2016 Ram 3500 Looking to Win in Torque War With 900 Lb-ft

by Mark Stevenson

Published: June 22nd, 2015

2016 ram 3500 looking to win in torque war with 900 lb ft

FCA isn’t content with taking the horsepower crown with the Dodge Charger Hellcat. They also want to win the torque war amongst the heavy-duty pickups and grab a first place towing trophy in the process.

Say what you will about Best In Class claims when it comes to pickups, but Ram keeps pushing the torque envelope. The HD truck is now pushing 900 lb-ft of torque, up from 865 lb-ft in 2015, when equipped with the 6.7L Cummins diesel I6. That means it will also best the competition in towing capacity – by a margin of more than two tons – with a rating of 31,720 pounds based on the SAE J2807 standard.

Engineers were able to make the gains through improvements in fuel delivery and turbo boost calibration while reinforcing the rear axle ring gear with 16 bolts (up front 12) to handle the additional torque.

The new trucks will go on sale in the third quarter of this year.

[Ram 2500 pictured]

#2016 #2500 #3500 #HeavyDuty #Pickups #Ram #TorqueWar #Trucks

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11 of 52 comments

RideHeight on Jun 22, 2015

Only Ram still makes pretty trucks. Everything else is dumpster-grade Legos.

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- Indi500fan on Jun 22, 2015
  
  Mid-Indiana isn't exactly the Buffalo/Cleveland/Detroit/Chicago salt belt, but I'm seeing what I think are fairly late model Rams with major lower perforation. Not talking panel edges/seams rust, but wind whistling thru the lower cab type rust. Certainly not on par with Ford and GMs.
  
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- Corey Lewis on Jun 24, 2015
  
  @indi500fan I have seen very rusty 2010+ Rams around here in SW Ohio. Always wheel wells and tailgate.
  
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Dal20402 on Jun 22, 2015

Great. So now the giant trailers will come flying by at 100 mph rather than 95 mph on I-5. It really seems like there is a large subset of the people who buy these things who think they have a constitutional duty to tow as fast as the engine will allow, trailer tire ratings, ability to stop, and the safety of others be damned.

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- Lou_BC on Jun 22, 2015
  
  dal20402 - I've seen that during prime time tourist season. You have morons with 1 ton diesels pulling 10 k trailers like nothing is there or guys in 1/2 ton pickups that are overloaded with a 10 k trailers. I also see 90 year old types with a nitro bottle in one hand and a coffee in the other driving Greyhound bus sized motorhomes pulling trailers doing the bucket list trip to Alaska. Truckers get extremely pissed off at all of these civilians driving way over their skill levels.
  
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- FreedMike on Jun 22, 2015
  
  This. I once experienced this first hand. I was passing through an intersection with a clear green light and one of these rigs blew right through the red, maybe four feet in front of my car. This was on a 50-mph road, so this guy was probably doing 60 so he could get through the intersection. I was driving a 2005 Focus at the time...with my kids in the back. He'd have killed us all. I followed him with my cell phone on, taking pictures of his license plate and trying to report him to the cops so they could do something about this incompetent boob. At a red light, he stopped, got out and atarted yelling at me. I yelled at him that I had pictures of his license plate and was on my way to the police station to turn in a report. He got back in. Guess even the heavy duty crowd doesn't like dealing with five-oh.
  
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Budda-Boom on Jun 22, 2015

Did FCA sponsor an "Ugly Grille" contest and this was the winner? Only a matter of time, folks...

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MBella on Jun 22, 2015

I hope for Fiat's sake this won't end up like the Navistar engines in the Fords. They hop up the output, then are surprised when they start blowing up.

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- Bball40dtw on Jun 22, 2015
  
  Well...there were other problems there. Danio will tell you about all the fun the 6.0 and 6.4 were. Ford's current 6.7L diesel does 440 HP and 860 lb-ft. It hasn't been a shop queen either.
  
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- Kkop on Jun 22, 2015
  
  Those Ford engines gave Ram an 'in', and quite a few farmers around here have switched to 2500/3500 Rams (and some to GM). I think they've been reliable so far.
  
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- Exfordtech on Jun 23, 2015
  
  @bball40dtw There was no fun in those engines whatsoever.
  
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