Dan Buys a New Heavy Duty Truck!

So normally I don't do this kind of thing where I vlog and talk to the camera and kind of improv what I say because it's like the bane of my existence and I have no idea what I'm doing here. But today's a special occasion because today we're going to be losing a part of our family. And you know, cue all those Vin Diesel means on Facebook because my feed has been overloaded with that stuff. It's a little out of hand. Anyway, we're gonna be trading in our lovely little pickup truck here and it's saddening because we've had it for the past eight years now and it served me and my family really well. So I figured, you know what, let's do this video as a proper send off for her. Cue it. This is the 2014 Toyota Tundra SR5 double cab with the six and a half foot bed in magnetic gray. It's got the 5.7 liter V8 that makes a healthy 381 brake horsepower and 401 foot pounds of torque. It can tow about 10,000 pounds and carry a payload of a little over 1400. That's not too bad considering a curb weight of roughly 5,800 pounds. I'll cover more of the performance in detail in an upcoming Race Fuel episode. But Even with the 3 inch lift and big 35 inch mud tires, it's probably a low 15 second quarter mile car. So it can still take on some Hondas here and there. But yeah, it's been with us through thick and thin. You know, I think I bought it back in late 2013. Yeah, something like that. And I bought it as a light duty work truck for my film business when I was working as a dp and yeah, that's when I was like using it as like for smaller jobs, you know, when we just need like a few stands, a few lights, camera package or two and a four person crew. And it did it really well. Handled that load no problem and yeah, but as my business grew, so did my inventory and then I ended up buying commercial duty trucks and then I bought, you know, a nice five ton pull trailer which this thing actually pulled and we did a feature film over in Illinois and I pulled this thing from New York City to Illinois and with that trailer and it, let me tell you, I know it's at the limit of its tow rating but it handled it really well. But my girlfriend at the time, who is now currently my wife, she said, hey, why don't you buy yourself an American truck. I was like, woman, this is an American truck. Don't you know the 5.7 Tundra was built in Oklahoma, and she had nothing to say to that. But that also got me thinking. It's like, you know what? At some point in time, I think I'm gonna need to upgrade this truck. And I think I'm gonna have to buy American because I'm gonna need a lot of truck. And, yeah, I think that time has come because, you know, my needs have changed. I no longer need a work truck. I need something more luxurious. I've got a family now, you know, wife, growing girl, two big dogs. I think my dogs are like, if you put them together, heavier than me. But yeah, I think about growing the tundra. So I think it's time we say goodbye to it and check out the new truck. That's my new truck. Yep, that's right. A heavy duty Ram 3500. But of course, I need to head inside to do some paperwork. So excuse me for a moment as they unload this beauty. So now that all that boring paperwork is done and over with, this little truck is finally mine. And I get to check it out up close and personal for the first time. Because we don't really get too many of these kind of trucks up here in the northeast, at least where I am. I literally had to drive. Didn't drive. Had to search all the way out to North Carolina to find this thing. But, yeah, they sent me a bunch of pictures and videos, but it just doesn't do it justice. This truck is. It's pretty big. It's not massive. Some people are like, yo, this truck is huge. I'm like, no, dude, it's like barely bigger than my tundra. And it's like 20 inches longer, something like that. But yeah, so it's. It's two tone. It's black with the walnut. It's called walnut RV brown. Something like that. Looks kind of bronze ish, which is cool. We're planning on probably wrapping the top with expel stealth or some sort of satin finish so that it becomes like a satin black and then a gloss bronze in the bottom. And that'll be pretty cool. What else? Yeah, so it's a 3500 heavy duty truck. It's got the 6.7 liter Cummins turbo diesel, standard output, not the high output version. Because I do tow, but I don't tow big loads across country. So I didn't need that limited longhorn edition that was a requirement for me. Because you'll see in A bit. With this interior. Why we wanted a Longhorn. But yeah, other than that, Mega Cab, which is unique to Dodge because Ford and Chevy, they don't do anything like that. They just do crew cabs. But the Mega cab is awesome because the back is supposedly huge. And then I got the six and a half foot bed, but it's not actually six and a half foot. So Rams, they do this six foot, four inch, eight bed, which is a little bit bizarre. And it's, you know, may not work for everybody, but I think I measured out what I needed it for, so it worked out fine with me. But here, check this out. Come here. Watch this. What? That is so cool. I love that. That is like. That is like, such a