Nothing says that you want to dominate nature quite like an off-road heavy duty pickup. Ram has re-faced their Power Wagon for the 2017 model year and spread some of its off-road tech across its whole HD line to better cater to the big boy mud and rocks crowd out there.
Ram has been making the Power Wagon for a few years now, but the ‘16 model looked so painfully tacky that everyone forgot it existed. The new one critically gets the same face as the smaller 1500 Ram Rebel.
“The 2017 Ram Power Wagon receives all-new exterior and interior design elements to match its aggressive behavior,” Ram stated today in their press release. (The whole thing is helpfully reposted at Autoblog if you want to read it in full.)
That’s good, because the rest of the truck’s off-road capability is going to be shared across the entire HD line from Ram, as Automotive News reports:
“We’ve had customers ask us for an off-road truck in our heavy-duty series, but we’re not going to limit it. We’re going to have it available with every single cab, with every single powertrain, in all the trims and with all the colors,” said Ram brand head Bob Hegbloom.
The chief new off-road tech is a kind of hill descent control, just like you’d get in a Land Rover from the ‘90s. Also getting spread around are better shocks, tires, stability control, and fender flares.
Here’s what the 4x4 Offroad Package HD looks like.
Pretty normal, no?
Ram’s press release, however, notes that not everything about the Power Wagon gets shared across the full HD line. Ram notes that if you want the Power Wagon’s full off-road ability without the looks, only one model will do:
The Power Wagon also is available as a Tradesman Crew Cab 4x4 model. Although this option does not include the same interior and exterior design elements, it does include the same unique off-road equipment, including the winch, lockers, larger tires, electronic disconnecting sway bar, suspension and under-body armor. Monotone paint covers this package. The grille-surround and inserts are from the Tradesman model and are colored Black as are the headlamp filler panels and wheel flares.
So while the Power Wagon’s hill descent control now is available full-line, there is still some off-road stuff that the Power Wagon will keep to itself. Of course there’s the interior and exterior trim, but in terms of tech hardware there is:
- a 12,000-pound winch
- a two-inch lift with new spring rates and control arms
- bars linking the transfer case and fuel tank skidplates
- front and rear locking diffs
- fog lights
- powdercoated bumpers
- and an electronically-disconnecting sway bar up front.
That sway bar can be disengaged so long as the truck is doing 18 miles per hour or less, and it will automatically re-connect once you’re going faster.
The Power Wagon also comes with 17-inch wheels and 33-inch Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires, which is more aggressive than what you can get with the rest of the HD line. Oh, and if you want a Power Wagon, you’re only getting it as a Crew Cab with the 6.4 liter Hemi.
So basically, some of the offroadiness of the Power Wagon is going full-line in what Ram is calling the “4x4 Off-Road Package,” but the Power Wagon remains slightly above the rest in what it can do in the dirt.
And it wants the world to know it, too. That is one big badge.
Photo Credits: Ram
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