Ram Launches its 2015 Heavy Duty Lineup

2015 Ram 3500 (Credit: © Chrysler)

The Ram lineup — once known as the Dodge Ram — has long played third fiddle to the Ford F-Series and the Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra twins, but it has always remained competitive. With the release of the 2015 Ram Heavy Duty lineup this week, Ram continues its competitiveness with a series of updates that make the lineup even tougher.

Starting things off is a revised 6.7-liter, Cummins diesel that now produces 385 horsepower and 865 pound-feet of torque in the Ram 3500 with the Aisin six-speed auto transmission. This accounts for a 15-pound-feet increase over last year’s setup. This change helps the Ram 3500 tow an SAE J2807-certified 30,000 pounds, besting the competition be at least 1.5 tons. The Ram 2500 is also a best-in-class towing machine, as it can tug around as much as 17,970 pounds, according to the SAE J2807 testing procedure.

The aforementioned Cummins diesel is also available in two other versions. The base, 6.7-liter Cummins links to a six-speed manual transmission and produces 350 horsepower and 660 pound0feet of torque, while another hooks up to a 68RFE six-speed auto and produces 370 horses and 800 pound-feet of torque.

The 2015 Ram 3500 also becomes the best-in-class in payload rating. This classification comes after Ram pushed the 3500’s payload capacity to 7,390 pounds with the 6.4-liter HEMI engine that produces 410 horsepower and 429 pound-feet of torque. On top of that, the Ram 3500 also earns best-in-class in gross combined weight rating, as it’s rated at 37,900 pounds for 2015.

Rounding out the engine lineup for the 2015 Ram Heavy Duty is the 5.7-liter HEMI, which is the base engine on all single-rear-wheel models. This engine produces 383 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.

This new, ultra-capable lineup of heavy-duty pickups starts rolling into dealerships this week as the first line of heavy-duty truck to adhere to the new SAE J2807 towing standards. To sweeten the pot for buyers, the Ram Heavy Duty lineup comes with a five-year or 100,000-mile powertrain warranty.