2019 Ram 1500 Limited on 2040-cars

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Fort Worth Police investigating officer for using pepper spray on bikers

A Fort Worth Police officer was placed on administrative duties after video surfaced showing him allegedly spraying pepper spray at a group of passing motorcyclists during a traffic stop over the weekend. An officer with the FWPD pulled over one of the group's chase vehicles, a red Dodge Ram, that was escorting riders in case of a crash or mechanical troubles. The video, shot from one of the motorcyclists' helmet cams, caught the FWPD officer exiting his vehicle and, before approaching the truck, spraying something into traffic at the group of riders. WFAA News 8 spoke with the men responsible for the video, Jack Kinney and Chase Stone, via Skype from Longview, TX, on March 13. "It's the last thing I would expect to see," Kinney told the station. "His intent was to hit the bikers for sure, there's no doubt about it," said Stone. "His intent was to send somebody down, if not to cause a major accident with that spray". As the video went viral, receiving more than 200,000 views in 15 hours, people shared videos showing the group of motorcyclists riding in an irresponsible manner through traffic right before the alleged pepper spray incident. Fort Worth Police say they received numerous calls about the pack of riders from motorists on surrounding highways, with complaints ranging from weaving in and out of lanes to popping wheelies through traffic at high speed. News 8 asked Kinney and Stone if it was possible that the officer felt threatened. "If you're worried about safety, why would you pepper spray a large group of bikers like that?" asked Kinney. The Dallas Morning News identified the officer as W. Figueroa. Worth Police released an official statement about the incident late on the afternoon of March 13. They stated that the officer in question, a six-year FWPD veteran, had been relieved of his patrol duties and placed on desk duty pending the investigation. FWPD Corporal Tracey Knight also made a statement indicating that pepper-spraying drivers in oncoming traffic is not a department-sanctioned tactic. News Source: WFAA News 8, The Dallas Morning News Government/Legal Dodge RAM Safety Truck Motorcycle Police/Emergency Videos Sedan road rage bikers

AEV Ram Prospector First Drive

Honestly, the trails that rise above Southern California's Rowher Flats aren't much of a challenge. You can still get yourself hurt if you do something stupid, but the trails are mostly hard-packed dirt with some rocks strewn about. No boulder crawling or river forging here. It's a place that's almost beneath the mighty abilities of the AEV Prospector Ram trucks I'm here to drive. American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has long been in the business of building seriously capable Jeep Wranglers. Wranglers built for crossing Australia or crawling across the Moab. Wranglers converted into pickups and Wranglers done up in fancy Filson duds. They all have the kind of rugged good looks that project positive sunshine competence vibes about the people who drive one. That's no matter how big a dork the doofus behind the wheel actually is. And now AEV has moved on to modifying and producing parts and complete packages for Ram pickups. Because, why not? Actually AEV has been twisting on Rams since at least 2013 when it produced a Ram concept truck for that year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas. And what happened in Vegas hasn't stayed in Vegas. Sitting on the dust at one of the Rowher Flats assembly areas, AEV's two 2015 Ram "Prospectors" look as if they're making the horizon itself cower. It's not like we're going to be scuba diving today, but the snorkels that snake up each truck's right A-pillar are enough to make even the most jaded off-roader slobber in naked desire. These things don't just look great, they look epic – if Homer were around he'd put aside his Iliad to write up this drive. Reaching back into Dodge truck history – when Dodge trucks were Dodges – AEV has adopted the Prospector name for its modified Rams. Back in the late 1970s and through the 1980s Prospector had been used on various Dodge trim and equipment packages fitted to pickups, vans, and the Ramcharger large SUV. Yes, there were even Prospector packages for the Mitsubishi-made D50 small pickup and the Rampage pickup based on the front-drive Omni. The shovel and pick Prospector logo on the AEV vehicles comes straight from those old Dodges. The gray Ram 2500 crew cab is riding on 37-inch tall BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/As surrounding AEV's 17-inch Salta HD wheels and is powered by Ram's latest 6.4-liter Hemi V8. Rated at 410-horsepower by the factory, the gasoline-burning 6.4 Hemi is almost a throwback to the days before every three-quarter-ton and one-ton pickup owner became obsessed with turbodiesels.

Hypermiling a Ram 1500 EcoDiesel to 38.1 mpg

You never quite know what Wayne Gerdes has up his sleeve. The man who coined the term hypermiling is always looking for adventurous ways to prove that anyone – even you... yes, you – can eke out more miles per gallon just by changing the way you drive. Saying that is easy. Proving it by going on outlandish cross-country drives is hard. But for Gerdes and his team of fuel economy fiends over at CleanMPG, hard is half the fun. Our latest adventure appeared, at first glance, to be nearly impossible. Which is why we always answer the phone when Gerdes calls. He likes to take journalists along on his drives, not only to try teach us how to hypermile but also to prove that we can be taught. The first time I 'helped' him and his team was when we got over 30 miles per gallon in a 2011 Ford F-150 XLT with the EcoBoost 3.5-liter V6. The EPA rated that truck with at just 16 mpg in the city and 22 on the highway. So, we'll count that trip as a success. Next up was a cross-country drive last fall in a trio of Audi TDI vehicles to prove that you don't need to drive extra slow to beat the EPA numbers. In fact, we made it from Los Angeles to New York City in just over 46 hours, cramped but not cranky. We had once again proven that how you drive is hugely important to your fuel usage. Our latest adventure appeared, at first glance, to be nearly impossible. The EPA says that the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel we would be driving gets just 22 combined mpg (19 city and 27 highway). Gerdes' idea was to drive it as far north from Houston, TX towards Detroit, MI as we could go on one tank. The day before we left, our itinerary got an extra stop. Instead of taking one of the official Shell Eco-marathon prototype vehicles to Detroit, it was decided to bring the winning diesel-powered prototype from the just-finished event to The Henry Ford Museum, where it had been arranged the car would be displayed. The winning car was built by a small team (just four students) from Sullivan High School in Sullivan, IN, who managed to beat a number of college teams with a score of 1,899.32 mpg. That target would be a bit out of reach for the Ram, but could we get 1,000 miles from the tank? Since the truck has a 26 gallon tank (officially, anyway), that would mean the EPA says we could only go 702 miles, assuming all highway driving. Could we make up 300 miles with careful driving? That spells both challenge and fun.