Ep. 303: Andre Road-Tripped 6 Trucks This Year - Which One Is the Best?

[SPEAKER_02]: Guys, we have a very special episode of TFL Talking Truck's podcast for you right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're in the studio.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and especially if you're watching this video, we're going to talk through this very special guest that we have on the podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is a truck, which is even better than a regular human guest.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So a couple of things going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're here in the garage.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're next to the new 2026 RAM-500 Express that I recently drove just last week from Detroit to Denver for some testing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this truck is very interesting because obviously, every time we do videos on trucks, it's one of the main comments that we see that truck prices are getting out of control, those sticker prices have definitely been...
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't say creeping up, they've been kind of skyrocketing over the last several years, and this truck in particular that we're looking at behind us is how ram is trying to address some of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a more affordable version of a ram 1500 that we're going to walk through in detail.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, we have some news, several things going on, for example, Roman and Tamir in Japan, Japanese Mobility Show, which is their big major auto show, and they found some truck news for us from there.
[SPEAKER_02]: A truck that you have to build yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which is interesting, by Toyota of all places.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not, it's not a start-up, it's not.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the biggest company in the world.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's an automotive company.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, some news from Ford, there are 2026 F-150 configurator recently won live, and I noticed a couple of interesting things that we can discuss.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, there's a RAM dude.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is not the most well-known special trim from the past, but there was a special model of ram trucks way back in the day called the dude that they're bringing back for Seema, specifically, so we could talk about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and also recently over the last
[SPEAKER_02]: 15 months or so, or maybe even two years of time, we have done many different road trips and trucks.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what I want to talk about is focus this podcast on is, you know, why do we do these road trips and, you know, which is the best truck, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Which was the coolest truck for a road trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, one of the trucks that we're going to be talking about is the RAM Express, this RAM 1500 Express Package that we have here in the studio that we'll be walking through and talking through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, if you're watching the video, you'll be able to see the truck and what it looks like and all of the features, but we'll also explain those features as we go through everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the truck itself, from the exterior, doesn't necessarily look like it's a very basic,
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, it's kind of based on the tradesmen and the most common work truck right in the world is probably just white Basic white color with a black-tout grill Yep, right and very simple steelies Steel wheels, but the truck you see here in front of us if you're just listening to this podcast It's painted silver The trim and the front bumper are also painted silver
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so everything is color matched.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all body colors, so they haven't cheaped out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this looks like a pretty premium truck in the wheels are really nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: They look very high end.
[SPEAKER_01]: They look a little classic.
[SPEAKER_01]: I almost want to say these remind me of some ram truck wheels for maybe the late 2000s, but in a good way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, and this is a 20-inch wheel.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you kind of cross that checkbox, when you check the RAM, 509, and express, you kind of get this a little bit more attractive, not a basic look, but I would say a quite attractive look.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, this truck has a hurricane engine, which is their latest three-liter twin-turbo straight-six.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll talk about that a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, let's show the bed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, let's show the cab really quick before we go any further.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so because this ram express that we're talking about is meant to be a slightly more affordable truck from the exterior and a glance you really can't tell because it's got those bigger wheels with a nice polish finish to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got the color match grill and bumpers and everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you get to the interior,
[SPEAKER_01]: then you start to see that this is a more basic truck so these are cloth seats and it's a six seat configuration so it is a bench in the front which of course you can fold down to have yourself a center console as well so when you're not using it you can use it as a regular console
[SPEAKER_01]: But the interior is a little simplified which for the most part I actually don't mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a few things like the cubby that's up above the glove box doesn't have a cover over it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's one of the ways that you could tell this is a more basic truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: It also has a set of analog gauges which I appreciate because these don't look like very cheap basic analog gauges.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're backlit, LED.
[SPEAKER_01]: They look pretty premium.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a small screen in between the analog gauges.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the center of the dash, there's a screen that's not the biggest screen they've made.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an eight inch screen, but it's an eight inch screen that's plenty big enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus they've got actual physical controls for the climate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And everything, so for the most part, I really actually don't mind this interior on this truck at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when you just folded the center seat here in the front, I wanted to point out how easy it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a little strap that's on the driver side.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, well, GM and Ford also have similar configurations, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Where you can get kind of a bench seat with a folding center section.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think this is one of the simplest ones.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just pulled.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just full once.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's convenient, you know, I love having trucks that have a bench seat in the front because, of course, you don't always have to use it and you maybe feel a little cramped when you are three across, but you still have the option, which is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that might be a situation where you can take one vehicle instead of two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love having a trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe a short trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I want to do a thousand miles with six people, which speaking of you did do around about a thousand miles in this very truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I think we have to discuss first why we do road trips at TFL and TFL trucks specifically and for our podcast, a couple things because we want to be first.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the big deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: So sometimes we have to go to where the trucks are.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we have to go to where trucks are.
[SPEAKER_02]: So sometimes we borrow a truck from a manufacturer like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this RAM 1500 Express doesn't belong to us.
[SPEAKER_02]: It belongs to RAM.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was in Detroit for an event.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was an opportunity to bring this truck back.
[SPEAKER_02]: And actually, you know, do some detail testing and have it for a longer period of time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we wanted to be first about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is a 2026 model.
[SPEAKER_02]: So not an old new truck, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it came out, this trim, and this power trim came out about a year ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: But nonetheless, this is a two-wheel drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so there are a couple of things about this truck that if it were you or I Specking it out, we might do slightly differently.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we live in Colorado having a two-wheel drive truck works fine And maybe the southeast like where I'm from.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but out here four-wheel drive is pretty important So we would both speck a truck with four-wheel drive the other thing
[SPEAKER_01]: is this truck, as it's specced, does not have a trailer brake controller?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it does have a hitch, though, with wiring, but no trailer brake controller.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's another way, you know, this truck is maybe a little bit more less expensive than it would have been.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it doesn't have two other things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you would be really upset at this case.
