.
You have a line on your bed.
So a couple of potentially useful camera angles there.
This does also use a fully digital instrument cluster.
So that is in place of the analog gauges on the Hemipower wagon,
which I kind of like the analog gauges.
I do like analog.
But this is a little more configurable,
so there could be some situations in which that would be potentially useful.
And then this panel is identical, which is awesome.
Still has button for a rear locker,
button for both front and rear sway bar disconnect.
And you're too high, for high, for low.
So all of those essential off-road features are still built into this truck.
But we are expecting there to be somewhat of a difference
between the articulation on these two trucks,
even though they both have sway bar disconnects.
It's because of the front axle control arms.
We pointed at the speed holes.
But this heavier truck, because it is heavier,
it has heavier springs.
It doesn't have the articulating connectors.
So I don't know the exact angle or RTI score difference,
but we'll test that today.
We're going to go into the mountains and we're going to test it out.
Yeah, so there's an argument to be made that that truck being lighter
and having slightly better articulation
is going to, in the margins, make it a better off-road truck.
But I would argue that this Cummins power wagon
will probably get to 90 or 95% of all the same places
that the Hemipower wagon will, even if it's not quite as capable.
Well, they have the same wheel base, right?
They're very similar in many ways.
Yeah, they're similar in most ways.
The difference is that the Cummins power wagon is,
like we pointed out, almost 2x the truck
when it comes to payload and towing.
So to me, that's a worthwhile compromise hands down.
The bigger question is just,
is it worth all of the extra money to get into this?
Yeah.
Because it's a lot of extra money,
even if you don't equip the interior as heavily as this,
with the Harman Kardon audio and leather.
And it's really a 20 grand difference.
Because remember, that's about 65 plus a couple of options, 67.
And this starts at 87.
So that's still a considerable difference,
but $13,000 is just for the engine, right?
That's the Cummins, right?
Plus there's a couple of other items,
some of the power wagon cosmetic features
and some of the nicer equipment that the power wagon comes with.
And this has a little bit more on top of that.
Ultimately, you can't get a Cummins power wagon
as basic as that power wagon that's next to this.
So even if you opt for the most basic Cummins power wagon,
in addition to the engine,
it is going to have more luxury features,
more interior features, creature comforts and everything.
So not all of that money is going to go purely towards the powertrain.
But we also have to say one more thing,
because when we first did the introduction to the tradesman,
right, a power wagon, we instantly got an email
when we published the video saying,
I just saw giant discounts on power wagons at my local dealership.
And it is true.
You and I have seen discounts on RAM heavy duties
and light duties of like 30000 sometimes.
So you can get some deals.
It's very competitive.
Yeah, I'll be interested to see, especially straight off the bat,
if a lot of those deals end up being applied to these trucks,
because these are premium and they're new, right?
And they're new, new and a little special.
So that maybe there would be enough interest in them
and excitement for them that they're not really going to be discounted
because you look at stuff like a Raptor or a TRX trucks like that
are not getting discounted.
So who knows, it might be difficult.
Yeah, especially straight off the bat,
you might not see very big discounts on the Cummins power wagons.
But look, ultimately, this is not only a more powerful power wagon,
but it is a much better truck.
Because it has more capability for weight carrying.
And also hopefully you won't have to stop at so many fueling stations
in this power wagon as in the other one.
More range, better fuel economy.
And I think you and I are doing a Denver 100 test,
which is our official fuel efficiency test here near around Denver, Colorado.
And I'll be really interested to see exactly what the difference is.
And we also have some miles on this truck, about 1500 miles.
So it's not fully brand new.
It's a little bit broken in.
Yeah, but we're through the primary portion of the break in.
So as far as testing fuel economy, it should be fine on that truck.
Although Cummins engines, I mean, you own one.
I mean, yours is a little bit older.
Mine's got more than 1500 miles on it.
Yeah. It's 276,000.
Yeah. Cummins engines, we've tested several.
