2027 Ram Power Wagon Cummins Tested With a 7,000-Pound Camper – ResultsMotorBiscuitAlex HarringtonThu, September 24, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTCAdd us on GoogleFor decades, buying a Power Wagon meant picking rock-crawling hardware over towing muscle. Ram never offered the high-output Cummins in that trim, so anyone who wanted serious diesel torque had to walk away from the locking differentials and the disconnecting sway bar. That changes with the 2027 Ram 2500 Power Wagon, which finally pairs the off-road package with the 6.7-liter Cummins. Now, a real-world test has hooked one to a nearly 7,000-pound travel trailer to see whether the change bears fruit.The numbers alone explain why this combination has been years in the making. Ram's high-output Cummins produces 430 horsepower and 1,075 pound-feet of torque, routed through an eight-speed TorqueFlite HD automatic. That torque figure edges out both the Duramax in GM's heavy-duty trucks and Ford's Power Stroke, which matters a lot once you're dragging a loaded trailer up a grade in Wyoming instead of just bragging about a spec sheet.The test was carried out by Tim Esterdahl of PickupTruckTalk.com.How It Handled a 7,000-Pound Camper Through Two StatesThe test trailer was a 30-foot Coleman that tips the scales around 5,290 pounds empty, but once water and gear got loaded in, it settled closer to 7,000 pounds. That's a proper mid-size camper, the kind a lot of Power Wagon buyers actually own, not a token weight picked to make a press truck look good. The route ran 239.8 miles through Nebraska and Wyoming, crossing enough elevation change to expose whether the drivetrain could hold up on both the climbs and the descents.AdvertisementAdvertisementOn the way up, the truck reportedly never felt taxed. Acceleration stayed easy, the highway manners stayed composed, and the transmission didn't fall into the gear-hunting pattern that plagues trucks working right at the edge of their capability. There was power in reserve the whole time, which is really the point of buying the diesel in the first place.Downhill is where the exhaust brake did a lot of the heavy lifting, and by most accounts it did it well. Relying on the service brakes to control a seven-thousand-pound trailer on a grade is how you cook a set of pads in one trip, so having the exhaust brake, the gear limiter, and the trailer-brake controller working together to manage speed on descents is the difference between a stressful drive and a boring one. Fuel economy landed at 9.9 mpg over the full 239.8 miles, which is right in line with what you'd expect from a heavy-duty diesel towing near its comfort limit rather than a number to complain about.The Trade-Offs Buyers Have to AcceptNothing about this truck comes free, starting with the winch. The factory winch that's practically synonymous with the Power Wagon name isn't available on Cummins-equipped trucks, because the diesel's cooling and airflow needs, largely driven by the intercooler, eat the space the winch would otherwise occupy. For a truck built around its off-road identity, losing the winch is a real concession.Towing equipment on the test truck included integrated trailer-brake controls, a tow/haul mode, trailer reverse steering assistance, and dedicated tow mirrors, though the mirrors reportedly could stand to extend farther out for a trailer this wide. A 2.4-kW onboard power outlet is a real perk for anyone running camp gear or job-site tools off the truck itself.AdvertisementAdvertisementLess charming was the technology: the Uconnect system froze during the trip and needed a hard reset, and the built-in TomTom navigation was described as sluggish. Ram also had to give up some interior room to fit the diesel, with components reportedly pushing into the front passenger footwell.Off-road capability wasn't sacrificed to get any of this. The Power Wagon keeps its locking differentials, electronically disconnecting sway bar, hill-descent control, and dedicated four-wheel-drive controls regardless of engine choice. The test truck's payload came in around 2,700 pounds, and it carried a sticker price near $103,000, well above the diesel Power Wagon's $88,470 starting point.Tim Kuniskis, head of American brands and SRT Performance at Ram, argues that "Matching the Power Wagon with the Cummins turbo diesel delivers everything our hardcore Ram fans expect: off-road capability with the best diesel in the HD segment."That's the idea behind it, and the test mostly backs it up. If your definition of Power Wagon ownership includes towing a real camper through mountain passes, the Cummins turns a truck that used to be a compromise into one that isn't. You just pay for it in cash, lose the winch, and put up with an infotainment system that occasionally needs to be told to reboot.
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