[SPEAKER_02]: First of all, there are no buttons on the back of the steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we should know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've complained about in the past, but that is a bit of switch gear that I use constantly as I'm driving any vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: under the stillantis umbrella.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the skip track and the volume buttons on the back of the steering wheels, I use them constantly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's one switch that I wish they hadn't cost cut on this particular model, because I think it's very useful.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's available on other ramps, obviously.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's another thing that's missing that you might be upset about.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think I'm upset about is this area it has no recovery points.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no tow hooks in the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: I suppose you could argue on a two-wheel drive truck you shouldn't be getting into a situation where you need a recovery hook.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you could also argue that because it's to a wheel drive you're that much more likely to need it to be recovered.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, if you and I expect this truck out, I think, we would have added full-wheel drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would have added the brake controller.
[SPEAKER_02]: which would of course bring the price up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Overall, the full drive costs at least about $3500.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a sizable step out, but I think we really need it in Colorado.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, I think you and I would expect a little bit more off-roady version, probably with toe points in the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and especially to considering that,
[SPEAKER_01]: adding some options like that, make a truck price here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a lot of trucks that are already on dealer lots are seeing some pretty big incentives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially here locally in Colorado, you're seeing as much as what $7,000 off this sticker price of a lot of ram trucks that are for sale locally here.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to depend on where you live.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's not bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the express currently, we usually don't talk about incentives
[SPEAKER_02]: But right now, at least in Ramp 500 Express, there's like a three or four thousand dollar manufacturer incentive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so that could make up for some of those extra options that both Andre and I would probably equip on one of these.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I did drive it over 11,000 miles last week with Zach, our producers, Zach, and I.
[SPEAKER_02]: So recently,
[SPEAKER_02]: About a year ago, we kind of made a policy decision, you know, always two people in the truck for road trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually, we made a decision, I think, years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, we're not cannonballing trucks, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Anymore, because, you know, we want to be safe, you know, we stay wherever we need to stay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, this truck, I'm not going to go into detail on the trip because there is a video about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But this was one of the best recent vehicles on fuel efficiency.
[SPEAKER_02]: It got over 25 MPG, 25.2, and partially case is because the structure fits lower to the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can kind of tell if you're watching, it's about, you know, maybe two hands, like ten fingers off the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a very lower part of the skirt up front.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but also it has a movable chin on the highway, it retracts a little bit down.
[SPEAKER_02]: So aerodynamically speaking, this truck is really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: But for having 420 horsepower and 469 pound feet of torque,
[SPEAKER_02]: And get over 25 MPG, that's remarkable, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's really not bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like you said, it made for a good road trip truck, not only because of the fuel economy, because of the power, but even though this is a more basic truck, it actually has a decently comfortable interior.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, and the cloth seats are actually I would choose these cloth seats over many others.
[SPEAKER_02]: Except they don't have heated function in the struck.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the struck, we had, do we have a minority?
[SPEAKER_02]: Technically speaking, this truck on the minority, because it also has a preferred package on it, is just over 51 grand.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like we were saying, we would spec our truck out a little bit differently if we were actually speccing it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: about the difference between.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this isn't expressed, but you also mentioned the preferred package.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what are one of the details and the differences?
[SPEAKER_02]: So we can kind of take a look here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, EPA did rate this truck at 25.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what you saw as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: We saw at least a little bit over that.
[SPEAKER_02]: The preferred, this is so small, dear.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's going to be hard to read, especially for the people that are listening.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're so sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the customer preferred package is about $1,100, just over that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it has folding rear seat, which is split 60, 40.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has the 20 inch wheels, actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it gets you the body color bumper and the grill and everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of those things that make this truck,
[SPEAKER_01]: look a little bit more premium.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a pair more premium are part of what brings that price up, but not by a ton.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but I just know a story where I can figure the new RAM 1500 tradesmen, which comes in a really cool Canyon Lake color, which is a little bit green tint.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're still wheels, 18 inch wheels, which means we have more sidewall.
[SPEAKER_02]: And formal drive and the hurricane engine, and the touring pack with the brake controller.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was about 49 grand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which is a cool way to spike a truck because that way you were able to keep it under 50,000.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that makes it a more interesting story and full will drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and four will drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that makes it a more interesting story.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to the credit of this package, this truck has, I would say if you're spending, again, it's going to depend with incentives.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're buying a truck that has an MSRP around $50,000, another two grand.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you care about it not looking like a work truck, if you care about it having paint matched, body work, and nicer alloy wheels, two grand is kind of a drop in the bucket with 50,000 MSRP to make it look like a much more premium nicer truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: So to me, it would be worthwhile.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it depends on what you're going for exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so so that's this RAM 1500 Express Let's hit some news before we look at some other road trips.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I Let's see
[SPEAKER_02]: I went to Germany recently, like you and Roman did a couple of podcasts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that a lock of ice?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a sculpture made out of rock.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Interesting, yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, Andre is pulling up a picture of... Me standing next to a sculpture.
[SPEAKER_01]: A very interesting-looking sculpture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, apparently it's a sculpture of a van.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a sprinter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so what are you out of?
[SPEAKER_01]: Easy.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's going on?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you have a thumbnail of you next to a sculpture?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's because the new sprinter is coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: But this is a tease.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a tease of a new sprinter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's a very interesting way to tease a vehicle is to create a sculpture that looks vaguely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so now, like I said, I'm kind of, I'm out of mode of journalists.
[SPEAKER_02]: But now, I can kind of consider myself an art journalist.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I wonder if, for the next Ford truck that comes out, if they're going to do an oil-based canvas painting, or maybe velvet.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope not, I hope not, so seriously speaking, so I did go to Stuttgart, this is where kind of Mercedes is based out of, as far as globally, and they're celebrating 30 years of this print of an, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So 1995 was the first year where they transferred the advance, of course, going back into the
[SPEAKER_02]: Gosh, the 1800s.
[SPEAKER_02]: The first Mercedes commercial vehicle was in 1896.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have a classic video about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't get to drive it, so they read it, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: They've, I don't know if I'm in there either, but they've refurbished in 1986.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: 1896.
[SPEAKER_02]: Land 1996?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, 1896.
