2019 RAM Limited impressions

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AZjeff

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I rented this truck at the Pittsburgh airport to help with the process of clearing a bunch of stuff out of my 89 year old mom's house. We got in at 10 PM, not the best time to try and learn a new vehicle. The Limited apparently is the top trim with all the toys, 5.7 Hemi, air suspension, big sunroof, leather, 22 inch wheels, etc with 10k miles. I had no previous experience in late model Dodge trucks. After checking for damage with my phone flashlight we threw our bags in the back seat and got the first surprise, BIG running boards drop down and out from the rockers when you open a door. These things are shin biters and I'm sure you'd get used to them but after a few miles on wet dirt roads they also loaded up with mud on the top surface and were just annoying. Probably a way to disable them I just didn't look. So got it fired up with the button and was blown away with the huge display in the center stack, it must be 7 inches wide and 12 inches tall. We found all the needed controls and exited the airport. First surprise was couldn't make high beams come on, had to find the right combo of dash switch location and display choice to understand the auto high beam dimmer function. The auto dimmer works about 90% OK, the one thing it gets wrong is hitting the highs too soon when passing another car or big truck. another interesting thing was when approaching some new speed limit signs that are white background it thought they were oncoming traffic and dimmed then immediately switched back to high then back and forth a number of times until I hit low beam on the stalk. Needs some work. The LED lights are amazing though, I think they move with the steering and the highs go out a long way. The back-up camera lines and 360 surround camera turn lines aren't accurate enough to count on.

The 8 speed programming was about perfect, the displacement on demand invisible except for the ECO light on the dash and the 5.7 has some serious pull when you stand on it. Start/stop felt strange but didn't cause any problems. Averaged just over 19 mpg for 400 miles of 60/40 highway/town&country indicated including some dirt backroad driving. The gear selector is a big chrome knob on the dash where the key used to be, different but why not take up less space? The leather seats were fine, no problems with getting things adjusted and the 2 hour drive from the airport was comfortable. More road noise than I'd expect for the top trim truck. Not an audiophile but the H/K system sounded nice, FM reception seemed weak and the Sirius radio wasn't activated. Didn't care for the NAV display but didn't try to change it. The center console is huge and seems like they tried to make it too versatile.

Now about the 285/45-22 Goodyear Eagle Touring tires. All was fine until I pulled out to pass a car for the first time on the highway, as I changed lanes the truck stopped moving left momentarily when the tires hit the pavement joint in the center of the road then when I gave it a bit more steering it jumped across the joint and required steering correction back to the right. What the heck?? Same thing coming back to the right lane. Found the tire pressures in the menu and they were all at 37, 1 psi over placard I learned when I checked in the morning. It didn't do this every lane change but enough times I had to be ready for it and was totally unacceptable. The truck drove straight and the tires showed no unusual wear on close inspection later so it must be a combination of the low profile (stupid on a truck anyway) and the shape of some pavement joints. No way would I live with that if it were my truck.

The air suspension is fun to play with and must have around 4 inches of range, at high and low extremes the ride is harsh. 4 days isn't enough time to get comfortable with the dash controls and the big screen but it just seems overkill and unnecessary and many functions seem to be duplicated on the touch screen and a real button. All engine functions are accessible in the cluster. No doubt lots of controls and functions I never touched. Engine bay seems uncrowded with less stuff than you expect in today's reality.

Overall nice truck to drive except the tires and a very livable interior. The drivetrain is smoother and more seamless than the previous '16 Chevy and '18 Titan I have now. I could easily live with the drivetrain in a much lower trim level. I can see why people like the RAM trucks.



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Nice review! Could you feel any difference with the RAM trucks having coil spring rear suspension instead of leaf springs?
 
Originally Posted by Reddy45
Nice review! Could you feel any difference with the RAM trucks having coil spring rear suspension instead of leaf springs?

This has air bags and links in the rear and some kind of air struts in front. In the middle range of the suspension it rides smoother than leaf springs in back. It also automatically lowers at highway speeds.

Also forgot to note that there were no interior rattles when driving on the back roads.
 
Nice write up.

What rental company, how long, and how much?

It would be hard to rent that truck here. U Haul?
 
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Of all the foreign and domestic pickup trucks made, RAM would be my # 1 choice. That's coming from a lifetime Ford lover. In fact at the moment there isn't one vehicle in Ford's entire fleet I'd buy.
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you're feeling the LKA feature pulling you back into your lane. Nothing to do with the tires.. edit:disregard
 
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Originally Posted by demarpaint
Of all the foreign and domestic pickup trucks made, RAM would be my # 1 choice. That's coming from a lifetime Ford lover. In fact at the moment there isn't one vehicle in Ford's entire fleet I'd buy.
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Same here.
 
Originally Posted by user52165
Nice write up.

What rental company, how long, and how much?

It would be hard to rent that truck here. U Haul?


