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Americans aren’t big on compromise. If we find ourselves at a fork in the road and forced to make a hard choice, our instinct is to turn said fork into a spoon so we can scoop up all the options. How else do you explain the longstanding success of the pickup truck market? Pickups are the most popular American vehicle and, you could argue, the best: expensively developed, overbuilt, and packed with features. The new crop of Ram Trucks is a great example, ranging from well equipped 9-to-5 duty rigs to luxurious haulers with premium cabins that can put luxury car companies to shame.
And of the entire Ram truck lineup, the 2019 Power Wagon is the most compromise-averse—a highly capable three-quarter ton off-roader that offers a 17-speaker Harmon-Kardon audio system, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking. This isn’t having your cake and eating it, too; it’s having your cake and eating it, then crawling over inhospitable desert terrain to steal everybody else’s cake, too.
The Good: This truck has incredible off-road capability, especially for a ¾-ton pickup. It’s also the only passenger vehicle in America to come with a winch from the factory, and thanks to a synthetic (instead of steel) cable, that winch is lighter for 2019, but still rated for 12,000 pounds. The available 360-degree surround view camera will no doubt be clutch in tricky off-road situations. The new eight-speed transmission is a huge improvement over the old six-speed.
Who It’s For: The truck guy who wants to be able to tow and haul as well as climb and crawl. A spacious crew cab is the only option, meaning there’s plenty of room for friends and family to enjoy the ride; people who look at a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited and think “not enough room” might land in a Power Wagon, given its combination of size and off-road capability.
Watch Out For: This is a three-quarter ton pickup, so obviously, it’s big. Visibility over the hood and to the sides is good on the pavement, but off-road, you’ve really got to use your mirrors—or the camera system, if so equipped—when maneuvering. The truck has lost some weight compared with the previous generation, which is impressive, but it still runs on a 6.4-liter Hemi and drinks fuel accordingly. The dash-mounted rotary gear selector takes some getting used to versus the old column mounted lever.
