The 2025 Ram 1500 RHO isn’t a TRX successor. It doesn’t offer absurd horsepower, zero-to-60 mph times that feel scarcely believable on off-road tires, or the wail of a melodramatic banshee fronting a sonic boom of V8 bellow. However, it might have a nobler task to complete — this desert runner features a whole lot of TRX hardware, but Ram has the production capacity to make as many as it wants. The TRX was the halo, the RHO is for the people. Intrigued? Good.
While the 540-horsepower twin-turbocharged three-liter Hurricane inline-six isn’t a Hellcat motor (the Hemi V8 is dead), zero-to-60 mph in a manufacturer-claimed 4.6 seconds isn’t slow by any stretch of the imagination, and a huge vehicle like this running the quarter mile in 13.1 seconds at 105 mph is seriously impressive.
Unusually, alterations to the engine for off-road duty are small. A massive conical air filter that draws air through a functional hood scoop aids airflow into the engine, while equal-length pipes off the turbos with an H-pipe in the mid-section of the exhaust to balance exhaust pressures and a valved muffler are all aimed at letting exhaust gases flow freely while offering a different tone than you’d get in most Hurricane six-cylinder Rams. Interestingly, the inline-six in this thing features dual oil pickups, one at the front of the pan and one at the rear, which should help oiling on steep inclines and descents.
Other key specs? The 2025 Ram 1500 RHO rocks a Dana 60 full-floating rear axle, features a 31-degree approach angle, a 25.2-degree departure angle, a 21.8-degree breakover angle, 325/65R18 (35-inch) all-terrain tires, a towing capacity of 8,380 pounds, and a 1,520-pound payload capacity. Nice.
Should you wish to run bigger tires like 37-inch meats, Ram claims you may have to play with offsets and do a bit of trimming, but that’s way better than a hard no.
It Looks The Absolute Business
It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the Ram 1500 RHO looks similar to the dearly departed supercharged V8 TRX, although look a little closer and you’ll see some styling differences.
Up front, there’s a new grille with a lower kick-up on the bottom edge and a flow-through Ram wordmark that sits higher on new mesh. Speaking of front end components, peep the new headlights. Nice.
As for other cosmetic changes, new taillights and a new graphics package are among the more noticeable alterations, while 18-inch beadlock-capable wheels remain on the options sheet.
Inside, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the 2025 Ram RHO will be familiar to half-ton Stellantis pickup buyers, but there are a few enhancements onboard here. The front seats feature higher bolsters, the truck gains a console-mounted shifter and king-sized shift paddles for banging through the eight gears, and there are auxiliary switches for whatever mods you can imagine. While the base trim still gets a 12.3-inch digital cluster that can bring up all sorts of vehicle data from roll angle to shift lights, along with a 12-inch infotainment screen and a 10-speaker audio system, luxuries like massaging front seats, a 14.25-inch center touchscreen, ventilated rear seats, and a hands-free advanced driver assistance suite are all available as part of an option package called, somewhat confusingly, the RHO Equipment Group.
The TRX-Like Suspension Will Give You Wings
As far as chassis hardware goes, it’s all similar stuff to the TRX but with different tuning, although we have to give a shoutout to remote-reservoir Bilstein Blackhawk E-squared adaptive dampers with variable compression and rebound damping. Ram claims these dampers offer a whole bunch of bandwidth; not only can they can damp body roll on turn-in in sport mode, they help offer 13 inches of front wheel travel and 14 inches of rear wheel travel to let you live out your fantasy of being Nicolas Cage in “Gone In 60 Seconds,” as the press shot below demonstrates.
Yeehaw. It’s safe to assume that during dune heroics, you’re going to want to engage Baja Mode. This drive mode slackens off the dampers and puts 75 percent of torque to the rear axle for fun in the dunes, meaning you should be able to huck some serious powerslides and get some proper hang time. It’s worth noting that Ram claims to have taken 180 pounds off of the RHO’s front axle compared to the TRX (total weight reduction clocks in at 150 pounds), so there’s a possibility this new truck will fly even straighter. Who wants to be a hero?
