2025 Ram 1500 RHO First Drive: New Horse Allows the Cart to Shine

Here’s a rather inconvenient truth: Trucks like the Ram 1500 TRX and the Ford F-150 Raptor R can’t exist anymore in new product lineups. Blame whatever or whoever you want—these ludicrously fast, heinously thirsty trucks with screaming, supercharged V-8s are cool as hell, but that party is now over.

When Ram unveiled the TRX in 2020, it looked primed to devour the EcoBoost V-6-powered Raptor, on account of the whole “holy moly they really stuck a Hellcat V-8 in a pickup” thing. Ford countered soon after with the Raptor R, plunking the Shelby GT500’s supercharged V-8 betwixt the Raptor’s frame rails and taking the performance pickup battle to truly hilarious heights. But the TRX was the one that got there first, and the raw theater of the Hellcat engine—you can hear the supercharger whine if you close your eyes right now—won the day in the eyes of most.

Smash-hit first acts can be a nightmare to follow. When it was announced last summer that the TRX would soon reach the end of the road, we began to wonder what a successor would look like. As Ram’s half-ton lineup shifted from Hemi V-8 power to straight-six power courtesy of Stellantis’ Hurricane twin-turbo inline-six, the answer began to take shape.

The Ram 1500 RHO, then, is the answer in full. If you’ve got six seconds to describe it to someone, saying it’s “a TRX with an inline six instead of the Hellcat V-8” is acceptable, but not the entire story. Some of what made the TRX so special is lost in Act Two, but lest you think the RHO is a pitcher without his fastball, let me be the first to assure you that what’s here can absolutely get down.

Specs: 2025 Ram 1500 RHO

• Price: $71,990 / $90,945 (Base/As-Tested)
• Powertrain: 3.0-liter Twin-turbo inline-six, eight-speed automatic
• Horsepower: 540 hp @ 5700 rpm
• Torque: 521 lb-ft @ 3500 rpm
• Drivetrain: Full-time 4×4 with a full-time automatic two-speed transfer case
• Layout: Front-engine, four-door, 5-passenger body-on-frame full-size pickup
• EPA-estimated fuel economy (city/highway/combined): 14/16/15 mpg
• Competitors: Ford F-150 Raptor EcoBoost V-6, Chevy Silverado ZR2, The Laws of Physics

Before we get to what it’s like to drive, let’s do a little bench racing between the TRX and the RHO. The TRX’s 6.2-liter, supercharged V-8 was good for 702 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque. The RHO’s high-output Hurricane 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six is good for 540 hp and 521 lb-ft of torque, down 162 ponies and 129 twists on the TRX. (The RHO does beat the F-150 Raptor by 90 hp and 11 lb-ft, for what it’s worth.)

However, the aluminum-block Hurricane saves 150 lbs under the hood relative to the iron-block Hellcat, creating a more balanced weight distribution for the RHO. That weight savings helps the RHO run almost neck-and-neck with the more powerful TRX despite being substantially down on power: 0–60 happens in just 4.6 seconds in the former, and 4.5 seconds in the latter. The quarter mile is close, too, with the RHO clocking 13.1 seconds at 105 mph while the TRX barrels through in 12.9 seconds at 108 mph.

In a world where new vehicle stats tend to go in just one direction, this might look bleak. Ram adjusted the RHO’s starting price accordingly, however; it will start at $71,990, which feels like a bargain compared to the nearly six-figure starting price of the final-year TRX.

From behind the wheel, that Hellcat-sized hole shrinks but does not disappear. The most apparent difference here is sound—despite a full-length dual-pipe exhaust system, the auditory differences between the RHO and the TRX are stark. The volume of RHO’s exhaust note is rather muted, even when compared to the F-150 Raptor, much less the raucous TRX. And then there’s the tone of the straight-six. With your eyes closed, you’d be forgiven for the RHO revving next to you at a stoplight was a BMW 5 Series. For some die-hards, that will be the final nail in the coffin.

Which is a shame, because overall, what’s here now is still remarkable, just in a different way. Without the bullhorn under the hood, the RHO will now drop jaws with its deftly tuned chassis.

