Ram 5500 Long Hauler Concept Truck

Ram 5500 Long Hauler Ram 5500 Long Hauler With Trailer At Iowa 80 Truck Stop

This kind of thing almost never happens. The truck you’re looking at on these pages—the one on the cover of the magazine towing a 13,500-pound, 28-foot trailer—was built as a concept truck to be transported to truck shows across the country. It’s called the Ram Long-Hauler, and it was built by Chrysler’s Innovation Group to showcase premium pickup features, future trends, and to entice fullsize truck buyers into their local Ram dealer. It wasn’t intended to be put in the hands of a diesel magazine and be driven across the United States. Or at least, that’s the official story, anyway…

You know that scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Ferris walks into the garage and steals the dad's Ferrari? This trip was the ...

Building The Biggest Ram Pickup Ever Made
The Ram Long-Hauler began life as an ’11 Ram 5500 crew cab Laramie chassis-cab truck with a 197.4-inch wheelbase. It features the legendary 6.7L Cummins engine rated for 305 hp and 610 lb-ft of torque (in the chassis-cab configuration) backed by a medium-duty Aisin Seiki AS68RC six-speed automatic, NV273 two-speed transfer case, a 7,000-pound-capacity Magna front axle, and monstrous Dana S111 rear axle that’s rated to handle 14,500 pounds. Anyone reading this article can go down to their local Ram commercial truck dealer and buy a Ram 5500 chassis-cab truck like that right now—and they’d have an amazing truck capable of towing more then 22,000 pounds. But they wouldn’t have a Long-Hauler.

Ram 5500 Long Hauler Ram 5500 Long Hauler Badging

To create the Long-Hauler concept, Ram designers took the crew cab body off a Ram 5500 frame and replaced it with a Mega Cab from a Ram 3500 Laramie Longhorn pickup. That’s not exactly a bolt-on job. And keep in mind, they had to blend the 5500 chassis’ wiring harness with the body harness of the Mega Cab. Then they sourced an 8-foot Ram 3500 dualie bed and created a modified mounting structure to accommodate the Ram 5500’s much narrower chassis-cab framerail spacing. While that made the Long-Hauler look like a pickup, it created two new problems: there was roughly a 2-foot gap between the back of the Mega Cab and the front of the bed, and there was no way to mount a pickup truck rear bumper to the chassis-cab frame. But that didn’t stop Chrysler.

Ram 5500 Long Hauler Fueling The Long Haulers Fuel Tank

The Long-Hauler’s purpose is to push the limits of what the core Cummins-powered Ram can do. To that end, it was fitted with three fuel tanks: the stock 22-gallon tank, a 38-gallon mid-ship tank, and a 110-gallon auxiliary tank. Based on our testing, the truck is capable of towing 13,500 pounds from Boston to Miami on a single fill-up.

The Long-Hauler’s purpose is to push the limits of what the core Cummins-powered Ram can d

An integrated mid-ship pickup box was built to fill the gap between the cab and frame. The small box was masterfully crafted from the rear portion of another truck cab and the leading edge of another Ram pickup box. Inside this mid-ship box lies a 38-gallon fuel tank, and the Ram 5500’s urea tank. To give the Long-Hauler its namesake fuel range, two more fuel tanks were added to the truck. The factory 22-gallon mid-ship tank (that’s available on all chassis-cab trucks) was added, but the real increase in capacity comes from a 110-gallon fuel tank that’s mounted in the bed of the truck. This three-tank fuel system is monitored and controlled by a Transfer Flow Trax-II computer-controlled auxiliary fuel tank system that actively balances the fuel supply in all three tanks.

From Show Truck—To Tow Truck
The Ram Long-Hauler toured the country for nearly a year before Chrysler invited us to come drive it. Many of the people we saw on the road told us about the truck equipment shows, rodeos, and horse races they’d seen it at. But they never in their wildest dreams thought they’d see it blasting down the highway, covered in salt spray. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

There were so many features to love about the Long-Hauler, but one of the first ideas we’re stealing for our own truck is adding these under-rail LED lights, which make hooking the trailer up so much easier.
There were so many features to love about the Long-Hauler, but one of the first ideas we’r
Concept vehicles rarely ever get driven, and they’re never loaned out for cross-country towing tests. Chrysler must have been extremely confident in this Long-Hauler to let us take it from Detroit to Los Angeles.
Concept vehicles rarely ever get driven, and they’re never loaned out for cross-country to
The Ram Long-Hauler is the brainchild of Trevor Garvey. Garvey is an avid RV hauler and drives a Ram 3500 dualie every day. It’s that kind of personal experience that fueled innovations like the truck’s 170-gallon fuel system, the air suspension, and the two handy, compressed-air fittings located at either end of the vehicle.
The Ram Long-Hauler is the brainchild of Trevor Garvey. Garvey is an avid RV hauler and dr

To give you some sense of how large a 70-foot-long truck and trailer is, we parked the Long-Hauler between Gabe Salazar’s Quad Cab Ram and this Class 8 tractor-trailer.
To give you some sense of how large a 70-foot-long truck and trailer is, we parked the Lon
Going down the road with a gross vehicle weight of 25,380 pounds used to mean we’d have both hands locked in a death grip on the steering wheel, the radio would be off, and we’d be exhausted from the stress and concentration required. None of that even occurred to us going down the road in this precisely balanced towing machine. We confidently cruised through snowstorms, drove long into the night, and even verified the Long-Hauler’s best-in-class top speed of 87 mph without ever breaking a sweat.
Going down the road with a gross vehicle weight of 25,380 pounds used to mean we’d have bo
An EGT, boost, and rear axle temperature gauge were added to this custom-built center stack. We never saw EGT go beyond 1,050 degrees, but the boost gauge told us the engine was making 25 psi as we climbed every hill.
An EGT, boost, and rear axle temperature gauge were added to this custom-built center stac

The Dana S111 rear axle features a 121⁄4-inch ring gear and holds so much gear lube we only saw its oil temperature creep above 170 degrees one time during our entire trip.
The Dana S111 rear axle features a 121⁄4-inch ring gear and holds so much gear lube we onl
The Long-Hauler’s custom Longhorn interior is like something out of a private jet. The sumptuous leather interior features fold-out work trays, power-actuated footrests, three 110-volt power points, a refrigerator, and there’s even a gun safe under the seat. To top it all off, there’s a rear seat DVD system and the truck acts as its own WiFi hotspot.
The Long-Hauler’s custom Longhorn interior is like something out of a private jet. The sum
The Ram 5500 Long-Hauler’s long haul came to an end on the sands of the Pacific Ocean. It was 50 degrees warmer in L.A. than it was 3,047 miles ago when we started our trip in Detroit. We averaged 10.1 mpg for the entire trip, and every mile was a pleasure. We can’t thank the Ram Truck Team enough for giving us this opportunity. Now do the right thing—and put this truck into production!
The Ram 5500 Long-Hauler’s long haul came to an end on the sands of the Pacific Ocean. It