Damn, It’s Cheap For What It Is
Speaking of heroics, let’s talk price, because Ram is getting aggressive. The 2025 Ram RHO starts at $71,990 including a $1,995 freight charge. That’s $8,335 less expensive than an Ecoboost V6-powered Raptor, and $3,480 less expensive than a Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Hell, that’s only $6,595 more than a Tacoma TRD Pro, which is an entire size class down of truck.
Needless to say, Ram wants to move big numbers, which helps explain both the pricing and why order books for the 2025 Ram RHO are open now. Expect the first examples to roll into showrooms in the third quarter of this year. While the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO isn’t a mega-power TRX successor, it makes big-league Ram-branded off-road fun a whole lot more accessible, and that seems like a brilliant move.
(Photo credits: Ram)
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Let me get this straight. I can get a pickup that has 540 horsepower, can handle jumps, has a great payload rating of 1,500 pounds and can tow 8,000 pounds?
This thing is amazing! A sport truck that can work!
Interesting that they’re competitive on price now. I think the fact that the new motor is emissions compliant gave them an incentive to move away from profit margin towards market share.
No thank you. Same reason the v6 Raptors are languishing and the Raptor R is selling for 20-30K over book. if you want a badass toy, it has to be truly badass.
“The 2025 Ram RHO starts at $71,990 including a $1,995 freight charge. That’s $8,335 less expensive than an Ecoboost V6-powered Raptor, “
That is until dealers get their hands on them, slap excessive markups on then and then later complain they aren’t selling…
Almost none of these are getting markups anymore. Non-R Raptors aren’t. Broncos aren’t. Braptors aren’t. TRXs weren’t (some tried with the last call model or whatever it was, but that didn’t work). ZR2s aren’t…
Well that’s good news. But still, that MSRP is still sky-high.
I bought my first house, a nice 3-bedroom mid-century, in 2011 for $10k less than this. Just goes to show how ridiculous prices in general are.
I don’t understand when I see regular people driving these stupid things. Can people really afford a $1200 car payment?
More than 37% of American households (47 million households!) had an income over $100,000 in 2022, the proportion is surely higher now, so basically the answer is yes.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/
My household income is much higher than that and I could never afford one. Maybe a DINK couple in the midwest where the CoL is much lower.
Something I’ve found here is that people have much different definitions of what “afford” really means. And that many of the commenters are much more financially conservative than the typical American.
My point is simply that with tens of millions of six figure earners, selling a few thousand flagship trucks (or any other vehicle around this price) is not surprising in the least.
It is true about the definition of afford. And I am very much on that financially conservative bend you mention. To me, afford means I can purchase it without any other significant sacrifices or lifestyle changes. My money stretches to the thing I’m trying to afford without real consideration. Could I make my money go far enough to cover the costs of a new vehicle? Yeah, I’m sure I could. But man, the other stuff I would have to eliminate just to drive a new car… I would miss those things more. I drive a shitbox (but one I like) because it frees up lots of money for the rest of my lifestyle. Well, lets be honest, it frees up lots of money for the rest of my wife and kids lifestyles.
An incredibly wise man once said to me something that kind of became a mantra in my life “I hope to one day make enough money to live the lifestyle my wife and kids lead.”
By contrast, spending money on cars is one of the biggest enjoyments in my life.
It’s why I comment here, it’s a hobby I can enjoy with my wife and kids, and nothing I can imagine would bring me the same happiness.
I enjoy building them much more than driving them honestly. I’m a mediocre driver at best, and I don’t drive hard because in my experience driving hard costs extra money (tickets or broken parts). But I love working on them. I even have a rather small youtube channel with my current build on it. Custom fabrication, bringing an idea to life in metal, thats the part of the hobby I love the most. Everything else, like owning and driving them, is just gravy.
My wife works in the financial sector. Auto loans are one of the metrics she has to monitor and she’s truly troubled by the discrepancy in what our economic forecast is with the reality that she’s seeing on a daily basis. Auto loan defaults have been steadily creeping up all year.I guess the silver lining is there are going to be some sweet Repo’s in the next few years.
No offense to you or your wife, but I’ve been hearing this fearmongering basically nonstop for over a decade now.
Unemployment has been at or near record lows for years. Household debt loads are at multidecade lows as a percentage of income. Interest rates might not be dropping, but probably have peaked. Incentives/subsidized rates are replacing ADMs across the car market. For what reason should I expect to see a large increase in defaults?
