2025 Ram 1500 RHO First Drive: It's Fun, It Flies, And It's Better Than The TRX

By six-word sentence standards, "you can go faster, you know" ranks pretty highly on the fun scale, at least when you're facing down an off-road course at the wheel of the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO. The latest entrant to the excessive — and controversial — performance pickup segment may not be the most potent, but then neither is it the most expensive. And, as truck fans know, there's far more than horsepower to consider when it comes to beasting it in Baja mode.

The RHO isn't the 1500 TRX replacement many have been hoping for — Ram is playing its cards close to its chest on what comes after the end-of-life TRX — but a value play of sorts. Though it's far from the most powerful sport pickup — Ford's F-150 Raptor R brings a heady 720 horsepower to the party, and the TRX has 702 horsepower — Ram's pitch is that this top-of-the-1500-tree truck has the most horses per dollar, at about $133 per horsepower when you factor in the $69,995 starting price and $1,995 destination.

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That Raptor R lands at about $156 per horsepower, in contrast, while the V6 F-150 Raptor is higher still, at around $179 per horsepower. Chevrolet's Silverado 1500 ZR2 with the optional 6.2L V8 clocks in at $175 per horsepower.

Ram's 540 horsepower and 521 lb-ft of torque comes courtesy of the 3.0-liter Hurricane High Output (H/O) straight-six twin-turbo engine. It's paired with the familiar eight-speed automatic transmission, and indeed other 1500 models with the same engine muster the same output numbers. Ram says that, thanks to the new fresh air intake atop the RHO's hood, and the true dual exhaust with its flow control valve, you end up getting more performance at your foot from its new sport truck.

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A million horses would be useless off-road, of course, without better suspension and other upgrades. For the 2025 1500 RHO, that means independent front and five-link coil rear suspension, with Bilstein Black Hawk e2 adaptive performance shocks — there are 13 inches of front and 14 inches of rear wheel travel, along with 11.8 inches of ground clearance on the standard 35-inch tires — plus a Dana 60 rear axle with rear electronic locking differential, and a BorgWarner 48-13 full-time active transfer case.

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Managing it all — among the usual manual adjustments that contribute to the 1500's button-heavy dashboard and option-packed touchscreen — are nine drive modes. That includes Sport and Auto (the latter setting up a 40:60 power split front to rear), but also a Baja mode that shoves 75% of the torque to the rear wheels, dials back the stability control, and fettles the dampers to be more suited to off-road silliness.

Usually, with a new vehicle, I make a point of heading out for a road test first. After all, regardless of off-road (or track) capabilities, regular asphalt is where most of an owner's time will be spent. The lure, however, of the off-road course at Holly Oaks ORV Park near Flint, MI — where Ram invited SlashGear for the day to try out the 2025 RHO — was too strong for a sensible approach.

Ram's customized course covered plenty of bases. Stretches of sand and gravel; tight turns and narrow tracks, suddenly widening into the sort of broad, loose-surfaced sections begging you to wag your truck's tail. Ruts and potholes that lesser vehicles could easily lose a wheel in, or worse. All culminating with a trio of jumps intended to give the RHO some quality airtime.

Ram

Ram's engineer — part of the team that took development trucks out for 1,000+ mile off-road torture testing — in the passenger seat was there for goading rather than demanding caution. With the truck in Baja mode, fun ensues.

The RHO surges forward eagerly, the Hurricane H/O swift to unlock its grunt and the burly rubber putting it down neatly despite the shifting surfaces. It's when you yank the wheel, though, that the merits really make themselves clear. The steering is 5% faster, and with about 150 pounds removed from the front end versus the TRX, getting the Ram to pivot neatly is easier than you might expect.

Kicking the rear end out in big, dust-rousing slides, however, is equally good fun. Again, the faster steering helps there — there's less arm-exhausting wheel-spinning — and Ram's semi-tamed electronic nannies do a refined job of assisting without spoiling the overall whimsy. You can, of course, go beyond Ram's preconfigured drive modes and tweak things like traction and stability control yourself.

