Is a Hurricane powerful enough to blow away the cultural cachet built up in the Hemi name? Ram hopes the answer to that question is a resounding “yes” as it retools its entire full-size pickup lineup to embrace a twin-turbo, inline-six cylinder engine design that replaces its long-running V8 as the most powerful option for half-ton buyers.
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It’s a sweeping change from a brand that has thus far avoided making this kind of dramatic move. Unlike rivals Ford and Toyota, Ram has yet to introduce significant hybridization into any of its models (relying on the mild e-Torque 48-volt system instead). Likewise, it’s also the last American manufacturer to bring forth a fully electric truck, with the upcoming Ram 1500 REV dragging its feet further by including a full-size V6 generator under the hood to assuage the range anxiety of a battery-sceptic buyer base.
Curious to see how effectively the Hurricane banished the ghosts of Hemis past, I hitched up a trailer and towed 6,500 pounds of track day accoutrements through Vermont’s Green Mountains and down into New Hampshire to get a feel for what, if anything, Ram 1500 owners were giving up with two missing cylinders under the hood. Along the way I discovered that the 2025 model’s engine swap was in fact the least concerning aspect of the redesigned Ram’s towing experience.
It’s Hurricane Season
The Ram’s Category 5 engine room makeover includes a spec sheet loaded with numbers virtually guaranteed to make the departing eight-cylinder look like a storm in a teacup.
There are two versions of the 3.0-litre, twin-turbo straight-six on offer in the pickup. The standard edition is rated at 420 horsepower and 469 lb-ft of torque, figures that are already ahead of the departed 5.7-litre V8’s 395 ponies and 410 lb-ft of torque. The winds kick up substantially, however, when moving to the High Output Hurricane, which turns up the tune to 540 horsepower and 521 lb-ft of torque.
To say that the Hurricane’s full throttle gale casts shade on the Hemi is an understatement. I’ve previously had the opportunity to sample the H.O. motor in the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, where it replaced the even higher displacement 6.4-litre V8 a couple of years ago, and the step up in performance was undeniable. Contrasting the same motor against the more modest 5.7-litre Hemi expands that chasm to canyon-like proportions.
The Ram 1500 Limited I drove is an extremely quick truck when unladen, one that will easily roast the rears if one is not careful with the throttle. When it’s time to go to work, the extra power more than makes up for the modest drop in the new Ram 1500’s overall towing capacity (11,580 pounds versus 12,750 pounds in 2024), as I found it to be both smoother in delivery, quieter in operation, and endless in its torque reserves compared to the Hemi I’d used to pull a lighter load along a similar route 12 months previous.
Glitch-Hop
Remember when I mentioned that the Hurricane wasn’t the problematic part of my tow time? I can divide the issues I encountered while lugging a trailer with the 2025 Ram 1500 into two distinct buckets.
The first was general software-related weirdness tied to nearly every aspect of the pickup’s trailering suite. This extra bit of gear comes courtesy of the Towing Technology package, and consists of features intended to make your life easier with extra weight hanging off the back bumper—which it does when it’s all working properly.
Unfortunately, I experienced intermittent issues throughout the weekend both on the way to and back from the race track. Some of these problems were more puzzling than practical, such as the dash display showing the length of my trailer moving back and forth between 20 feet and 30 feet, seemingly at random. Both of these numbers are “best guesses” linked to the blind spot monitoring system and how it scans the area beside the truck when the hitch is in use, but I found it odd that it couldn’t settle on a specific size, especially given that my trailer was a little over 20 feet in length.
The trailer light test function failure was more frustrating. It simply refused to function the first time the trailer was connected, even though the lights themselves responded to manual braking and turn signal inputs. After a 24 hour disconnect, the system worked as designed. That waiting period had an inverse effect on the Ram’s trailer reverse steering system, which uses a small dial on the dash to help maneuver the trailer in the desired direction without the mind-muddle of spinning the wheel the opposite way. One day it worked fine, and the next not at all, feeding me a calibration error message instead.
An Unwelcome Wiggle
None of the above had a material impact on the act of towing, as these features exist largely for convenience. Much more troubling was the Ram 1500’s air suspension failure, which had a much more serious effect on how the truck handled with a trailer attached.
Right from the moment I attached the trailer, the pickup’s personality became squirrelly, with the back axle stepping out over bumps in the rad and moving laterally even when I had transitioned to more carefully paved asphalt of Vermont’s interstate system. It was uncomfortable to say the least, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the tongue was overloaded, given that the Mustang we were hauling sat towards the front of the trailer.
Upon arrival at the track, an explanation. After unloading the race car and disconnecting the rig, the Ram’s rear suspension was completely unresponsive to the ride height controller in the truck. Each and every time I tried to drop the back—which was now sitting many inches higher than the front—I saw an error message on the dashboard that informed me ride height changes were locked out due to “payload.”
It became clear that, for whatever reason, the Ram had spent the entire trip inflating its airbags at the back to maximum, a process that had apparently overwhelmed the controller, putting it into “protection” mode and locking out any further adjustments. The next day, when it was time to reload the trailer, the pickup’s posterior was still pushed up, even after I ran through an Internet-sourced reset procedure, and despite pulling the fuse for the air compressor itself.
Re-connecting the truck to the trailer seemed to have a mitigating effect, as in place of its pronounced rake the back of the Ram now sagged—perhaps a combination of the load weight pushing air out of the system, with no compressor to counteract it. There was still plenty of clearance between the bumper and the ground, and unsurprisingly, the return trip home was much more comfortable without the ultra-stiff airbag situation. After dropping the trailer for a second time at home, the droop remained, until I had driven about 10 kilometres, at which point the ride height system rebooted itself at random and settled the truck into comfortable aero cruising trim.
Maybe Stick with Steel Springs?
What to make of the 2025 Ram 1500’s uneven performance as a tow vehicle? With the Limited trim perched near the top of the pricing pyramid, it’s disappointing to pay nearly $90,000 for a vehicle and have to deal with issue after issue, including a rather serious suspension snafu. While one or two hiccups are to be expected in the first model year of a redesigned vehicle, to have to deal with this many problems at once is not a situation I’ve encountered with any of the other trucks I’ve towed with over the past year.
That being said, the Hurricane engine is one of the sweetest power plants I’ve encountered in a modern truck, especially when asked to handle a somewhat hefty load. With no drivetrain problems to report, I wish I could recommend investigating a lower trim Ram 1500 that avoids the air suspension but still provides access to the H.O. edition of this fantastic motor. Unfortunately, that’s not possible: air shocks appear to be standard on every H.O.-equipped trim.
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