truck. And it's so light that when I like. So my Tundra is like, every time I was putting up, it's like a bicep workout. But this is like, nothing. And then this thing back here. What is this? Oh, God. So that's like a little bed step. So you can just kind of hop on there. Or if you got, like, you have this out, you can kind of just hop on, which is real cool. Okay. This truck is nice. It's got the gooseneck prep package. I won't be towing a gooseneck anytime soon, but it's nice that it has that. What else? Just feel like everything about this truck is super nice. I've got 18s on it, not the 20s, because I feel like the 18s look a little bit better when you put 35s on them, which is what we're planning to do. Oh. The one thing I don't like about these Longhorn kind of, like, trucks is that with the Longhorn trim, you can't get Night Edition, which kind of blacks everything out. And I feel like that would make this car look real mean because right now, it's a little confused. It's got chrome, black, bronze. It's a little all over the place. So I don't know, hopefully when I wrap it, we can maybe do the chrome deletes. But let's go check out the inside, because this is where I really want to see. Actually, I'll come from this direction. Wow, look at this. So see, this is why we wanted the Longhorn edition, because it is. Oh, my God. This is like. We've always wanted brown interiors in our cars. And my wife is actually kind of jealous because she wanted the brown interior in her BMW. But this is nice. It's like, wow. This is like, the perfect shade of brown, too. I think there's another trim of the Longhorn where it's brown and more brown, but I think that's too much brown. I like this brown and the black. The contrast is really awesome. Let's see. Let's get in this thing. Oh, the seats are super comfy. That's satisfying. Man, I just really love the interior of these. These new, like, Ram trucks. They're just so. Everything about them is just so. I don't know, they feel very luxurious. Let's. Let's just start up the infotainment system here. Fifteen miles. Yes. That's all I need. Wow. All this, like, wood trim. I think this is real wood, too. That's what I hear. There's, like. It's got real wood. It's got leather. It's got this nice, like, kind of like bronze, ish, goldish kind of trim pieces here. It's just. It's just overall, really nice contrast in this truck. Let's turn that down. We've got this moonroof up here. Oh, man, I really like this truck. This is. Oh, my God. The back seats are huge. Man, this is nice. So these seats are fully reclined right now. That chair, the driver's chair is in my driving position. I'm about five'11, so I can't even reach it. Wow, there's so much space back here, so much headroom. This is really nice. The only thing that I wish, you know, that Ford did was make the moon roof go all the way back here like Ford does with their panoramic. Panoramic moon, whatever they call it. But I wish they did that. That would be really nice for the kids to kind of, you know, like stare out. But hey, you know, it is what it is. You could like, I think you can fold these down and make like a king size bed or at least a queen size bed and, you know, take a nap in the back of this leather. So nice. What is in here? Okay, well, it's not that nice, I guess. Center console could be a little nicer. But I'm just really impressed with the materials in this truck. It just feels so soft and full grain. But yeah, let's. So let's head back out there and give this truck some track they love. Here it is. The Ram 3504x4 Mega Cab with the 6 foot 4 box, obviously, single rear wheel, and it's got the standard output 6.7cummins turbo diesel. Now, diesels will generally make a lower horsepower rating with a lot more torque to make up for that. And this one is no different 370 to the crank, but a whopping 850 foot pounds of earth moving torque. It's rated to tow over £20,000. But to me, the important part is the payload, which is roughly £4,000. And that's almost triple what the tundra could do. The curb weight on this thing is also a little ridiculous. It's something like £7,800, and that's enormous. I don't foresee us ever running this down our half mile test trip. But hey, never say never. So during the buying process, the biggest question from both myself and from dealers and friends was like, yo, Dan, why do you need a 3500? That's a big truck. And you know, I agree. But after a lot of deliberation, I realized that I needed the payload. And a 250 or a 2500 trim level. A 3 quarter ton truck rather is not going to give me the payload that I need. Because what we want to do with this truck is we wanted to put a camper in the back. Not one of those like, you know, tag along pole bumper or whatever, gooseneck campers, but something that physically slides in and sits in, in the bed semi permanently. And you'd be surprised. Those things are pretty dang heavy. I mean, I think the one we're looking at is about 1500 pounds or so dry weight. And if you factor in wet weight with all like the water, batteries and propane tanks, it becomes something like 1800 pounds. And then you add myself, my wife, my dogs, kid, luggage, you're looking at