Ram

It's the suspension that's the star of the show, though. Soft enough not to launch you straight to the chiropractor's table after catching air, yet firm enough to hold its own in traction-stealing whoops and dig deep into the sand. It's bizarrely capable, to the point that you can easily forget the sort of mass you're dealing with here. The RHO's 15-inch front and rear disc brakes are good, but there were definitely times the compliant ride lulled me, only for the truck-like braking distances to snap me back into reality.

The magic, Ram's engineers explained to me, is in the electronic suspension tuning, and how the RHO can tap into the various sensors embedded in the truck. Rather than simply recognizing that you're airborne, for example, the likely angle of your landing can be calculated, and the individual shocks preloaded differently to suit.

On the road, the RHO does a surprisingly good job of not seeming like a total reprobate. The adaptive dampers and rear coil springs can probably be credited for that: Auto mode feels practically refined, and far more supple than you'd expect from a performance truck. Sweeping corners bring none of the pickup lean you might ordinarily predict, and though there's plenty of power, it's easy to modulate with your right foot.

The $9,995 Level 1 package certainly doubles-down on that luxe truck persona. That's what adds the leather upholstery with heated, ventilated, and massage front seats; the front passenger touchscreen; dual wireless chargers; and Hands-Free Driving Assist, Ram's equivalent of Super Cruise or BlueCruise for hands-off highway driving. That works surprisingly well for a big vehicle with off-road-ready tires, though I noticed a little slow ping-ponging between the lines (but never over them) on some stretches.

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Though it changes the value equation, it also addresses some outstanding complaints that Ford and Chevy face with their sport truck flagships. You can't get a Raptor or a ZR2 with hands-free driving assistance, for example; the Raptor R's bucket seats are swell, but they won't massage you on a road trip. Ram's argument is clearly that, though performance can mean letting loose off-road, it also means living up to a luxury-level price tag back on the road.

That's still not to say that the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO is the truck for everyone. Even with a surround-view camera, it's a big pickup and not something you want to be parking in tight lots. The steering may be faster, but the turning circle is definitely large, and you'll be experiencing that navigating your local gas stations frequently, too. Rated at 15 mpg in the city, 21 mpg on the highway, and 17 mpg combined, the RHO is clearly thirsty, and that's assuming you can show some right foot restraint.

Ram

Then there's the dashboard which, with the 1500's sizable 14.5 inch touchscreen taking center stage, can be a little overwhelming. Ram often offers multiple ways to achieve the same thing — you can choose drive mode through the touchscreen, for instance, or by scrolling through with hard buttons — but some of the automations rivals have embraced are absent. The useful front-facing camera view automatically appearing when you're perched atop a blind peak (like it does in some other trucks) would be great, as would a physical shortcut key to bring up the cameras.

The usual "does anybody really need this?" questions still apply, naturally. Ram doesn't have numbers on just how many of its owners actually tackle off-road situations in a way that might stress the RHO's Baja mode. Honestly, the fact that the RHO's 8,380 pound tow capacity and 1,520 pound payload rating are higher than the old TRX's might make more of a day-to-day difference, even if they're not as sexy statistics as 0-60 times and total horsepower.

That might be the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO's secret weapon. Sure, it's a beast if you don't mind getting muddy, and yes, it looks the part with its 88-inch width, more aggressive grille, and squinting full LED projector headlamps. Yet the compromises you might expect to come hand-in-hand with that, like agricultural road manners and a hair-shirt cabin, simply don't appear.

Ram

Where, as electrification plays an increasing — and inescapable — role in Ram's line-up and trucks in general, will that leave beefy boys like the RHO? It's an excellent question, one I don't have the answer to, though the fiendishly clever suspension here does leave me excited at how future electric and hybrid pickups might manage their inevitable weight.

Ram's pitch for the 1500 RHO as best bang-for-buck in horsepower is a good one — particularly when you remember the TRX is bowing out wearing a whopping $117,625 sticker — but I can't help but think it misses the point. It's the truck's all-rounder polish that stands out, and if you have budget, appetite, and (hopefully) outlet for its off-road mischief, the Raptors and ZR2s of this world might need to raise their game.