2025 Ram 1500 RHO: A Twin-Turbo I6 Desert Truck to Rival the Raptor
The Hellcat V8-powered Ram TRX died in 2023, leaving a super-truck-sized hole in the automaker's lineup. Everybody knew it wouldn't last long because Ram made it clear: Something else is coming. That "something else" is the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO, a heavily boosted performance pickup that looks an awful lot like the TRX but with a high-strung 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six under the hood.
Getting straight to business, the RHO makes 540 horsepower and 521 lb-ft of torque. No, that's not as much as the 702-hp TRX, but it's still more than a Ford F-150 Raptor on both fronts. While the Ram's engine displacement is smaller than the Blue Oval's 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, it makes up for it with 26 pounds of boost from twin Garrett GT2054 turbos. It has forged internals to keep up with the extra pressure, as well as water-to-air intercooling and a higher-flowing oil pump than you'd find in a standard-output Hurricane I6.
If you're wary of the switch, I understand. I will say, though, that I drove a Ram 1500 Tungsten with this exact same engine and it scoots. Tire chirps are just a boost launch away at every stop light, and in high-speed off-road situations, I'm sure it'll feel snappy still. As an additional plus, the engine hardly makes a sound, so it's already better than the Raptor's V6. (Sorry, it's true.)
I'm not sure how important zero to 60 times are, even for a super truck, but the RHO handles that in 4.6 seconds. Take it to a drag strip and it'll do the quarter-mile in 13.1 seconds at 105 miles per hour. And finally, if you find enough wide-open space to make it happen, the truck will go 118 mph—faster than most goobers should ever go, even in the desert with nothing to run (ram?) into.
Having covered that info, off-roading is about more than engine power. That's just one part of it. What arguably matters most is the suspension, and on that front, the Ram RHO uses adaptive Bilstein Blackhawk e2 shocks—just like the TRX did. These constantly read speed, throttle position, braking torque, steering angle, and more to adjust accordingly with dual valves for independent rebound and compression tweaks. Their reservoirs are remote, too, so there's more room for piston rod travel and suspension articulation. The truck's Ram Active Terrain Management system controls the suspension's settings so it's optimized for on-road or off-road driving depending on the mode you select.
The rest of the hardware is impressive as well. Up front, the Ram RHO's upper and lower control arms are both made of forged aluminum; for reference, the F-150 Raptor uses a cast aluminum lower and a heftier steel upper. You'll find a five-link coil suspension out back with a track bar, plus a Dana 60 and full-float axle shafts. Of course there's a locker back there, and 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler AT tires on 18-inch beadlock-capable wheels definitely help with traction.
All this translates to some certainly super stats. Rear axle travel measures 14 inches, ground clearance is 11.8 inches, and the front track width is 74.4 inches—nearly six inches wider than a normal Ram 1500 4x4. Those numbers may or may not be important to you, but the key takeaway is this: They're all the same as the TRX. See? Not bad.
While the RHO doesn't make as much power as its predecessor, nor can the exhaust sound as good as a supercharged V8, it does most everything the TRX could—and not only that, but it does it for a lot cheaper. TRX pricing climbed to $98,335 by the end of its run, making it a six-figure truck by the time most people drove off the lot. The RHO is $71,990 after destination, which is what the TRX cost when it launched back in 2021. It's also far less expensive than the F-150 Raptor, which starts at $80,325.
You can lament the loss of the Hellcat V8 as long as you want or need, but this is what we have now. I don't think that's a bad thing. Ram seems insistent that the TRX will be back someday, albeit in a different form than before, but even if the RHO is it for a while, I won't complain.
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