Ram
Loose rocks, steep climbs and tight turns – the Rebel took it all on.
Words by Perry Mack
We can appreciate refined luxury in a pick-up, but it’s not what we really want in a truck. What is form without function? What good is a 4WD truck if it can’t take you out to get the job done and then even farther out into the backwoods of the largest democratic country by land mass in the world?
Ram became its own brand in 2009. In that time, sales have grown by 177 percent in the NAFTA countries (Canada, Mexico and USA), which is far greater growth than GM at 71 percent or Ford at 101 percent. With Canada being the shining star with 15 percent of global sales, we Canadians punch far above our weight when choosing Ram as our truck of choice.
The Rebel is Ram’s most capable half-ton off-road truck. For most folks, it requires no aftermarket mods to take them everywhere they need to go, and with everything they want to take. You can add an off-road package to other Ram 1500’s, but you don’t get the same degree of off-road capability as you do when you choose the Rebel.
Holding the truck up are Bilstein mono-tube dampers and the rear suspension gets external reservoir shocks. There’s an optional four-corner air suspension system, the drivetrain has an electronically actuated locking rear differential, the steel front bumper has a couple of tow hooks, and the under carriage has steel plate protection for the transfer case, steering, front suspension, fuel tank and oil pan. Nice!
The 2020 Rebel comes standard in 4x4 (shift on the fly transfer case by dial), a crew cab and the 5.7L V-8 Hemi cranking out 395 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque. Regardless of your engine choice, you get a very smooth shifting automatic 8-speed transmission to deliver that power to the road. It impressively wound up the narrow, steep mountainside of loose dirt and gravel on a trail that’s solely used by advanced ATV’ers in summer and advanced snowmobilers in winter. The 4-low with the rear diff locked worked flawlessly. There were plenty of tight hairpin turns where we unlocked the rear diff to take advantage of the 46.2’ turning diameter, which is better than the Chev or Ford half-ton crew cab models.
This off-road trim isn’t designed to compete with the Ford Raptor whose suspension is incredible at ripping across the desert, but tends to ‘float’ down the highway with its extra travel and softer suspension. Instead, the Rebel competes head-to-head with the Tundra TRD Pro, Chevy’s Trail Boss, GMC’s AT4, the Nissan Titan Pro-4X and Ford’s FX4 Off-road package on the F-150. As impressed as we were with those trim levels, the Rebel outshines them all.
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Bad place for a right turn.
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Jared Balfour
Articulation could use improvement for serious off-road trails, but the rear locker got us through.
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Ram
Testing the approach and departure angles.
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Ram
The 30 cm (12 in) screen is crisp, clear, big and beautiful.
We attribute most of this to the dampers and air springs. The air springs take you up to a lofty 27 cm (10.8 in) of ground clearance (3 cm (1 in) higher than normal) and let you traverse rocky, washboard and gravel roads easily. In your average light duty truck this type of speed and terrain will have you puckered up on the edge of control. Climbing steep, sandy grades is effortless with the 2.64:1 low range gearing (credit is given to the 3.92 axle ratio and 32” all-terrain tires) and terrain angles are respectable at 26.7 degrees approach, 21.8 degrees break over, and 23.8 degrees departure. You could easily improve the departure angle with shorter aftermarket tailpipes.
Inside, our tester had the optional 30 cm (12 in) screen, which is stunning. It’s crisp, sharp, fast, easy to use, and has an intuitive arrangement of switches. The switches engage and disengage tow/haul mode, front/rear parking sensor warnings, traction control, trailer brake control, and raise or lower the optional four-corner air suspension. Initially, we felt that the switches for the parking sensor controls were a waste of space. That is until the trail got so tight that we were pin striping the sides of the truck and the parking sensor warnings were beeping like someone had a missile lock on our truck. Without taking our eyes off the trail, we hit the switches and were blessed with silence.
The electronically assisted steering feels good on-road and great off-road. The interior is refined and there were no creaks and squeaks as we worked our way through the Callaghan Valley in the Coast Mountain range outside of Whistler, British Columbia. The two options we would indulge ourselves in (and are not available from some or all of the other manufacturers) are the 21 cm (8.4 in) Uconnect screen and the dual-pane panoramic sunroof.
Let’s briefly talk about the form of the new Ram Rebel. The styling is drop dead eye-catching with a vented hood, blackened fender flares, and the Rebels ‘moustache’ grille. It also gets its own 18” aluminum wheels, now with 32” Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac A/T tires.
More progressive buyers choose the innovative eTorque hybrid system, which is mated to the proven 3.6L V-6 Pentastar in the standard configuration with an option to bump up to the V-8 Hemi. The eTorque adds up to an additional 90 lb-ft of torque to the V-6 and 130 lb-ft to the V-8 through the power curve but not to the max torque numbers, which really is too bad. You can also get it with the new third generation 3.0L V6 turbo diesel cranking out an impressive 480 lb-ft of torque.
Towing capacity for the Rebel in the most popular configuration, which is with a non-eTorque V-8 Hemi, crew cab, 5’7” box, 4WD, and the trailer tow package, is 5,143 kg (11,340 lb) and the payload can be up to 839 kg (1850 lb). These numbers can change dramatically depending on the options you choose so we’ve included a link below with some other configurations. If you’re out shopping for any truck, check the door label and owner’s manual to get accurate payload numbers as they could be half of the max payload promoted by a manufacturer. We’ve also included a link to a great article on real world payload numbers below.
After our day-long crawl up coast mountain trails, we’ve decided that yes, there is function to go with form in this truck. The Ram Rebel provides refined luxury inside and also has the raw off-road chops to enjoy serious backcountry adventures.
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Perry Mack
It’s always Movember with Rebel’s moustache grille.
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Ram
There’s a Rebel behind that wall of water.
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Ram
Tight trails add a B.C. pinstripe to the new trucks.
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Perry Mack
We 'decorated' the new 18” aluminum wheels and Wrangler AT tires.
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Ram
We were unsure of the red accent interior until we drove in it. To us, it says adventure.
Check out our YouTube video - https://youtu.be/2HTU31aPUqw
2020 Ram Rebel Driven Off-Road
Ram 1500 Payload and Towing for different configurations:
https://www.ramtruck.ca/documents/ramtruck/specifications/2019-ramtruck-dt-towing-chart-en.pdf
Calculating Real World Payload and Towing Capacities: