The second-generation Dodge Ram is one of the most iconic pickup trucks in American history. It was the primary truck behind why the pickup trucks of today all try to look like scaled-down big rigs and part of the reason why pickup trucks are now as much style statements as they are work vehicles. Yet, the United States actually didn’t get the weirdest version of its icon. Meet the Dodge Ram 6500 and Ram 7000, two medium-duty commercial trucks built just for Mexico.
Medium-duty trucks have an important position in the truck market. They’re the sorts of trucks that you buy when you need something bigger and heavier than a heavy-duty pickup truck, but when the work you need done doesn’t require a full-fat semi-tractor. School buses are often built on medium-duty platforms, as are box trucks, tow trucks, utility trucks, and the largest U-Haul moving trucks.
Currently, you’ll find medium-duty rigs among dedicated truck producers like International and Freightliner, but also by automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. Trucks built by the Big Three join their medium-duty line to their famed truck nameplates, the Silverado, F-Series, and Ram, respectively. As far as the U.S. Federal Highway Administration is concerned, trucks start becoming “medium-duty” once they reach the Class 3 mark, which is defined as a truck with a gross weight rating of 10,001 pounds to 14,000 pounds. Yep, that means that, in the eyes of the government, the Ford F-350 is a medium-duty truck. Per the feds, the medium-duty range ends at Class 6, which covers trucks with gross weights of 19,501 pounds to 26,000 pounds.
Add one more pound, and you get to Class 7, which goes up to 33,000 pounds. American states will require their drivers to have an upgraded license to drive work trucks like these. Some states start enforcing license weight classification rules earlier. In my case, my home state of Illinois requires a license upgrade at 16,001 pounds.
The Chevrolet Silverado medium-duty range, which rises up to the Class 6 Silverado 6500 HD, has been in production since 2019 and succeeded GM’s old legendary TopKick and Kodiak series, which ended production in 2009. Meanwhile, Ford has pretty consistently built medium-duty chassis F-Series-branded trucks since 1948 and currently sells medium-duty trucks up to the Class 7 F-750, plus the F-53 and F-59 motorhome chassis.
Then there’s Ram, which currently stops at the Ram 5500 Class 5 chassis cab as its medium-duty lineup. If you’re looking for a truck that’s even bigger with the legendary Ram logo, you’re out of luck in the new market. You won’t find a Class 7 Ram in the mid-2000s, either, though you were able to buy the Ram 5500 as the Sterling Bullet.
If you’re a Ram truck fan and want to go big, you just need to drive south of the U.S. border, where Ram once sold extra-large trucks in the form of the awkward Ram 6500 and Ram 7000.
An American Revolution
The Ram 6500 and Ram 7000 are members of the iconic second-generation Ram, which sold from 1993 to 2002. If you don’t know why I keep calling this truck “iconic,” let my previous reporting do the heavy lifting:
In 1986, Chrysler’s Advanced Package Studio produced the first design study for the then-upcoming truck. It was dubbed the Louisville Slugger and while the truck was plenty utilitarian, it looked like a minivan with its roof chopped off. The truck was perfectly inoffensive, like the kind of cars a video game developer makes to avoid licensing issues. Unfortunately, bland looks weren’t the Louiville Slugger’s only problem. It had a spacious cab and large box, but the engine bay was too small to fit the Cummins or the planned V10 engine. That was a non-starter and the design study was dropped in 1987.
Later that year, design transferred to the AMC/Jeep design studio, and that crew produced a new truck, nicknamed Phoenix, but that one reportedly looked a bit like a clone of the Ford F-150. Oops. In 1989, executive Bob Lutz and executive Francois Castaing decided to can the Phoenix as well. Instead of sending the truck’s designers back to the drawing board, Lutz ordered the development to be restarted from the beginning with six months to come up with something new. In addition to starting from scratch, the designers would work from start to finish in Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application.
When it came to the design, the mission was to be original and go bold. The truck’s designers went flipping through the pages of Dodge’s past at its Power Wagon trucks from World War II. Along the way, they found American big rigs, and that sparked an idea. Chrysler former vice president of design Tom Gale noted to Ars Technica in 2021 that the second-generation Ram had retro style. But, instead of borrowing from Chrysler’s past, designers copied the looks of Kenworth and Peterbilt semis.
The second-generation Ram was a quantum leap in truck design. Sure, there had long been trucks that dripped with hot style, but the Ram took this further, and turned pickup trucks into fashion statements. Now, pickup trucks weren’t just the tools for hard labor, but an aspirational vehicle that you might park in front of your house in suburbia, even if you’ve never towed a trailer in your life.
