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Toy, hauler | 2017 Ram Power Wagon Video Review

When you're bouncing along in a 2017 Ram 2500 Power wagon over the washboard silt roads of the Valley of Fire, just outside of Las Vegas, it's a bit of a shock to realize how comfortable you are. We'd driven a convoy of brand new Ram Power Wagons out from a city improbably emerging from the scrub into a land of red rocks and sand. Inhospitable territory full of thrill-seekers in Jeeps and four-seat ATVs, flinging sand and bouncing their tall signal flags about. The varied terrain, transitioning from hard-packed silt to rocky paths to deep sand at any point, provided the perfect environment to see if the Power Wagon can live up to its billing – check out the video above to see how it handled the gnarly stuff. Back in 1945, the Power Wagon and comfort were not really thought of together. Like the Jeep, these thoroughly mil-spec trucks were heading home from overseas, where they'd served as weapon carriers and utility rigs. The all-business truck was a bit like a heavy-duty Willys Jeep with a bed, and instead of the convertible military cab, Dodge bolted on a pre-war civilian cab. They had more amenities than a tractor (windows! A roof!), but no one would call 'em coddling. The advertising of the day shows them digging ditches, plowing fields, erecting utility poles. You could use the rear power take-off to run a portable sawmill – pure denim and dust work. The brief has clearly evolved a bit – the PTOs disappeared as the truck evolved from a dedicated platform for serious work to more of a heavy-duty trim on Ram's conventional pickups, and then disappeared for a quarter-century until reemerging in 2005. To put it succinctly, the latest 2500 Power Wagon has off-road chops that pass the laugh test, and real working payload and towing capabilities, all in one package. We didn't tow or haul with the Power Wagon on this trip, but we really didn't have to. The Power Wagon is mostly standard 2500 fare: solid axles front and rear, taking power from the familiar truck-spec 6.4-liter Hemi V8. It'll haul up to 1,510 pounds in the bed, and tow up to 10,030 pounds. We know these trucks; they do this kind of work easily and without complaint. What's surprising is how well it does the work without much compromise. As you can see in the video above, the ride's as stiff as on a normal 2500 pickup, maybe a hair stiffer, but plenty tolerable for a long haul on the interstate.

Chrysler recalls AWD 300, Charger, Ram 1500 over ZF transmission

What do the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Ram 1500 all have in common? Yes, they're all Chrysler products, and two of them are based on the same platform. And we're sure you could find more similarities between them all, but the common trait we're looking at here is that, while they all come standard in rear-drive form, they're also available with all-wheel drive. And it's the transmission in those models that's the subject of the latest recall notice issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The output shaft on the eight-speed automatic transmission supplied by ZF to Chrysler for the AWD versions of the 300, Charger and Ram 1500 is apparently prone to fracture. That in the end could leave the vehicle without power and could, according to the NHTSA investigation, increase the chance of a crash. The vehicle could also roll away if even if left in Park without the handbrake applied.
That's why Chrysler is calling in 4,194 examples of those three models from the 2013 model year. Dealers will be responsible for inspecting the transmissions and, where necessary, replace the entire unit. See the full recall notice below for all the details.

2021 Ram 1500 TRX Suspension Deep Dive | Underbelly of the beast

I think we can all agree that we have been waiting for a gonzo full-size truck like the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX for a long time. After all, it has been over a decade since the Ford F-150 Raptor came out, and it was such an immediate hit that I expected its direct competitors to respond much sooner than this. We all knew something was finally brewing in 2016, when the TRX concept was unveiled at the Texas State Fair. I was there, and was among the many who gave the assembled Ram higher-ups an enthusiastic thumbs-up. That’s what they were hoping to see before they greenlit the project. The pace of development being what it is, and with the redesigned, current-generation Ram 1500 a prerequisite that understandably had to come first, itÂ’s no surprise that weÂ’re only seeing it now as a 2021 model. You may be biting your tongue that I overlooked the Tundra TRD Pro or the Chevrolet Silverado Trail Boss, but neither of those comes close to following the formula established by the Raptor: big engine, a much wider stance than the base truck, greatly enhanced suspension travel, huge tires and swollen fenders to cover it all. Only the Raptor and the TRX fit that mold. For now.   Before I got started, I first pointed the TRX up my RTI ramp and measured its Flex Index score. Please excuse the shaded nose; the truck ran farther up than IÂ’d guessed and literally drove out of the picture. But something in my subconscious warned me to keep the garage door open, which was fortuitous because the nose of the Ram ended up inside. The TRX hiked its front wheel 29 and 7/8 inches off the ground before the left rear tire reached the point of lift-off, and that equates to a climb of 87.4 inches up the deck of my ramp. Divide that by the TRXÂ’s wheelbase of 145.1 inches, multiply by 1,000, and you arrive at a Flex Index score of 602 points. It could have been a few points higher, I think, if I could have straightened out the steering a bit better. But the high-grip cheese grater surface of my ramp was firmly dug in and having none of it. This is an extremely good score for a full-size crew cab pickup. LetÂ’s take a closer look at what made that possible.   The track width of the TRXÂ’s double wishbone front-suspension is a full 6 inches broader than a regular Ram 1500, and you are looking at the parts that are responsible. The lower wishbone (yellow arrow), the upper control arm (green) and the steering knuckle (red) conspire to add 3 inches per side to the TRXÂ’s stance.