[SPEAKER_02]: All of the 130 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: little one cylinder it kind of looks like a horses carriage yeah right yeah when I know Tommy and at one point drove the bends pattern motor wagon which is kind of which is similar to that which is similar to that yes so they had vans going back to that but in 1995 they created the Sprinter name it's been very successful
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's not the best selling commercial van in the world, because Volkswagen, Ford, GM, I mean, all of them sell commercial vans, but they still sold 5 million sprinters since 1995 worldwide, and the next one is coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which is a big deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a big deal.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though they show
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually did see one, but we weren't allowed to video it or talk about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still a little secretive right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's a piece of news from Germany.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now we have to look at that little bit of piece of news from Japan.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're really international on our own.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, especially right now, since Roman and Tommy like he said are in Japan.
[SPEAKER_02]: So can you see that if you're watching this?
[SPEAKER_02]: So Roman and Tommy at their Japanese mobility show.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in the Toyota booth, they found this.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a Toyota IMV origin.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so this is the build at yourself truck kit that Andre was talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got to say, looking at this vehicle, it's kind of like a mostly flat platform with a slight cage over the driver and a small console and a seat, but it's all open.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's maybe got a windshield.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got a couple small lights, but yeah, no doors.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the seat is like a camping inflatable cushion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it looks like the seat looks like, yeah, an inflatable something, I don't know, a lunar rover, but you probably wouldn't want to inflate a seat in space.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is interesting, to me, this Toyota IMV,
[SPEAKER_01]: prototype.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't really look like a truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of looks like a utility golf cart.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but technically because it's a platform, it's technically the entire vehicle is a bed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, with no bed size.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just flat.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you can put bed size on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could put bed size on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me just look up a Toyota IMV origin.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could watch a
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, well here's, here's another, there's a couple of images of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: For example, rodent track had a couple of images of this as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it really looks like a lunar rover.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it almost looks like a space vehicle, but it's meant really for like rural markets and also markets like in Africa.
[SPEAKER_02]: And partially the reason, well, I didn't get the entire story from Toyota from Roman and Tommy, but basically the story is, you want to bring the price way down, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And one way to do it, like the original Jeep is...
[SPEAKER_01]: It was by literally offering less truck, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's fair.
[SPEAKER_02]: original military Jeep, right, and 1941 came in a crate in what was folded down and you took it out and you put the wheels on it, you know, you folded the windshield up and you kind of finished assembling it and then you would drive it away, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's something about
[SPEAKER_02]: Willis MB that that looks a little better than this then this yeah So this is supposed to be electric and you could put the seat either on the right hand side for driving or left-hand side for driving And I thought it was a kind of an interesting concept.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is interesting not street legal.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say
[SPEAKER_01]: No, because that's not here in the state.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, because it doesn't have like airbags and I can't imagine it does more than 45.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope it's because it's completely open.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so top speed is questionable on this.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it could be a nice ranch vehicle, right, to use around the farm or ranch.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's definitely interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a unique concept.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, let's get to a truck that we actually buy and one day go on the road and can go on the road, which is the 2026 Ford F150.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've been kind of waiting for this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been away for a couple of weeks, traveling, but the 2026 F150 configurator is online.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if you could tell a case on camera but the color palette got more and more boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's black to grey to silver to white.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's like you're shopping for a laptop or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's different shades of silver and black.
[SPEAKER_01]: and white, different shades of white, different shades of silver, and one slightly blue and one slightly green.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that even more of that's just gray?
[SPEAKER_02]: Marsh great, it's a greenish gray.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the pricing did change a little bit, and most manufacturers increase their destination charges to 25.95, which is insanely high destination charge?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Toyota is not quite,
[SPEAKER_02]: as high.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the big three did this, a GM, RAM, and Ford recently went there on pick-up trucks.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I noticed a couple of things, another thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: So remember how in 2021 I purchased one of the first F-150 hybrids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a work truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Power Boost.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was an XL crew cab,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, shorter bed, which is a five and a half foot bed, which is the most popular configuration.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I can't remember exactly what I paid.
[SPEAKER_02]: This was almost five years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was about 42, 43,000 for the one I purchased.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was full will drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now,
[SPEAKER_02]: in a super crew, which is a crew cab, when you build an Excel truck, Power Boost is not even an option anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: On that model.
[SPEAKER_01]: On that trim.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure you were one of the very few that spectator truck that I wear.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I am.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe I was, but
[SPEAKER_02]: You want to be frugal with your money, right, sometimes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think commercial vehicles like maybe police trucks and some others that you may still be able to get a hybrid in and sell.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you can't for regular consumer anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: You cannot configure it that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: And check this out.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you did want a hybrid, for example, STX is the next trim level that you could build, which starts at 44,000.
[SPEAKER_02]: And look, it includes red color.
[SPEAKER_01]: Red.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now you can paint your truck red.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, wait a minute, but if you paint it red, it adds on packages that cost $2,200.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, increase the price by eight grand.
[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe not red.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, not red, but if you want to add the power boost, which is this, which is a really cool power train because you can also have power export.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm holding my rope.
[SPEAKER_02]: Watch this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It tells you, it tells you, it adds $9,100.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, not just because of the end.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, because they're making you purchase a full-wheel drive and then a more premium package.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so what the cheapest, then that you can get into a power boost now is 56, 6.
[SPEAKER_02]: So almost 57,000.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's,
[SPEAKER_02]: That's with this nation.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's with 56.
[SPEAKER_02]: Six.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, and you paid 42.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that was before, well, that was right during COVID.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, a huge price increase, and of course, some of the other pricing increases are not as bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, there's one more thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Ford listened to us.
[SPEAKER_02]: So about ramp, sorry, Roman purchased F-150 tremor for the company, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: We own one in our fleet.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember how there is a basic tremor and then there is a very expensive one, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So for 2026, I just noticed, let's go back to the tremor configurator.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, we're really going deep on this one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Trevor starts at 64, which is actually similar to where it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the pricing did not jump in a huge way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Once again, you can get 50 shades of gray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, although once the destination is added on top of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, it went to 68, which is actually what we paid.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's the sticker on our truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, not sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: We paid out the bill.
[SPEAKER_02]: We paid less because of the incentives.
[SPEAKER_02]: $120 to get a V8, which is not that bad, but look at this.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the Maxocelinder.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, they created a mid-grade tremor that costs about four grand, and if you click to see what's in it, it's the torscent front differential.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember how we complained about this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Off-road, that torscent front differential is really nice to have, but it also has some nice luxury features as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which is great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Paragestable pedals.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: How are folding mirrors?
