The 2025 Ram HD lineup makes towing easy— even without experience

LAUGHLIN, Nevada—The best way to gauge a pickup’s capabilities is by testing them. Ram recently treated members of the media to a ride-and-drive event here, testing its new HD lineup of the Ram 2500 and 3500 equipped with a new powertrain: the 6.7L Cummins Turbo Diesel paired with a TorqueFlite HD 8-speed transmission.

The event allowed the media to drive a Ram 2500 and 3500 hauling another pickup, an excavator, a fifth-wheel camper, and a tractor up the Davis Dam grade, testing the HD lineup’s ability according to the SAE J2807 industry standards.

New with the 2025 Ram HD line

Building a product suited for commercial applications means building a product with commercial-grade capabilities. These products were designed for that “5% customer,” Matt Huber, SVP of Ram brand product, explained. These customers “need the capability to get the job done,” and that’s where the new powertrain comes in. The 6.7L high-output turbo diesel engine is capable of 430 hp and 1,075 lb.-ft. of torque. That torque rating—a best-in-class rating for base diesel torque, according to the OEM—is standard across the lineup. And that was designed with intention.

“Of our heavy-duty pickup trucks we sell, 70% of them are the 2500 class,” Huber said. “And of those, 80% of people get diesel, and they’ve been asking for that 1,075 lb.-ft. option. ... So, this year, we not only gave them the option, but we made it standard.”

Also back for 2025 across the whole lineup, including chassis cabs, is a column shifter.

“We got feedback from customers that they wanted a consistent shifter throughout the lineup so that when they buy fleets of trucks, they’re all the same,” Huber said. “But then also, when you have someone doing a vocation like driving a snowplow truck, and they’re driving it for up to 15 hours a day, they want a shifter that can have muscle memory so they can shift from Drive to Reverse back to Drive when they’re going back and forth plowing snow.”

The trucks also feature technology and comfort updates that are carried over from the brand’s light-duty lineup.

Hauling up the Davis Dam grade

Choosing to host a towing event at the Davis Dam grade helped determine a benchmark for what to expect from the Ram HD. The 11-mile stretch of road is the exact testing ground that determines the industry standard for tow ratings.

More specifically, the Davis Dam grade determines “tow-vehicle gross combination weight rating and trailer weight rating” for passenger cars and pickup trucks up to 14,000 lbs. GVWR.

Not only does the SAE require this particular stretch of road be used, but it also requires specific weather conditions. For an SAE-validated test, temperatures at the bottom of the grade in Bullhead City must be 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The vehicle’s AC must also be on full blast.

Once these conditions are met, a truck coupled with a trailer must drive up the grade—a climb of more than 2,950 ft. over 11 miles—maintaining 40 mph until the peak of the grade at Union Pass, Ram Professional’s Dave Sowers told me.

While the conditions of the event were a bit different than required for SAE testing standards—sunny and in the 60s—I tried to make up for it as best as I could by running the trucks a little harder than the test requires.

I drove three different trucks up the grade: two Ram 3500 Heavy Duty trucks, one Limited dually hauling a farm tractor (the heaviest load at 19,000 lbs.) and one Laramie dually hauling a fifth-wheel camper at 13,500 lbs.; and one Ram 2500 HD Laramie hauling an excavator weighing 13,000 lbs.

Confessions of a towing newbie

No truck showed signs of struggle throughout any run up the 11-mile stretch. The noise of the engine revs were louder for those larger tows—especially the tractor—but to me, that was the most noticeable difference between each haul.

It took me a few miles to get comfortable driving the large loads up the steep grades, and it was in these moments—especially for the first two trucks—that I took my time ascending the climb; however, I consistently drove the trucks above the testing requirements at a relatively consistent 55 mph.

The trucks performed well, and what really highlighted the capability of the Ram HD lineup was that once you get the truck up to speed, you hardly remember you’re towing heavy equipment. And even getting up to speed is something the Ram HD makes seem easy.

The new 8-speed TorqueFlite transmission is an upgrade from the lineup’s previous 6-speed transmission. While the addition of the two gears provides a more fuel-efficient gear ratio, it also provided a smooth shift when hauling thousands of pounds of equipment.

The coordinators of the event loaded the trucks up with about 60% of their max capacity, and I knew that no manufacturer would invite media out in test conditions where its trucks couldn’t perform. No, what impressed me the most was the sheer ease of trailering.

With the Ram 3500, there were moments I forgot I was towing 19,000 lbs. and 22,000 lbs. behind me, and that’s saying a lot, for someone with little towing and trailering experience.

Sowers, who was my passenger with each drive, told me that Ram placed a lot of focus on visibility with the Ram HD’s technology, and I can personally attest to that. While I did rely on the trucks’ side mirrors, the rear-view mirror of the 3500 Laramie doubled as a split camera monitor, displaying two camera views of the side of the fifth-wheel camper it was hauling.

This took a minute to get used to, as I am accustomed to relying on my side mirrors. But once I realized it was easier to glance up at the rear-view mirror monitor instead of glancing between the side mirrors, I was hooked. I really missed having that option on my next run up the grade in a truck that didn’t have that feature.

For Ram, successfully scaling the Davis Dam grade to the SAE’s standards is only half the story, Doug Killian, Ram chief vehicle synthesis manager for the truck segment, said at the event.

Instead, the engineers sought to make a truck that could scale the grade while making it a comfortable drive.

“Can I have a conversation? Can I change the radio? How do I feel when I’m passing somebody on a downhill because maybe they’re white-knuckling?” Killian challenged. “It’s about that subjective point.”

When I ask myself those questions looking back on the trip, I can confidently say ‘yes’ to all of the above.