2010 Dodge Trucks
2010 Dodge Trucks
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
GM Announces Base Prices for 2011 HD Trucks
2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty Pickup Truck - Front View
2010 Dodge Ram 2500 Laramie Crew Cab
The Ram's 7" x 11" trailer-tow mirrors have large, convex glass surfaces and integrated turn signals. Flipping the mirrors into a vertical position improves visibility around wide trailers. The mirrors are standard on Dodge Ram 3500 trucks, and optional on 2500s.
2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty
2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty
Chrysler is firing the first shot in what's certain to be a brutal battle pitting three-quarter and one-ton truck manufacturers against each other: It's introducing the new 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickups at the 2009 Chicago auto show.
The 2010 model year will be a challenging one for several reasons: The U.S. economy is expected to still be sputtering, with new-truck buyers likely sitting on the sidelines for awhile. The price of diesel fuel (the lifeblood of heavy-duty pickups) shows no sign of losing its 20 percent price premium over gas. Most important of all, though, Ford and GM are also expected to launch updated heavy-duty pickups with new diesel powertrains designed to meet stringent 2010 federal emissions standards that go into effect Jan. 1. The regulations will ratchet down NOx levels to the lowest on the planet — more than 90 percent lower than 2006 levels. NOx is a major air pollutant that contributes to smog, asthma, and respiratory and heart diseases. It's a byproduct of high combustion temperatures.
Chrysler has strategically prepared for 2010 over the past two years. In 2007, it introduced for its heavy-duty pickups an enhanced and innovative 350-horsepower, 650-pounds-feet-of-torque, 6.7-liter six-cylinder Cummins diesel, based on the previous 5.9-liter Cummins engine. The new diesel added a segment-exclusive exhaust brake, like over-the-road trucks use. The 6.7-liter motor not only met new 2007 EPA limits on soot emissions, but it reached 2010 NOx emissions requirements three years early.
On the gas-engine front, Chrysler replaced the Ram heavy-duty's legacy Hemi V-8 last year with the updated 383-hp, 400-pounds-feet-of-torque, variable-valve-timing version that debuted in the 2009 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500. That Hemi is also carried over unchanged for 2010.
Good news for rock crawlers and wheelers: The Hemi-powered Power Wagon off-road version of the Ram also continues next year. It's the only Ram HD with a 4.56 rear axle and locking front and rear differentials.
What has changed for 2010 is almost everything above the Ram heavy-duty's carryover frame. The exterior has all-new sheet metal, and the interior is taken directly from the Dodge Ram 1500 half-ton. The front axle and suspension have also been improved.
"This isn't an all-new truck," said Scott Kunselman, Chrysler's vice president for the Jeep and Truck Product Team. "The 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 are the next steps to improve our heavy-duty pickups."
Though they share the aerodynamic styling first seen in the 2009 Ram 1500, the heavy-duty trucks have taller, more-prominent front ends. It's a case of form following their primary function of towing big loads.
"The light-duty and heavy-duty Rams are significantly separated visually for performance and aesthetic reasons, and for better cooling," said Ralph Gilles, Chrysler's vice president of design. "The cooling we've gained for the heavy-duty we didn't have to do for the light-duty, which is why the grille is smaller on the light duty."
The Ram heavy-duty shares its headlamps and fenders with the 1500. The hood is differentiated to make room for the Cummins diesel. The front bumper has very aggressive stamping. It's a single-piece chrome bumper that wraps around the front fenders to give it a modern look and help aerodynamics.
Like last year's heavy-duty Ram, 2010 buyers will have three cab options, but the middle configuration has been changed. A two-door regular cab model remains, while a new four-door Crew Cab, with bigger back doors and more rear passenger space, replaces the previous, smaller four-door Quad Cab. A new 8-foot cargo box option (a 6-foot, 4-inch bed is standard) should make the Crew Cab Ram HD an attractive choice for fifth-wheel towers. "The Crew Cab has replaced the Quad Cab in the lineup," Kunselman said. "It gets an 8-foot box — a key part of the market we weren't participating in."
Though Dodge eliminated the Mega Cab option for its half-ton Ram, it's keeping the Mega Cab heavy-duty model with best-in-class interior space.
The inside features all the high-quality materials and ergonomic and infotainment options the Ram 1500 has, plus it adds a new integrated trailer-brake controller like Ford and GM offer in their HD pickups. The brake controller eliminates the need for an aftermarket kit to control a trailer's electric brakes for improved towing control.