The second-generation Ram was a runaway success, with sales spiking a huge 143 percent in the 1994 model year. Buyers were ravenous, and the 1995 model year saw sales jump another 77 percent over the previous year. Dodge, which held a lousy 6 percent of the truck market in the early 1990s, now had over 20 percent of the market. Sales were only part of it, because seemingly everyone loved the new Ram. The truck won Motor Trend‘s Truck of the Year award in 1994.
Complementing the small big rig looks was a drivetrain lineup that was seemingly for everyone. Frugal buyers and fleets were able to get their trucks with a baby 3.9-liter Magnum V6, and if you were power hungry, a burly 8.0-liter Magnum V10, and the iconic Cummins 5.9 turbodiesel offered stump-pulling power.
Mexico’s Weird Rams
Yet, for how great the second-gen Ram was, the United States never got to experience every variation of it. By now, many car enthusiasts know about the Mexico-only Ram Charger above, a nod to the old Ramcharger, but with a fresh platform and a new face.
If you want to read more about that truck, click here, because I wrote about it. However, I do have an update for the Mexico Ram Charger, and it’s that most of them are now completely legal to import! What’s neat is that, if you’re looking to dip your toes into car importation, the Ram Charger is a great place to start because you wouldn’t have to load it onto a boat. If you have a passport, you could even just drive down south and take a look at one with your own eyes.
There’s one more variant of the second-gen Ram that we didn’t get, and these were made for some real heavy work.
Sadly, I could not find any press releases or anything of the sort to accompany these trucks. But what I can tell you is that, in Mexico, Ram had a different medium-duty line than what we got just north. These trucks were also available for the run of the second-gen Ram.
Mexico’s medium-duty range started with the Dodge Ram 3500, which isn’t that noteworthy, but then things got weird immediately after. Next up was the Ram 4000. This truck was the same as the Ram 3500, including engine, cab, and overall dimensions, but featured 3,274 pounds of cargo carrying capacity, compared to the 3,041 pounds that the Ram 3500 could carry.
Moving up from there were the Ram 6500 and the Ram 7000. Now these trucks were major departures from the lower Rams. These trucks had some of the same engines as the lower models, but their own chassis, axles, and unique drivetrain options. What made them stand out was the fact that the larger medium-duty Ram trucks used the cabs from the lower models, but with goofy bodywork extensions to fit over the larger frame.
While Dodge’s execution of putting a lighter-duty cab on a medium-duty truck looks absurd, this isn’t unheard of. General Motors loves slapping cabs from lower trucks on bigger trucks.
According to Dodge, the Ram 6500 and 7000 were available in four wheelbase lengths, which were 163 inches, 203 inches, 227 inches, and 247 inches, respectively. In Dodge’s eye, the smallest trucks were great for armored truck platforms, tow trucks, dump trucks, and as a small semi-tractor. On the other end of the scale, Dodge say the 246-inch trucks being used as tankers, school buses, transit buses, furniture delivery trucks, and lumber trucks.
No matter your choice of wheelbase, your Ram 6500 had a gross weight up to 28,000 pounds while the Ram 7000 got up to 31,000 pounds. Carrying capacities were 9 tons and 10 tons, respectively.
Buyers had access to some interesting engine choices. On the low end was a 5.9-liter gasoline Magnum V8, which was good for 240 HP and 330 lb-ft of torque in this application. If you wanted an alternative fuel, that same engine was available in a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) conversion. The LPG-powered trucks made the same torque, but backed down to 210 HP.
These big Rams also had two diesel engines. One was the legendary Cummins 5.9-liter straight-six turbodiesel, which was good for 175 HP and 420 lb-ft of torque in this application. The oddball was a 5.8-liter Perkins turbodiesel rated for 180 HP. Dodge said that all of these engines complied with U.S. EPA 1994 regulations. Backing these engines up was a choice of an Eaton Fuller 5305 E or 5305 G transmission.
The brochures touted the Ram 6500 and Ram 7000 as being business on wheels and that it was one of the most affordable medium-duty trucks on the Mexican market. Sadly, I could not find original prices for these trucks, but you can find them for sale in Mexico for between the equivalent of $5,000 to $30,000 today.
I also have not found any official explanation for why these trucks were not sold in the United States. The best guess I have is that, for a while, Dodge, Freightliner, and Sterling Trucks were all under the same DaimlerChrysler umbrella, and the latter two brands already sold medium-duty rigs in the United States. Dodge wouldn’t have needed to market the Ram 6500 and Ram 7000 here.
Yet, Dodge felt that there was a market for this in Mexico, just like it did for the Mexico-only Ram Charger. However, like the Ram Charger, Dodge also didn’t feel the need to offer these large models past the second-generation Ram.
