Ryan Drives: Ram 2500 Power Wagon
The ultimate King of the Hammers vehicle? Or a fish out of water
Welcome to a paid-only edition of Race Day, this time featuring an off-road test drive of the Ram 2500 Power Wagon pickup truck. Please consider upgrading to a paid membership — it helps us take trips like these.
In today’s email:
Overland or Overkill: My adventure in the luxury truck of our times
Supe it up: How I would upgrade the Power Wagon
👇 And now: Here’s this week’s paid-access article:
Power Wagon Party at King of the Hammers
THE RAM 2500 POWER WAGON doesn’t do subtle. It has a towering presence on the road, boasting a raised suspension that reaches for the sky like a petrified bank teller. Its very name is so on-the-nose it’s almost comical. It’s a caricature of masculinity in truck form.
Venturing into Johnson Valley, a desolate expanse hidden away in the California desert, feels like stepping into a world where subtlety has long been forgotten. Tucked away on Bureau of Land Management property, this untamed wilderness has long been a haven for those seeking to escape the constraints of civilization.
The Power Wagon does well here. This is a big, serious machine that weighs more than all 22 starters for the Kansas City Chiefs combined. It comes standard with lumpy all-terrain tires that are designed to conquer rocks the size of a kitchen island. There are other heavy-duty trucks like it, but none with as much attitude as the Power Wagon. And none wear their upgrades more proudly.
Ram has loaded the Power Wagon with every off-road gadget imaginable. In fact you might believe it's everything an off-roader could ever need. But as I veered off the main highway and plunged deeper into the heart of Johnson Valley, it became painfully clear that any such assumptions were dead wrong.
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