The external rearview mirrors have also been revised to better facilitate towing. They can be pivoted horizontally or vertically depending on trailer size, and they have larger convex mirrors for better visibility. Turn signals are integrated.
According to preliminary towing and hauling figures, Dodge has raised the front gross axle weight rating from 5,200 pounds to 5,500 pounds on diesel 4x4 pickups, and from 4,700 pounds to 5,000 pounds on diesel 4x2 pickups. Gross combined weight ratings have been improved from 23,000 pounds to as much as 25,400 pounds on some 3500 models. Accompanying the increase in GCWR, max towing has also improved.
Friday, April 9, 2010
2010 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Quad Cab
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Some readers think we don't like trucks, but that isn't true. Others are convinced we don't like SUVs, and that isn't true, either. It is a fact that we've owned trucks but never owned an SUV. We've never needed one, though as an aside if we had ever bought an SUV, it would have most likely been a Toyota FJ 40 Land Cruiser, the original two-door Land Cruiser.
Why? Because it was a pure SUV, a pure off-road vehicle with no frills. The U. S. market even had trouble convincing Toyota that some sort of unlocking front wheel hub was a necessity in the U. S. because so many were driven on the streets and highways by lawyers, doctors and dentists.
The Japanese just could not wrap their minds around the idea of driving an off-road vehicle, one meant purely for ranching, construction sites and so on, on the street. Eventually, they put Warn hubs on the front wheels even though they didn't understand us. (We had the same problem with Audi and tilt steering wheels; the seat adjusted so you didn't need a tilt wheel, but the Americans demanded it.)
The major point here is that we do like trucks, like them a lot. They are very functional beasts, as are such things as minivans and station wagons. In all those cases, owning one such vehicle rather locks you in to buying another one when you ear that one out. Suppose you had to move Aunt Margaret's sofa in your truck again, or haul six kids to a soccer game in the minivan?
We like trucks, and we've owned trucks. But we have never actually owned a large truck, that is, anything larger than a minitruck. A Mazda B2000, say, or a Chevrolet S10. The whole idea is to buy as much truck as you actually need, and no more. Four-door trucks are good, particularly smaller four-door trucks like the Chevy Colorado. Haul the family and haul feed for the horses (or the garden).
That doesn't mean we've never driven a large truck, or used one for some period of time, or used one to work in or out of. It just means we've never had a day-to-day need for a big truck, so we didn't buy one. We know, downright un-American, isn't it?
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Two-mode Ram officially dead
Buried deep within the announcement by Fiat regarding the 500 EV coming to the U.S. was the mention of the cancellation of the Dodge Ram two-mode hybrid. We didn't miss it, but just in case you did, here's a recap.
The Ram two-mode hybrid was scheduled for release as a 2011 model. We even have shots of the truck in testing from a year ago. As recently as a few months back, Chrysler insisted that the program was still under way and on track to hit its target release date. Then, just weeks ago, news surfaced temporarily confirming that the hybrid Ram was still on track – in fact a production schedule was even laid out showing an expected production date of November of this year.
Dodge to build Ram PHEV
Dodge Ram PHEV
Chrysler announced this morning that the Dodge would be a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) based on the awesome new Dodge Ram. 140 Ram PHEV’s will be built with the backing of a US Dept. of Energy grant for up to $48 million as part of the $2.4 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act DOE Vehicle Electrification program. Once completed, this fleet of super-efficient Dodge Rams will be used for a three-year demonstration across the United States. There is no clear time frame given for the build project but one of the key points of this project is to “demonstrate how rapidly this type of advanced technology can be brought to market”, leading me to believe that they will be out quickly.
The Dodge Ram PHEV will be powered by the 5.7L Hemi V8, making 390 horsepower and 407lb-ft of torque mated to a two-mode hybrid transmission and a 12KwHr lithium ion battery. Dodge claims that this setup allows you to drive up to 20 miles purely on electric power and during the span of normal daily driving this configuration should yield around 65% better fuel economy than the standard Hemi Ram. As the owner of a Hemi Ram, I have to wonder how well the hefty truck gets along running only on the electric motor – at least with the goal of driving 20 miles without using any gasoline. An increase of 65% to my truck would put me in the range of 38mpg but I think that the key feature is going to be the added cost to the consumer.
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