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Traveling in a single cab pickup truck? With.. no comforts? A 2015 model year truck with crank windows? No hotspot? No remote start? Climate is controlled by.... knobs?! 😱
All this and more is true of the Ram 1500 4wd I absconded with five years ago from a USFS fleet order. I told sports car enthusiast friends I got a front-mid engine (the block is 100% behind the front axle center line... counts!!) 2-door with a V8 powering all four wheels and they got pretty excited for me but for some reason their excitement dropped to zero when I mentioned it also is a truck.
Whatever man I'd like to see them haul a quarter ton of yard waste in their sports cars 🤣
This thing really isn't a head turner which doesn't bother me at all, it's been a fine travel companion that's brought us all over the backroads of Utah, Arizona and Nevada as well as a variety of trips into and across every state West of the Missouri River.
Totally decent workhorse too.
I have a habit of packing a lot of detail into vehicles when I make accommodations to my use and lifestyle. Not really into the flashy cosmetic faff and I prefer reliability over horsepower and hubris, but you'll find the full complement of skidplates, recovery hooks and some careful suspension reworks that make it drive more like a GT car than a truck - that part makes it an absolute joy to drive and I wish I had more excuses to do just that.
Since the chassis, powertrain and suspension are all identical minus 20" and 1000-1500lbs from the various long wheelbase configurations, all those parts are built to handle 20% more truck and that makes them all overbuilt and overpowered. I don't mind.
For a while I had an ARE brand topper on the bed, it was a great place to sleep and of course protect cargo from stoplight bandits, weather, etc.. but all too often I found myself needing to use the truck in its capacity as a "Pick-Up" vehicle and it's not a lot of fun lifting the shell off and on.
Years of beating up the very low front bumper also led to the decision I needed something high clearance up there; ICI in Glendale AZ had one of the lightest, highest clearance and least.. uhh.. "grumpy"/dumb looking bumpers I could find so I picked one up from them and installed it - that's been a really nice addition so far as it provides a good mounting location for my aux driving lamps and it no longer plows into the ground when I'm on a difficult dirt road.
Sorry it's not a great vanity shot, I'm not much into the magazine photography sort of stuff.
A few details I rather like on this vehicle in addition to what's mentioned above:
By starting with a base model vehicle there was no integrated infotainment/vehicle control radio - that meant I could easily put a more modern aftermarket radio in and not invalidate any features of the vehicle.
Integrated trailer brake controller is very nice and remembers different trailers (or can be selected in menu in the center gauge cluster).
Traction control and rear limited slip work seamlessly together and make it nearly impossible to stop this vehicle if even one tire is on the ground.
The base model also includes a single side exit exhaust which is inaudible 90% of the time, doesn't reflect & drone off trailers or melt hitch mounted bikes like rear exit pipes can and doesn't get hung-up on anything offroad.
Continental TerrainContact tires are very quiet and responsive on the highway, grip well on anything short of slick mud and.. well I'm a repeat buyer this is the third set of TerrainContact tires I've bought so that really says it all.
I've installed a Garmin NuviCam on top of the dash which provides offline navigation, forward facing dashcam, wireless reversing camera and traffic data. That's been an excellent companion for the past 5 years and shows no signs of getting old.
I expect I'll have this vehicle a good long time, it's paid for and it suits my needs. Fuel might become pricier in the future but the absence of a car payment buys a lot of gas and it's ready to drink biofuel so when the country finally comes around to that, all the better.
Sometimes less really is more. You’ve definitely got a gem of a vehicle there.
This weekend we stuck around home for the most part but I found myself with a little daylight free time this afternoon so I took the opportunity to wash my truck. Some people take the attitude of "my truck gets washed when it rains" - well not me! 🤣
In addition to just looking good, routine cleaning gives me good opportunities to inspect the truck for minor problems so I can catch them before they turn into bigger ones. Part of the front bumper was slightly loose, probably would have fallen off at some point in the future if I didn't notice it. Discovered it while I was scrubbing - score! So I was able to get in there and properly re-tighten it, and check all the other hardware while I was at it.
I have two East coast obligations in October - one in New York State and one in Orlando. I could fly to them, but driving is a lot more fun... I'm leaning toward making it a lap of the lower 48 from Washington to Maine, to Florida to California and back to WA. Why not? It's about 8500 miles. Both of my vehicles are up to the task easily, looks like it would be around $300 difference in fuel cost depending which I take. I'm leaning toward taking the Ram did I mention how much fun this thing is to drive? 😀
@shovel do it, take the Ram. That's a good lookin' truck and that front bumper looks pretty unique. $300 difference seems worth it especially if you got the time to take and enjoy the ride.
Take the RAM, Take the RAM! Great opportunity to see a few things along the way. And, when you get there, it's nice to just have your own vehicle rather than renting. Keep us in the loop and share some pix along the way.
Well I did a thing, time will tell if it was a good thing but for now it is definitely a thing.
Well I did a thing, time will tell if it was a good thing but for now it is definitely a thing.
Looks like a good thing to me! 👍
The soft topper will hopefully take care of the need to sometimes use the truck as a truck (to haul big stuff) and sometimes use it as a camping tent. Since it's a single cab and the bed is 6.5' it's just long enough for us to comfortably stretch out with the tailgate closed, not like the shorter 5' beds that are often found on 4 door pickups. It's definitely not very well ventilated in there, I had an ARE fiberglass topper before with screened side windows and a sliding front window. It was usually comfortable to sleep inside but a bit stuffy when we tried sleeping in completely windless, humid summer Midwest weather. This canvas topper is a lot less ventilated.. I think a screen rear window is available and of course the sides can be rolled up but then it's not going to protect us from rain or insects.
No such thing as a perfect solution! 🙂
Last weekend I drove up to the top of Calispell peak, the extreme top was just barely out of reach due to snow across the road, even dirt bike riders parked and walked the last 400 feet. There was an improvised go-around some people had clearly made to drive all the way to the top and it looked pretty safe relative to my experience driving on rough terrain but I saw no point in taking even the slightest risk so I parked by the bikes and took a hike.
What a cool pic! (that one that shows the saddle with the loop. What is the peak elevation?
Elevation at the peak is ~6850 above sea level vs about 2000ft at my house an hour south. There's a rough way and a less rough way to get up there, I took the less rough way and I'm glad I did. The truck has ample traction and clearance for the rough way but it gets narrow in a few places, maybe too narrow for a full size pickup and not a great idea to take chances without a buddy support network locally either.