[SPEAKER_02]: So, what basically happened here, because I was complaining that, you know, in order to get a torsion differential, you had to pay like 11 grand to step up to the premium tremor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now you can get a more basic truck with that limited slip in the front.
[SPEAKER_02]: For about four grand, which is great.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'm going to claim a win on this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we'll call it a win.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still with that package and be about 72,000, including destination.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, it's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: cheap but cheaper than it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's walk around the front because we've been kind of sitting by the bed.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of a bed talk section of our podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Finally a piece of news.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the RAM dude tell your screen down a little which way yes So Cema is coming up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, dude.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cema is just what several days away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and Andre and I are both going And I'm just gonna be there, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so we're gonna have a bunch of videos from that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes So the dude is the Cema concept truck so you cannot buy the dude right now
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the past, the dude was a trim that dodge sold.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it's so.
[SPEAKER_02]: In 1970 and 71, they did have a sport trim package called the Dude.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it seems like if people like the concept truck at Seema called the Dude, which is actually a little bit lower.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it has about a 1-inch lower suspension.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a V8.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, they're showing the heavy version of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it's painted a sublime green, which is a slantess color.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a really like a highlighter green almost.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really bright green.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you could see that again.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be interesting, and I will stay, saying that still answers loves doing a lot of special additions and trims of trucks, so I wouldn't put it past them to actually bring this to the market.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, and there is a little bit of a push here, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because recently Ford introduced the F-150 Lobo, which was a slightly lower truck with a V8 engine as well, which is meant a little bit more for street performance use, even though they did not increase the power.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and that's an important thing right there because Ford has, like you said, Ford's introduced a couple street trucks, the logo version of the F-150, like you said, it doesn't have a power increase, so you could make an argument that they didn't necessarily do enough with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think that if RAM is going to follow them up with also bringing out a more street oriented truck,
[SPEAKER_01]: If they're going to be bringing theirs to market after Ford, I think they kind of need to go beyond.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they could have a Mopar Whipple Supercharger package.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but it's interesting because the Ford Supercharger package, as you can get for a coyote, Powered F-150, has some perks and makes a little bit more power.
[SPEAKER_01]: And also dealer installed at any dealership across the country.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, see, you can get it through your dealer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's some additional power and additional convenience with doing it the Ford way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think if Ram wants to be really competitive in this, they need to find some ways to get a leg up over the other street performance trucks that came before it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, what if they offered if the supercharger is a little bit too much of a hassle, high output hurricane?
[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say Viper V10, but, okay, hi, I'll put Hurricane Worst, too, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is, it seems like some tuning potential for the hurricane, because Tommy and I went to Roadkill Knights, we were in Michigan, and Dodge has a big, big presence at that event.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they had given several Hurricane power trains to some different tuning shops that put
[SPEAKER_01]: a whole bunch of different cars and uncork them through massive turbos and intercoolers at them, mess with the fuel systems and made a lot of power with those engines.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there is some extra horsepower potential with those engines because they're pretty impressive from the factory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when Tommy and I were looking at the six-pack chargers, the new Hurricane Power Chargers, yeah, we were talking to the engineers, those turbos, those stock turbos on a high-alput
[SPEAKER_01]: are peeking around 30 PSI of boost, which in a gas engine is a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is a lot, but people have tuned engines to much higher levels on boost, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you talk to somebody with a 2JZ, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like your friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like your friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: arguably the tuner engine, and they've got their Mark 4 Super all hopped up and it's loud and it spits flames and you ask them how much boost they're running through that motor.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they say 30 PSI, that's a powerful car.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a fast super.
[SPEAKER_01]: So 30 PSI from a stock,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a straight six car you can just buy off of a deal a lot is a ton.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those engines are already pretty stout and it seems like they could handle even more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I agree with you there's with this engine.
[SPEAKER_02]: If they throw a higher version of this into a street truck that could be something special.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's maybe a lot that you could do with it because again, this is an impressive engine with how much boost it has from the factory and even the potential in the aftermarket for more power output.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think one of the big hurdles for anybody who's an enthusiast, who's working with one of these engines and planning on making it faster and louder and everything is that they don't sound very good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't love the way that these hurricanes sound.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've made it a little bit louder in the charger, and in the ram pickups.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Aurecho is a little bit louder.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And...
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's a great sounding straight fix.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's bring it back to the road trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Zack and I were driving it from Detroit to Denver.
[SPEAKER_02]: This hurricane powered ram 1500 Express.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we commented that we were actually kind of glad the engine was quiet as a mouse.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sure for a road trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: For road trip, it's nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: But for high performance raw vehicle,
[SPEAKER_02]: more sound.
[SPEAKER_02]: But in a road trip, we were having just a really calm conversation at 80 miles an hour just cruising down the road very comfortably on the highway and that was nice for that purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know if this is ever going to take off as a tuner truck, not because the engine doesn't have that ability, and I think from the factory, again, RAM could take this motor and take it to the next level from even where it's at now, which is already pretty high output forms, pretty impressive engine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it's really going to take off in the aftermarket community because, like we said, it doesn't sound like good, but functionally speaking, hurricane is a good motor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's smooth.
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes a lot of power a lot of torque.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wasn't there a tuner viper with a hurricane?
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a limiter.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a viper not that dissimilar from ours, but instead of the V10 it had.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that was what, like, eight height of horses or something?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it had a hopped up hurricane in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and several other tuning shops had done the same thing with those engines and yeah, I mean they can handle quite a bit of power Yeah, it just doesn't it doesn't have that sound that's grab that raw sound.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, they were loud Yeah, well, let us know what you think in the comments below If you're heard it tuned one of these engines in that in a special tune or maybe if you're an exhaust manufacturer right and you can even magnify flow or somebody else
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, and you could go even find videos if you're wondering about how these engines sound.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can find some videos of how the charger six packs sound.
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially, well, like you said, the RHL has some extra sound, but as the charger six packs.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a different kind of noise.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a different noise.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just wanted to kind of finish the spot guest,
[SPEAKER_02]: We're kind of in the midpoint of this podcast, but I made some notes case about all the other trips we took over the last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so we could talk a little bit more about road trip trucks, which is probably the original concept and not how.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, six a sound.