The running gear is appropriately absurd: Dual aluminum A-arms on the independent front suspension are unique to the RHO—they’re longer, and mounted to different chassis hard points than other half-ton Rams. A Dana 60 rear axle with a specially tuned hop damper underpins the RHO’s hind end. The whole thing rides on Bilstein Black Hawk e2 adaptive performance shocks with separate electronic adjustments for compression and rebound. The shocks continuously measure a slew of variables to rapidly adapt to what’s underfoot—whether that’s smooth pavement or pillow-sized boulders that you’re about to hammer at irresponsible speeds.

And hammer we did. The main event for our first-drive program was a pre-mapped track through the Holly Oaks ORV park in Holly, Michigan, that featured rutted whoop sections that rapidly cycled the RHO’s shocks, the aforementioned boulders, washed-out hill climbs, and a trio of increasingly gnarly jumps to round out the lap. Riding shotgun, validation engineers egged us on to push harder, go faster, and try to catch the RHO out of sorts over whatever lay ahead. I did some truly hateful things to that truck throughout the lap, and could not believe the way that it just shrugged off the abuse.

While trucks like the RHO are aimed squarely at high-speed off-road hoonery, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the soft suspension also makes this one of the best-riding on-road vehicles I’ve ever piloted. Seriously, that might be the dirty little secret of this thing: Nothing in this price range is even remotely close to as comfortable as the RHO over blacktop long hauls.

That said, this is a ridiculously wide vehicle. The RHO, with its massive, flared fenders spans 88 inches—more than four inches broader than a Ram heavy-duty pickup. Keeping an eye on the mirrors to make sure your 35-inch tires don’t kiss the door of the Kia Forte next to you will be a full-time job. City streets will be sweaty affairs.

The cabin’s atmosphere mirrors the extroverted nature of the RHO’s exterior. Chunky paddle shifters adorn either side of the steering wheel. You can select one of nine driving modes via buttons just down and to the right of the steering wheel. There’s a separate button with a drag-strip light tree for launch mode—because of course there is. You can get more than 50 inches of digital display screens in this thing, including a new 10.25-inch screen for your front passenger that’s part of a $9995 options package that also nets you massaging front seats, heated and ventilated seats front and rear, a 19-speaker premium audio system, and much more.

You don’t buy a truck like this to chase maximum functionality, but the RHO still acquits itself well in that field. Its max towing capacity is 8380 lbs, while its max payload capacity is 1520 lbs. Both figures best those of the EcoBoost V-6-powered Raptor, which top out at 8200 lbs and 1400 lbs, respectively.

I’ll admit that the Hurricane straight-six makes a more compelling argument in the more everyman versions of the Ram pickup than it does here in the RHO. Relative to the outgoing 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 you’d find under the hood of most Rams, both versions of the Hurricane offer more power and torque. The milder, standard-output Hurricane gets better fuel economy, and the high-output version only loses to the Hemi by a smidge.

Trucks like the Ram RHO exist outside of that realm of reason, however. They’re massive, cartoonish, and bend physics to their will in ways that sometimes feel like cheating. The Hellcat V-8, its blower whine, disdain for tires, and penchant for outshouting everything around it, was the perfect exclamation mark for this wild caricature of a truck segment.

But after driving the RHO, I’m beginning to rethink the idea of what these trucks can (and possibly should) be.

The RHO feels like a truck that finally gets to step beyond the shadow of that engine. For some fans, the engine was the whole point, so don’t bother wasting your time trying to convince them otherwise. But go ahead and call it “a TRX without the Hellcat V-8,” because that’s not a knock—it’s quite the compliment.

2025 Ram 1500 RHO:

Highs: Baja-bashing ride will probably exceed your capabilities before it does its own, Stellar interior that matches the rest of the truck’s aura well without sacrificing luxury and comfort, Sneakily one of the best on-road rides of any vehicle anywhere.

Lows: If exhaust notes make or break a vehicle like this for you, the Hurricane may leave you wanting. Despite a more modest starting price, the RHO still nudges six figures out the door

Summary: An off-road performance truck that finally feels like a cohesive package rather than a vaunted V-8 and some other special parts. If you’re not wedded to a V-8 soundtrack, the RHO is downright remarkable.