Nice truck,love the tailgate...Great idea !!

It's a good idea. I just hope the bed is one solid piece that extension makes it look weird

Gimmee ! Gimmee ! Gimmee !

Neat !

I suspect if this truck does make it to production the majority of its sales will go to soccer mom's and Urban Cowboys.

Cool Truck!

I think its rediculous

i should buy one of these to haul all the junk furds to the junk yard i'd have it paid off in no time haha

I hear parking nightmare... great idea. Move aside F450.

It will not matter because it will still finish third behind the GM HD towing champion. A bigger and heavier truck without the motor to move it around with a big trailer in tow.

I would bet that the ex
tension is actually a reserve fuel .

You can see the tank diamond plate in the tail gate photo

Great idea Johnny Doe........I mean Johnny TROLL!

Nice truck, but at what cost 85 - 90 thousand?

Why stop with a mega cab?

Why not a sleeper cab?

Why not a 250 gallon fuel tank?

Oh I know...
How about a third axle?
How on Earth can anyone get by with just one set of duals?

@ Max,

Alot of people use H.D trucks for heavy duty loads for a long haul a.k.a the name of the truck Ram Heavy Duty Long Haul !!!!

They use these things to transport heavy loads from one end of the country to the next !! So you need a heavier duty heavy duty that can safely ,reliably carry the weight/load.

@Greg,

Why are you so concerned about Diesel 0-60,the Ram Diesel is 8.3 0-60 (motor trend test),but more importantely the Cummins is the most reliable Diesel around,and when trucks are loaded we want to get there,reliably and with traffic ect you are not going to notice a .5 to 1 sec difference in performance.

Ram already has the quickest excellerating truck,the Ram R/T goes 0-60 in mid 5 sec and mid-high 13's in the 1/4...14's spinnin !! So Ram wins in every category !! Dodge rules !! Your just jealous,obviously it really shows !!

No need for a new HD RAM long-hauler. I have seen several RAM 3500 duallies powered by Cummins diesels pulling fifth-wheel travel trailers on the Interstates for decades.

You can find an excellent variety of them in Quartzsite, Arizona, right now. The current Dodge 3500 series are excellent haulers, especially if equipped with a Cummins.

This is an interesting "halo" truck. Cool.

@Greg - yeah right.
Towing champion if you stay on paved roads.
What about hauling?
The majority of chevy's I see in heavy industry are base model fleet trucks. The small and mid sized contractors who buy trucks with their own money drive Ford or Ram HD's.
Pure and simple.

"LONG-HAULER" ... This means that it is specifically made for people who need DISTANCE with there RIG! Car Haulers will love this truck! Air Ride Suspension, Tons of Fuel, MEGA Cab that will have a bed option in the rear for Truck-Stopping..... This is one Bad Rig for sure! The Cummins is well up to the task and need not be the fastest 0-60.... It's a CUMMINS and it will last! 100,000 miles longer between major engine overhauls when compared to the Ford or Chevy!

This truck is cool, but if its being tested for production there are some other odd touches on it if never seen on any Ram truck. Such as the crome exhaust tip and it appears to have a swing down step tucked up under the left side of the rear bumper.

Everyone bashes GM that thing looks like a contractors box between a dump bed and a cab what a joke if you "long hauled" with this thing you would need 2 acres to turn it ...who in there right mind would want a 30 ft truck to drive ??????

frank is just putting his hate on me cause he knows all the soccer mom's like himself will stop buying junk fords when this bad ass dodge is offer lmao

The article mentioned the "redesigned tailgate", but that looks like the same deeper cut tailgate they had on it while hauling Ram Rodeo's gooseneck last summer (the original Long-Hauler's tailgate wasn't notched as deeply, like for fifth-wheel use). That tailgate may not be anything new. It does still drop down BTW, there's a flush mounted push button on each side of the top that releases the latches.

this truck looks pretty bad-ass but I can't seem to see it other than as a marketing tool, but who knows.

On a completely different topic, did anyone see the new 550d BMW diesels just released? 376 hp and 545 lbs of torque from a tri-turbo 3.0 diesel.

For reference if Ford or Ram could get their 6.7 liter motors to put out the same specific output the specs would be 840 hp and 1217 lbs of torque.

Car haulers and medium weight hot-shotters would love this truck. If its on a 5500 platform the GVW and towing numbers will be medium duty im guessing. Put something big behind it and haul it to all the places a full semi isnt cost effective.

I think its a good idea.

I know of a couple of trucking companies that use pickups. This would suit them nicely assuming it's not too expensive. That said, I only know 2. I can't see Ram selling enough to justify doing this.

@mhowarth
That would be the reason I always said I wanted a diesel in the Tundra but just not a Cummins as good as they are they make engines for HD trucks which do not have not much performance. The 6.7L Cummins like engine would be what I want in a Ram HD or F650-F750 but not a half ton.