[SPEAKER_02]: I realized something.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's my raw notes.
[SPEAKER_02]: You get in-behind the scenes, kind of look at this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I realized that over the last 15 months, I've road triped six trucks in five of them are Rams.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK. Why aren't a Ford and Chevy giving you more trucks?
[SPEAKER_02]: I can explain.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can explain.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can explain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You wrote tripped that duly, the Ford, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you and I tripped it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I mean, the red one, the single cab.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that wasn't a duly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember, that was enough for a different- That was a single rear wheel?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was an F250.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the single cap long red?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that was a while ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we wrote a trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's on my list.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on my list.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was just recently.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, this was the summer in 2025.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's get their chronologically speaking.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we talked about the ramp between an express to will drive amazing efficiency at 25 to that's the truck we have here in the studio.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, because it has that more efficient rear axle, which is a 321 to 1 instead of a aggressive axle, like a 392 to 1, the towing ability on this one is only about 8,400 pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have to be mindful of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you purchase, or let's say you're walking down the dealership row, and you see a lot of vehicles parked, a lot of trucks parked, and you're jumping in and out, and you saw the attractive price.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to ask, stop and ask, wait a minute, what axle does this have?
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the towing rating?
[SPEAKER_02]: What the payload rating is?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pilot rating is easy because you could just look directly into the sticker, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So payload rating is really easy because on this yellow and white sticker, you could see it, which is about 1,700 pounds on this one, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but like you said, the total rating is good.
[SPEAKER_02]: The axle is going to be different and the total rating is going to be a little bit more hard to find.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the trade-off there as well is part of the reason that this truck has good fuel economy is because of.
[SPEAKER_01]: of that X.
[SPEAKER_01]: That rear axle.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're not towing a lot, 8400 pounds, it's still a decent rating.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: For like I told a 6000 pound boat, this will be plenty for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I don't need, I don't need much more.
[SPEAKER_02]: Plus I get better efficiency.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now the warlock,
[SPEAKER_02]: So here's the video, so we have a playlist on TFL track, which is called roadtrip.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you could see a variety of roadtrips that we took in different tracks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and that was very recently.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had a ram warlock.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was a couple of months ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also Detroit the Denver.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dude, I know that road pretty well now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you've made that drive a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tops.
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't include some, by the way, nothing this is sponsored, but I do like my reds, root beer and hot dog.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not sponsored by reds, root beer and hot dog?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you're going to go out of pocket for those.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ah, that's heartbreaking.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also like stopping at the I-80 truck stop, which is a pretty good truck stop.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cool, the world's biggest.
[SPEAKER_02]: World's big.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, can I make a side note?
[SPEAKER_02]: I found my next dream truck really at the truck stop in this video Not in the warlock well, yes in the warlock video too Is it a semi?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a 19
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's a 1940, so pre-war cab over Ford semi-truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, that's pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you see, I mean, proportionally it looks good, it's got nice fenders, it's got headlamps and a lot of water fluid.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's the one they have at the truck stop, but these are hard to find.
[SPEAKER_02]: I tried looking for these, these are very, very hard to find.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, if you're listening or watching, if you're selling a 1940s cab over truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: Andreel by it, and then he'll do like a cool, some cool, the dry diesel and a twin stick.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to do a chassis swap.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, you and I talked about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: True, yeah, you could drop that body on a monitor.
[SPEAKER_01]: On a monitor, on a monitor, on a monitor chassis.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And get functional brakes and power train such that you could actually tow a trailer with this to this day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, that was a side note.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, going back, going back to our videos.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hold on, let me, let me bring that up again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's see.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in the warlock, the MPG story was way different because I got 16.1 when I drove with coal, our producer coal.
[SPEAKER_02]: On that same stretch of highway.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's nine,
[SPEAKER_02]: MPG difference.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was a hemie-powered truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, which was a lifted hemie-powered truck or will drive four-wheel drive with aggressive tires.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they'll have those direct tracks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe good-year direct track tires.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's just to tell you, and I have aggressive rear axle that had a 392 to one.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a big difference between trucks and how they're spiked.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and let me bring this left up to the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: As much as we like the off-road trucks because we live in Colorado,
[SPEAKER_01]: You pay a big price.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a big penalty.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a big penalty in fuel efficiency.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then the next on our list is that after 50.
[SPEAKER_02]: So here was the, let's see, that's Roman and I.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so you've road-tripped a very admittedly very basic F250, single cab, vinyl floors, cloth seats, long bed, but it was a great telling rig, because you guys actually used this F250, not only to drive cross country, but to pull our dozen-a-half.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Utah back to Colorado as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we picked up our General Giant, which is Bob Ducen have in New Salt Lake, Utah, and we drove down towards Moab, because we have to go to Moab, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's an amazing place, and also we wanted to offer our General Giant truck over there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when I pulled up, can you see that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I pulled up, when Roman and I pulled up,
[SPEAKER_02]: in a net to 52-door regular cab truck with a goose-neck trailer.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, silver spur, a dealership trailer dealership here in Colorado.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let us borrow this goose-neck trailer so shut out the silver spur that was a pretty amazing deal that we had.
[SPEAKER_02]: The people were there saying, well, this truck even pulled this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it looks a little small.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a little short of wheelbase.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's short wheelbase, but it does have a power stroke.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it does have a V8 turbo diesel with a ton of power.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the power wasn't a problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this truck was rated to toe.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think just over like 20,000 pounds, the way we had it configured.
[SPEAKER_02]: And our trailer was near there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think our trailer with GG on top, who weighs approximately 11,000 pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were pulling like 19,000 pounds cross-country in a little baby to door truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's still pretty well.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what didn't go so well, we'd got 8.2 MBG.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pulling the trailer.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pulling 19,000 pounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, look.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, well, think about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the do-skit on its own?
