dalewalt
Junior Member
Hi all, I took delivery of a 2022 1500 Classic on 12/26/22, made a trip from PA to GA, and figured I'd post some of my initial thoughts... feel free to ignore if you don't find it interesting 
After taking delivery the day after Christmas, I had occasion to take a long road trip in my new truck. I was taking an airplane engine from outside of Pittsburgh to Valdosta, Georgia (at the very south of Georgia... a distance of about 815 miles each way) and bringing a new engine home. When I was looking for a new truck in December, I was more concerned with ride comfort and gas efficiency (as much as you can get in a truck, anyway) over towing or off-road capability.
First off, the ride quality: I was a bit leery of the trip... I tend to drive straight through on a long trip such as this, and for this trip like all others, I stopped a couple of times for gas, twice for food, but otherwise drove 14 hours straight. Now understand... my previous two vehicles have been Mercedes, so I'm rather spoiled in my comfort expectations. I had assumed I'd be pretty sore by the time I got to the hotel, but surprisingly I wasn't stiff at all. My back didn't hurt, my legs didn't hurt... it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. In fact, I was more comfortable on this trip that I'd ever been in my CLA250... only the E350 provided a more comfortable ride. I last had a truck (Dakota) back around 2004, the ride quality between the two isn't even close. Ride Quality... 10/10
Instrumentation: It took me a bit to get used to the transmission shifter location (a knob? really Ram?), but I found all other controls easy to find in the dark without having to shift my gaze from the road. My only complaint as far as instrumentation is the headlights... maybe I'm just getting old, but unless I hit the high beams, visibility was VERY poor (no rain and not much fog luckily). I have the HiD halogen lights, so one of my first upgrades will probably be a good set of Xenon lights. (If anybody has any recommendations on affordable headlight upgrades, I'm all ears).
Driver instrumentation - 7/10
Fuel efficiency: I was extremely disappointed in the mileage I got. I only had about 300 pounds in the bed (engine, intake/exhaust manifolds, miscellaneous parts), and I kept my speed reasonably close to the speed limit. I routinely went about 7 miles over, so 72 in a 65 and 77 in a 70, so I'm sure that affected it. Plus, of course, 'winter blend' gas isn't as efficient as summer blend, and the big hills in PA and WV didn't help. But still, I barely eked out 19mpg for the whole trip down, with 95% of my driving on interstates. I also used cruise most of the time, so my speed wasn't fluctuating much. 3.55 in the rear, and the tires are fairly big (Raptor package), so that didn't help. But I certainly didn't get anywhere near the 23mpg highway claimed by Ram. Coming back, I had about 500 lbs in the bed (both the old and new engine... long story), and there was very little difference between the trip down and the trip back. It does seem that the sweet spot for gas efficiency seems to be 60-65.
Fuel efficiency - 5/10
Handling: I didn't have to make any wild maneuvers, but even so, lane changes were crisp and smooth, and the truck didn't wander over the road (or bounce when hitting the occasional bump).
Handling - 9/10 (it is a truck, after all)
One additional note: Speaking of cruise control... my speed seemed to wander a bit more than I'm used to. E.g. when set at 77, I routinely would sometimes fluctuate between 75 and 79. Cruise control has been around for decades... it shouldn't wander much if any from the set speed
Overall (except for the ****-poor gas mileage), I'm very pleased with my purchase.
I hope others find this little trip report interesting/useful.
Edit: Huh. Sorry for not responding to everyone as of yet... for some reason I was never notified that anyone had replied to my thread. I only realized when I saw this thread as one of the 'popular topics' that was emailed to me.
To add a bit more info that I was missing... my truck's a 4WD, tire size is 265/70R17's with a pretty aggressive tread (so I'm sure that doesn't help my mileage)
After taking delivery the day after Christmas, I had occasion to take a long road trip in my new truck. I was taking an airplane engine from outside of Pittsburgh to Valdosta, Georgia (at the very south of Georgia... a distance of about 815 miles each way) and bringing a new engine home. When I was looking for a new truck in December, I was more concerned with ride comfort and gas efficiency (as much as you can get in a truck, anyway) over towing or off-road capability.
First off, the ride quality: I was a bit leery of the trip... I tend to drive straight through on a long trip such as this, and for this trip like all others, I stopped a couple of times for gas, twice for food, but otherwise drove 14 hours straight. Now understand... my previous two vehicles have been Mercedes, so I'm rather spoiled in my comfort expectations. I had assumed I'd be pretty sore by the time I got to the hotel, but surprisingly I wasn't stiff at all. My back didn't hurt, my legs didn't hurt... it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. In fact, I was more comfortable on this trip that I'd ever been in my CLA250... only the E350 provided a more comfortable ride. I last had a truck (Dakota) back around 2004, the ride quality between the two isn't even close. Ride Quality... 10/10
Instrumentation: It took me a bit to get used to the transmission shifter location (a knob? really Ram?), but I found all other controls easy to find in the dark without having to shift my gaze from the road. My only complaint as far as instrumentation is the headlights... maybe I'm just getting old, but unless I hit the high beams, visibility was VERY poor (no rain and not much fog luckily). I have the HiD halogen lights, so one of my first upgrades will probably be a good set of Xenon lights. (If anybody has any recommendations on affordable headlight upgrades, I'm all ears).
Driver instrumentation - 7/10
Fuel efficiency: I was extremely disappointed in the mileage I got. I only had about 300 pounds in the bed (engine, intake/exhaust manifolds, miscellaneous parts), and I kept my speed reasonably close to the speed limit. I routinely went about 7 miles over, so 72 in a 65 and 77 in a 70, so I'm sure that affected it. Plus, of course, 'winter blend' gas isn't as efficient as summer blend, and the big hills in PA and WV didn't help. But still, I barely eked out 19mpg for the whole trip down, with 95% of my driving on interstates. I also used cruise most of the time, so my speed wasn't fluctuating much. 3.55 in the rear, and the tires are fairly big (Raptor package), so that didn't help. But I certainly didn't get anywhere near the 23mpg highway claimed by Ram. Coming back, I had about 500 lbs in the bed (both the old and new engine... long story), and there was very little difference between the trip down and the trip back. It does seem that the sweet spot for gas efficiency seems to be 60-65.
Fuel efficiency - 5/10
Handling: I didn't have to make any wild maneuvers, but even so, lane changes were crisp and smooth, and the truck didn't wander over the road (or bounce when hitting the occasional bump).
Handling - 9/10 (it is a truck, after all)
One additional note: Speaking of cruise control... my speed seemed to wander a bit more than I'm used to. E.g. when set at 77, I routinely would sometimes fluctuate between 75 and 79. Cruise control has been around for decades... it shouldn't wander much if any from the set speed
Overall (except for the ****-poor gas mileage), I'm very pleased with my purchase.
I hope others find this little trip report interesting/useful.
Edit: Huh. Sorry for not responding to everyone as of yet... for some reason I was never notified that anyone had replied to my thread. I only realized when I saw this thread as one of the 'popular topics' that was emailed to me.
To add a bit more info that I was missing... my truck's a 4WD, tire size is 265/70R17's with a pretty aggressive tread (so I'm sure that doesn't help my mileage)
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