RAM 1500 2021 Review

Australia’s growing full-size pick-up market is now home to the 2021 RAM 1500 Limited.

The Limited is the flagship of the latest ‘DT’ RAM fifth generation, which has been an award-winning success in the US since its 2018 launch.

We now get it in Australia courtesy of a local conversion from left- to right-hand drive performed in Melbourne with full homologation compliance by the Walkinshaw Automotive Group on behalf of factory-approved importer RAM Trucks Australia.

The RAM is reconfigured on Walkinshaw’s assembly lines right alongside its most serious local competition, the Chevrolet Silverado LTZ. There are other trucks modified by other businesses such as Harrison F-Trucks and Performax, which are well known for their Ford F-150 conversions.

The Limited is one of two DT RAMs currently on offer in Australia. The other is the Laramie, which lines up more directly with the Silverado on price and spec. Three previous-gen DS RAM Classic models carry over in Australia as well.

At $139,950 plus on-road costs, the Limited is in a whole different pricing strata compared to the Laramie, which is set at $114,950 plus ORCs.

While both are ladder-framed, petrol V8-powered dual-cab utes of enormous size and weight, the Limited adds adjustable air suspension to the tech spec as well as a bunch of equipment luxuries.

Gear that’s exclusive to Limited, or optional on other models, includes premium leather for the seats, a vast storage console between the front seats that flips, folds, slides and can probably cook your lunch, ventilation for the outboard rear seats, a dual-pane panoramic sunroof, power side steps that tuck out of the way when not in use – great for off-roading – and 22-inch alloys shod in road-oriented Goodyear Eagle Touring rubber that look a bit lost within the massive wheel-arches.

The Limited also goes for a black pack look while the Laramie’s badges and bits are chromed.

Inside, there’s some bespoke stitching and ‘Limited’ badging. The flagship grows a ‘sports performance hood’ on the bonnet that’s presumably meant to make it look more imposing. Why bother? It’s like putting GT badges on an elephant.

Significant equipment shared standard with lesser RAM 1500 models includes a huge 12-inch infotainment touch-screen, 19-speaker Harman Kardon audio, heating, ventilation and 10-way power adjustment for both front seats plus memory for the driver, heated outboard rear seats, dual-zone climate control with rear vents, five USB and four USB-C ports and a rear power-sliding window.

When it comes to the tray, the Limited includes 210-litre RamBox stowage containers on either side (with three-pin plug), a tri-fold soft tonneau, a spray-in bedliner, adjustable tie-down cleats, a remote power-release tailgate, a pop-out bed step and heavy-duty tow bar. A full size spare tyre mounted on an alloy rim sits under the floor.

There’s not much missing. Manual height and reach adjustment of the steering column is a bit of a surprise, but you do get powered pedal adjustment.

Considering the size of the investment the Limited represents, the three-year/100,000km warranty is definitely underdone. You also get roadside assistance over the warranty period. The service intervals are 12 months/12,000km, whichever occurs first.

The DT-series 2021 RAM 1500 Limited doesn’t get an ANCAP safety rating, and nor did the DS.

But the DT has been tested in the US, and while that’s based on left-hand drive vehicles, results have been decent under both NHTSA and IIHS criteria.

The Limited comes with six airbags, standard autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and adaptive cruise control that will pull you up to a complete stop in traffic.

Other driver assist systems include blind spot monitoring and lane departure warning and counter-steering.

All this does deliver a pretty primitive form of autonomous driving as the Limited pinballs along the lane and easily gets confused by broken lines and curves.

One thing the system doesn’t do is start flashing a warning, bonging or eventually deactivating if hands are deemed to be off the wheel for too long. That’s a first in my experience of this tech.

Critically, considering its size, the Limited comes with front and rear parking sensors and assistance, and 360-degree surround and reversing cameras.

There are also welcome standard features such as LED headlights, trailer sway control, pedestrian detection and tyre pressure monitoring.  

Have we mentioned the 2021 RAM 1500 Limited is a big sucker? Let’s explore that a bit.

It measures up at 5916mm long, 2057mm wide (2474mm including mirrors), 1972mm high and has a 3672mm wheelbase. It weighs in at an incredible 2749kg.

It has a huge 4500kg braked towing capacity, but really if you’re buying the Limited to tow it may be best to top out at around 3500kg so you don’t run afoul of the 7713kg gross combined mass.

Which bring us to maximum payload, which is only 701kg. That’s a trait typical of these big US trucks which means a Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger or other mid-size 4x4 dual-cab ute that are hugely popular in Australia are rated to carry hundreds of kilos more.

The number is not that low because of tray size. It’s 1701mm long and 1270mm wide, so definitely big enough to fit an Aussie pallet.

Underpinning the Limited is a high-strength steel ladder frame. The body is also predominantly steel, with less emphasis on lighter aluminium than the Chevrolet Silverado or the Ford F-150 have resorted to in an effort to cut weight.

The 5654cc HEMI V8 has a cast-iron block and aluminium alloy head. As per its name, it features hemispherical cylinder heads. While it’s a pushrod design and features only two valves per cylinder, it has been modernised with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system dubbed eTorque that inputs 12kW via a belt starter generator.

However, the peak 291kW (at 5600rpm) and 556Nm (at 3950rpm) output claims are the same as before.

There’s also start-stop and cylinder deactivation that turns the HEMI into a four-cylinder when cruising. RAM claims a 12.2L/100km fuel consumption average for the Limited, something active grille shutters and the claimed most aerodynamic body in the class help achieve.

Well, that’s the theory. We recorded 17.4L/100km … and that’s without towing or going seriously off-road. Combine that with the 98-litre fuel tank and you’ll be travelling about 560km between refuels. At least it takes standard ULP.

