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AEV Ram Prospector First Drive

Honestly, the trails that rise above Southern California's Rowher Flats aren't much of a challenge. You can still get yourself hurt if you do something stupid, but the trails are mostly hard-packed dirt with some rocks strewn about. No boulder crawling or river forging here. It's a place that's almost beneath the mighty abilities of the AEV Prospector Ram trucks I'm here to drive. American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has long been in the business of building seriously capable Jeep Wranglers. Wranglers built for crossing Australia or crawling across the Moab. Wranglers converted into pickups and Wranglers done up in fancy Filson duds. They all have the kind of rugged good looks that project positive sunshine competence vibes about the people who drive one. That's no matter how big a dork the doofus behind the wheel actually is. And now AEV has moved on to modifying and producing parts and complete packages for Ram pickups. Because, why not? Actually AEV has been twisting on Rams since at least 2013 when it produced a Ram concept truck for that year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas. And what happened in Vegas hasn't stayed in Vegas. Sitting on the dust at one of the Rowher Flats assembly areas, AEV's two 2015 Ram "Prospectors" look as if they're making the horizon itself cower. It's not like we're going to be scuba diving today, but the snorkels that snake up each truck's right A-pillar are enough to make even the most jaded off-roader slobber in naked desire. These things don't just look great, they look epic – if Homer were around he'd put aside his Iliad to write up this drive. Reaching back into Dodge truck history – when Dodge trucks were Dodges – AEV has adopted the Prospector name for its modified Rams. Back in the late 1970s and through the 1980s Prospector had been used on various Dodge trim and equipment packages fitted to pickups, vans, and the Ramcharger large SUV. Yes, there were even Prospector packages for the Mitsubishi-made D50 small pickup and the Rampage pickup based on the front-drive Omni. The shovel and pick Prospector logo on the AEV vehicles comes straight from those old Dodges. The gray Ram 2500 crew cab is riding on 37-inch tall BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/As surrounding AEV's 17-inch Salta HD wheels and is powered by Ram's latest 6.4-liter Hemi V8. Rated at 410-horsepower by the factory, the gasoline-burning 6.4 Hemi is almost a throwback to the days before every three-quarter-ton and one-ton pickup owner became obsessed with turbodiesels.

Ram readying radical two-way split tailgate?

Ram may be preparing a new sort of tailgate that could rethink the way we access the bed of the company's pickup trucks. Rather than the typical fold-down tailgate that we know so well, patent drawings show a tailgate that combines the functionality of a traditional fold-down design with a 50/50 split that can, individually, be opened like a barn-door design or dropped flat like a standard tailgate.
Now, Ram is far from the first to toy around with something like this. The most obvious example is the Honda Ridgeline, which features a single-piece tailgate that is double-hinged so that it can open traditionally or be swung out to the side. The big news here is the split and the fact that each half can be used independently of the other. Unlike the Honda, the individual halves would be operated via touchpads.
The implications of this new design aren't entirely clear right now. It seems possible that the rendering could just be for a concept vehicle, but production is certainly possible as well - Ram has shown a real willingness to innovate in the pickup segment as of late, with features like coil-spring rear suspensions, light-duty diesels and the Ram Box bedside storage system.

Ram recalling 131,000 heavy duty trucks over fire hazard

For a little over a year, Ram has been investigating an issue with a number of heavy duty trucks from the 2021 model year that have experienced engine bay fires. For some reason, even when the engine is off, the solid-state intake heater relay in Ram trucks fitted with the 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel can suffer a short and catch fire. In March of this year, the company planned to recall about 20,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada when it thought the problem was limited to trucks with unprotected relays. In May, Ram discovered the issue occurring even in trucks with protected relays. Now Ram is preparing to recall 131,177 trucks from the 2021 and 2022 model years. The models in question are:  2021-2022 Ram 2500 (DJ) pickups built between August 3, 2020 and October 8, 2021 (67,597 units) 2021-2022 Ram 3500 (D2) pickups built between August 5, 2020 and October 8, 2021 (39,324 units) 2021-2022 Ram 3500 Chassis Cabs (DD) built between August 12, 2020 and October 7, 2021 (7,317 units) 2021-2022 Ram 4500/5500 (DP) Chassis Cabs built between November 13, 2020 and October 8, 2021 (16,939 units) Ram says it is aware of about 10 engine bay fires, but no accidents nor injuries due to the fires. The bigger issue for now is that Fiat Chrysler engineers working with the component supplier still haven't been able to find a root cause for the fires. Until they can nail down a cause, Ram recommends parking affected models outside, away from structures and other vehicles.   The pickup maker expects to begin mailing letters to owners on December 3, the same day it informs dealers of the fix for the issue. Owners with questions can call the Stellantis customer service line at 1-800-853-1403, the automaker's internal code for the recall being Y76. Or they can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153). Or go to www.nhtsa.gov. The NHTSA campaign number is 21V798 Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.