2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Review

This may be the golden age of the full-size pickup. Indeed, it's impossible to buy a bad full-size pickup nowadays. The all-new Ford F-150 and Nissan Titan have made headlines. Toyota has a new Double Cab model, and there are strong entries from Chevrolet and GMC. In spite of all this, the Dodge Ram remains an excellent choice. It may be the best choice, depending on what you want in a truck. Rams are smooth and refined, particularly when compared with the previous generation.

The cabs are comfortable and convenient, among the roomiest in their respective classes. The Quad Cab is handy for hauling friends and family but even the standard cab is roomy. Arguably, the Ram is the best-looking truck on the market. The styling is bold and handsome, more sophisticated than the previous design. The Hemi V8 engine has drawn much attention for its power and efficiency as well as the heritage its name evokes. It is an exceptionally good engine, smooth and very responsive. Adding to its responsiveness is a five-speed automatic.

The popular 4.7-liter V8 delivers responsive performance. It's also smooth and sophisticated, benefiting from a modern overhead-cam design. Full-time four-wheel drive (all-wheel drive) is available with the 4.7-liter for improved stability in slippery conditions. New SRT-10 models, available in both Quad Cab and Regular Cab models for 2005, look like NASCAR Craftsman Trucks and run like race cars, with stunning performance from their Viper V10 engines and high-performance brakes and suspensions. The Guinness Book of World Records called the SRT-10 the fastest production pickup. 

 The Ram has a pleasant ride quality, important on long days. It's much smoother than the previous-generation Ram. Its rigid chassis minimizes road vibration. Dodge uses hydroforming to fashion the frame. Instead of having to weld a bunch of straight pieces together, hydroforming uses ultra-high water pressure to force the metal into shape. This highly rigid frame is a key component to the ride and handling of the Ram. It allowed Dodge engineers to redesign the Ram suspension and tune it precisely, without having to work around a lot of chassis flex. Rack-and-pinion steering sharpens handling, though we've noticed some on-center vagueness. Big 17-inch wheels are standard. The result overall is that the Ram offers responsive handling, a comfortable ride, and a general feeling of tightness.

The Ram is a big truck and on narrow roads it feels like one. It feels big and tall, and its fenders seem to fill small country roads. The ride height of the Ram adds to this sensation. It's sometimes difficult to be sure exactly where your fenders are, so it's not the best vehicle for the timid. In this regard, the Ram is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Toyota Tundra, which feels small and nimble by comparison. The Ram handles reasonably well and powers through or over just about anything, even when the tires aren't always precisely where you intended to place them. Quad Cab adds 20 inches to the wheelbase and long bed adds 20 inches, so a Quad Cab long bed is a long truck, riding on a 160.5-inch wheelbase. It's long on roominess and utility, but not the easiest to turn around. All Rams come standard with big four-wheel disc brakes that are smooth and easy to modulate. Trailer towing capacities range from just 3,050 pounds for a 3.7-liter V6 Quad Cab with 2WD and manual transmission to 9,300 pounds for a 5.7-liter V8 Quad Cab 2WD automatic.

A 4WD Ram with the 4.7-liter and automatic transmission is rated to pull a 7,450-pound trailer with the 3.92 rear axle ratio. The available 20-inch wheels reduce towing capacity by about 1,000 pounds. Payloads range from about 1,200 pounds to 1,750 pounds. A Tow/Haul mode on the automatic transmission provides crisper shifts and reduces gear searching for reduced heat buildup when towing. Four-wheel-drive models ride on a torsion-bar independent front suspension and use a part-time transfer case that can be shifted from two-wheel drive on the fly. Shifting into 4WD High locks the center differential. Low range provides superior traction in extreme conditions. A limited-slip rear differential is available and we recommend it for drivers who intend to go off road. A Protection Group ($90) includes skid plates for the front suspension and transfer case. Rear axles are available in a standard 3.55 ratio or a numerically higher 3.92 ratio, which is better for towing and off-road driving. A full-time four-wheel-drive system and electric transfer case is also available.

Under normal driving conditions, the full-time system delivers 48 percent of the torque to the front wheels and 52 percent to the rear wheels. The system includes a locking transfer case that features four-wheel-drive High and Low modes. Then there's the SRT-10. The Ram SRT-10 is built by Chrysler's Performance Vehicle Operations, and uses the Viper's 500-horsepower V10 engine and six-speed Tremec T56 gearbox. Dodge set out to build the fastest truck on the planet and they outdid themselves. The handling and brakes are stunning, for a 5150-pound pickup truck. At barely half the price ($45,800 vs. $85,000), the SRT-10 is more fun to drive than the Viper because it's slower: The truck does 0-60 in 5.3 seconds against the Viper's 3.9 thanks to the sports car's mere 3380 pounds. The Viper is so fast that you find yourself speeding on the freeway before you get out of third gear. With the SRT-10 you get more chances to hammer it, and use that great gearbox with the smooth Hurst shifter. We put about 500 miles on an SRT-10 regular cab.

The remote Texas two-lane blacktop roads were bumpy and narrow under the truck's massive 22-inch Pirelli Scorpion PZero Asimmetrico tires mounted on beautiful aluminum wheels made in Italy. There were lots of fast sweepers, followed by braking and downshifting hard from fourth gear to second. Even without drive-by-wire, the throttle response makes heel-and-toe downshifting a piece of cake on the drilled aluminum pedals. The huge brakes, with 15-inch rotors and twin-piston calipers in front, took the abuse in stride. Single-lane turns, down in a dip over a cattle guard, and smoking the tires coming out. Yee haw! There's a limited-slip differential, but no electronic traction control.

Controlling traction is not the object of a truck like this. Dodge let a hot-rodder who knows what he's doing design the suspension, and boy does it show. And what can you say about a 505-cubic-inch V10 with 525 pound-feet of torque? It never stops whumpin'. The engine's high compression rocks your head forward when you back off the throttle at higher rpm, so indecisive driving is punished, as it should be. You have to know your line and make good decisions in advance, and not change your mind and suddenly get off the gas.

Without self-discipline behind the wheel, it's easy to drive into corners too fast. PVO engineers spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel tweaking the truck's aerodynamics. The slick rear wing isn't for show, it's necessary; this is a 150-mph truck, after all. Like a racing wing, it adds stability by reducing lift while cutting drag. There's a lot of attention to aerodynamic detail, for example the splitter in the front air dam, using things they learned in NASCAR's Craftsman series for trucks. Dodge says the SRT-10 handles like a sports car, but no, it handles like a NASCAR road racer, only better.