I would love to know more about these trucks and fill in the gaps for what I was not able to find. Why did Dodge sell these trucks? Why did Dodge stop selling its unique variants of the second-generation Ram? How much did these cost new? If you know the answers to those questions or even have some delicious press copy, drop me a line at mercedes@theautopian.com.
Otherwise, enjoy these trucks as sort of weird spin-offs of one of America’s favorite old pickup trucks. They’re second-gen Rams, but scaled up high and heavy with a dash of weird. If you collect big trucks, I wouldn’t blame you if you took a vacation down to Mexico and brought one of these bad boys back.
While Dodge dropped their pickup-cab based medium trucks after 1977 or 78, they continued producing them in Mexico for many years and these I believe succeeded them.
Also pickup-cab based mediums were pretty much the norm until the Big Three dropped out for a while. And now most of the big-rig makers’ mediums have modified COE cabs.
I love the general look, but I wish we could find better photos.
Re parts availability, Im going through the nightmare of removing a starter from a second gen Cummins, so I can tell anyone how to do it if they need to know.
Turns out there is a serious parts shortage for OEM Denso parts and even worse for factory rebuilt or new starters.
I found a new one with help from Denso heavy parts, but the biggest distributors are out.
My experience when the interaction between the distributor and my bank froze the order in computer purgatory, can only be explained with dolls and a therapist.
If you can’t get a part, I suggest going to the manufacturer if you can.
I have four real parts numbers, one from Chrysler, one from Cummins, and two from Denso!
I’ve also learned you can use heavy duty transmissions from the heavier models if you have the Cummins engine, like 6, 7, and 8 speed manuals, or the Allison automatics.
The engine in the Internationals marketed as identical in pickups as Power stroke, is only the same block, but ends there, so mechanics tell me.
“While Dodge’s execution of putting a lighter-duty cab on a medium-duty truck looks absurd…”
I mean, I might be alone here, but am I the only one who doesn’t think it looks weird?
Like, at all?
It just looks like a natural size progression…
They were also used to make buses in Mexico. https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiautomotiveart/posts/1263421838512360/
Hopefully that loads.
No offense, but those photos are from an account literally called ‘AI Automotive Art’, so very much not real. But that doesn’t mean a Ram 7500 bus isn’t out there somewhere.
You’re absolutely right. There is a real one, I’m trying to find it though. Scroll down and here ya go (different generation of Ram though): https://www.allpar.com/threads/ram-4000-higher-capacity-ram-3500-chassis-cab-for-mexico.229488/?post_id=1085223586&nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#post-1085223586
RIP Allpar. It used to actually be functional, but alas.
Yeah, it used to be a super helpful site. I remember when Autoblog and Jalopnik were my go-to’s. This is the spiritual successor to Jalopnik and I’m happy with that. I definitely do not miss TTAC when Ass err Jack Baruth was there.
I loved seeing these in Mexico in the mid ’90s as a car-obsessed teen on a HS class trip.
the other Ram nobody talks about is the 700. it starts under 20K in Mexico, could compete with the Maverick if given an EREV option, but likely will never make it to the US because it does not have all the NHTSA traffic Nannies, and those were put in place, it would likely put it 10K higher with regard to starting price.
Wow I had no idea this existed! Would be cool to import one someday. Although my 2nd gen 1500 is more than adequate for my needs. There’s a lot to like about 2nd gens, particularly in comparison to more modern trucks.
I’ve loved the 2nd gen Ram ever since Twister came out. I still think they look best in red.
2nd gen rams are my favorite truck. I’ve always wanted to get my hands on a medium duty. It was my understanding they were already building the 2nd gen in Mexico and it was made for a cheaper option in the Mexican market. Sterling had the US and Canada medium duty market covered. What’s interesting is 3rd gen ram bodies were used by sterling for medium duty in north America and I believe Australia. The Australian medium and heavy duty trucks are quiet interesting. Paccar is big there for heavy. Sterling and Ford used to be big for medium possibly still are.
This generation Dodge Ram on Walker Texas Ranger single-handedly turned me into a car person when I was a child. I had no idea this truck existed! Talk about mind blown!
Are those split rims?? I know they made a couple different types of those wheels, one is a hell of a lot more dangerous and I thought they were phased out by the 1980s
Dont believe so
Look like Dayton split rings
Widowmakers!
Weren’t the split ones supposed to be worked on in a cage?
That red dually pictured above, with the short cab, cab lights, and chrome wheels and chrome bumper might be the best-looking pickup truck ever made. I’m not usually one for the “good ‘ol days,” but in this case I make a 3500 sized exception.
Not the first time Ram AKA Dodge did this- When the ABS air brake requirement became law in the U.S. in 1975 Dodge dropped out of the retail market for air braked trucks. But for a couple years after Dodge built air braked trucks for the U.S. military and export markets.