[SPEAKER_01]: not even that probably.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not even that so.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we save money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you burn less fuel, pulling that truck on a trailer behind another truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's what you can expect.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we've done many different eye-gantlets, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: But many different heavy-duty trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: This F250 was not only more efficient pulling the juice on a trailer than the juices on its own, also faster and more comfortable.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the top speed of the Doosana half, I'm sorry, this Bob truck is like 55, 57 miles per hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the fastest and most efficient a Doosana half is all the trailer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is ever, is on a trailer behind something else.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just kind of funny.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was an interesting trip, very unique, obviously, we don't do a lot of towing trips across country.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that was one of those trips.
[SPEAKER_02]: And once again, why did we do this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's an interesting truck, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So you don't see many of these.
[SPEAKER_02]: They had an off-road package, which is a 33-inch tall tire.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's got a rear locking differential.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's got a winch in the front.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of pricey, remember?
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just over 70 grand, which for this type of truck
[SPEAKER_02]: but nonetheless it was an interesting track and we wanted to be first once again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then
[SPEAKER_02]: So the reason why we've done so many rams recently is because RAM has been revamping their entire lineup, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: In the spring or a few months back, I was in Las Vegas.
[SPEAKER_02]: With you?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did Davis Day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually, well, we went from Vegas to Davis Day, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we told a bunch of trailers with RAM at the event.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you and I flew home a day later.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got on the plane again.
[SPEAKER_02]: I flew to Vegas again, and dropped a truck back and broke the truck back, which was a heavy duty rebel.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the white truck, if you remember.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I met Roman and Moab again, our favorite place, and he brought a Duramax.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he drove our Civil Rated Duramax there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's continue truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go to that video.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so we have also done some road trips in our company on Dermax as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: With several, yeah, which is not necessarily on your list, but that's something that we do regularly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but when I say road trip, I mean like more than 350 miles, like something more substantial.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we did this GM, the silver out of 2,500 versus rebel.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the big news about the heavy duty truck from RAM is it's a new transmission.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's speed ZF and it's a new commons, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, updated commons.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, pretty heavily updated.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in the reason why you see dogs in this video is I actually deliver dog food from Vegas to this shelter in Utah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because Ram wanted to have something in the bed of some of the trucks so that journalists on the launch event would be able to test out the trucks as they were hauling something.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they decided to get a bunch of big, heavy bags of dog food and then, and we'll do something with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, at the end of that, it made sense to...
[SPEAKER_02]: to donate that to an animal shelter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was really nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: This was kind of during the winter months.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or actually still kind of at the end of the winter.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we hit some snow as you may have seen if you're watching this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: But dude.
[SPEAKER_02]: My heart was a little bit broken, because the new comments with a new transmission got slightly less 1mpg less than a durmax on that trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you've got 17.3mpg.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so even with the updated transmission going from a 6 speed to an 8 speed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe partly because the Dermax has a 10-speed field economy wasn't quite as good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but now they have the same rear axle ratio 342 to 1.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we thought there'd be very, if not the same, the comments may be a little bit more efficient, but the comments makes more torque and more horsepower than, no, no, more torque, but less horsepower.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but a hundred more torque than the Dermax.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what?
[SPEAKER_01]: 40 less horsepower?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 430 instead of 470.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the other thing about it is that Cummins was more or less brand new when you started the road trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we've seen that this mix was more broken in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we've seen consistently that fuel economy gets a little better.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the actual numbers might be a little closer, but maybe not a one full MPG.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the other new truck that was launched was the RHA.
[SPEAKER_02]: We kind of alluded to it already, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you and Jen went cross-country in the RHO after the event launching that Palm Springs.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we were in the desert.
[SPEAKER_01]: And brought it through Moab once again.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a pattern developing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and you go from west to east and you're passing right by Moab?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why not stop?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that was one of Jen's first events.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe not the very first event that Jen did.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that was a lot of fun because we got to go top speed, 118 miles an hour across a dry lake in the desert.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was really amazing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we drove, drove, drove.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on a road trip, the RHO has a couple of things going for it, maybe nothing more so than very comfortable suspension, because this isn't that works well off-road, is also pretty plush and comfortable on-road, especially some of the stretches of highway we have, like where we do the Iconlet, that stretcher by 70.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's beat up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the smoothest road surface, so...
[SPEAKER_01]: a suspension setup like what you find on the RHA actually works really well for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's another feature that made that road trip really nice, which was the hands-free driving system.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people hate it, some people love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a little bit towards the like side, then hate side, because to me, like this morning I drove the Hummer EV truck that we have on loan here, and that has super crews.
[SPEAKER_01]: And super crews worked really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I wouldn't tell David you said any of this, by the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because our friend David Maro would not agree.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and a lot of people don't agree with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like Roman really dislikes a lot of these hands-free systems.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think when you're going a thousand miles,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like you and I drove that after the F350, duly.
[SPEAKER_01]: A long time ago, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: About two and a half years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: It does relieve a little bit of stress.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, especially if you're a bombing cross country doing a really long drive and you're pretty tired.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of those features take a bit off your plate, which is nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was a nice feature.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like you said, the suspension is really comfortable.
[SPEAKER_02]: The truck was very comfortable.
[SPEAKER_02]: We got 14 and a half MPG.
[SPEAKER_02]: So not great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably the worst.
[SPEAKER_02]: out of most of these trucks but it's on 35 it's on it's a truck in 35 which is a wide body giant heavy vehicle.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you ready for one more?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, let's hear it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's another ram.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's really road trip a lot of ram.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, because ram is revamping their truck line up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they seem especially, which we're not upset about.
[SPEAKER_01]: They seem especially willing to give us trucks to drive away from events.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, but it doesn't always work out.
[SPEAKER_02]: But also GM and Ford are also for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you and I drove that F350.
[SPEAKER_02]: from an event as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is a work truck tradesman.
[SPEAKER_02]: This was what just over a year ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gavin and I are producer of EDAG for Gavin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was this a penistar?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, also hurricane, also hurricane.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the aggressive axle, 392 to 1.
[SPEAKER_02]: We drove it from a workshop event in Detroit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And same route, Detroit to Denver, IED.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: We got 21.6.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So once again, one of the primary differences between that truck and this truck would be what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Four-wheel drive and the axle ratio?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: And look, matters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so the truck that you had that was four-wheel drive with a more aggressive axle ratio got 21.6 with the same engine as this truck two-wheel drive with the more fuel economy focused axle ratio.
