The newly redesigned '09 Dodge Ram is exciting for a lot of reasons. The Hemi received a bump in power and efficiency, which will hopefully translate into better fuel economy. The truck is also offered in a real crew-cab configuration too. But what made us sit up and really take notice was the amount of storage space in this thing. The bedrails are extra wide and offer 8.6 feet of lockable, drainable storage. Dodge accomplished this by getting rid of the traditional wide inner cargo box and exposed wheelwell arrangement of the bed and instead turned that room into storage. You can still haul a 4-foot-wide sheet of plywood in the bed, but now you can also stash your gear, audio equipment, air-suspension accessories, or whatever else you can dream up inside the walls of the bed. The compartments break up the body lines of the Ram in true "love it or hate it" fashion, but we think Dodge still did a good job of making the access doors as unobtrusive as possible.
If that wasn't enough stash room for you, the space traditionally wasted below the floor of the cab has been turned into another stash compartment. The "store in the floor" bins are large enough to hold 10 12-ounce sodas with ice and feature removable liners. Other niceties include heated and ventilated front seats and Sirius-satellite-connected rear-seat TV and a surround sound audio system. A MyGiG 30-gigabyte hard drive is also available for storing favorite music and movies, and of course a navigation system is on tap if you want it.
When equipped with the new 380-horse 5.7L Hemi, a shortbed, and 4.10 gears, the Ram will go 0 to 60 mph in just 6.1 seconds. A 310hp 4.7L V-8 and 215hp V-6 are also available with five-speed automatic transmissions.
Another interesting aspect of the new Ram is that Dodge has done away with the standard multileaf-spring rear suspension arrangement in favor of a multilink/coil-spring suspension. It's reported to not have affected the payload capacity of the Ram, yet it offers a better ride and better handling. We also find it interesting that not only is the system a four-link with triangulated upper bars, but it also includes a Panhard bar to locate the rear axle laterally.
This truck is truly innovative, and we can't wait to get behind the wheel of one and report back to you guys.