The engine attaches to an eight-speed torque-converter auto that comes with a dash-mounted gear selector and no easy way to change gear manually. There is a gear-holder button on the steering wheel but that’s for towing.

Thanks to BorgWarner’s new torque-on-demand transfer case with lock-up clutch, the Limited can run in rear-wheel drive, 4x4 auto where it adds drive to the front wheels on demand, 4x4 high range and 4x4 low range.

The Limited comes standard with a limited-slip rear diff, but our early arrival test vehicle only had an open rear diff.

The Limited’s air-spring double-wishbone front and five-link rear suspension is height-adjustable so it can be lowered for loading or heightened for negotiating off-road obstacles. For instance, ramp-over is as low as 15.7 degrees and as much as 22 degrees. The cheaper Laramie runs passive coils all-round.

The mechanical package is completed by electric-assist rack and pinion steering and disc brakes that – gotta be honest – read a bit underdone. The front discs measure up at 378x30mm with two-piston pin-slider callipers. That’s pretty meaty for most vehicles, but the Limited ain’t most vehicles.

The effort put into the local conversion job is substantial. There are 400 locally-sourced new parts in the DT’s transformation from left- to right-hand drive and the Aussie R&D program included 50,000 hours of pre-build development, 80,000km of road rolling testing, 50,000km of real-world road driving and 20,000km of durability testing at the Anglesea proving ground in Victoria.

The sheer bulk of the DT-series 2021 RAM 1500 Limited defines the driving experience it offers.

This thing makes a 200 Series Toyota LandCruiser look puny. It does the same thing to standard-sized parking bays … if you’re brave enough to enter a standard-sized car park in the first place.

The wonder of the Limited is once you adjust to its size and weight and understand you need to be careful about where you choose to drive it, it’s actually bloody impressive.

It’s pretty easy to say Yanks do full-size trucks better than anybody else because no-one else builds them. But decades of experience and intense competition has clearly had its benefits.

Specifically in the case of the Limited, that was reinforced driving the roads I’ve used for over 20 years testing just about any sort of vehicle you’d care to name. Bumpy, broken-edged bitumen undulating over rolling hills, they expose weakness and highlight quality.

I won’t kid you and say the Limited ‘shrink wraps’ or any cliche like that. But it did motor on high, wide and handsome, well weighted steering gamely sending it somewhere near intended without excessive body roll or wallowing.

The air suspension and long wheelbase did a good job ironing out the roads’ imperfections. There was some float from the rear over soft-edged holes and some jitteriness produced on sharper corruptions. Only once did the rear-end slide, bounce and disconnect on mid-corner bumps.

The V8 is a ripper. It sounds like a race engine when revved, but doesn’t need to spend its life high in the rpm range to haul the Limited along. It didn’t feel overwhelmed by what it’s hauling.

Press the throttle firmly and there’s prompt response, the nose lifts, the exhaust roars and the Limited motors forward, gaining pace faster than it really should.

The eight-speed auto helps with the engine’s response too. Quite often the shifts are sensed, but rarely are they unseemly. Proper manual shifting would be helpful though, just for those moments when you want a few more revs for acceleration or braking.

Speaking of the latter, despite initial scepticism the Limited’s brakes stood up well to the challenge. They stunk up a bit after some enthusiastic driving, but kept doing their job.

When we ventured onto gravel the 4x4 auto function happily handled the pretty hard-packed surface. The Limited’s standard tyres aren’t the first choice for serious off-road work and we know from past experience these full-size trucks are just too big for negotiating narrow overgrown 4x4 tracks. You could do so much damage so easily...

The Limited’s cabin is one of its greatest attributes. With the help of active noise cancelling it’s quiet in here and the view out is panoramic.

You can genuinely fit adults in all five seats and they can bring a decent amount of gear with them too. There is leg-stretching limo-space in the rear. It’s quite decadent, complete with a slide and recline function. There are also controllable vents for air-con and a couple of USB and USB-C outlets, just like up front.

There are lidded bins under the rear floor and the seat base can also be flipped up to expand storage space.

Up front, the big touch-screen is more Tesla than Tonka. Very handily it can be split in two so, for instance, both nav screen and audio can be shown at the same time.

The expanding, contracting, sliding and flapping centre console can swallow an enormous amount of stuff. It even has a conversion table for different measurements under its lid. Apparently little surprise and delight features like this are called Easter Eggs.

The driver gets a seat that’s roomy and supportive, an appropriately huge steering wheel and a set of analogue instrument dials that can be largely ignored thanks to the digital speedo.

It’s easy to forget the RAM has been locally converted. Only the oddly-shaped exterior mirrors are an obvious reminder. Even the hood opening latch has been flipped to the right side of the dashboard.

The volume button stays on the left side of the screen, but there are also adjustment buttons on the back of the steering wheel.

If you’re wondering, we didn’t carry heavy loads during this first drive, nor did we tow. Of course, they are core attributes of these big American trucks and we’ll be getting into those features in-depth real soon.

In a world of diminishing resources, the new DT-series 2021 RAM 1500 Limited is an overweight, overblown V8 paean to a time gone by. Ah, but just live with it for a few days and it becomes easy to love. Or at least like a lot.

It’s because these big Yank trucks are so good at what they do. Effortless performance, huge space and polite on-road behaviour that bely their sheer bulk.

For most of us, most of the time, the RAM and its ilk are not the go.

But if you need to tow, if you need to go long distances and want to do it in great comfort, then they definitely should be on your shopping list.

Add the Limited if you want the latest word in luxury.

How much does the 2021 RAM 1500 Limited Crew Cab cost?
Price: $139,950 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 5.7-litre V8 petrol
Output: 291kW/565Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 12.2L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 283g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested