Hi folks and welcome into truck King today is exciting because we finally have a new heavyduty pickup truck from Ram. This is the 2025 Ram HD and a lot has changed. So let me tell you all about it, the very first change you’re going to notice on this HD is just the way it looks. It has an allnew face for 2025, with those split quad LED headlights and there’s four different grills. You can get on your HD, depending on which trim level you get now.
It’S certainly a striking design in the front end. I think it’s still too early to call it good or bad, but you know what at this point, let me throw it out to you guys, drop in the comments right now and just let me know what you think of this revised styling here on the heavy Duty Ram: now we need to talk about the heart of the Beast, so the base engine here is still the 6.4 L V8. It’S making 405 horsepower 429 lb feet of torque sent through an 8-speed Auto, but that’s not exciting. What is exciting is this: the updated 6.
L cumins diesel. Now you can’t call this all new, because it’s still a 67, but it is heavily revised from the engine. It replaces Now power output numbers, we’re talking about 430 horsepower and 1,075 lb feet of torque, and that is also now sent through an 8speed automatic and those numbers I just mentioned. They are across the board from your base Tradesman right up to your top end, limited you’re, going to be getting those power numbers, so they’ve gone away from sort of the two power number structure: there’s no lowend number and high-end, just those numbers, I said so. Every Ram HD with the cumins will have 1,075 pound feet of torque, which is pretty huge, and it’s a particularly big deal for 2500 customers, because previously you couldn’t get the high output Comins with the 2500, and now that’s all you can get with that truck.
So, yes, we’ve really moved forward in terms of how much much power this thing is delivering across the range and then in terms of specific changes. There’S things like a new cast, aluminum manifold. That’S been brought onto this truck you’re, getting a new fuel pump and this is a big deal, because the Bosch cp4 had a lot of issues. In fact, there was a big recall just about that fuel pump, so they’ve moved on from that and they’ve moved to a new fuel pump. The Bosch cp8, which of course they claim is going to be much more reliable than the the pump it replaces.
So that is good news. We also have things like new helical cut gears which are going to help with overall noise reduction. So they say this thing should be quieter than it was before, while still keeping that classic cumins sound. So yes, a heavily revised engine here and even though it’s not a brand new diesel, it’s nice to see that the RAM and cumins relationship is still alive and well now, you’ve heard about what’s going on under the hood. Let’S just walk around this truck.
So this one we’re looking at right here is the laramy sport. When you go for the sport package, you’re getting all the body color accents now, this is actually a new red and as of filming, this video RAM has not named it yet so uh it’ll be interesting to see what they land on, but I do like it Kind of a deeper red, so you kind of notice the styling up front is different from that a pillar back things feel pretty similar to the outgoing Ram heavyduty pickup trucks. Now we’re out here at the back end same thing: no Mass M changes to the bed or anything like that. Of course, the tailgate locked when I want it to go down right uh. One of the big changes back here, though, is there is a power panel.
In the back of these HDs now that offers up to 2.4 kilow of power, so a real, legitimate amount of power out of the back end of a ram and that’s a first in the heavy duty segment. Ford has Pro Power on board, but that’s limited to the F-150. So now, if you want some good electrical power out of your heavy duty, you want to come over here to RAM and now, let’s talk to Towing for 2025, the max Towing numbers on this heavy duty have actually come down just a little bit, not a huge Difference but yes, they are a little bit lower than they were before. So if you’re talking about the 2500 with the gas engine Max Towing is 17,750 lb 2500 with the diesel engine tops out at 20,000 lb.
Then, if you bump up to the 3500 with the gas engine, you get a Max of 18,100 50 lb and then the max toe 3500 with the diesel tops out at 36,6, 110 lbs. Now, one of the reasons why that those towing numbers have come down is because Ram moved away from the 410 rearend axle ratio and you now get exclusively a 342 rear end when you get the cumins diesel. The reason for that change is because of the 8-speed introducing those new gears allowed Ram to make first gear so low that they could get rid of that 410 and essentially, what you can take away from this is better fuel economy, because you’re running a 342. Now, when you’re at highway speeds, the RPM of the truck is going to be lower so over long distances, this should result in better fuel economy and RAM, says you’re not going to notice a difference in the power thanks to that lower first gear. In fact, Ram also talked about how how, when you’re riding around unlaid and not towing anything, the truck will almost always start in second gear.
Cuz first is just so low and the truck will realize that, and just start you off in second. So that is an interesting story. So, yes, the towing number has come down a little bit, but thanks to the regearing, you should be getting better fuel economy on those long road trips. Now I also need to talk about payload, because it’s also slightly down on the 2500, with the gas engine Max payload is 4 4,320 lb 2500 diesel maxes out at 2,750 lb bump up to the 3500, with the gas and you’re getting 7,590 lb, while the 3500, With the diesel maxes out at 6,050, lbs of payload and the reason for the slightly smaller payload numbers, especially on the diesel side, is because the cumins and new transmission combo is heavier than it was before, so that that’s taking away some of that payload from the Trucks, but that’s not the whole story here with ram. Another thing that Ram has always done is limited their 2500 gvws to 10,000.
