Ram BackCountry Edition Adds Factory Off-Road Goodies

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Last week, we wrote up the G/T trim level that will be added to certain Ram models. That trim is focused on minor improvements to on-road performance.

So, naturally, Ram also has a new trim for specific models that is meant to make mild improvements to off-road driving.

Now available on the 1500 Big Horn and 1500 Lone Star, the BackCountry Edition adds skid plates, off-road shocks, all-terrain tires, electronic rear differential, tow hooks, and hill-descent control. The truck also gets the Bed Utility Group package (upper adjustable tie-downs, bed extender (requires RamBox), bed step, bed lighting, and spray-in bedliner.

The truck will be first shown at the 2021 Chicago Auto Show this week and available for purchase in the third quarter of 2021.

Other trim-specific features include 18-inch black wheels, black tu-tone exterior paint, black badging, exhaust tips, headlamp bezels, mirrors, and running boards. There’s also a body-color grille surround and a tonneau cover.

There will be a black interior with bucket seats, unique badging, and all-weather floor mats.

If you want this package, you can get it with a 4×4 Quad or Crew Cab and either the 5.7-liter V8 or the 5.7-liter with the mild-hybrid setup.

It starts at $40,085 plus $1,695 in destination.

[Image: Ram]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • CoastieLenn CoastieLenn on Jul 13, 2021

    I like the ability to literally have anything under the sun, but the RAM line has to have far surpassed the Mustang in just how many trim levels/packages/special editions there are. There's what, 432 different RAM trucks now?

    • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Jul 14, 2021

      Your comment prompted me to poke around the ramtrucks.com website. (I need to stay away from there before I end up with a new Tradesman in the driveway for no good reason.)

  • Ajla Ajla on Jul 13, 2021

    I'm not a man of off-roading experience but wouldn't painted bumpers be bad for that task? It seems like the steel bumpers off the Rebel would be a better fit. I think all of the listed performance equipment is already available on any Ram 1500 4x4. So this is just a bundle-n-bling trim.

    • See 1 previous
    • DenverMike DenverMike on Jul 14, 2021

      @Lou_BC I don't mind it so much, it's better than chrome bumpers. Mine were originally red, but look sharp in rattle-can satin black, or weenie-roller applied. Or an airless sprayer works too. It's like a maintenance detail. What I hate is all the black/matte textured trim turning white/grey. It takes a couple hours with a heat-gun to bring them back.

  • Lichtronamo Watch as the non-us based automakers shift more production to Mexico in the future.
  • 28-Cars-Later " Electrek recently dug around in Tesla’s online parts catalog and found that the windshield costs a whopping $1,900 to replace.To be fair, that’s around what a Mercedes S-Class or Rivian windshield costs, but the Tesla’s glass is unique because of its shape. It’s also worth noting that most insurance plans have glass replacement options that can make the repair a low- or zero-cost issue. "Now I understand why my insurance is so high despite no claims for years and about 7,500 annual miles between three cars.
  • AMcA My theory is that that when the Big 3 gave away the store to the UAW in the last contract, there was a side deal in which the UAW promised to go after the non-organized transplant plants. Even the UAW understands that if the wage differential gets too high it's gonna kill the golden goose.
  • MKizzy Why else does range matter? Because in the EV advocate's dream scenario of a post-ICE future, the average multi-car household will find itself with more EVs in their garages and driveways than places to plug them in or the capacity to charge then all at once without significant electrical upgrades. Unless each vehicle has enough range to allow for multiple days without plugging in, fighting over charging access in multi-EV households will be right up there with finances for causes of domestic strife.
  • 28-Cars-Later WSJ blurb in Think or Swim:Workers at Volkswagen's Tennessee factory voted to join the United Auto Workers, marking a historic win for the 89- year-old union that is seeking to expand where it has struggled before, with foreign-owned factories in the South.The vote is a breakthrough for the UAW, whose membership has shrunk by about three-quarters since the 1970s, to less than 400,000 workers last year.UAW leaders have hitched their growth ambitions to organizing nonunion auto factories, many of which are in southern states where the Detroit-based labor group has failed several times and antiunion sentiment abounds."People are ready for change," said Kelcey Smith, 48, who has worked in the VW plant's paint shop for about a year, after leaving his job at an Amazon.com warehouse in town. "We look forward to making history and bringing change throughout the entire South."   ...Start the clock on a Chattanooga shutdown.
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