With the pricing of crew cab V8 half-ton trucks headed for the moon, it might not be a bad time to look at a heavy-duty pickup if you’re planning on towing often and want proven technology. However, if you want to stick to that $50,000 to $60,000 price range, there’s a good chance a properly basic work truck doesn’t hit the spot for you. With that in mind, and almost as an olive branch for the trimflation we saw in 2021, Ram has two new 2500 variants for those who want style without completely breaking the bank.
The first is the Ram 2500 Black Express, and if you’re familiar with the Ram 1500 Express, you probably know exactly what you’re getting here. We’re talking color-keyed bumpers, a paint-matched grille, and a sport hood, and a cloth interior with carpet instead of rubber flooring.
Since this is the Black Express, it also features black badges, black 20-inch wheels, and black side steps, and this three-quarter-ton truck also gets tow mirrors and front-and-rear park assist. It’s only available as a crew cab, but you can have your pick of two- or four-wheel-drive, and a long or short bed. Not bad for a base price of $53,735 including freight, $4,365 less than a 2025 Ford F-250 STX.
That’s the affordable street-look truck end of things covered, but what about an affordable off-road package? That’ll be the Ram 2500 Warlock, and while it does sticker for $57,165 including freight, you do get quite a lot. It starts with a crew cab short bed Ram 2500 Tradesman and adds a set of 34-inch Goodyear Duratrac A/T all-terrain tires wrapped around 20-inch wheels, then builds on that with Bilstein dampers, a skid plate for the transfer case, a limited-slip rear differential, hill descent control for tricky declines, and all-weather floor mats so you don’t muddy the carpets.
Cosmetically, you’ll be able to pick out the Ram 2500 Warlock by its black grille, bumpers, and fender flares, power tow mirrors, and Warlock badging. It’s worth noting that a 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD Custom stickers for $1,870 less and offers a competitive set of tires and an auto-locking rear differential, and a crew cab 2025 Ford F-250 XL with the FX4 package and the XL off-road package is $1,635 less expensive, gets an extra skid plate and a locking rear differential, but doesn’t feature as many cosmetic parts. Interestingly, if 2026 Ram 1500 Warlock pricing holds, the 2500 Warlock might actually work out slightly cheaper than a 1500 Warlock with the 5.7-liter Hemi V8. Plus, it’s only $1,075 more than a crew cab V8-powered Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Custom Trail Boss, albeit down on skid plate count compared to the half-ton Chevy.
As expected, both the Black Express and the Warlock come standard with Ram’s familiar 6.4-liter V8 engine pumping out 405 horsepower and 429 lb.-ft. of torque, but you can option either with the 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel inline-six with 430 horsepower and a whopping 1,075 lb.-ft. of torque. Competitive stuff, but the thing that might really tip the scale is Ram’s new 10-year or 100,000-mile powertrain warranty. That’s five years or 40,000 miles longer than the powertrain warranty on the Ford Super Duty and the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD. Anyway, if you’re interested in a Ram 2500 Black Express or Ram 2500 Warlock, order books are open now, with deliveries starting in the third quarter of this year. As far as reasonably priced heavy-duty trucks go, these ones seem pretty alright.
Top graphic image: Ram
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What is a “three quarter ton truck”? This thing weights close to 3 tons
Oh my. What did they do to the headlights??? Whoa.
3/4 ton trucks have always had a surprisingly small price premium over 1/2 tons. What you give up though is a lot of day-to-day liveability. They ride worse unloaded and they get significantly worse fuel economy. Plus they’re even taller than the 1/2 tons everyone complains are already too tall.
If you need the 3/4 ton capability then it’s a no-brainer to get one, but if you don’t then you really shouldn’t, even if they’re not much more expensive.
With the Dodge I can see going for this for an offroad build, the solid front and stronger rear axles are a significant upgrade over the half tons.
Not a lot of folks will be doing this, but if one wanted to run 38 or 40″ tires, that Warlock would be a great starting point compared to a 1500 from anyone.
the better party trick is to get the tradesman in black with the optional power wagon package. with a Vinyl seat and the 12 inch stack. that gets you a massive discount over the full tilt Power wagon and with the gas motor it nets you decent towing still. Though the soft Power wagon offroad bit do reduce it a bit, you still get quite a bit and then some. I nearly got that over a bighorn with the sport package until I saw the 4.10 gearing. the 3.73 had a bit more towing capacity and was already showing 13 mpg.
I actually had a better time finding the vehicle for cheap with the diesel motors, but I know in my heart I would never put enough miles on the thing each time I drove it to really warrant the extra maintenance costs and fuel prices, also repairs as diesels do no seem to like to sit around much.
It’s strange that the 2500/3500 RAM are still using the old cab with smaller back seat and driveshaft hump than the bigger ’19-current 1500 crew cab. Any RAM insiders know why this is??
