Beefy, big and bouncy, the Dodge Ram 3500 has more muscle than most people will ever need.
Including me.
All I required was a craft to transport me from Phoenix to Scottsdale and the muddy parking lots of the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction in January. My vehicle needed only enough load capacity to carry one human being about 20 miles in mostly freeway driving, then slogging through the slippery morass looking for a space to park.
The Ram test truck, a pickup truck with dual rear wheels and weighing more than three tons, was rated to carry a nearly 5,000-pound payload and tow something like a cabin cruiser or a small herd of horses. The trailer capacity is 16,250 pounds, and that’s really strong.
I didn’t have a 2 1/2 ton payload or a big boat to tow. It was dicey enough finding a spot huge enough to park this imposing giant.
But sitting up high in the Ram’s wide cabin, I did have that king-of-the-road thing going. Every time I pulled into the Barrett-Jackson site, I pretended my mighty rig was used to haul in a load of classic cars for sale.
Considering its capabilities, the 3500 dually was a surprisingly refined truck that was easy to drive, once you got used to its size. Freeway driving was a little raw, the turbo-diesel engine setting up a roar and the stiff suspension dancing over expansion joints. Fortunately, rubberized asphalt eliminated some of the jiggling.
This is so much more of a work truck than a daily driver, though I’m sure some people use it as such. Compared with heavy-duty haulers of the past, the Ram 3500 diesel dually performs well as a fairly civilized beast of burden.