I’m not saying things are perfect, but I’ll need to see a bit more evidence before I say the sky is falling.
Perhaps it’s a good thing so many folks by things they cannot reasonably afford, otherwise our economy would surely collapse.
Correct. There was a recent article that listed just a few thousand over $300k is what a family of 4 needs to make to be “comfortable” in the Boston area.
2011 was a different world as far as housing prices. What’s that house worth today? I know quite a few people who were fortunate enough to be able to guy pre-2020 that say that there is no way they would be able to afford to buy their house today.
bought mine for 73k in 2011. texas just passed the stupid law giving people 100k off for homesteading so like i said would happen they jacked up appraisal values to make up the difference. my house is at 182k this year. no way in hell it would sell for that. they claim my 8000sqft lot went up from 20 to 30k this year and im expecting them to raise it to 50k next year since land values cannot be exempted with homestead. it was 8k in 2019.
many people pay off their cars or trucks and have a trade in value that comes right out of the loan.
Mixed feelings on these kinds of trucks, but I will say–that’s a hell of a lot of actual buttons. Good job, Stellantis.
Personal opinion, it’s cooler than the Raptor and looks better too. Even though I couldn’t even afford a set of tires for one..
Good luck buying one without markups
I wouldn’t expect to see any. Raptors, Braptors, and TRXs are all available well under sticker now. Only Raptor Rs are still clinging to ADMs and those are dropping (plus this isn’t a direct competitor).
Yeah, you want one Ill order it and sell it to ya under sticker!
WTH does RHO stand for?
Raging hard-on?
“Raging hard-on?”
This is the correct answer. All other answers, including those from the Dodge Ram marketing people, are wrong.
From Car and Driver:
Huh, I don’t hate the name if that’s what it means
Really High Output?
Maybe it’s just a Greek letter?
“Yeah, we’ll show you…F-you Ford! Wait, what? It was a car?? That doesn’t sound right…”
Now I want Ford to build an F-U50.
Wait, isn’t that the Raptor? 😉
Density, or spherical radius or resistivity. (I personally read it as Ram High Output)
It’s cute that this is considered a good price.
It’s only like 5k more than the TRD Pro Taco so in that context it’s a great price
It’s only a little bit more money than something else expensive, so, why not make claims.
If I re-wrote as: at $71,990, it’s less than $2k cheaper than an Audi Q8. So does that make it good or bad?
I don’t think you quite heard the intended snark in my original comment. I’m with ya
10-4
Tone was lost in translation.
This is the correct take. However, don’t forget young men who somehow have enough credit to buy one, but not keep up on the payments.
I’m all about people having good offroad fun, but the majority of these will never go offroad. I will never understand buying an offroad vehicle and never using it as intended. The whole lifestyle truck/jeep thing makes no sense to me. That’s a hell of a premium to pay to cosplay as something you’re not. Seems like a lot of people would be happier by spending that extra money on something more luxurious. I’d be curious if anyone with a pavement princess jeep had ever driven a cadillac knowing that the prices can overlap quite a lot. Would they give it up? Is the image they’re trying to project so important that they’d sacrifice comfort for it?
I do not and will never understand why only trucks get this treatment here.
These trucks are fun to drive on the street! They look cool! With their long-travel suspension and many amenities, they are pretty damn luxurious/comfortable themselves. *Not* liking them is the weird opinion.
Who’s driving a race car to work?
Trucks are lifestyle vehicles. They are meant to project an image. They used to be used by people who did work. Now they are driven by people who want that look. Thusly, lifeSTYLE vehicle.
I’m obviously in the minority, but I’m a fan of honesty. There is nothing honest about buying a thing meant for useful work and then doing zero useful work with it. Changes nothing, people love driving their pavement-princess trucks to make themselves have the feels.
How many M4 CSs or Corvette ZR1s are actually tracked, vs just sit in a garage or become commuter cars in warmer months?
You don’t like trucks, that’s fine, but stop pretending it’s about “honesty” and not personal preference. No one driving anything more aggressive than a Prius is doing it for rational reasons.
You can like trucks all you like, but your comparisons are still flawed and trucks are still silly and wasteful when you don’t use them for truck stuff. Biggest issue is the size and weight.