[SPEAKER_01]: So 25 MPG versus 22-ish over time, that's a significant difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is worth figuring out is four-wheel drive something you're going to use to live in a place where you need it,
[SPEAKER_01]: that axle ratio do you need more of that peak towing figure or are you going to just be driving long distances and towing lighter trailers?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it really does make a difference.
[SPEAKER_02]: And GM has a similar thing going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have like I think a 308, 21 and a 340, 21.
[SPEAKER_02]: So GM has that,
[SPEAKER_02]: Toyota, I believe, only has one axle ratio if I'm correct on the Tundra, and by the way, we've done a couple of Toyota trips as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: For example, we purchased the Tacoma in Houston.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, Houston area, Roman and I, we drove it for Houston to Denver.
[SPEAKER_02]: also pulling a tiny trailer, a little tear drop.
[SPEAKER_02]: I drove a tundra from Houston to Denver because we purchased.
[SPEAKER_02]: We wanted to be one of the first people to have a new tundra.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but that was a couple years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was 2022, ish.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we do that with every brand.
[SPEAKER_02]: and every new truck possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: So with all of that recap in mind, if I were to ask you Andre, personally, your own personal take, what would be your favorite of maybe all the trucks in the last let's say, two, three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've road trip, which was the best.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it may be the truck you're looking at now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the reason is,
[SPEAKER_02]: I think by nature, so I liked the fact that this was a little bit more affordable than most other trucks that we drove.
[SPEAKER_02]: I liked the amazing MPG this got, and I also really love the seats.
[SPEAKER_02]: The seats in this truck were very comfortable.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I think...
[SPEAKER_02]: This was maybe one of my more favorite vehicles, you know, I don't like a lot of GM seats on a long trip and also that Tundra, the original Tundra, 2022 model, the new one, also for my, I don't know, my legs or my body, the seats were less comfortable than this ram.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay, so that's fair.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, what I'll say from my perspective, which is a little different because Andre, take the camera, Andre ends up doing a lot of the drive-aways from these events because if there's a new truck being launched, obviously Andre is gonna go on it because he is
[SPEAKER_01]: the truck channel.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the manager again out of the truck channel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if at all possible, Andre's kind of got to be there when the new trucks are launched.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're going on a lot of those events and driving these trucks home oftentimes unladen.
[SPEAKER_02]: And oftentimes they're not broken in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, low miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they're brand new.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: My experience is a little different because I do a lot of our power
[SPEAKER_01]: But, most of the time, when I'm road tripping cross-country, I'm pulling a trailer of some kind to go to California to pick up a side-by-side, pick up some motorcycles, maybe to go out to Moab and film something on the classics channel with Tommy, like a 78-year-old Jeep.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've pulled a lot of trailers.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not as many trailers as Andre's pulled, but at work, if I'm going to be driving cross country, it's usually going to be pulling something.
[SPEAKER_01]: So personally, when I'm thinking about what trucks I've had the best experience with driving cross country, my mind goes to an HD.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but which one?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a tough call.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we used to own the comments at the company.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we used to have comments.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a Dura Max.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't pulled a trailer cross country in one of the new comments.
[SPEAKER_01]: But with our old Cummins, I drove that cross country a bunch of times went to California and back Pull and Trailers with Alex, we did some videos with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That truck did great and the new ram is just an improvement on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you that the GM seats are a little hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, to me, it's not necessarily a deal breaker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still polling trailers across country with our Dermax has been a good experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had a good time with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We haven't had any issues with the transmission on our truck, so it's been fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was very, very impressed with that F350 that you were mentioning earlier that we drove from Michigan back here to Colorado.
[SPEAKER_01]: We weren't polling a trailer with that truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was a very high end, duly.
[SPEAKER_01]: with a, what 48 gallon tank?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, one of the main things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Massive field tank.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we filled up that truck from empty to full, and we had no trailer behind it, and here's estimating.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the camera, I have some notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was estimating how many miles to empty.
[SPEAKER_01]: It said over 800 miles until the tank was dry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is almost too much, because I don't know about you, Andre.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't sit in the same seat without stopping for 800 miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't think any human can.
[SPEAKER_01]: do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure I'm sure there's truckers out there that can do 800 miles like that without stopping, but you were I too soft.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well maybe then we can't do our body then that can send my he might, but I wrote this down case when we filled up when we did our calculation after our trip we drove 685 miles and we had 90 miles remaining, at least on that trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so
[SPEAKER_02]: That was massive, really impressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm also impressed that we did that many miles without stopping to fill up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we stopped actually, like...
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we did stop to switch drivers at one point.
[SPEAKER_02]: We switched drivers, we took a snack.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we stopped for food.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that was an MPG loop, where when we filled up the truck, it was 4 a.m. or something.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so that wasn't it wasn't necessarily a great day, but it was a very impressive truck for road tripping and also the the superduty The the new ones right this 2023 and onward You can get it with lane keep system where it actually
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll put you in the middle of the lane and GM and RAM have a duties don't offer that feature yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ford is kind of unique.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're unique in that feature.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which especially when we were pretty tired and that truck is also very wide.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you kind of gotta keep it right in the middle of the lane.
[SPEAKER_01]: The link keep was actually helpful.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not usually a tech feature that I like, but on that particular trip, it was nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it's tough.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a game of margins.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think all of the HD trucks make for really good road trip vehicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm going to pick one for myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll probably lean RAM, especially because I love the exhaust break on the comments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is my personal favorite?
[SPEAKER_02]: And we also told in the mountains, because to go to Los Angeles from here, you have to cross so many mountains.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some steep grades, and so you're using that exhaust break quite a bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I really like that feature on the RAM in the way that it's configured, I think, the new H speed, makes the new RAM.
[SPEAKER_01]: a lot better than it used to be, that old six feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that would be my personal pick.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say, like, a lot of...
[SPEAKER_02]: people come up to me usually my friends or just people and meet on, you know, at events.
[SPEAKER_02]: They say, Andre, what's your favorite truck?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think of a question.
[SPEAKER_02]: I answer with a question.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, but for what purpose?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because your favorite off-road truck is not your favorite towing truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or my favorite road trip truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it really kind of matters exactly like what the use case you're looking for as far as a pickup truck.
