Ram Power Wagon v. Chevy 2500 High Country: Off Road or Luxury?

Posted by George Kennedy 

@ BOLD RIDE                          

There’s a battle brewin’ in the truck market. Well, there’s always a battle in the truck market, but this one concerns special editions of the big HD models from Chevy and Ram. It comes down to the question of how you like your expensive rig: off-road ready or a luxurious tank?

First up is the 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD High Country. In addition to being quite a mouthful to say, it is quite a truck to behold. It features all the rugged heavy duty capabilities of the Silverado HD, but with the added luxury of Chevy’s new High Country line.

 It features added chrome, tubular side steps, and big 20-inch chrome wheels. Inside, you get upgraded leather seats with heated and cooled front seats, and special badging. Buyers can also opt for a touch screen navigation system and a rear-seat Blu-Ray player.

This great heap of luxury is fitted to a truck that features either a 360-horsepower 6.0-liter V8, or a 6.6-liter turbodiesel V8 that puts out 397 horsepower and an insane 765 pound feet of torque. This truck is brains and brawn.

But what if you just want the brawn? That’s where the new Ram Power Wagon comes in. It actually came out before the High Country HD, but we wanted to save the best (in our minds) for last. The Power Wagon has been around for a number of years, as a bolder Ram, but when the Ford Raptor came out, it raised the bar for over-the-top truck styling.

To match that, the new Power Wagon has added blacked out headlight bezels, red grille inserts, and graphics on the bedside. It makes for one bad truck, that can back it up with a 410 horsepower 6.4-liter Hemi V8. As before, the Power Wagon has off-road gear borrowed from the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, like front and rear locking differentials and a disconnecting front sway bar.

It won’t traverse a dried out river bed like a Raptor, nor can it get into the tight spaces a Wrangler can, but this big, beautiful behemoth is the best of both worlds. Pricing for the Power Wagon ranges from $45,000 to up past $55,000. While pricing has not yet been announced for the 2500HD High Country, the 1500 is around $45K, so it could be anywhere from $55K to $60K. Pick your poison.