What Do We Know So Far About the 2025 Ram Heavy-Duty Lineup?
December 27 2024 - support@wikimotive.com
The capable Ram 1500 is a great truck for most drivers, but if you need to tackle some seriously weighty towing and hauling, whether for work or your next big camping adventure, then no light-duty pickup will suffice, and it’s time to start looking at Ram’s lineup of heavy-duty trucks. If you’re considering getting a new Ram 2500 or 3500 in the near future, then you may well be waiting with bated breath for the unveiling of the 2025 model, which is set to bring along some major upgrades that have yet to be fully announced by Stellantis.
As your premier Ram dealer near Shelby, we want to help keep you up to date on all things Ram so you can make an informed decision as a driver. If you’re on the fence about whether to trade in your current ride for a new model now or wait until the 2025 model drops to take the trip over to Gastonia to see us, then you’ve come to the right place. While we may not have all of the details yet, we’re happy to share what we know so far and what we can predict is on the way.
An Updated Exterior
One thing that has been definitively revealed is the exterior styling of the new HD lineup. The grille has a rugged new look that screams “heavy-duty,” so onlookers throughout Shelby will see you coming and know you mean business. The headlights now take up less of the front end’s real estate since they appear to be LED instead of halogen, at least on some trims, allowing them to shine brightly out of a more narrow slit. The lights also feel more like part of the grille, which makes the grille look bigger than it is for an even bolder face. The first reveal of photos by Stellantis shows three different variants of the HD truck, so we know that some trims, like the Rebel, will feature a blacked-out grille, while others have a chrome grille with body-color surround for a more high-end look. There are also different grille patterns to help give each trim its own unique visual language. That means you can make your truck your own and get a version that best fits your individual taste.Stay Cool
The reason that photos of the 2025 Ram HD have been officially released ahead of full details is that Stellantis needs to take the camouflage off of the test models in order to conduct tests on the vehicle’s cooling system. That’s necessary any time you revise a truck’s front end — after all, that’s where the air intake is coming from. Changes to the grille can change how cooling functions, and with a heavy-duty truck that’s going to be tackling tough jobs, you want to be sure that everything is working out properly in the real world. But doing extensive cooling tests could also imply that more changes will be coming for the 2025 model year. For instance, these tests would be especially important if the truck were getting a new powertrain. A new engine would likely offer either improved fuel economy, improved power, or even both at once, so you could drive a trailer for long stretches on US-74 without having to pull over for fuel as often. Even without a new engine, an improved cooling system could improve towing performance since pulling heavy loads puts strain on the engine, which can cause it to heat up and not run as efficiently.
Could a New Hands-Free Driving System Be on the Horizon?
Let’s turn our attention back to that new front end. Look closely, and you’ll see something that is easy for the average person to overlook but has caught the attention of several automotive media outlets: a black rectangle. This rectangle appears to be a radar unit. While it could simply be there to detect surrounding traffic for adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, something that’s already an available feature on the 2024 Ram HD, there’s plenty of speculation floating around that it might mean something even more exciting: hands-free driving. Ram already has a hands-free driving mode available on the Ram 1500, which lets you save your energy and avoid falling into a lull on long stretches of highway, making long road trips up and down I-85 easy as pie. But as of now, it’s not available on heavy-duty trucks. In fact, Ford and Chevy don’t offer their own hands-free technologies on their HD trucks either, so if the rumors are true, it would make the Ram 2500 the first to bring this technology into the HD segment. Given Ram’s history as an innovative brand always ready to push the envelope and give its drivers the latest and greatest, we wouldn’t be surprised if that came to pass.What Can the 2025 Ram 1500 Tell Us?
There’s a lot still shrouded in mystery when it comes to the 2025 Ram HD, but the 2025 Ram 1500 is an open book. Looking at all of the upgrades the light-duty truck received for its latest model year, we can get an idea of what might be coming down the pike for its HD counterpart. New trims on the Ram 1500 included both the rugged off-road RHO and the top-tier luxurious Tungsten. The former is perfect for exploring rural areas of North Carolina, while the latter can help your drives around Shelby truly live up to the name “City of Pleasant Living,” with a cabin that’s chock-full of creature comforts, including heated and ventilated seats with a built-in massage function. The 2024 HD lineup includes both the off-road Rebel and the luxurious Limited, either of which could take inspiration from the new offerings on the 1500 to provide even more enhancements for drivers. There’s also plenty of upgraded tech aboard the new 1500. The 8.4-inch touchscreen that was standard in 2024 has been replaced by a 12-inch version, and a 14.5-inch upgrade is available. Since the 2024 Ram 2500 already has features like 360º surround view and trailer camera angles that are easier to see on a bigger screen, getting similar upgrades in the HD truck would make a significant difference when trying to stay aware of your surroundings in tricky situations. The 2025 Ram 1500 also has an available passenger screen, which allows the person riding shotgun to not only keep themselves entertained while en route but also help with GPS navigation and other functions so the driver can stay focused on the road ahead. Since HD drivers are even more likely to be pulling heavy cargo, which can make driving more difficult, it’s easy to see how this feature could come in handy on a Ram 2500 as well.