The ram I drove was a 2020 or 21 1500 Limited I think. It only had about 15k miles on it. So it was nearly new. It was a rental truck I used for a long camping trip from Utah through northern Montana and back down. I was borrowing my in-law's 26 foot trailer. I didn't have a truck at the time and didn't want to use my 4Runner to pull that big of a camper that far. So I rented a truck to pull it and that's what I ended up with just by random selection of the rental agency. I'm not really one for renting like that, but it worked out.
You can feel it when you drive that the RAM is built lightly. For example the truck has uncovered seat tracks that will be exposed to and fill up with dirt and dust, the wiring harness under the seats is not contained in a loom, it's just a rat's next of wires under there. That kind of stuff. My biggest user frustrations were - it was the small crew cab and it's too small for kids seats. The only way it fit was because we only had 1 kid at the time and the child safety seat can fit in the middle of the rear seat and extend between the front two seats. Otherwise I could not physically get into the front seat if it was far enough forward for the child safety seat behind it. So that cab config wouldn't be a viable option for me. The other issue i had was that the dial shifter was really frustrating backing up a camper. If you open the window or the door to look out down the side - the truck will shift on its own from R to Park and put on the parking brake. So trying to back up into a campground parking spot where I'm trying to move around to see out - anytime your butt takes too much weight off the seat it shifts to park and you have to stop and shift back into R and start again. That got real old real fast.
The outward visibility in the Ram was good though. I also think the gen 2 tundra is pretty good. But, the F250 was better. The extending OEM mirrors were pretty awesome. They're HUGE double mirrors and the door cutout to drop them down is really nice. Ford did a great job with that design.
The new 22+ tundra visibility is disappointing. If you haven't driven one - they raised the window belt line about 3 inches above the 2nd gen and visibility is markedly worse. The rear window of the 22+ tundra is almost entirely blocked by the rear seat headrests. I had a 22 tundra at the dealer after selling my F250 and went down to the dealer with the intention of buying it. I thought the test drive would be more of a formality than anything. But after about a 20 minute drive I went back and drove a 2nd gen and after back to back drives I decided that the 22 just wasn't good enough for $70k. It's a lot of little things like paint, panel fit, interior fit and finish that turned me off. But mostly it was the cabin design. It's a few inches smaller inside the new crewmax and the visibility is a lot worse. The bed is slightly smaller. But the truck got 5 inches longer. Ride was not meaningfully different from the older truck IMO. The coil rear is fine, but I don't think you could tell from the driver's seat if you didn't know. I thought the new powertrain was quite nice. Very quiet. Powerful. Isolated. It really feels like diesel power, but no noise, no vibrations, and it doesn't feel quick, but never feels strained at all. I think it'll be really good towing. I'll probably come around eventually and end up buying one, but it could have been really good if they had chosen more utility over styling.
), but my ‘19 feels more like a light 3/4 ton than a half ton. I’m used to a 1 ton diesel and this truck is very capable. I’m running Timbrens now (it’s what I could get at the time) but have bags to go in at some point. I keep a Viair portable compressor in the truck and used it to fill bags for the past 15 years.
