Gear Heads - 2008 Dodge RAM 3500 Mega Cab 4x4 Diesel test drive 
Val says: From Christine & Scott Gable Initial Impression Scott: "I took one look at the Ram 3500 Heavy Duty badge and thought 'Hmm...am I in for a rough ride.' A peek underneath at the stout suspension pretty much confirmed it. Knowing that we had nothing heavy enough to tow or haul that was gonna tame the beefy leaf springs or even begin to challenge the power of the huge Cummins diesel, I resigned myself to seeing what kind of fuel economy I could nudge out of 'er. Diesel fuel just hit $3.75/gallon here on the East Coast where I live, so why not." Christine: "Everything I've thought about diesel trucks seems to be magnified before my very eyes in this one. Thank goodness for the running boards and handles on the A-pillars to give me a necessary helping hand up and in. Looks like it's been designed with families in mind while meeting its targeted demographic to a T." Look and Feel Chrysler calls it the largest pickup cab ever, setting the standard for "room with a view" in the pickup market. We'd have to agree with that sentiment. Our Mega Cab tester came loaded with leather upholstered seating and trim work, navigation, satellite radio, rear passenger DVD entertainment, and the real sweet bonus: 37 degree tilting rear seat backs for travel weary rear passengers. Traveling in this truck literally feels like being in a room, a very spacious and comfortable room at that. And if ya get a little bleary eyed on the road, fold down the rear seat, throw down an air mattress and take a nice, long, "stretched out in comfort snooze." Aside from the flat out comfort of the cabin, there's nothing dainty or delicate about this truck--it's pretty much a man's truck--from the variable geometry turbocharger to the meaty leaf spring shackle bolts. It's stout and boldly styled. According to Chrysler, these are its stated demographics:
Gender: 86 percent male Age: 50 (median) Household Income: $81,000 But really, unless the intention for this truck is hauling and towing, and we mean plenty of heavy hauling and towing, this beast is pure overkill. And ride comfort on less than smooth secondary roads leaves a bit to be desired. The suspension on the RAM 3500 is built to tote up to 21,000 lbs GCWR (that's 10 1/2 tons folks). The unladen ride is fine on highways, but without substantial load on the burly suspension, the ride gets buckboard rough real quick. Fuelability
The Ram 3500 Mega Cab is meant for work, and it's outfitted as such, with the only available engine--the 6.7-liter Cummins--tuned for absolute flat-out power. After all, it has to muster enough brute low-end grunt to get 21,000 lbs. of dead weight moving on demand--a tall order for any engine. But it doesn't do it the old fashioned diesel way--dumping copious amounts of sulfur laden dino fuel into the combustion chambers and then spewing half of it back out the exhaust stack as black, sooty smoke. This is a new generation clean diesel. It burns nearly sulfur-free ULSD and B5 blends (Chrysler anticipates soon clearing the way for B20 blends) and routes this fuel through a common rail direct injection system that extracts every available BTU of power. Low-end umph comes from a variable geometry turbocharger that pushes torque up to 650 ft. lbs. But it's not done yet. Squeaky clean soot-free exhaust comes courtesy of an NOx trap, an oxidation catalyst, and a diesel particulate filter in the exhaust stream. This BLUETEC treatment system helps the big diesel make all that power while emitting near gasoline level emissions. But must all this weight and power spell poor fuel economy? Under unladen conditions, our tester's 6-speed automatic transmission (with a generous 0.625:1 overdrive) provided just the anecdote for light-on-the-throttle cruising that netted us a very happy 16.5 MPG average (nice for this 7400 pounder.) Although, when we pushed it hard, all 6.7 liters could suck fuel at an astonishing rate. Scott was able to knock it all the way down to 12 MPG easily. All said and done The Dodge Ram 3500 Laramie Mega Cab is a very nice truck, albeit one with a somewhat narrow niche of necessity. Oh yeah, if you need to haul a huge horse trailer or maybe a race car hauler for the weekend warrior in you--and you need to carry the family and lots of cargo too--then this is the truck. Want all the same cabin capacity but don't want to pay the $6100 premium for the the big diesel engine? You can have it in the RAM 2500 Mega Cab with the 5.7-liter gasoline V-8. However, expect to lose about 6000 lbs. of trailer capacity, and probably some fuel mileage too (gasoline engines are not as efficient as diesels). And you'll definitely lose the alt fuelability. The diesel can burn biodiesel, but the gasoline 5.7-liter V-8 is not available as an E85 burning flex-fueler. Is the biodiesel burning diesel engine option worth the price premium? A big fat maybe. This is one where you just have to weigh your individual needs and wants against fuel efficiency payback time and the limitations of your own personal budget. Original post: 2008 Dodge RAM 3500 Mega Cab 4x4 Diesel test drive |
