2013 Ram HD: The King of Towing at 30,000 Pounds

Thenumbers are out! As the Ram Truck team teased when they debuted the 2013 Ram HD pickup trucks at the State Fair of Texaslast year, the 2013 Ram HD 2500 and 3500 trucks will offer some of the largesttowing and weight ratings in the industry. 

As you mayrecall, the new Ram HDs have a new frame, beefed-up front and rear suspensionson most models, and an upgraded Cummins motor (now with a new Diesel Exhaust Fluid injection system and extra cooling technology) thatis now rated at a class-leading 850 pounds-feet of torque. These are only someof the key changes made to the heavy-duty pickups and chassis cabs that help Ram produce the bigger maximum fifth-wheel towing, payload and gross vehicle weight ratings.

Specifically,Ram says that its HD 3500 has a maximum gross combined weight rating (meaningthe maximum weight the vehicle can tow when combining the weight of the pickup,trailer, personnel, cargo and fluids) at 37,500 pounds. As you may havealready figured out, there will be select models and configurationsrated to tow a 30,000-pound trailer, which is more than 5,000 pounds thanthe previous category leader could tow.

We expect Ram to be releasing a full list of 2500/3500 payload, GAWR, GCWR and specifictowing numbers soon, and when we get them, we'll pass them along as soon aspossible. For now, we can say the 3500 Ram HD maximum fifth-wheel towingnumbers will beat the current max-towing champion, the , which is rated at 18,500 pounds for conventionaltowing and 24,700 pounds for maximum fifth-wheel towing with a personal-use,non-commercial chassis cab pickup truck. It should be noted that the Ford F-350has slightly lower conventional and fifth-wheel towing numbers.

Oddly, dueto what is likely to be issues with the structural design of the current ClassV hitch, the new Ram HD trucks are only rated to carry 17,000 pounds with aconventional hitch (presumably a weight-distributing hitch). That means Fordwill retain that particular crown for the time being. 

Ram also saysthat the maximum towing and GCWR numbers for the HD 2500 models (orthree-quarter-tons) will also rise significantly, with maximumfifth-wheel towing numbers listed at 18,350 pounds and a GCW rating of 25,000pounds. For those with relatively good memories (dating back just 10 to 15 yearsago), these are the types of numbers that we were hoping for from our one-tonpickups. 

We shouldsay here that this new Ram HD 3500 is no Long-Hauler, with its extended range and monsterlength, but clearly there was plenty of learning garnered from that conceptexercise. In fact, there are several unique towing features that were on theLong-Hauler that have made it into production. We'll have more on those at alater date. For now, all we can do is champ on our bit and wait for the firstavailable break in our schedule when we can get all the one-ton trucks togetheragain for another Ultimate Showdown. You can bet this one is high on ourpriority list, and we'll be looking for suggestions on how to best test all ofthese monster pullers to determine the champion. More to come. 

To readthe full press release, .  

To see oneof the 3500 HD rating charts, .

To see oneof the 2500 HD rating charts, .

Morecharts to come.  

HD ClassLeaders

Maxconventional towing — Chevrolet Silverado HD 3500: 18,000 pounds

Maxconventional towing — Ford F-450 Super Duty: 18,500 pounds

Maxconventional towing — 2013 Ram 3500 HD: 17,000 pounds

Maxfifth-wheel towing — Chevrolet Silverado HD 3500: 23,000 pounds

Maxfifth-wheel towing — Ford F-450 Super Duty: 24,500 pounds

Max fifth-wheeltowing — 2013 Ram 3500 HD: 30,000 pounds