They like more miles, like 10,000 miles.
They get a little bit better and on on.
So, but still, we can test what we have here.
Now, I want to talk a little bit about this truck.
It's funny. I think I'm the only person really at the office that's genuinely excited
about this Cummins power wagon.
Okay. We need to look into the camera for this, right?
Well, here's where I stand.
My initial impression, right?
We haven't done a lot with this power wagon yet, the Cummins version.
It just showed up.
It just showed up yesterday, literally.
But where I am was that I appreciate the front locker,
but it seems like a heavy duty rebel to me.
You know what I'm saying?
So, it's not differentiated enough in my mind.
You know what I'm saying?
I understand front locker, disconnectable sway bar.
I get all that stuff.
I get the power wagon heritage, right?
But I could also buy a heavy duty rebel.
It doesn't have the front locking differential,
but maybe for most use cases that personally I'm looking at, maybe that's okay for me.
Yeah.
You see what I'm saying?
I just wish they did more.
And that's, yeah.
That is kind of the sentiment shared with a lot of people at the office,
as it feels like they didn't go quite far enough with this Cummins power wagon.
So, maybe people feel like there was a lot of build up,
and then it came out and it felt like they just kind of jammed the Cummins engine
into the power wagon.
And why did it take so many years for that to happen?
Yeah, kind of that's the sentiment.
And also, well, I guess the winch is a separate story.
I mean, of course, we all love winches because we almost never use them.
But we're men.
But we're men.
We like to have, you know, accessorize.
And also, helping others is a big thing.
For example, in a snowstorm, you might be able to assist,
you know, pull somebody out or whatever.
Yeah, just maybe they will go further, maybe, you know, in a year or so.
But I think where you are, like you're saying, we've been asking for this,
you could accessorize this even further.
Yeah, because the way I look at it is, sure, turn key on 34s and not having a winch
and not articulating as well as the gas truck.
I could see how that might be a little disappointing to somebody.
But to me, if this is maybe 5%, 10% worse on articulation than the gas truck,
I'm fine with that.
Because if I'm shopping for the most amount of articulation in any vehicle,
I'm not going to be shopping for an HD truck.
So still, to that point, this truck in my mind should go 90% or 95% of all the same places
that the gas power wagon will.
So that tiny bit of extra articulation potentially doesn't really bother me a whole lot.
But this is, once again, it's the only HD diesel truck on the market with that
factory front and rear locker and integrating something like that into one of these trucks.
To me is a more difficult thing to do than adding a winch.
So you can get an F-250 tremor with a winch from the factory, but not a front locker.
But you could also just go to AEV with this truck, get a different bumper for it with a winch in it.
You can throw 37s or 40s on it if you want to be crazy.
So as a platform to build off of, to me, I think that this is a really ideal truck
because these are fundamentally the features.
If I'm shopping around for it, off-road, a rugged, heavy-duty truck,
having front-hand rear lockers and a sway bar to disconnect,
integrate it into it from the factory makes it, that alone, pretty appealing.
And going almost double of the towing and payload figures on the Hemi Power Wagon makes this,
also to me, much more appealing as a truck.
I see your points.
And also, I want to give Rem a little bit more credit.
Maybe it was a little bit harsh on them.
Where if this was easy to do, then a GM ZR2 would have a front locker in the heavy duty
and also the Ford would have one.
But it's not that easy.
Even remember when the Raptor R came out, they had like a torsion front differential and then they didn't.
When you're putting so much torque and so much power, and this has 1075
on feed of torque, things will break.
Transfer cases could go, lockers can break, axles can break.
So the fact that they validated this truck from the factory and they had to prove it,
they can't just, oh, let's shove an engine in there and let's go.
The fact that they did it was a testament to what they're doing.
Yeah, so I actually really like this truck, even if I'm more or less alone in it.
You're in the minority.
Yeah, I am definitely among everybody.
