THE PROS & CONS
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- What’s Best: The garish Power Wagon graphics are gone, replaced by stylish, retro-looking ones.
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- What’s Worst: The price can jump dramatically when you tick off goodies on the option list.
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- What’s Interesting: Some may question the need for a winch on a pickup, but as we discovered, you just never know when it will be needed.
EDMONTON, AL: “Don’t get muddy now,” said the lady with a sly grin as she welcomed us to Total Off Road Experience (TORE) park in rural Alberta.
Located near the town of Stony Plain, less than an hour outside of Edmonton, TORE is a 160-acre playground where “wheelers” from the area gather to test their rugged 4x4s against some of the toughest terrain and conditions one might encounter, some natural and some man-made.
I was there in mid-April with a couple of other automotive journalists and our hosts from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).
We arrived with a matching pair of brand new Flame Red 2017 Ram Power Wagons, which FCA bills as the most capable off-road truck on the market today.
These Ram 2500 SLT Power Wagon 4X4 Crew Cabs come with 6.4-litre Hemi V8 engines that put out 410 hp and 429 lb/ft or torque.
They also have segment leading off-road equipment like a 5,443 kg (12,000 lb) Warn electric winch, five link rear coil spring suspension, electronic disconnecting front sway bar, under-chassis skid plates, tow hooks, electric locking front and rear differentials and Bilstein mono tub shocks.
But even the most capable pickup truck can sometimes find itself overmatched by Mother Nature, as we were soon to find out.
After a greeting from our off-road facility hosts, they explained to us that most hard-core off-roaders underinflate their tires for improved grip.
After all, less air means more tread surface area for the tire on the ground and therefore better traction. It also helps keep the tread pockets from getting packed with mud.
The tires on our vehicles had the recommended 60 to 65 pounds per square inch (psi) of air pressure.
To demonstrate the difference tire inflation makes in off-roading they took the tire pressures on one of the trucks down to about 30 psi and the left the other truck’s tires alone.
Unfortunately for me, I had the honour of driving the Power Wagon with the fully inflated tires as we hit the trail into the ‘back 40’ through the mud and muck, made worse by a late season snowfall and melt the previous day.
We were later to find out that the facility is actually closed for a month at this time of the year as they wait for the ground to dry out a bit.
Our vehicles were clad with stock 33-inch Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires, which proved to be smooth and competent on the drive out to the off-road facility.
These are great, heavy-duty tires that are built to handle rugged terrain and at the same time perform well in high-speed highway driving.
After about half an hour of ‘playing’ in the mud, driving up and over steep berms and generally getting a chance to see how these trucks could perform in the muck, it was evident that our vehicle was slip, sliding around much more than the other one.
While attempting to climb up a man-made obstacle course of strategically placed rocks and boulders on an incline, our vehicle got hung up, spinning its mud-packed wheels and going nowhere.
It was decided to drop the tire pressures down on our truck as well and it worked like a charm. We pulled up and over the rocks with ease.
But as we ventured further along the trail, heading to an axle articulation test course, the first Power Wagon made it through, but I took it too slowly and the truck became mired in muck, knee-deep on the driver’s side.
My fault, not the truck’s as three other passes were made over the same terrain without incident.
The track meandered beside a pond and next to a hillside where snowmelt was filtering down from an apple orchard up above, leaving a river of water running through the deep, muddy ruts.
When a few attempts at pulling the vehicle out with one of the hosts’ pickups resulted in a couple of snapped tow ropes, the Warn winch with its 38-metre-long cable (125 ft) proved its worth and the vehicle was dragged out of the bog.
Further along, the same truck got bogged down again in the mud-filled articulation course, but this time with our facility host behind the wheel. It goes to show that even the experts don’t always get it right!
So now matter how capable the pickup truck, when you have a 3,195 kg (7,044 lb) vehicle, knee-deep muck, stock tires, and not enough speed, things sometimes are going to go south.
But 99.99 per cent of Power Wagon owners are never going to put their vehicles through the EXTREME conditions we did and it was evident from our day in the 4X4 playground just how capable these trucks really are. And if you question the need for the Warn winch, ours was that “odd occasion” when it is needed.
“There truly is nothing else like it out there (on the market),” said Mike Szymkiewicz, senior manager of product strategy and volume planning for FCA, speaking about the Power Wagon.
In fact, the name Power Wagon actually goes back to the Second World War when they were introduced as weapons carriers. A civilian Power Wagon was launched in 1945 as the first mass-produced pickup.
About 45,000 of these were built from 1945-1968 and the vehicle was re-introduced in 2005 as the 2500 Power Wagon.
Helping provide superior off-road capabilities in the Power Wagon are the 363 mm (14.3 in) of ground clearance, 660 mm (26 in) of wheel travel and 762 mm (30 in) of water fording.
New grille and taillight designs complemented by black accents highlight the 2017 model, along with retro-style graphics and tire-tread embossed seats with Power Wagon logo embroidery on the upper bolsters.
New this year, a $4,995 Leather and Luxury options package is offered for buyers who want luxury in their rugged pickup. Starting at $59,195, our tester priced out at $72,650 including the $1,795 destination charge.
It’s a big price, but also a lot of truck that has the ability to go where others fear to tread.
2017 Ram Power Wagon
BODY STYLE: Full-size, two-row heavy duty pickup
ENGINE: 6.4-litre Hemi V8 (410 hp, 429 lb/ft of torque) with a six-speed automatic transmission.
DRIVE METHOD: Front-engine, 4×4 with 2WD, 4WD High and 4WD Low
TOW RATING: 7,090 kg (15,630 lb).
PAYLOAD: 1,497 kg (3,300 lb)
FUEL ECONOMY: NA
PRICE: $59,195, as tested $72,650 including $1,795 destination charge.
WEB SITE: www.ramtruck.ca
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