maybe 2,500 pounds of payload. And you know, you could say, Dan, 2500 could do that. And yes, that's true. But what I also wanted to do is I wanted to, you know, pull a race trailer with a race car inside. So you know, if we wanted to go like to a track somewhere and you know, drive, drive on that track and be comfortable in our camper, then we would need that weight. Because think about that trailer is about 7,000 pounds of the car in it, loaded 10% tongue weight, that's 700 pounds or so. So 700 pounds plus 2,500 pounds of payload, let's say 2300, 3,000 pounds. And you're pretty much at the limit of almost any 2500 truck or you know, three quarter ton truck. So yeah, I mean, of any brand really. Like I looked at Fords, I looked at, you know, GMC, Chevy's and Dodge 2500s, they all pretty much capped out around £3,000 with, you know, A good amount of options. But that brings me to my next question or next point, which is why did you buy or. Or why did I buy a Ram versus Ford or Chevy? And you know what? I like Chevy. You know, I'm a Corvette guy. But their trucks, man, the interiors are so goddamn ugly. Like, have you seen them? They look like they're still from like 2005, like with the 8 inch display or whatever that is. And like, you know, all those analog gauges just looks so. It looks so dated. I know they just redesigned it and the exterior is beautiful. Like it's so awesome looking. But the inside of that truck is just. Oh man, feels so dated. Now the Super Duties, on the other hand, I. I think they look great too. Like, the Super Duties are probably the most masculine looking trucks because they're tall, they're boxy, they're square. I know the 350s are 2 inches taller than the 250s from the factory, but yeah, the interiors on those are still a little bit. They're starting to age a little. I know Ford is doing a refresh for the interior on 2022 models. But I asked the dealers around here and they're like, listen, we probably can't get an order out to you until October. And I was like, well, I really want a truck now. And kind of an impatient guy. So if I want something now, I kind of try to buy it now. But yeah, so that's how I ended up with a Ram 3500 Longhorn mega cab. But yeah, I think, I think I should go get my registration and plates and put this thing on the insurance and let's go take it for a drive and maybe eat something. I am so hungry. Okay, so we actually had to wait around a little bit because my parents and grandparents wanted to see the truck. But now that everything's sorted out, we can go eat. So. Time for its first maiden voyage out in town. Man, I haven't. Haven't driven a diesel truck in a couple of years. Ever since we sold all of our Hino 268s. Almost forgot what it's like. Let's see how this braking works. Yeah, there you go. Diesel exhaust. Braking. Steering in this truck is really nice because it's so much lighter than my Tundra because I think it's like hydraulic power assisted or something like that. But it feels like a luxury car that I'm driving, not like a big heavy duty truck. So I wish the infotainment system was a little bit more modern feeling. It feels a little bit Outdated. The graphics are a little bit low resolution. Well, I mean, overall, it's pretty good. But when you compare it to something like our X6, I guess it's a little. It feels a little under the weather. But anyway, check this out. I've got this little mirror thing. It turns into a camera that shows me the rear, which is so awesome. And I can adjust the. Let's see. Brightness. I can adjust the height. I can see who's behind me. And I can just turn it off just by doing that. I haven't really talked about MSRP yet, but it is a little bit on the expensive side. I mean, we're talking about an $80,000 plus truck. And yeah, it's. It's not cheap. It's like three times more expensive than a tundra or two times. And. I don't know. What do you think? Do you think it's worth the money? Because we could have easily just gotten like a power wagon or tradesman. Well, power wagon wouldn't work because it doesn't have the payload capacity. But we could have just got like a big horn or a tradesman. But I think this interior is. Is 100% worth the money. Okay, so you guys probably can't see where we're at, but we ended up at Longhorn steakhouse, which is very fitting because this is a longhorn trimmed truck. I know. Super cheese bone. But, hey, I haven't been here in a while, so I'm pretty excited to be here too. All right, here we go. You ready, girl? All right, well, I hope you guys enjoyed this Monday vlog episode and hope you guys like my truck. Probably won't do a review on this because it doesn't make any sense, but anyway, catch you all in the next one. Let's go. All right. So this confuses me. I have no idea what this is for. I think maybe this is for different types of ammunition. So I think this is for a.50 cal here because this hole is bigger than this one. This might be. 45, 308. I don't know, maybe some. 22s down here or 9 mil. And then I guess the. The ammunition box goes in here or the loader or your magazines. I don't know. This is. This is weird. Oh, so this here is where you put your actual firearm. Look at that. Wow.