Which means more Cummins Power wagons for you.
Exactly, which I'm more than happy for because I think that this truck is really awesome.
If you were to give me carte blanche to build a brand new pickup truck of any type,
any size, any price, I would take a Cummins Power wagon just like this,
maybe in an actual color and not silver.
Take a Cummins Power wagon like this, bring it to AEV, get them to prospector it out,
and then you got yourself a rad machine, that'd be a cool truck.
All right, well, let's close this up.
Let's close this puppy.
Yeah, so verdict is still up in the air because like we said,
this truck showed up yesterday, so we haven't had the chance to do a ton of our testing yet.
So far, we've drag raced the two trucks.
No surprise, the Cummins is faster.
It's got a lot more power, even though it is heavier.
So if you want to see by how much, you can check out that video.
Yeah, which is coming out this weekend, basically almost the same time that you're
listening or watching this particular podcast.
We have several channels, so check out OTFL.com.
Really appreciate you guys.
And also, I'm still shopping for a truck.
As you know, we did a story about it last week on our podcast,
and I was going to introduce my truck today, but I can't.
Yeah, Andre did put in some bids on a truck that didn't work out.
It was a under 100,000 mile second gen Cummins with a six speed 24 valve.
Which is cool.
Quad cab, four wheel drive.
Had good paint, good dash.
It was like, so our buddy Brandon, who we used to do lots of videos with,
was at the auction, and he said he couldn't believe how nice this truck was.
But it went for over $33,000, which is by the way the difference between these two trucks.
Yeah, you could buy a really nice, obnoxiously nice second gen for the
difference in price on these two trucks.
So I don't have any news yet.
Yeah, so nothing so far.
But to that point, Andre is trying his best to get into a truck.
But no news there.
In the meantime though, we are going to do a lot more testing with these two.
Actually, right when we wrap up this podcast right now.
We're going off road.
We're taking them straight to a trail.
All right, thanks for joining us.
So we'll see you next week as always.
And yeah, thanks for coming.
you
About this episode
The hosts break down whether the new Cummins Power Wagon is worth the jump from a Hemi-powered Power Wagon. They compare price ($103,000 vs about $67,000), power and torque (430 hp/1,075 lb-ft vs 405 hp/429 lb-ft), and real-world capability like payload and towing. Off-road hardware gets a lot of attention—lockers, sway bar disconnect, articulation, and winch/camera differences—plus practical notes on interior controls, visibility, and fuel economy. They also flag warranty and discount realities, then preview upcoming testing.
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The crew hits the field for an outdoors, hands-on comparison between two massive heavy-duty off-road rigs: the brand-new 2027 Cummins-powered Ram Power Wagon and a traditional gas-powered Hemi Tradesman Power Wagon. With nearly a $36,000 price difference separating the $67,000 work-ready Hemi from the fully loaded $103,000 Cummins, the guys break down where that extra money actually goes. While the Hemi offers maximum budget-friendly trail capability on 17-inch wheels with a factory Warn winch, the new Cummins diesel brings massive upgrades in utility—boosting payload and towing capacity immensely. Between inspecting the solid axles, front and rear selectable lockers, and sway bar disconnects, the team evaluates whether the heavy-duty diesel engine, upgraded load ratings, and tech-heavy interior are worth the steep jump in price.
The guys also cover the latest news sweeping the truck world. They discuss Ram’s controversial new warranty policy targeting short-term TRX buyers and flippers, GMC’s 25th-anniversary Hummer EV Icon edition, and updates on high-performance luxury SUVs like the delayed high-horsepower Infiniti QX80. The team also highlights fresh developments in the compact EV space, including TELLO’s progress toward its affordable electric pickup, before taking a deep dive into the cabin features of both Power Wagons—contrasting analog gauges and cloth seats with 14.5-inch vertical screens and dual wireless chargers.
( http://www.patreon.com/tflcar ) Visit our Patreon page to support the TFL team!
