Kiwis like to tow things. Big things! So NZ4WD mag Editor Ross MacKay sees a very bright future for Ram’s latest 4x4 1500, the Express Crew Cab.

vSometimes ‘things’ are just meant to be. Like the weekend recently, when I was finally able to get behind the wheel of my ‘second’ drift car, a ‘Series 1’ Nissan S14.

Now the poor old S14 – which my son initially rescued from the hands of a serial car abuser only to lose interest and leave it sitting in the MacKay garage for over a year – was very much ‘ready-to-drift.’

However each time  a day at the recently renamed Genesis Massive (formerly Evergreen) Drift Park appeared on the calendar I was either on  deadline on NZ4WD or didn’t have anything suitable to tow it the 220km to and from the ‘Park (at Meremere, south of Auckland) and the (The Republic of) West Auckland where I live.

So, you can – I’m sure – imagine how quickly my mood improved when Rebecca Anderson from Ram importer Ateco emailed enquiring if I wanted to test the latest model in the company’s Ram 4x4 ‘truck’ line, the 1500 Express Crew Cab.

‘Hell yeah!“ I replied. “When might it be available?”

Long story short, Rebecca checked her diary and came up with a Thursday-to-Tuesday ‘window’ which, the nano-second I received her reply I logged on to event wrangler Haydn Storey’s (Double D Missiles) Facebook page to see if my stars were finally aligned…

I let out an involuntary ‘Yes!’ before returning Rebecca’s email because I not only now had a very cool, very ‘now’ vehicle to cruise around my local ‘hood for a week in, I also had another candidate for our tow test feature.

Like your typical turbo-diesel double cab ute that most Kiwis seem to be buying for towing duties right now, a Ram 1500 4x4 – and there are now three and soon to be four different versions on sale here – is based on a robust ladder frame to which is bolted a body, engine, drivetrain, etc.

That – of course – gives anyone contemplating towing anything bigger than a garden trailer a head start, because when it itself, is bolted to each ladder end under the tray the tow bar effectively ‘completes the loop,’ providing an amazingly solid anchor for the bar –and by definition – whatever it is you want to tow – in any RAM 1500’s case up to a maximum of 1000kgs MORE (4500kg) than your typical ‘up to 3.2 litre, five-cylinder TD DC’ utility from Ford, Toyota, Isuzu, Mitsubishi etc.

These utes – as you should have been able to cotton on from what I have been writing over recent months – all do a stellar job of towing my trailer/drift car combo.

What impressed me most when towing with the  5.7l petrol-fuelled V8 engined 1500, however, is how much easier it made the whole process.

An example?

Backing a single axle trailer up my leg-in section driveway is usually a process fraught with drama, hassle and bad language. It’s always been like that too, something I think to do with the way it slopes to the drain side to allow for water run off... and the fact that in a past life I must have royally pissed off the God of trailers...

It’s bad enough in a modern TD DC ute with an auto transmission, let alone an older one with a five-speed manual and particularly notchy gate from first to reverse. Either way, the thing simply refuses to back straight and true, instead wiggling one way, waggling the other and requiring more, ‘stop, straighten up and restart’ manoeuvres than most newbies need at my local refuse station. 

In the big Ram though I barely raised a sweat.

For a start the reversing camera allows you to line the tow ball up perfectly so hitching the trailer up is a one-person/get-out-and-in-again job. And though I didn’t – initially anyway – like the vertically-mounted rotary dial Ram uses for changing direction (i.e. D for forward, R for reverse, etc). I changed my mind fairly promptly once actual trying to navigate the driveway.

I also found the old-skool foot-operated ‘hand’ brake mounted high on the far right hand side of the driver’s footwell a bit of an anachronism, until using it became second nature.

In saying that there’s never any getting away from the sheer size (length, wheelbase, interior dimensions, even the half metre difference between the tray deck and terra firma) of any of the Ram models

I am also aware that $105,000 is a lot of money to pay for a knockabout utility vehicle.

Once you climb on up and settle in behind the wheel though the sheer imposing size definitely works to your advantage in terms of your presence on the road and how much you can see ahead, to each side and directly behind you.

Good luck if you blithely drive into a typical mall or city car parking building. But that would appear to be one of the only downsides of owning a ‘daily driver’ with such a large physical footprint.

As a towing platform for instance, the 4x4 1500 Crew Cab is literally without peer.

Obviously, hauling my lightweight single axle trailer and stripped out S14 drifter hardly had the sweet-natured 5.7l V8 breaking into a sweat. But had I needing it ‘a whole bunch of whoop-ass’ (as an American might say) was always just a prod of the accelerator pedal away.

I had a chuckle at my own expense on my way to the Drift Park as well. Usually I make sure I change gears manually when I’m driving a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission.

The idea here is to stop the trannie ‘defaulting’ to its highest ratios in the interests of economy and hold it in ratios which maximize the torque needed for towing. As if I needed to do that with 5.7L of hemi V8 under the bonnet!

Speaking of which... while the 1500 it is still very much a body-on-ladder-chassis ‘truck’ at heart RAM has worked hard to make the driving experience anything but.

I’d rate the ride – from an all-coil suspension set-up – for instance as SUV plush and handling sure-footed with a nice, direct-ish, feel to the steering.

Again, like its smaller, TD/DC ‘competition the 1500 is effectively a part-time 4x4 which will no doubt spend most of its life on-road being driven from work site to work site or caravan park to caravan park in 2WD. Should you find the NEED for some extra traction of course, full-time 4WD is just the push of a button away.

I used 4WD H once when I had the 1500 – to pull away on wet grass as I was leaving for the day. Having arrived in 2WD H I tried leaving the same way however the soft soil and still slick grass meant immediate wheelspin so it was into 4WD H for takeoff, a facility I can see boat owners finding particularly useful on steep, slimy concrete causeways.

What else?

Well, for a start, the cabin is the largest and one of the best appointed I have EVER had the pleasure of spending an extended amount of time in. YOU could – literally – socially distance yourself (OK I’m exaggerating for effect here) from your front passenger the cab is so wide, and  though I didn’t measure it there is more leg room for all three rear-seat passengers than ANY other utility available here.

Finally, a word or two about the V8 engine which I personally think is a key part of the appeal of a Ram 1500 model.

The 291kW (close to 400hp) engine might still only have the one camshaft and two-valves-per-cylinder but otherwise it is as thoroughly modern as any DOHC/32-valve bent-eight from Europe or Japan.

As  well as coil-over-plug (distributor-less) ignition, it comes standard with two spark plugs per cylinder, a Variable Valve Timing (VVT) system, and a smart engine cylinder close down system (MDS for Multi-Displacement-System) which  can shut off a cylinder in each back under light load to use less fuel.

If that is important to you, of course.