Just needs the headlights moved into the bumper to complete the look.
“While Dodge’s execution of putting a lighter-duty cab on a medium-duty truck looks absurd,”
I guess you haven’t seen the 1960s Dodge L600 and L700 medium-duty trucks that used the cab from the A100 pickup truck/van. Wanna talk about absurd?
https://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/dodge-once-made-the-coolest-cab-over-trucks-in-the-world-the-story-of-the-l600-and-l700-here/
Oh no, not another rabbit hole! 🙂
GM did the same thing, more recently, with the third-generation Chevy Kodiak and GMC TopKick (2003-2009), where the cab is closely related to the long-running Chevy Express full-size van.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Kodiak
Fun fact about Chevy’s current Medium Duty trucks is that International actually builds them for GM and offers their own version called the International CV. Basically both truck lines have an International chassis, Allison supplied 1000/2000 automatic transmissions, and then GM supplies the cabs and Duramax V8 diesel engine. It’s why when people need parts for the GM ones they sometimes come to the International dealer I work at since a lot of the time (or at least this is what customers tell me) the local Chevy dealers around here tell em to kick rocks bc “International made it, not us” and they allegedly don’t have the facilities to work on them. Ironically International also built all the F-650/F-750’s for Ford as well from 2004-ish to around 2015 or so in a similar deal to the current GM one. Also great article as always Mercedes, love all the content on here but especially your articles about medium/heavy duty trucks!
I have experienced this! Got the runaround between the local Chevy/International dealers for parts on a big Chevy. I work for a truck body builder, and honesty don’t see many Chevrolets come through our shop.
Used to work in a GM parts department. This is completely true. GM really didn’t supply much info on these trucks to the parts departments so finding parts was a bit of a chore. And of course our local International dealer wouldn’t do anything for them OR the International branded ones. They just sent them to us.
Don’t get me started on the TopKick, nearly everything is discontinued for those…
Yeah on my end at International we can look up most everything even on the Chevy’s, hell looked up parts for a 2019 5500 today all on the International parts catalog. Shame to hear about the dealers not helping y’all out though, especially with their own models, people suck sometimes.
And you ain’t kidding about the TopKicks, a lot of people have them around here yet and we’re the only medium/heavy duty truck dealer in town so those people come to the store to try and gets parts but they’re dang near impossible to get alot of stuff for, especially anything chassis related it seems.
GM would surprise me with some things. I’d always warn my customers that it’s a 50/50 chance that I’d be able to get something for a TopKick. There’s still some stuff they make but there’s a lot they don’t. There’s still a number of them around my area and I know some of my customers would get(understandably) frustrated because they couldn’t find parts for their otherwise still good truck.
Yep and it’s getting to be a similar story with older International trucks too, although one of my favorite interactions was a customer called in and had a mid 70’s model International Harvester grain truck with a 345 gas V8 and they wanted new points and a condenser for the distributor. Got the ole books out, found some part numbers and amazingly the International Trucks PDC still had some in stock! Had them two days later and the customer was thrilled, judging by those bags the parts were in though they had to have been from the early 90’s lol.
International sells some of those CV 4s and CV 5s where I live, and they always look awkward as hell. Granted their design language hasn’t looked good since like, 2002, but the giant eleven bar waterfall grille just looks awful. It’s almost as if they’re trying to make the MV look better after they redid it with the caret headlights that fleet owners hate because of the expense.
I like the CV but I agree the grille is easily the worst part about the design, just doesn’t quite match up with the GM designed cab. And you ain’t wrong about the headlights, the OEM ones are very expensive for all the newer models so I’m never surprised when a lot of customers opt for aftermarket replacements instead.
This reminds me of the Sterling Silver Bullet.
Not Silver Bullet, just Bullet.
We had to set up a vision system to ensure we didn’t accidentally build a diesel with the Dodge-branded valve cover on a Sterling shop order.
These trucks look like something that bad AI would create.
I wonder why Stellan….Dodg….Ram decided to cede this market to Ford and GM, especially considering how important commercial vehicles are to both companies’ financial health.
Here in NJ, you can buy an F650/750 chassis de-rated to 25,999 pounds to avoid needing a CDL. I have no doubt the people who buy these trucks overload them anyway.
I like how those medium duty trucks look just like regular half ton trucks but with giant hoods LOL
Wow! I had absolutely no idea these existed
It’s funny that the 2nd gen Ram looks more like a big rig than the actual big rig Ram.
So what you’re saying is Heavy duty < Medium duty < Semi duty…
Aren’t languages fun
That is certainly one of the journalism sentences of all time!