First Drive: 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty at AutoFans www Auto Com

First Drive: 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty

The pickup-truck market can be intimidating and a little complicated. Trucks come in hundreds of permutations, with different bed lengths, cab sizes, engine and transmission combinations, 4×4 or 2WD, single rear wheels or dual, plus multiple trim levels, tire sizes, and option packages. The new 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty pickup is much simpler. It’s about heavy loads. It offers all the above choices and more, but in the end, the Ram 3500 and 2500 are built for handling the heaviest loads around.

If need be, Dodge Ram 3500 pickups can be equipped to tow up to 17,600 pounds or haul 5150 pounds in the bed. Even the lighter-duty 2500 has a GVWR of 9600 pounds. These capability ratings represent increases for 2010. But the biggest difference between the new Ram one-ton and the current generation is the way it drives. The new truck rides and handles better, rolls quieter, and has been updated inside to reflect the latest comfort, safety, and convenience features. That includes multi-stage airbags, enhanced ABS braking, and features like remote keyless entry and Bluetooth wireless phone connectivity.

There are five different trim levels — ST, SLT, TRX, Laramie, and Power Wagon; the ultimate off-roader gets its own distinct trim package along with unique off-road capability enhancers. The old Quad Cab has been replaced with a true Crew Cab, so now the Ram has the same cab configurations as the competition, plus the really big Mega Cab, and a Regular Cab as well.We found the new interiors essentially mirror the Ram 1500, with similar amenities. Front seats are of premium quality, with enough seat and side support to keep you comfortable for an entire day of driving. Easily accessible storage bins are everywhere, making us think the Ram would be great for long-haul use. We had some time in the rear seat of the Crew Cab, which is nicely designed with ample legroom, but still rather upright. On the other hand, the Mega Cab rear seats actually recline 37 degrees. Mega Cab rear seats might be a better place to relax than the front passenger seat, although some bed length is traded off to gain cab length.

Operating the new Ram 3500 reminds us of driving a half-ton pickup truck from one or two generations ago. It’s still a little harsh with nothing in the bed, especially the Cummins 3500 on lumpy roads, but this one-ton feels almost like a personal-use half-ton, steers more like a full-size SUV, and is strikingly quiet. This new Ram is an example of how far the science of suspension design and interior soundproofing have advanced in the automotive industry. One-ton pickups once required a strong left leg, a light throttle foot, and a pillow on the front bench. You could sprain your neck rolling over a dime on the roadway, and in the rain, the truck could get sideways just easing out from a stoplight. And yet, we drove on highways and country roads in Texas for two days while it rained four inches, with nothing in the bed, wipers slapping all day long-without even thinking about it. We felt secure, kept up with the cowboys, and even had some fun on the 90-degree turns between cattle pastures. This, in a one-ton “work truck.”

And it’s a truck that puts down enough torque to ripple the roadway. The standard Hemi is rated at 400 pound-feet of torque, the Cummins, at 650. Combine that with gear ratios as low as 4.10:1 and axles strong enough to carry 5000 pounds apiece, and you get a big, strong truck that moves out readily at part throttle.

It’s hard to tax a truck with these kinds of ratings, but people do it all the time. Think of 40-foot trailers; hauling a backhoe to a construction site; plowing wet, heavy snow; or picking up a couple pallets of bricks or stone. Think about a walk-in cab-over camper, with all your gear in it. That’s what this truck is for, and it’s built to handle it all day long.

We spent time driving a Ram 2500 4×4 with single rear wheels, a 3500 4×4 with the 6.7-liter Cummins, and the Ram Power Wagon, the off-road-going heavy duty. Capacity ratings aside, the new Ram has gone from being the least accommodating of the one-ton trucks to being one of the best.

Cummins 4×4
The 6.7-liter Cummins diesel, Dodge’s trump card in the one-ton marketplace, is a medium-duty straight-six, transplanted into a light truck. The Cummins is standard on the 3500. Even with intercooled, turbocharged induction, it is not a revver, making max horsepower at 3000 rpm. And it’s not one of those engines that reacts instantly to throttle input. But what it does not offer in flexibility, it makes up in torque, durability, and fuel economy. It has a life-to-overhaul interval of 350,000 miles, 100,000 miles more than the competition. Oil-change intervals are 7500 miles, it holds 12 quarts of oil, and runs 29 quarts of coolant. If you have never seen a Cummins 6.7 crankshaft, it’s worth a visit to the factory to check it out. Just don’t try to pick it up.

In theory, because it is a six, the 6.7 should get better mileage than the V-8 diesels in Ford and Chevy heavy-duty pickups, but that’s hard to confirm because the EPA does not rate trucks over 8500 GVWR. In previous tests with the 6.7 Cummins, we averaged between 18 and 20 mpg on the highway. And, unlike the yet-to-be-released 2010-compliant Ford and Chevy diesels, Cummins has been able to meet stringent 2010 diesel emissions requirements without the use of urea injection. The Cummins can be had with either a six-speed automatic or a six-speed, granny-low manual transmission.

We drove a 3500 4×4 with the 6.7, both on back roads and on the highway. Even with the Cummins, the interior was quiet enough to make us forgot we had a diesel under the hood until we looked at the tach. Mated to the six-speed automatic, we saw 1750 rpm at 70 mph. In the unit we were driving, with hard-as-a-rock E-rated tires filled to max pressure, suspension tuning felt just slightly firmer than that of a Ford Super Duty. The front suspension uses coil springs, which are highly tunable, matched to appropriate leaf spring packages in the back.

There were only a few hundred miles on the odometer, and the 68RFE six-speed automatic had adopted a hard-shift mode, moving from gear to gear with a firm thump. We were told that the transmission is adaptive, “learning” to shift according to driver preference. And with journalists taking turns testing flat-out acceleration, the transmission had taken the hint. Over time, with gentle driving, the shifting logic would likely become more comfort-oriented.

[source:MotorTrend]

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First Drive: 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 6:14 am and is filed under Dodge, Auto Review, Car Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.