Ram 2500 Rebel | An Off Roader that Tows?

The Ram 2500 Rebel Heavy Duty. This is a big boy. This truck comes one way. It starts at $68,000. It has a crew cab or a four-door configuration with one bed length, 6.4 feet. This is a very, very large truck. From an interior perspective, this is the truck that you know and love at this point. When Ram first unveiled this generation several years ago, they more or less forced the entire truck industry to move upmarket. They used materials better. There was a more premium space. The touch points felt a little less work truck-esque or there weren't as many excuses for the truck interior anymore. Now that this is an older space, I will tell you it feels more in line with all the other trucks that are now being released, which is far from a bad thing. The controls are well laid out. You still have your ginormous screen, which you can maybe argue is a gimmick, until you look at all the reversing cameras, side cameras, turn signal cameras. They've done their best to give their driver no excuse for hitting something with their enormous vehicle. This is a big, big, big truck, particularly with its Rebel Heavy Duty off-road prowess and its lift kit. But despite that, due to some of the interior technology, it feels a little smaller. You get the digital rear-view mirror, you get the 360 cams, and all of the functions fall right to hand, and you still have all the great storage that you're expecting from a truck this big. We've covered this interior space ad nauseam. Most of this is a carryover from a regular Ram product. The last thing I'm going to talk about is sort of what the Rebel Heavy Duty is supposed to be. From a segment perspective, this is expensive. $68,000 starting as Testa 91, and it's supposed to offer 95% of the off-road capability as the Power Wagon, with some extra capability when it comes to payload and towing capacity. With that, though, I think it's time for us to head in the shop and talk about tech. In the shop with the Ram Rebel HD, or Heavy Duty, this 2500 Series Ram truck is enormous. In fact, it's so big it won't fit on our lift, so this is going to be a rather short shop segment. So what do you need to know? Well, this is still based on the standard Ram 2500 Series truck, which means you have an optional self-leveling rear shock package, but this is a Rebel Series truck, so it takes the suspension package, or most of it, from the Power Wagon and equips it to this thing. So you get the 2-inch lift, the Bilstein dampers, the e-diff in the back, and of course, and standard four-wheel drive with all-terrain tires. Drive train-wise, you get two different options. You get a naturally aspirated V8 that's a 6.4 liter, and it gets the 8-speed automatic, or you get this thing, the Inline-6 Turbo Cummins Diesel. It makes 370 horsepower and 850 foot-pounds of torque in this configuration, and it's mated to an ancient six-speed Aisin gearbox, and the reason I bring that up is most of its competitors have sort of moved on in technology. Everyone else is using, at least domestically, a 10-speed automatic. All of this power is good for a which is just an incredible amount of power. You could basically tear down a building with it. What's the point of this truck? Well, the Ram Rebel 2500 Heavy Duty is meant to blend the ability to tow a small moon with also the ability to go off-road. If that is the capability you're looking for and you want a diesel, this is the trim to buy, at least in the Ram lineup. With that, though, I think it's time for us to take this thing for a quick drive. It's Ram 2500 time. I got a big diesel. I got a lift kit. Yeah. 3,000 RPM redline. Zero to 60 in the mid to high sevens. Look, moment of seriousness, no one's buying a 2500 Ram. Really, it's driving dynamics or how fast it is. They're buying it because they need it to be their work vehicle that also can double duty as something you can haul your family in and use every single day. From a drivetrain perspective, what's this diesel like? Well, you never forget that you're driving a giant inline-six diesel and that you don't have a ton of RPM to work with and there isn't that much top-end horsepower. What you do have is gobs and gobs of torque. It doesn't matter where you are in the RPM band, this thing pulls hard. The six-speed automatic gearbox we talked about in the shop segment is definitely old feeling. If you compare this to something like the new GMC or Chevy offering with the 10-speed Allison, that gearbox is a better job keeping that truck in the power band more of the time. This, while there is torque everywhere, does feel like it's kind of surging around. Dynamic wise, you never forget that you're in a big lifted truck. It at least unloaded like I have it driving right now. You feel every bump and undulation in the road. Is it punishing? No. Does it ride the greatest? No. If you do load these things up, having ridden in a couple 2,500 modern Rams, it does a better job settling down, but I do think the current flock of Ford and GMC 2,500 trucks ride better. How is this off-road? Well, of course, we're in Illinois. We don't have any trails or rocks to run over, but seeing this maintains most of the capability, something like the Power Wagon, and having spent some time in Power Wagons off road, this will be incredibly capable between the electronic lifter, between the electronic rear differential, the lift kit, and of course, the skid plates and the body armor everywhere. This is exactly what you're hoping for in a vehicle like this, and when it comes to actually towing things, between all the electronics and the available torque, this should tow up to its max capacity, 15,000 pounds, relatively easily. The rest of the inputs in this truck though, steering, brakes, throttle calibration, all sort of what you're expecting. It doesn't wander. It isn't this ponderous front end, though you definitely feel like you're driving a small moon with how big it is. It's an easy vehicle to live with, of course, dealing with the compromises of its overall size. Well, that said, it's time to wrap up this short video and head into the final thoughts. Final thoughts on the Ram Rebel Heavy Duty. So what do I think? Well, the interior space, despite being an older cabin by design at this point, is still very refined. It's well packaged. The drivetrains are fairly smooth, and this is a mostly painless vehicle to drive around in, assuming you can live with the compromises of being enormous, body on frame, and all the things you're expecting from a heavy-duty truck. That said, its domestic competition is getting more advanced. Ford and GM have released their latest generations of 2500 series or heavy-duty trucks, and they both have more modern technology and more modern drivetrains, and that's really the sole detractor of this Ram. But if you like the dealer experience, you like the packaging, and of course, if you just love Ram, you're still going to really like this truck. With that said, thanks for I am sorry I have to make this announcement, but after nearly 37 years in this business, my accountant has advised me it is time to make an investment in a Lamborghini. I have had some serious financial issues trying to get my vacation homes pool working, and have since had to do a complete demolition on the hot tub on my property in the Hamptons. Sadly, it means excavating the underwater mural my Corvette Z06 signed by Aaron Link during my last pool party. 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