1949 Dodge 5 Window Pick Up on 2040-cars

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Towing with the 2016 Ram lineup [w/video]

I do not tow things. Ever. Yet I recently found myself at the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles proving grounds in Chelsea, MI, where I'd be testing the hauling capabilities of Ram's current product range. This experience was not only a perfect education for a towing novice like me, but allowed me to tow far more weight than I'd ever consider hauling the real world, and all within the safe confines of the Chelsea Proving Grounds. There was an extremely diverse array of vehicles at my disposal, including Ram's gasoline- and diesel-powered offerings with trucks ranging from the 1500 on up through the 5500 Chassis Cab, as well ProMaster vans. Beyond that, FCA brought out a number of vintage Dodge pickups for me to play with, while also working with Case IH to provide a track-loader I could test. I put together a range of videos covering everything from the classics to the production trucks to the construction equipment. And despite some technical difficulties – you'll notice a distinct lack of in-car videos, with blame going to a corrupted micro SD card – I've assembled ten videos that give an up-close look at Ram's offerings. 2015 Ram ProMaster City Let's start small. The ProMaster City only has a towing capacity of 2,000 pounds. That's a reasonably impressive figure for a van that uses the same powertrain as a Chrysler 200. The 2.4-liter four-cylinder and nine-speed automatic weren't really bothered with the extra weight added by the trailer. Even when accelerating at freeway speeds, the ProMaster City didn't feel out of breath or hampered by its load. That said, the rear of the van was unloaded, which probably wouldn't be the case for most consumers. It's unclear how the City would feel if its driver were taking advantage of the max payload (1,883 pounds) and towing. 2015 Ram ProMaster 1500 To be polite, the Ram ProMaster is a difficult vehicle to like. Its awkward seating position is bus-like and lacks the visibility enjoyed by the Ford Transit or the utter driving comfort of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Its 3.0-liter, four-cylinder turbodiesel engine, meanwhile, is something of an anomaly. While it's potent for a four-cylinder diesel, producing 295 pound-feet of torque and 174 horsepower, those numbers don't feel all that impressive when loaded down. The model I tested was barely using half of its 5,100-pound maximum towing weight and was loaded down with just 500 of its 3,620-pound payload. Yet it lacked the pluckiness of the smaller City.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: The next five years

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you've no doubt read about all of the big future product news coming out of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles today. We had individual brand reports from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Maserati and even Ferrari, but in the interest of simplifying and summarizing, we're going to list out the hard facts once more. Of course, with all of this still off in the future, there's still the possibility that a few changes will be made. But as of what we know right now, here's what's coming, and what's going away.
Chrysler
2014: Refreshed 300/300C, debuting at Los Angeles Auto Show

The Dodge Demon gets a Drag Mode and a lesson in Newtonian physics

It's Thursday morning, which means we have more news on the upcoming Dodge Demon, the pumped-up Challenger Hellcat variant that's looking to cause mayhem at a drag strip near you. This week's video, "Third Law," shows the Demon's revised suspension in action and displays another one of SRT's cryptic messages. Dodge claims that the 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 in the Hellcat twins is compromised because it's fitted to a car that needs to be comfortable on the street in addition to a performer on the drag strip. Not so with the Demon, as Dodge says the car is "designed to be highly competent in all drive modes and configurations," including the all-new Drag Mode. Dodge says details about the new mode will trickle out over the next few weeks, but all the info this week focused on suspension. The "Third Law" in this week's title refers to Isaac Newton and motion: "When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body." We're not sure what Newton would have thought seeing the sidewall wrinkling Nitto NT05R drag radials in action, but he'd probably have a reaction of some sort himself. An ideal suspension setup for the drag strip makes for a poor setup on the road. As Dodge puts it, the "old school" way to set up a drag car was to "get the quickest reacting springs upfront, the softest rebound front shocks that wouldn't restrict the springs' reaction, remove any restrictions (sway bar) and increase the compression of the rear shocks." This would give a car great front to rear weight transfer but made for very poor lateral direction control, meaning minor corrections were difficult. The Demon's Drag Mode will use electronics to give the car the best combination of launch and lateral stability. Dodge listed some of the parts to help aid in this goal. They also gave us a few equations that we can't make sense of. Let us know if you have any clues. Hardware: 35 percent lower rate front springs/28 percent lower rate rear springs 75 percent lower rate hollow front sway bar/44 percent lower rate rear sway bar Drag-tuned Bilstein Adaptive Damping Shocks Software: Rear = F/F and Front = F/S F/F – F/S maintained @ wide open throttle (WOT) F/F – F/F < WOT Traction control disabled/ESC maintained Result: 13.5=575@500 Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.