I’m not a Stellantis insider, but as a Stellantis outsider I would assume it’s the usual glacial pace of product development they’ve demonstrated over the past couple of decades.
This isn’t anything new…..Ford is using their old model year 2000 cab for their current Super Duty F650-F750 heavy duty trucks..Those cabs are all still made out of steel too just like in the year 2000 when it was introduced…Whereas all of Fords other trucks have transitioned to aluminum bodies…..Ford also uses the same exact cab for their current E-Series van cutaway model that they designed way back in 1991….That’s over 35 model years ago for Christ’s sake….Ford makes so much profit on every one of these E-Series vehicles that the tooling was paid for well over 30 years ago…..Talk about milking a product for eternity.
Yeah, I suppose that is a good analysis. But I just thought with so many people using these for their all purpose family vehicle who might also require the capability of towing etc., for the 2500 model they would’ve leveraged the half ton pick up cab have a crowd pleaser and segment topper for rear room.. oh well profit I suppose.
I agree with you…Ram should use the newer body style or a totally new body style…..But all they want to do is milk the profits…..I bet when Stellantis does a completely new 1500 series truck,that the heavy duty versions will get the current 1500 series body as an upgrade….But that could be another 5-7 years.Maybe longer.
Around here, most RAM 2500 are driven by folks who insist they need a Cummins Diesel engine when they actually do not. Their actual transportation/towing/hauling needs could be easily accomplished with a half-ton truck, or a Corolla (probably).
I’ve noticed that the base model trucks tend to be the most attractive, IMO.
The Silverado Custom, GMC Altitude, F150 STX, and these Rams all look better to me than the higher end versions slathered in chrome and huge wheels.
I really dig the look of that Warlock.
No mention of 3/4 Ton MPG, which I’m sure is pretty low and would bankrupt me in short order.
I’m pretty sure vehicles over a certain GVWR (3/4 ton and up) are not rated by the EPA.
Sure, but they ARE rated by the owner’s wallet.
10 city, 13-14 highway is pretty accurate for any gas HD. Diesel a bit higher.
I’d be burning 6 gallons a day just to go to work and back. Yikes!
Mine is a bit more economical than that.
13 in town, 19 on the Highway. but yeah, pretty bad. If you are buying any 3/4 ton truck and worry about Fuel economy, you should not not be buying a 3/4 ton truck. Or be like a lot of other autopians and have a fleet of other things to drive. My Harley gets around 50mpg, pretty regularly. Challenger, 17 in town, 24 on the highway. I use those 2 quite a bit for longer routes.
Up until recently, a Tacoma would get around 19 on the highway. That’s quite efficient for a HD truck.
My 4Runner has an average MPG of 19.6 over the past 50K miles.
I think maybe the MSD has something to do with this, but it has done far better than expected. I would probably be fine with 16-17 if I could do away with the MSD though. it is definitely not ass bad as the AFM/DFM thing for GM, but IT is still a Hemi problem I would happily see gone.
MDS
Does anyone else have a visceral reaction to pictures of trucks with leveling kits? I just kinda shiver and how stupid they look. It’s not mentioned in the article, but that Warlock sure looks leveled.
While I agree, in this case the Warlock’s front ride height doesn’t look any higher than the Black Express right above it.
Fair, I think maybe they are both leveled, then.
might just be the Ram HD design, the front of these things with 4WD sits up a lot higher than I would expect compared tot he past. there is a lot of empty space under the radiator on these things to clear the solid axle front suspension and steering bits.
Agreed. If a person levels their truck, then they are not using it as a truck; they should have just bought the damn minivan.
Unless one takes their truck off road more than they tow/haul, but of course most people who get leveling kits are doing so for aesthetics.
Yeah, I shouldn’t have said it like I did. I don’t like yucking someone’s yum.
My idea of beauty in a machine is when its form follows its function. People want to spend money to make their truck less safe and/or effective when carrying a payload, let them.
To answer Church’s question, though, I do get the visceral reaction.
Nowadays the nose down stance that trucks have is as much for fuel economy as it is for load handling.
the 3/4 view combined with the “sport hood” that raises the front belt line can really play an optical illusion. you would need a flat profile view to tell for sure what the suspension is doing.
Depends. I think it looks good to a point, some trucks are ridiculously high in the rear, but perfectly level does rob some function, even on something like a 4Runner.
GM had a real problem with raising the hood lines to comical status more recently. Ford has dropped the hood down a bit or maybe raised everything else? Not sure, but they look more balanced from a design standpoint. all are ridiculously overtall. if I need a step ladder to check the oil, that is a problem
I noticed that too. If you look at the front fender openings, for instance, there’s quite a bit of sheetmetal between the top of the fender and the wheel arch. If you look at trucks from a few generations ago, that section of the body appears much shorter, along with hood height.
