Ram slots Heavy Duty Rebel between Rebel, Power Wagon

Today at the State Fair of Texas, Ram unveiled a 2023 surprise—the Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel.

2023 Ram 2500 Rebel

The Ram Heavy Duty Rebel will have a choice of the 6.4 Truck Hemi or the 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel; either way, buyers get a unique off-road suspension, rear limited slip differential, and rear electronic locker. A factory-installed 12,000-lb. winch is optional.

2023 Ram 2500 Rebel HD

The Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel starts with the Power Wagon’s structure and off-road prowess, but has an optional 6.7-liter Cummins standard-output straight-six producing 370 horsepower and 850 lb.-ft. of torque; its power band provides ample torque, starting at 1,700 rpm. The Cummins is hooked up to the 68RFE six-speed automatic transmission. (The digital display below is from the diesel; it shows the DEF levels at left.)

ram rebel 2500 gauges

The standard truck Hemi produces 410 horsepower and 429 lb.-ft. of torque, through the 8HP75 eight-speed automatic transmission.

Styling cues are similar to those of the Power Wagon, with unique badging and a Mopar sport performance hood. The Rebel has 20-inch wheels (with late-availability optional 18-inch wheels), 33-inch off-road tires, and skid plates that protect the fuel tank and transfer case. Cargo tie-downs are standard; buyers can pay more for a spray-in bedliner, LED bed lighting, and bed step.

Ram Rebel 2500 HD

The integrated front-mounted WARN Zeon-12 winch, rated at 12,000 lbs., is optional with the V8 engine. Installed at the factory, it has a unique fairlead and fairlead retainer with a synthetic line that is maneuverable and won’t kink or fray.

The 2023 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel keeps Ram’s class-exclusive five-link coil design, with an optional rear air suspension system. Maximum towing for the 2023 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel is 16,870 pounds; the maximum payload is 3,140 pounds.

Buyers will have three different seat material options with two types of seats: cloth bench or bucket seat, a Bristol leather bench or bucket seat, and a full Natura Plus leather bucket seat.

UConnect 12 screen

The Rebel appears to include the 360-degree Surround View camera, which includes forward-view camera gridlines to help navigate obstacles—a very helpful system on any off-road vehicle with a tall hood. The camera  system provides a single display-screen view of both sides of a trailer. An available 12-inch frameless digital gauge cluster has nearly two dozen different menus, with five reconfigurable tiles showing analog or digital instrumentation. All cluster settings can be saved to a user profile.

Safety options include adaptive cruise control, full-speed forward-collision warning plus, Lane Keep Assist, blind-spot monitoring and cross path detection, automatic headlamps, digital rearview mirror with tow mode and rain-sensitive windshield wipers.

Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel is only as a Crew Cab with a six-foot four-inch box. It starts at $67,045 plus $1,895 destination, and goes on sale by the end of the year.

HD Ram Rebel

Discover more from Stellpower - that Mopar news site

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading