2015 Ram 2500 Diesel: First Drive

What is it: 2015 Ram 2500 Tradesman heavy-duty crew cab pickup

Price range: $32,180 – $75,000

Competitors: Chevrolet Silverado 2500 Heavy Duty, Ford F-250 Super Duty, GMC Sierra 2500 Heavy Duty

Alternatives: Freightliners, Peterbilts…

Pros: Optimized for work with an engaging mechanical character and brilliant engine.

Cons: Ride can be brutal when unladen, looks dorky on standard wheels, vinyl upholstery gets sticky in the sun.

Would I buy it with my own money? I don’t need this truck by any stretch of the imagination. But if I bought a 600-acre ranch in Montana tomorrow, this is what I’d want to range over it.

“Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.” – Karl Marx

The Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Tradesman is all about utility. There’s no leather in the interior, there’s no chrome on the bumpers, and the plastic door handles open doors that feel like they were carved out of T-34 tank armor. There isn’t even any carpeting, and the one I drove made me shift the gears for it. After starting the massive 6.7-liter Cummins turbo diesel, it settled into the rattling idle of a Russian trawler out to catch an American submarine. And this one was red, which was likely Karl Marx’s favorite color.

Of course if communism worked as well as this truck, there’d still be a wall down the center of Berlin and the internal contradictions of capitalism would be all anyone talked about while in line at Starbucks. If, that is, Starbucks existed at all.

This is a real truck. It’s agricultural, industrial and gloriously mechanical. It’s not primitive, but it’s not high-tech either. It rocks along in the sweet spot between the industrial revolution and the digital age. Call it a tool, an implement, a work truck or a $48,945 beast of burden because it’s all those things. But it’s not duded up for daily use by timid suburbanites or comfortable commuting by chiropractors who tow a boat twice a year. This is a machine built for tough men and women who go to labor wearing protective headgear, big belt buckles and thick gloves. Think of it as a four-wheel drive callous.

The current generation Ram pickup was introduced as the half-ton Dodge Ram 1500 back in the 2009 model year with the ¾-ton Ram 2500 and one-ton Ram 3500 following in 2010. The whole line was rebranded for some inscrutable reason in 2011 as Ram Trucks with Dodge car dealerships now coincidentally sharing the same showrooms. While that is nearly interesting history, what it means is that this full-sized Ram pickup has been around a while.

And yet the Ram 2500 is still an impressively handsome draught horse at first sight. The mini-big rig styling theme established back with the 1994 Ram has evolved nicely over the years and even with a blacked out grille and trim, it has a presence that GM and Ford still can’t match.

Back in 2014 the 2500 series dumped its rear leaf springs and adopted a rear five-link, coil-spring, solid axle rear suspension similar to that used in the 1500. While the rear coil spring setup is noted for its cushy ride in the 1500, the higher capacity 2500 is still by necessity stiffly sprung. In fact it’s so stiff that, like other trucks of similar capacity, the tail practically launches going over speed bumps when there’s no significant load in the bed. Don’t buy this much truck if you don’t need this much truck.

The front suspension is also a solid axle. And it’s located by three-links and coil springs. Again, not a system designed to provide a limousine ride.

With its crew cab and long eight-foot bed, the Ram I drove stretched out 259.4 inches long over a 168.9-inch wheelbase. That’s 21-feet and 7.4-inches of 4x4 truck standing more than six-feet three-inches tall over its standard 17-inch tires. And those tires are so puny looking they practically beg the owner to toss them aside in favor of some seriously gigantic rubber that could send the truck up to nearly seven feet high before hitting the aftermarket to raise the suspension further skyward.

The standard powerplant for the Ram 2500 is Chrysler’s gas-swilling 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 rated at 383 horsepower and 400 lb.-ft. of peak torque at 4,000 rpm. A slightly larger 6.4-liter Hemi is optional with a rated output of 410 horsepower and 429 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,000 rpm. But the real grunt comes from the line-topping Cummins 6.7-liter turbodiesel six rated at only 350 hp but a gargantuan 660 lb.-ft. of thundering torque at a mere 1,400 rpm when mated to the standard six-speed manual transmission. Not cheap, the Cummins carries a list price of $8,195 on the option sheet.

Go for the optional six-speed automatic and the Cummins’ output swells up to 370 hp with a mind-boggling 800 lb.-ft. of twisting power at 1,600 rpm. The test truck, remember, had the six-speed manual transmission. So from here on out, I’ll stick with it.

Getting into a truck this tall means hauling one’s body up and over the sill. The Ram 2500 simply isn’t for anyone who can’t manage that feat. But once inside, the Tradesman-trim cab itself is comfortable despite the rubber mats on its floor, the vinyl that makes up the substance of its upholstery and lack of elaborate entertainment systems. It’s an interior that looks like it could be cleaned with bucket of water, a brush and a bottle of Lysol. The instrumentation is straightforward, the controls are easy to operate even with gloves on, and then there’s that huge shifter rising up from the floor.

The driver can almost feel the torque traveling across the transmission when he grabs that massive stick shift. First gear is an extreme “granny gear” that only runs out to 14 mph before the driver must head for second. In normal traffic it’s better just to start in second or, in some circumstances, third gear. But first is exceptionally useful when the truck is creeping over rutted or rocky roads or needs to pull a large trailer that’s stuck in mud. And it lets the driver apply torque at low speeds carefully and precisely. Particularly when the two-speed four-wheel drive transfer case is engaged in its low range.

It takes some muscle to operate the clutch and shifter, but the control these ultimately offer makes them particularly attractive to owners who regularly encounter extreme circumstance – lots of mud, broken terrain or truly large loads. Neither Ford nor GM offers a manual transmission option with the turbocharged diesel V-8s used in their ¾-ton pickups.

Meanwhile both fifth and sixth gears are overdrives that allow the Cummins engine to quietly operate at barely more than an idle during highway cruises. That’s even when towing a trailer with my old Toyota Tundra strapped to it. The Ram 2500 is rated to haul up to 17,970 lbs. behind it – close enough to call it nine tons.

By far the most compelling element of the Ram’s character is the Cummins engine. It’s the only straight six currently offered in any new pickup, and it makes a big rig, big boat, big equipment sound that will be intoxicating to many owners. Not only is there a lot of torque available, but it’s delivered in a linear and easily modulated engine. There’s a cult of Cummins owners out there, and any time spent in a truck so equipped makes it easy to understand why.

There’s not much feeling through the steering, the seven-inch video screen for navigation and rear back up camera is too small, and some of the interior materials feel cheaper than they do rugged. And it’s so long that it’s much happier crossing over two parking spaces in the Costco lot than just one. This is not a perfect truck.

Ram will trim out the same basic truck in SLT, Lone Star, Big Horn, Outdoorsman and Laramie duds if the buyer so chooses. But it’s as a Tradesman that the essential mechanical character of the truck shines through. There’s a direct, engaging connection between the driver and every thing the truck is doing. There simply isn’t much insulation between where the driver’s butt ends and the Ram begins.

The other big advantage of the Tradesman is that it’s the most affordable Ram 2500. The test truck started at a $32,180 base price and topped out around $50,000. That seems reasonable in an era of $70,000 luxury trucks – particularly if your truck will be expected to work for its living.

There’s plenty to dispute about Karl Marx’s political philosophy. But, you know, he has a point about utility mattering.