Earlier today, we showed you a short teaser of what must have been the first thing many people thought about the moment RAM introduced the 1500 TRX model: an off-road duel with the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.
After years of solitude in a segment it pretty much created single-handedly, the Raptor finally has guests. And not just any guests but those that look to get you out the door and lock it behind you while they sit on your couch in your spot and drink beer taken out of your fridge. Indeed, with 702 hp and a big V8 engine, the TRX can afford to be a bit of a bully.
So, let's get the technicalities out of the way first. In the absence of a V8-powered Raptor, the Ford performance truck is powered by a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 with 450 hp and 510 lb-ft (691 Nm) of torque reaching all four wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission.
A few months ago, that would have sounded plenty impressive, but now that the RAM 1500 TRX is out, it's become only just... OK. That's because the T-Rex has a 6.2-liter HEMI supercharged V8 good for, as we've said, 702 hp and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm) of torque. This, however, is an off-road challenge, so other numbers and features might count more than brute force.
Photo: YouTube screenshot
Both trucks come with solid axles at the back, yet the Ford uses old-school leaf springs, whereas the RAM goes for coils and a five-link setup. What that means is that, particularly on the road, the latter is going to be a lot more well-behaved.
A look at their weights tells us that TRX suspension is also going to have more work to do as the newcomer tilts the scales at roughly 6,800 pounds (3,084 kg), 800 lbs (362 kg) more than the Raptor. That also has an impact on the vehicle's payload, though it's not as drastic as you might think: with 999 lbs (453 kg), the Raptor has a 33 lbs (15 kg) advantage over the RAM.
As far as the kind of off-roading you can do in Colorado, which is where these two find themselves for this clip, they have very similar approach, break-over, and departure angles. The TRX has a slight advantage in terms of ground clearance (11.8 inches / 300 mm compared to 11.5 / 292 mm) and while they both use 35-inch off-road tires, the TRX has a wider patch to cope with that extra power.
The Ford goes first, and the first part of the trail finds it surprisingly at ease. We say "surprisingly" because even though it's made to go off-road, its creators had a different scenery in mind. This is rock crawling, whereas the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor feels more at home in the desert. That may explain why the rear left tire was rubbing against the wheel arch during the kind of extreme articulation you're very unlikely to get in the desert. Whoops. That's a point to the TRX.
Photo: YouTube screenshot
The TRX follows and clears the obstacles just as cleanly without any rubbing involved. However, we're very early into the trail, and there's already one glaring problem: these two trucks are way too big - particularly wide - to make the experience as relaxing as it could have otherwise been.
Luckily, the team also has a Jeep Wrangler Gladiator there - the off-road-minded, mid-sized pickup truck - to provide a benchmark, if not some comic relief as well. It's fitted with the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6, which means that 1). they'll hear it coming from far away, and 2). it'll consume next to nothing, particularly compared to the other two contestants.
The next tricky segment of the trail has the Raptor scraping the bottom side of its rear against the rocks as it goes up, showing the limitations of that departure angle. A loud bang quickly demonstrates the break-over angle isn't any better either. The TRX only suffered the latter, which probably means it's one more point for the RAM. No worries, though, as the same happened to the Gladiator - the long wheelbase of these trucks just doesn't go well with sharp crests.
All vehicles reach the top with relative ease and no visible damage - lift them, and a few scratched (maybe even dented) skid plates should reveal themselves. Presumably, the TFL team doesn't want to create controversy so they don't give an outright winner. The content, however, seems to suggest the TRX is the slightly more capable one, and we don't just mean the engine. Besides, that tire incident early on makes the Raptor look a little bit silly.
Photo: YouTube screenshot
However, factor in money, and things become a lot more nuanced. With approximately $24,000 between the two ($91,000 for the TRX, $67,000 for the Raptor), the choice between one or the other could very well be dictated by the wallet, and not the head or the heart. And then there's the $35,000 Jeep Gladiator - but only if you settle for a bare-bones version because the red one in the video is just $10,000 less than the Raptor.
So, there is no wrong choice with these three; it's just a matter of which you like best and how much money you want to spend. A bit anticlimactic, granted, but at the same time, you can't really argue against such a conclusion.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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