Lol yeah nothing wasteful about driving a Corvette or Mustang or 911 either right? Perfectly economical choices that are designed for excellence at daily commuting.
Bingo. How wasteful does this guy think it is to own a summer only vehicle. All the energy it goes into making a car, for it to spend 50% of the year in a garage just sitting there. At the very least, most TRX owners are driving them year round.
Sure, it’d be way less wasteful if they had bought a Prius instead, but like you said, that could be said the same for the guy who daily drives an M5. Or at the very least, wouldn’t it have been less wasteful if he got 530i?
I just laugh at these guys because unlike them, I actually own both a 2 seat sports car and a large truck. I have a very keen sense of which one is less necessary to my life and which one is a worse daily commuter.
Well yeah but the difference is…. And you should also remember…. ah hell I got nothing. All these vehicles are excessive.
You need to commute? 10 year old Prius.
You need a work vehicle with cargo capacity? 10 year old Sienna
You need to tow? Squarebody chevy. Or maybe the unkillable straight six 6 Ford truck.
You have a family? I think we are back to the Sienna.
EVERYTHING ELSE IS EXCESSIVE. Sure, there are layers of silliness, and this leans toward the silliest layer. But damn, I like that truck. I wonder how it sounds. I don’t think I’ve even heard the hurricane at all.
I test drove one in a GW and it was definitely strong, but I continue to have my doubts about 182 cubic inches moving that heavy of a vehicle over the long run.
At least in that application it was pretty quiet. Hopefully they tuned the Ram for a bit more noise.
anyone with a porsche or M bmw. The list is longer than that but you get my point. Oh and don’t forget the doge bro’s in their hellcats.
I mean if I had a 911 or corvette I would absolutely drive it to work. Don’t have passengers or anything to carry on that trip.
The trucks are more of a PITA to be around on the road and parking lot and less likely to get you out of trouble when being driven with more bravado than brains with their dynamics. But your point is completely valid, especially when you consider a corvette for example will get the same MPG as this truck.
Why hit the yellow pole? When you can jump over the yellow pole! Checkmate sedan- enthusiast.
I could have sworn you were going to knock on that human on tik-tok that hit the bollard with their Escalade and blamed it on the bollard.
$72K is pretty much exactly where the 2021 TRX started.
Sticker inflation in this style truck is probably the worst of any segment.
I didn’t realize it had gotten so bad until I saw $72k for the Tundra TRD Pro and $64k for the Tacoma TRD Pro. Sheesh……. I can’t think of worse value vehicles purely from a tangible performance vs cost and what is available from the competition. The perception of Toyota’s vastly superior reliability is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Ruh Rho Raggy
A Ram version of the Charger Scat pack widebody. I like it!
Anybody else here still kinda shocked that 540hp from the factory with a warranty and everything isn’t considered “absurd horsepower”?
Just me?
Okay…
just you and the 12 people that liked your comment
I think this truck is a great way to showcase how fucking GREEDY the other manufacturers have been and how abusive to their customers.
This truck isn’t for me, and there isn’t even anywhere in my half of the country you could run it like in the photos, but the gear you get for the price is making all the others look like assholes. Toyota bigly, since their new tundra isn’t really “great” at anything, or offer anything over a single big 3 competitor. Now you have this truck smoking the shit out of their UGLY (the interior) pro for way less.
I’ve also noticed just as many TRX around me as Raptors, if not more. I think this new model will put a nail in the Raptor unless they do some price dropping. I think the price difference is enough to get some guys into Rams that might have traditionally resisted. Good Job on Ram for opening the floodgates and hopefully dropping the price of trucks.
Stealerships will take up that greed left on the table. Then again, Toyota and Ford franchises also demand well beyond MSRP. So only [money>brains] need apply, regardless.
It certainly looks the part, not in a bad way.
I’m puzzled by the comments ridiculing this truck and recycling the same tired tropes. Is it excessive? Sure. Will most people actually use these off road? Unlikely. But it’s a relatively good value for a fun truck that is probably no less fuel efficient than the millions of other full size trucks and SUVs on the road.
I’m thrilled it exists, even though I’ll never buy one. Great work, Stellantis.
