Nik J Miles

Archive for the ‘Ram Truck’ Category

ZF, the famous German transmission maker, announced they will be supplying the 2013 Ram 1500 trucks with eight-speed automatic transmissions.

The eight-speed automatic will be standard equipment on Ram trucks with the award-winning Pentastar 3.6-liter V-6 engine.  The efficient new engine and transmission is expected to deliver best-in-class fuel economy.

The eight-speed (8HP) will also be offered on the famous 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. Read the rest of this entry »

The HEMI goes electric.

Chrysler announced they’re currently testing 28 PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) 1500 Ram pickup trucks in San Francisco and Sacramento.

I’ve dreamt of a plug-in hybrid electric pickup truck for years. I lie in bed at night and imagine owning a full-size truck that has both V8 power and hybrid fuel economy. Not because I am a boat-owning environmentalist (I am neither) but because it’s the perfect vehicle for the post apocalypse. You can never be too safe in this dismal economic climate and having a back up plan is essential. At the heart of my plan is a hybrid truck. Read the rest of this entry »

The big trucks may have lost some of the appeal for some shoppers, but for people who need them to pull, haul or carry large items there is no option.

Trucks have also been a big profit center for the U.S. automakers and Chrysler, General Motors and Ford have all been working hard to build better trucks in hopes of retaining market share in that very competitive and lucrative market. Read the rest of this entry »

When you need a big pickup truck to tow a heavy trailer, it’s usually the case that nothing else will do the job at anywhere close to the price. You can get a big SUV or a commercial truck, but chances are either of those will cost you quite a bit more coin – and with the SUV, you cannot use a goose-neck or fifth-wheel hitch.

So it is that big 3/4 and 1-ton pickups remain the vehicle of choice for hundreds of thousands of small businesses, farmers, and anyone with a big trailer to haul. When you gotta have one, you really gotta have it, so the market for heavy duty pickup trucks is less sensitive to market fluctuations than say, the market for exotic sports cars.

A full-size ¾-ton or 1-ton pickup today is pretty much the same size and shape as it was 30 or 40 years ago. It’s still powered by a V8 engine in almost every case, and it’s still got a bed sized to fit a 4×8 sheet of plywood.
Read the rest of this entry »