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2025 Ram Heavy Duty First Look: Who Wants to Be a Grille-ionaire?
Ram's heavy-duty truck lineup goes all-in on even bigger grilles and even bigger tech upgrades.Matthew ChudzinskiWriterSep 24, 2024
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The wraps are coming are coming off the revised-for-2025 Ram 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty lineup, and Ram figures the news is better coming straight form the source—before the hazy, blurry spy shots of prototype trucks start flooding the internet. So, here we have a handful of images of the newest Ram HDs, but with angles selected by Ram so as to best hide anything the truck maker doesn't want you to see quite yet—you know, at least until the full reveal at a promised later date.
Why not wait until then to show us the new trucks, without ruining the surprise? Ram says the Heavy Duty lineup's official release date is in the future, but to finish important cooling testing, the test mule, prototype trucks its engineers are scientifically abusing as we type this need their camouflage removed. If we are going to see the trucks anyway, we might as well see them in high resolution.
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Which Truck Are We Looking At?
Ram has released only a few images of three trucks: A group shot (at top), and a few additional photos of a blue Ram Rebel 2500 Heavy Duty. The white truck in the center of the family photo is a Chassis Cab, available as a 3500, 4500, or 5500 model. Which one exactly isn’t clear or specified by Ram. The red truck on the right is a 2500, but the trim is not being called out at this time. But check the tread pattern on the tires, and they are clearly less aggressive than the tires on the Rebel on the left side of the picture, suggesting this is either a Limited or Laramie model.Looks Neat—So What’s New?
Immediately, the grille and headlights stand out on the Rebel 2500. Compared to 2024's version, the Heavy Duty grille makes the front end look bigger, with the cutout in the sideways “C” shape flanking the primary opening being much shallower. In the Rebel it is filled with alternating directional bars for a very modern geometric look. Cap it of with much more modern looking headlights, with four individual LED lights instead of a more common projector style, and the new truck will be unmistakably new.The chassis cab has a similar look but with more traditional, apparently halogen headlights and amber lights replacing the lower two LEDs. The grille has no special design, but a look of its own that blends with the truck. The mystery red truck forgoes the geometric grille for chrome horizontal bars but uses the new lights on the Rebel.
Look closely at the three trucks, and you’ll notice a ********* rectangle just below the grille. This is unmistakably a radar unit, and the kind you often see stuck on vehicles with at least adaptive cruise control, but on the extreme end those vehicles with SAE Level 2 hands-free driver assistance systems. A hands-free highway driving system is available on the also-revised, light-duty 2025 Ram 1500 lineup, with a similar sensor layout, so it isn’t crazy to think we will see it in the new Heavy Duty lineup. If that’s true, Ram will beat Ford and GM to bringing this capability to three-quarter- and one-ton trucks. At the very least, the rigs will get a serious upgrade in active safety tech.
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A new front end design could warrant cooling testing and validation, as could any number of reasons to check all the boxes before releasing the new trucks. But it makes us think there are changes in the powertrain department. Updated engines? Maybe the high-output Cummins is undergoing testing with new availability into the 2500 instead of being exclusive to the 3500-and-higher trucks.