I'm an RVer and if they make this...I'm a buyer

This truck will sell to anyone who wants an HD truck with the Cummins. Sure this is not going to sell in the volumes of 1/2 tons nor is it going to beat the volume of Ford's heavy duties but RAM does not have to have huge volumes to make this a success. There are people that will buy this just for the Cummins motor. The truck owners that I know that have a Cummins motor would not buy anything else. Glad to see RAM is stepping up to the plate in the truck market. Competition is good for everyone.

Hey Mark,
Quick Question. When you guys did the Heavy Duty Hurt Locker Test, there was mentioned that another comparison was done to see how those trucks stacked up to a Class 6 hauler. I was just wondering what happened to that article. With the F450 being I believe a Class 4 and this new Ram a Class 5 (I'm assuming by the 5500 moniker), I'm wondering how close these trucks are getting to commercial grade. Thanks

Anyone else notice the "man step" under the bumper on the left side?

@mhowarth - North American engines seem to lag behind in the performance arena when compared to what is offered on the other side of the pond.
I'd love to see a small efficient turbo diesel in a pickup, even if there was a 3-4k premium like the European luxury SUV's. You look at the specs on those engines and they perform almost as well as the gassers and provide better mpg.

@ Rob -- We tested a pretty cool Freightliner with the same load our our HDs pulled up and down the Loveland Pass; however, it didn't do as well as we thought it might. We still have the photos and test results to put together as soon as we get the chance. Thanks for the reminder.

I strongly consider something like this myself. I tow cross country enough I would get some use out of it.

Lou,

BMW and Audi seem to me to have the best happy medium in the diesel vs gasoline performeance. both have 3 liter diesels putting aout around 300 hp (even a couple of de-tuned ones around 270) and torque around 450 lbs which to me would be a perfect fit for an upper level motor in the 1/2 tons and a good middle range motor for the 3/4 tons. I think a lot of fleet buyers would love a diesel reliabiltiy and low end grunt but can't justify the $9k price tag of the biggest motors. Not to mention the large cars, mini-vans and SUV's that would benefit as well.

I think there would be enough volume in these two applications (and more with the cars, SUV's, etc.) to justify the cost of federalizing them to T2B5. $2-3k is reasonable and they won't need the super expensive trannys either the ZF 8 speed was designed for this level of torque output in mind.

Lets see a 170 Gallon fuel tank, say diesel is $5.00 this summer that = $850.00 to fill it up!!! No thank you!!! LOL

Chuck Norris approved and I like it so much!

While I dig the idea of a mega cab on the 5500, the midship fuel tank is a bit much. The two regular tanks available in the C/C should be enough. This thing has Racers and Horses written all over it. I'd be surprised if this truck gets the high output cal from the pick-up rather than the 300/650 cal used in the C/C.
@Greg- if you need more power than that, you need a bigger truck, not more engine.
The power densities in European car diesels just doesn't translate to a bigger truck- example- the OM642 in the Sprinter make 184hp vs 240hp in passenger cars.

@Mrknowitall - good point.
Commercial trucks have less HP than their civilian counterparts. The 350/3500's and even 450/4500 may be able to outperform a 550/5500 or larger commercial truck based platform in the short term, but which one will be around after towing and hauling maximum loads day in day out 300 days a year?
You work any pickup to its max every day and they'll all be dead and buried in 3 years time. A commercially based truck will still be running.
Most of the big companies in my region don't keep pickups longer than 3 years or 60,000 miles for that very reason. Some go with 6 month peak season leases. It is rare to see a commercially used pickup in service for a long time (regardless of brand).
You can keep a pickup or commercial truck on the road for as long as you want, but you have to be prepared to spend a large amount of money. Any knowledgeable, successful commercial operator knows the point of diminishing returns for any vehicle in service. That is the point at which it makes more sense to dump the old vehicle and get a new one. The same analysis can be applied to buying a new unit. The Long Hauler might cost more than a 1 ton, but most likely will be cheeper to maintain and operate over a longer period of time.

I have been waiting for the 8 foot on this Mega since they first came out. If they build it i will buy it. My garage is built to expand per bay to the wider truck and the depth is alrady 32 feet if i need more so what i want this truck and its about time.

Wow! I saw this exact truck a few weeks back driving through the Twin Peaks parking lot at Colorado Mills just west of Denver.

I was wondering what it was when I saw it go by, I had never seen a Dodge that large with a MegaCab. I even pointed it out to my cousin who was with me, but he's not nearly as much into cars as I.

I see a lot of test vehicles and mules in the high country off of I-70 and this restaurant is right off I-70 so it makes sense to see one there. Pretty cool, thing is pretty damn big.

It's frustrating to see these concept pictures for over 2 years and yet no truck. What is FIAT waiting for. Why don't they just give the truck details to Ford or GM and they'll build it based on the hundreds of pictures already posted!!!!. I say DODGE should get of their _SS and deliver the truck NOW!!!!!!. I've been waiting long enough. Big talk and show but no GUTS and GLORY.

I would like to see it done as a stepside bed. Always preferred the look of a stepside

I am a car hauler and would love to get ahold of one of these. Alas, I will take too long to save up enough for one, I am sure.