Ram has basically turned its entire line-up of trucks into the equivalent of motorized bodybuilders. They’re muscular, masculine, and loud. Just the way a lot of truckers like ’em. The 2022 Ram 2500 Power Wagon particularly stands out; it’s designed to give heavy-duty variants of the Ram some nice off-road capabilities, whether it be for work or for play. The Power Wagon is basically the Ram 2500’s version of the Ram 1500’s TRX. But there are some differences between the two, and that boils down to the purposes each serves.
While the Power Wagon doesn’t quite have the muscle-flexing capabilities of the supercharged TRX, it’s still quite beastly in its own right. In fact, we’re going to be taking a look at what makes the 2022 Ram 2500’s Power Wagon trim such a beast and why it continues the trend of elevating the macho-infused nature of the Ram brand.
No. 5: WARN Zeon-12 Winch
Winches may not seem like the most hardcore feature for an off-roading machine, but it turns out that they are a heck of a lot more useful than you might have thought. Different kinds of winches have different grades when it comes to recovery, and this also determines how much weight the winch can handle. In turn, all of these characteristics determine what sort of uses it may have depending on the situation.
For instance, if you decide you need to pull the Power Wagon out of a ditch or up a steep mound, a winch would be necessary for completing such a task. The same would apply if you need to lug a fallen tree out of a mud pit or pull debris out of a path. While not every winch may be up to the task, thankfully, the WARN Zeon-12 is. In fact, it has a max winch rating of up to 12,000 pounds.
The Zeon-12 is an electric winch that offers up to 90 feet of high-strength synthetic cable. While you can purchase the WARN Zeon winch separately for trucks, the Ram 2500 Power Wagon has the Zeon-12 embedded directly into the front of the frame, underneath the reinforced bumper. Whether you’re stuck or pulling something heavy, the Zeon-12 is a beastly winch designed to get the job done without a fuss.
No. 4: Front and Rear Lockers
Front and rear locking differentials are essential for off-road antics, whether you’re traversing gravel trails or bumpy dirt roads. You never know when you need the traction of locking differentials when you travel off the beaten path. Thankfully, the 2022 Ram 2500 Power Wagon comes with lockers for the front and rear axles, making it ready for tackling some of the most difficult surfaces out there.
The lockers on the Power Wagon can be activated conveniently from the dashboard within the cabin. After putting the vehicle in the proper drive mode, you can then manually activate the front or rear lockers. You can choose to lock either just the rear differential or both the front and rear differentials. The Power Wagon is the only heavy-duty truck that offers this feature. In fact, not even the TRX has front and rear lockers! That’s part of what makes the Power Wagon into a next-level beast.
Using the indicator on the driver information display unit, you can easily see when the front or rear differentials are locked, and you can tap the buttons on the dashboard to enable or disable them with ease. So when you need that traction to kick up mud on a rainy day to gain a little bit of extra grip while the mud tires are equipped, the lockers are perfect for getting the job done.
No. 3: Sway Bar Disconnect
How are sway bar disconnects beastly? Well, because you won’t get very far in rock climbing without one. You need a heavy-duty rig with a sway bar disconnect to get the most out of the wheel travel when doing hardcore crawls. The Power Wagon’s electronically controlled sway bar disconnect makes it easy to activate or deactivate the feature when it’s time to get serious and move the Power Wagon over some uncompromising terrain.
The highlight here is that you can easily activate or deactivate the sway bar with the push of a button. If you can activate or deactivate lockers, then you can make use of the sway bar disconnect. In fact, the button is right next to the locker buttons. After switching into the appropriate gear, you simply tap the button, and the driver information display will inform you about whether the sway bar is connected or disconnected. The electronics will do the rest.
The benefit of a sway bar disconnect is that anyone serious about climbing, crawling, or trekking through treacherous landscapes will need the wheels to move and travel independently to get the most articulation possible – something that a sway bar is designed to prevent to maintain high-speed stability. Even though the Ram 2500 is a three-quarter-ton full-size pickup, the fact that you can rock crawl with an electronic sway bar disconnect just adds to its beastly appeal.
No. 2: Factory Lifted Suspension
Everyone who is serious about off-road adventures wants a truck with more height, more lift, and more ground clearance. You need it in order to clear the rocks, to avoid tearing up the bumper, and to completely bypass ruining the undercarriage. That’s part of the reason why many off-road-tuned production vehicles boast about ground clearance and breakover angles. The more ground clearance means, the more you can clear while driving.
For the 2022 Ram 2500, the Power Wagon comes with 14.2 inches of ground clearance. This is thanks to a factory suspension lift kit that comes automatically installed. This is usually something people clamor for as an aftermarket add-on for their rig, bragging to friends once they have the kit installed. Yet here, Ram has gone ahead and taken one step out of the process needed to achieve said bragging rights. You buy the Power Wagon; you automatically have the lift kit. All you have to do is drive over stuff.
The beauty of the lift kit, however, is more than just looks and more than just a feature that’s there because people like having it. It’s a necessary and utilitarian upgrade that makes traveling in uneven, steep, or difficult road conditions a much easier and safer task. It essentially raises the water fording capabilities, makes it easier for vehicles to drive through snow, and gives the vehicle extra ride height to reduce friction when traveling through thick mud or heavy debris.
No. 1: Hemi 6.4-Liter V8
Clearly, you won’t be doing any fording, nor any crawling, and certainly not any hill climbs if you don’t have enough power to get a three-quarter-ton full-size pickup moving. And in order to get a truck as big as the Ram 2500 to haul its huge behind over anything, you need an equally big motor. Well, there’s really nothing more beastly on the market in the consumer pickup truck segment than Ram’s Hemi line of finely tuned V8 engines.
It may not be the TRX’s supercharged Hellcat V8, but the 6.4-liter Hemi strapped inside the Power Wagon gets it done. It’s packed with 410 horsepower and 429 pound-feet of torque. This isn’t designed to be an eco-friendly penny-pincher, but anyone buying a heavy-duty pickup, especially of the Ram variety, pretty much knows what they’re getting into. In this case, the Hemi V8 makes no qualms about being short on fuel economy yet long on performance.
If there’s one thing nearly everyone can agree on, it’s that the Hemi V8 engines stuffed into the Ram pickup trucks are a thing of beauty once you hear the ignition turnover. The grumble of the V8 sounds like some kind of king of the jungle waiting to devour whatever comes its way. That’s how a V8 should sound: like the king of the jungle. There’s a reason why this feature tops the list as the main reason why the 2022 Ram 2500 Power Wagon is such a beastly pickup truck and why so many people have fallen in love with the truck.
