Did You Know Ram 1500 Trucks Have Hidden Math Formulas Inside Them? I Found Out Why

Ram owners may be wondering why their truck contains crib notes fit for high school math class. So I asked Ram.

Published April 21, 2024

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When Ram launched its new 1500 pickup for the 2019 model year, it took the automotive world by storm with its blend of style and substance. But one subtle feature may have given many of those owners who discovered it pause: the collection of mathematical charts and tables under the center console lid.

Tucked away on the underside of the lid, right between the driver and front passenger, are rulers, wrench and fraction-decimal conversion charts, a right angle, a protractor, trigonometry formulas — even the Pythagorean theorem. Why? I spoke with Ram to find out.

Ram likes to leave Easter eggs in its vehicles

Stellantis’s American brands enjoy leaving so-called “Easter eggs,” little hidden graphics in their vehicles. The practice started with Jeep and has extended to the other brands. For instance, the Ram 1500 TRX contains a graphic of a Tyrannosaurus Rex eating a Raptor. Designers incorporate them because they are fun and relatively easy to include.

“It doesn’t take that much effort to throw something [fun] in there, from a cost perspective.”

“They’re free, in a sense,” Ram’s chief interior designer Ryan Nagode told me. “It doesn’t take that much effort to throw something [fun] in there, from a cost perspective.”

Ram needed a way to mask an unsightly drop circle

Many Easter eggs exist just there to be cute. But the math information on the console lid serves a functional purpose — one beyond assisting the odd Ram owner who needs to stop, drop and perform some trigonometry. It actually helps mask an issue that came up during the manufacturing process.

Ram tried several ways of pouring the plastic for the 1500’s console lid. The only way that worked left a visible drop circle where the plastic fell. For most parts, this would not be an issue; interior components are typically only viewed from one side. But the console lid gets seen from both sides. The designers needed a way to mask the drop circle, one that would still feel appropriate for their new vehicle.

“All of it was based on trying to hide that center circle drop area,” Nagode said. “This lid … opens up pretty far so you can access the bin pretty well — [so] you really stare at the bottom of this tray.”

The mathematical charts reference the building of things

The idea for the math notes came when Ram designers were working with tools for other projects.

We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny to use this opportunity to put that sort of thing on a piece like this?’

“One day, we had some drawing tools on my desks, and one of them had a metric conversion — a little chart on it,” Nagode said. “And we’re just looking at a protractor and a right angle that were sitting on our desks, and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny to use this opportunity to put that sort of thing on a piece like this?’ [That way, it] could all relate back to building, and the creation of things.”

So, there you have it. The formulas and charts tie back to the inherent reason many buyers choose a pickup truck: work.

Somewhat ironically, the math helpers appear on every Ram 1500 equipped with a center console and front bucket seats … which means the basic Tradesman trim — the one most likely to be used to perform actual work — goes without them. It has a bench seat up front.