Dollar Rental, 4 days, total unknown at the moment but it was cheaper than a minivan. Airport fees kill you.

And coming into the airport at 10 PM with a 2 hour drive ahead a U Haul rental is impossible but a good idea.
 
Nice review. I bet the crappy LRR tires were the issue here.

My 14 Ram Sport shipped with Goodyears and they were removed before we had hardly any miles due to the poor roadholding.

And I firmly believe many who have a poor opinion of FCA would love a Ram...
 
That pulling sensation when you tried to pass was likely the lane departure system. If you didn't have the turning signal on it would activate.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
That pulling sensation when you tried to pass was likely the lane departure system. If you didn't have the turning signal on it would activate.

Can that feature be disabled? I haven't driven with it, so it's probably a knee-jerk reaction, but my first thought is "nope don't want it".
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
That pulling sensation when you tried to pass was likely the lane departure system. If you didn't have the turning signal on it would activate.


that's what I initially thought from my post above...
 
Originally Posted by supton
Originally Posted by PimTac
That pulling sensation when you tried to pass was likely the lane departure system. If you didn't have the turning signal on it would activate.

Can that feature be disabled? I haven't driven with it, so it's probably a knee-jerk reaction, but my first thought is "nope don't want it".


it sure can....I have this same truck I hate LKA...
 
lots of trucks around here and on thing i can say about the Ram is the 5.7 and 8 speed tans is really really nice.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
That pulling sensation when you tried to pass was likely the lane departure system. If you didn't have the turning signal on it would activate.


Absolutely not. We did over 200 miles of interstate highway driving on 2 different highways and it did it in some places and not others, definitely the wide flat low pro tires reacting to the center seam. The tire would hesitate when it came to the seam and I'd have to give a tiny bit more steering then it would jump left over the seam suddenly. Same thing going back to the right lane but not every time. When i come up on someone and there's nobody for hundreds of yards behind on the open highway I seldom use a turn signal.

Let me put it this way, I can't say 100% it wasn't some nanny function but I've felt the same reaction in the past when a rut was visible in the asphalt from heavy traffic and you wouldn't hit the center of it with the tire. Whether tires or some safety system function it was unacceptable. The only thing I saw for lane departure was a little light on the dash would go from green to yellow if you weren't centered, never felt it pull the steering wheel.
 
I ran into something similar with the Mazda. It has LDW and I turned off the intervention as they called it soon after I purchased it. Only the visible warning in the HUD remained on. Occasionally I would still get a sense the car was trying to correct me. I double checked that the intervention was off and it was. I turned the LDW off at the switch on the dash and it cleared away. The default though is to be on so this would be another step in the routine. I decided I didn't need the visual in the HUD any longer so I turned that off and that took care of the problem. Maybe it's a bug in the software?

The end result is that the system is on by default. By turning off the visual warning I have to live with the audible warning now unless I turn off the system each time I start up. Fortunately there are several options for audible/sensory warning and the rumble sound is the least intrusive for me.

In short, it's probably a similar bug in the system.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by user52165
Nice write up.

What rental company, how long, and how much?

It would be hard to rent that truck here. U Haul?


Dollar Rental, 4 days, total unknown at the moment but it was cheaper than a minivan. Airport fees kill you.

And coming into the airport at 10 PM with a 2 hour drive ahead a U Haul rental is impossible but a good idea.


Thanks for the info.

Sorry I didn't make my post clear. I meant U haul would be a much more likely option HERE in CA, not for you to use.

Still can't get over why they would rent such a deluxe, heavily optioned truck. And for less than a minivan. Heavy dealer incentive?

Renting that truck here would be very risky. Would probably come back with switched wheels, etc.

Rental costs are all over the place. Varies greatly by area and time. Sometimes airport is less than other places in my experience.
 
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After a call to Dollar it came to $60/day including a prepaid tank of gas.

For those who own this truck could you explain clearly how your lane departure thing works? Maybe I'm not clear with my description but I can't believe what this truck did is how it's supposed to act.

Was thinking the tires on this truck would be worthless in a Pa winter and wonder how the running boards and air suspension stuff would be after a few salty seasons.
 
I was listening to The Smoking Tire (a podcast) and they were talking about how some of the lane departure systems are very aggressive and will "fight" you. I think that's what was happening to you. You should be able to turn it off through the radio (Settings>Driver Assistance I think it's called).
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
After a call to Dollar it came to $60/day including a prepaid tank of gas.

For those who own this truck could you explain clearly how your lane departure thing works? Maybe I'm not clear with my description but I can't believe what this truck did is how it's supposed to act.

Was thinking the tires on this truck would be worthless in a Pa winter and wonder how the running boards and air suspension stuff would be after a few salty seasons.



the LKA on/off is at the top left on the 12" uconnect system....when on it will pulse several times the steering wheel either left or right depending on which section of the solid lines on the road you have crossed. it will also give you a visual and audible warning on the dash display.
 
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