Now that is mostly still the case. There is one configuration that you can push up to 10,150, and this is the first time that Ram has brok in that 10,000lb threshold for a 2500 series truck – and we talked a lot about this when Dad owned his Ram 2500 and was Towing heavy with it. Because those payload numbers are really limited because of that 10,000lb GVWR. So why do they do that? Well, it has everything to do with government regulations once you’re over 10,000 lbs the classification of the truck changes, and that can change many different things for owners.
So Ram has still stuck with that 10,000 lbs and that’s why we’re ending up with such a low payload, especially for the diesel power 2500 trucks. So, yes, the numbers are what they are and you can’t deny what’s on the sticker, but they are sort of artificially made lower because Ram wants to stick at that 10,000 GVWR and that’s something that both Ford and General Motors have long left in the dust with Their 2500 series trucks. So that’s one interesting difference here on this new Ram: let’s take a closer look at the interior now and if you have been in a modern 2025 Ram 1500 well, this is going to feel familiar, save for a couple of little things Ram. Essentially, fully redesigned that Halon interior and then they just brought it up here to the heavy duty, that’s common around the industry and there’s nothing wrong with that, because this is a really nice looking interior and you know what screens is probably the headline. We now have a 14 1/2 in touchcreen in the center stack just over 12in driver display screen, and then this heavy duty now gets the passenger display screen just over 10 in over there.
There, specifically for your passenger, that is a first in this segment. Yeah stop dinging at me truck, so, yes, lots of new screens here in the ram HD now. The next feature I want to talk about is probably a bigger deal for truck owners, and that is the ram. Heavy duty is now 100 % column shift. They’Ve, moved away from the rotary dial and gone all column shift across the lineup.
Doesn’T matter if you get the base truck or the most expensive version, they’re all going to be column shift and that’s something Ram said they heard from customers. People didn’t like the dial. They want that column shifter, because that also frees up space over here for more controls and space down here for more storage. So, yes, pretty neat that they went all column shift outside of that again, more 1500 features like dual wireless chargers for your cell phone. This thing is definitely packed with all the modern technology, and then you know what why don’t we go.
Take a look at a Tradesman, so you can see a more basic interior as well. Now we’re here in the base end truck and you can see what it looks like like again, very reminiscent of what you’re going to find in the 1500 Tradesman. We still get things like a proper bench seat up here in the front, so you don’t get that huge storage bin down here, just a little storage right there we get a just over 8 in touchcreen, but what I do like is it’s running the same infotainment As the big screen, so even though we got the small screen, you’re not missing out on the functionality or the technology of that, so we also get. You know more hard controls down here with your HVAC knobs you’re, getting five different, auxiliary, um plugins down here, that you can control using these buttons and then this truck we’re sitting in is actually a chassis cab. So there’s one extra button over here on the right: that is, the PTO.
That’S the power takeoff off the transmission and RAM even said: that’s been updated for 2025. The PTO is now on both sides of the transmission, so you can mount things driver’s side or passenger side, and that wasn’t the case before they’re trying to make it a little bit easier for upfitters to come along and then put on. You know whatever they need to with that PTO and once again column shift in front of me. I get the small display screen rather than the massive screen, and some real gauges fact of the matter is. This is a base truck, but you’re still getting screens and some really nice materials in here so yeah these days base trucks just don’t feel that base anymore.
Now we have to talk about pricing folks, so here in the United States, this updated Ram. Heavy duty is going to start just above $ 45,000 and then on the top end, you’re talking about a limited mega cab with the diesel, and actually the diesel comes standard in that trim, you’re looking at $ 91,000 now for my Canadians, yes, the prices do go Up in Canada, this Ram HD has a base MSRP of just over $ 65,000, while that same topend truck a limited Longhorn mega cab with the diesel is going to top out around $ 112,000. So, like usual usual, it is more expensive in Canada, but yes, that base price at 45k in the United States. That feels pretty reasonable for a capable heavy duty truck and just as a fun aside, Ram brought out this truck today for us to check out. This is Vin 001 on cumins powered Dodge Ram.
So yes, this truck was the very first Dodge Ram to feature a Cummins Diesel, and what I think is cool is that this Engine, Back In 1989, made 400 lb feet of torque and was considered a massive number and look at where we are today. Just goes to show you how much things have changed, but just take a closer look. This is a beautiful truck. Well, folks, we are coming to the end of this one now, looking at this 2025 Ram, heavy duty definitely feels like Evolution, not Revolution, not massively changed, but they have really addressed all of those things that customers were looking for things like those high output numbers in A 2500 those lower rear gears to give you better fuel economy and then even simple things like moving to all column shift. These are all things that Ram heard in the marketplace from customers.
So with this 2025 they managed to address them all and they changed up. The way it looked too, which is important so now, basically I got to throw it back at you guys. What do you think? Let me and let Ram know down in the comments all your thoughts on this updated. 2025 heavy duty truck, and you know we will be driving it real soon and we’ll be glad to bring you that video and our thoughts once we can get behind the wheel.
So yeah, this is the end of this one now drop in the comments. Leave me that comment while you’re down there don’t forget to hit like hit subscribe, hit, join to become a member and then come right back here to truck kinging to see what we’re testing next see. You