RAM 1500 review

The 1500 upholds the traditional full-sized truck style of ride: tall, commanding and secure. As such, it retains some of the inherent problems of visibility and full situational awareness of what’s around the vehicle. Sensors and a backup camera are standard but the 360-degree surround view remains an option, oddly enough for something of this size.

On the move, though, the Ram is comfortable and competent on roads, making long hauls easy, regardless of your choice of engine. This is thanks to a coil spring setup found across most models, with an adjustable air suspension available for the pricer versions.

The latter also allows the ride height to be easily adjusted for better clearance off-road. Naturally, the RHO has performance shock absorbers to support all the dune-jumping one might feel encouraged to do while behind its wheel.

Which engine is the best?

Depends on what you’re looking for. The incoming 5.7-liter Hemi is going to whip up 395hp and 410lb ft of torque. Sure, it’s more than the 305hp from the low-end 3.6-liter V6, but its bluster isn’t enough to surpass the 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six engines already available, which produced either 420hp or 540hp for the high-output version.

The twin-turbo engines also allow up to 11,550lbs of towing capacity while its payload averages around 2,000lbs across the board.

How’s the RHO compared to the old TRX?

The short version is the RHO retains the capability but loses much of the attitude, and that’ll be up to you to determine if it’s for better or worse. For some, the whole point of the TRX was having a 702hp V8 with a truck attached while others may feel the over-the-top capabilities of the RHO does all the talking without the need to shout as much.

You’d be right in guessing the RHO is more fuel efficient, but the needle is just moved from ‘terrible’ to ‘less terrible’, as in 12mpg combined for the TRX versus the 15mpg for the RHO.