[SPEAKER_02]: I choose this one right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: because I really got an amazing efficiency in this hurricane.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really powerful, so it's also really fun to drive.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's comfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it is worth noting, since in this podcast, we've talked about road tripping a lot of ramps.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just picked a ramp 1500 as your favorite road tripped truck, and I picked a ramp HD as mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is worth noting in the background over here.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a GMC, and in fact, this is not the GMC Canyon that we own.
[SPEAKER_01]: We own one.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we do own GMC Canyon AT4X.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have in our studio right now as well in AT4X AEV edition on loan from GM for a couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a ton of bad, bad, bad jammer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really cool truck, arguably.
[SPEAKER_01]: one of if not the best rock crawling mid-sized trucks because the amount of space underneath this truck, the amount of clearance.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember I showed the clearance on the ram and I went like this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, with two hands to show how low the front splitter was.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's two, three, four, five, five and a half hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, to the bottom of the bumper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And tons of other body protection rock sliders, 35s on a mid-sized truck, which is awesome, from the factories.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a price of truck, but a nice one.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's worth noting, again, just to show that weren't hot.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, but the case, people accuse us of being like fourth fanboys and GM fanboys.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we get accused of it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And ram fanboys.
[SPEAKER_01]: So right now, we've got our F-150 tremor.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have Dermax, we have the Dermax, so we've got a Chevy, we've got the GMC Canyon.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a 1920 year's at, we've got a Model T pick up as well as that counts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a Ranger Raptor before we got the Canyon.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's actually been a while since we've owned a ram truck as a company vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are, I just wanted to balance things out a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, Honda.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so this is not doesn't belong to us, but it's a long-term test vehicle that we have here in the studios We have it for a couple months maybe three months and there's a Honda Passport trail sport.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's yeah right orange It's got Navier tires recovery points and underbody protection and a really good all-wheel drive system
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, not tons of clearance.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I just, I was online a couple days ago, and I saw some news come across where somebody saw a facelifted pilot with camouflage testing in the wild, and this is unofficial.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is just a spy photographer finding a vehicle in the wild.
[SPEAKER_02]: They said that the pilot may have the latest hybrid system from Honda.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know how the new pilots have kind of squinty headlamps?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was imagining what if they did that hybrid system in the new ridge line?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_02]: You could get some efficiency, some power, and also the new styling, you know, more aggressive styling.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that could be a really cool thing for the ridge line.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree, especially for the use case for that truck I think it could be really useful because in the Ford Maverick, for example, that makes that truck that much more practical and usable.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, so I just wanted to cover the fact that even though Andre and I in this podcast were talking about Randy.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were Rem Heavy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where were we?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is a Rem Heavy podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: One in two in mind that we drive everything, we buy everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: To this is Roman and Tommy took this GMC 84X AV afrode on our ironclad strale here in Colorado Rocky Mountains, and they compared it to our AT4X because a lot of people don't understand what the AEV brings you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds like it's just a couple bumpers and maybe a snorkel.
[SPEAKER_02]: raise their intake, but you have slightly different suspension, it's a little bit higher and also 35s.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, better underbody protection.
[SPEAKER_02]: And better underbody protection with all kinds of boron steel, or boron steel, all the way down to the rear pumpkin, which also has a boron steel skit plate, way down there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so that's a lot of what makes this candy-naked for x-a-fantastic rock-crawling truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we love a rock-crawling truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: Protection in Colorado.
[SPEAKER_02]: Protection underneath really good torque.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tongue clearance, 35.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's one thing missing in this truck is it has the same horsepower as every other canyons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so one thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the toughest thing is when you get out of a range of raptor.
[SPEAKER_01]: and you've got what from the factory $405.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if you do the factory tune for $800 or so dollars, $455 horsepower, then get into this truck with $310 horsepower.
[SPEAKER_01]: It feels down on power, but this is a better rock crawler than the Ranger app.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is also $70,000.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a lot of things with everything on it and a range of raptors 55.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, to start.
[SPEAKER_02]: So for 70 grand, I just wish they, I don't know, you But it's eight in it Hey, hey, V8s are coming back, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, why not bring it back to them and then investing into V8 technology at General Motors?
[SPEAKER_01]: It does sound very likely that a V8 might make its way into a glad Eater.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we should be the first mid-sized truck in a while in the long time in quite a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was was the last one before that, some of the five threes in the Colorado.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think so, and also the chorus had V8 options as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the second gen, right, not in the third gen.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think 2011 was the last the chorus, and correct me if I'm wrong.
[SPEAKER_02]: I may be getting my years wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're pulling from memory here, so we're not perfect.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not, we're not AI.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not historians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, AI is.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, is that AI can be really good at some things?
[SPEAKER_02]: like image identification, but it can be also very terrible at truck data.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have heard that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, because trucks are very specific.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, that's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: The way this truck looks, this RAM 1500, like if I asked AI, tell me the toll rating for RAM 1500 expressed, it would give me a number like 11,000 pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that would be wrong, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because AI didn't consider the rear axle ratio, the configuration of this truck, the cap configuration, the engine configuration.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, and that's why we've got Andre.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that what AI stands for?
[SPEAKER_02]: It does here.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's still hope for you in the case.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we still may have a job for the next at least a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's several more weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Through the end of 2025 at least.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK. Yeah, but no, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we get to test and drive a little bit of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: a couple of rams that we've driven as road trip trucks.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now for the next year, I think I need to stop driving rams.
[SPEAKER_02]: Apparently, well, you've driven them all.
[SPEAKER_02]: But wait a minute.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are two other revs that are coming next year.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: That I may have to drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so you're probably not actually done road trips.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the Nutrierex is rumored to come very soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also they have the new range extended hybrid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Both of those are going to be important ones to test.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those will be very likely trips and videos that'll be upcoming.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, well, thanks for joining us on this episode of TFO talking trucks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know this was not kind of our normal format, but I think this is fun, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we're walking around.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's fun not only talking about trucks, but actually looking at them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: In person.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, in person for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Should we rename our podcast TFO looking at trucks?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't have the same right to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, TFL talking trucks.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for joining us once again.