I mean, these sorts of trucks are all guilty of the same thing: being wasteful and pointless. Sure, they’ll sell like hotcakes, but that doesn’t change what they are. They are giant Tonka trucks. I’m all for having toys, but the criticism of them becomes valid since they’ve crossed the line into absurd.
When you ride a motorcycle and share the road with these things, you don’t stand a chance. When you are not rich and drive a Kia Rio, if you get hit by one of these things, you’re a pancake. I level the same criticism at overpowered and overweight BEVs also. They’ve also crossed into the absurd for being pointless and wasteful. When you can power your ENTIRE HOUSE off the battery of those things, that’s absurd. I like going fast, and I’m sure I’d be giggling like a moron if I drove a Plaid or Lucid Air Sapphire, but when you put that much weight into something that can go absurdly fast, bad things are gonna happen.
The term you use “excessive” is 100% correct. It’s just that we’re so used to excessive, we’ve grown used to it. Where’s the line anymore or do we just not care? Seems that we’ve just kind of given up on the notion that some things have gone too far. I suppose that’s demonstrated with the existence of the Cybertruck.
I am a massive advocate for small cars and I hate trucks/SUVs in general, but this is a really cool buggy. It’s not the kind of thing you really should drive every day, but you could do much worse if you’re looking for a toy.
I agree that we have become used to the massive size of most new vehicles, and your criticism of all such large vehicles seems fair. My particular point of contention is that people single out specific vehicles (specialty pickup trucks, in particular) but simultaneously seem fine with Suburbans, Expeditions, etc. Having trick suspension shouldn’t render a vehicle more worth of criticism than similarly sized vehicles of a more boring nature.
There are 1700 new raptors and 1200 new TRXs sitting on lots right now with listed discounts as high as $10k. I think this is the swan song for trucks doing car duty with Baja racing horsepower. I was more excited for the new Camry.
Don’t count on it.
Ford and Ram have gotten greedy the last 3 years and jacked the MSRPs up, so discounts are just returning us to normal.
People love these kind of trucks.
What are you talking about, it’s not that bad! <Googles MSRP of Raptor and TRX> Holy fuck, it’s horrible! Downright unbelievable. $98k starting for a TRX!?! $80k for a F150 Raptor doesn’t seem all that bad, especially if it’s got a $10k discount.
From October 2020:
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparison-test/a34429175/2021-ram-1500-trx-vs-2020-ford-f-150-raptor-supercrew/
The Raptor crew cab base price was $58K, and the TRX was $72K. As tested they were higher of course, but nothing like now.
My local dealer has a “Final Edition” TRX with a $125,000 MSRP. I’m sure they would take an aggressive offer on it, but my jaw hit the floor when I saw it.
I do okay, and the new prices on things have me just nopeing right out of the truck market. Even used trucks with 90k miles are going for 40-50k around me if they are a diesel. Its fucking insane. I’ll be riding out my current Tundra probably for the next 10-20 years because I just can’t and it only has 26k miles. It mentally bothers me that we are living in a time like this. But I can do nothing about it, but enjoy my Tundra and pretend its not happening.
My (gas) truck is almost 6 years old with 32,000 miles and would sell in hours if I listed it for what I paid in 2018. It’s wild.
Like you, I plan to keep this one for a while.
I am in the same boat. I have the income to “afford” a new truck, but the thought of a $75k Tundra feels insane. I’ll be driving my 2016 Tacoma until something like sanity returns to the market.
Full disclosure – I drive a lifted truck.
With that in mind; I think the capability and price of this category has grown beyond the appetite of the car buying public. Like muscle cars, personal luxury vehicles and BoF SUVs before them, these trucks will remain but their presence will shrink.
Why?:
A ridiculous vehicle tailor made for Americans to waste gas, tear up the environment, and yell yee-haw! But mostly just see sorry ass single guys sitting in them alone in freeway traffic listening Joe Rogan podcasts.
probably gets better MPG than the new Toyota trucks.
Not where I live. Everyone complains that people pointlessly buy trucks like this as the new family car too. Where I live most families own a truck, often even driven by wives and mothers. Hell my wife drives a lifted Dodge 2500 as her daily (though I prefer my 80s Nissan tuck). Around here, full families get found in TRXs and Raptors. This is just the continuation of that.