73-87 and 88-99 trucks are downright svelte in comparison.
I had a 70’s Chevy 4×4 when I was a kid, it was on 35″ tires and a 4″ lift. I think modern trucks stand taller at stock height.
I can say that on a 78 K5 Blazer, 31 inch tires seemed massive at the time. now they are almost comically small. you had to really do some mods to fit 35’s. But, I will say the modern trucks also seem to have a lot more wheel well space than before, I tend to wonder if this was not on purpose to allow bigger tires without a bunch of mods? Or maybe so the factory could build one truck and uprate them by simply offering 17 inch to 20 inch wheels.
Leveling kits make you shiver? What happens to you when you see a lifted or squatted truck?
You don’t even want to know! Generally, though: lifted = angry. Angry that you ruined it. Lowered? An appreciative nod (comparatively rare where I live).
When I bought my 1500 Ram I wanted to get rid of the high rear low front look that it came with. I bought a set of rear springs that were 2″ lower and leveled my truck without raising the front. Same load rating as the stock springs and made it just a bit easier to use the bed.
Way better idea than lifting it! Kudos.
The price of trucks is too damn high!
Maybe, but with inflation factored in, they’re not that expensive. Most manufacturers also throw a ton of cash on the hoods.
everything is, especially if you are the 45-55 crowd. I am seeing way too many of the X crowd making the complaints about prices being way to high these days. it’s almost like they have not had raises or promotions and the inflation is passing them by, or their Member Berries are kicking in and missed it when changes occurred.
Last I heard the Ram 2500 had a ~250 day supply of vehicles. Makes sense they’re increasing the warranty and creating cheaper trims.
The biggest selling point, in my opinion, of the Warlock is the lack of that heinous grille on the Rebel and Powerwagon
Agreed. This is far less ugly than the nonsense they have done with pretty much all of the higher trims.
My HD Ram driving coworker will be excited about this. Gets a new truck every 2-3 years, bitches about how expensive they’ve gotten, and at the end of the 2-3 years I don’t think the bed has been used for anything besides groceries (and maybe a rare motorcycle), and the hitch hasn’t been used at all.
I still struggle with anyone out there driving a 2500/3500 (with the additional cost of fuel, size, purchase price, and hassle) and not using it for towing and heavy hauling, but I see it from time to time.
IMO, there are way too many “butch” 1500 models out there, you shouldn’t have to compromise. For me, a 2500 only makes sense if I’m planning to get a fifth wheel (which we almost did during Covid…but glad we didn’t, between crappy build quality and my job forcing RTO even though I’ve always been remote)
If they made half tons with crew cabs and 8 foot beds, I wouldn’t need to drive an HD. I do tow and haul; maybe not enough to justify a 350 truck, but enough that a short bed isn’t going to do it for me.
The “butch” ness of it has nothing to do with it.
Yep, I was strictly referring to people buying for image — the point being that today’s 1500 models look closer to 2500 models from a decade ago, so they can make their point without all the tradeoffs and things they don’t need.
the 1500 tow capacity is getting closer now as well. though you do pay a penalty if you try to tow too long of distance at the max capacity usually.
The tow rating is, but in practice the half-tons are going to be limited to way below that by payload (which mostly hasn’t changed all that much)
Most people don’t use their cars to their full capacity. How many people drive minivans with only 2-3 people in the household? How many people drive an Accord or Camry with 4 of the seats empty during their commute? How many people have AWD’s and live somewhere with no snow?
Americans buy cars for what they can do and not necessarily what they use them for all the time.
Yeah, we should probably stop that, as a culture. There’s got to be a better way.
Why though? People feel good about being able to do all the things.
“ People feel good about
being ablePRETENDING to do all the things.”There… fixed it for accuracy for many instances.
Guilty as charged on the minivan, but to be fair, it’s no less efficient that my other car (at half the size). I don’t think there’s a problem with excess capacity unless it comes with a big tradeoff in fuel economy, parking, etc.
Maybe in a city, but there’s plenty of room in the country and suburbs for big vehicles. I get the MPG’s comment to a degree, but the owner pays for the extra fuel. These trucks also get more efficient as time goes on.
Maybe not the HD’s, but I find it wild thar half tons can get 20’s on the highway these days. My buddy’s F150 crew cab 4×4 gets better MPG than my 5th gen 4Runner.
But we all pay for the emissions, no?
Perhaps. But also, some of these bigger vehicles are jack-of-all-trades vehicles that many need. Also, some people only have enough room for 2 cars and a big HD truck can be used for daily driving, any home depot run one could need to do, and pulling a trailer to go camping once or twice a year. These trucks are also getting cleaner and more efficient as time progresses.