If you’re the kind of driver who instinctively tailgates gravel trucks, then complains when your windows are shattered, this may not be the column for you.

As I discovered for a recent 11-day period, there is indeed a sort of larger-than-thou Zen that comes along with a super-gigantic vehicle like the all-new Ram 2500 heavy-duty pick-up truck. Bigness is not an excuse for Ram owners to act in a gravel truck-styled fashion, like they’ve often been stereotyped, so I tried to chill out as much as I could.   

Packed with a new, optional 430-hp 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine that produces an alarming 1,075 lb-ft of torque, this behemoth is set up to pull just under 20,000 pounds of trailer (the same engine can help pull nearly 37,000 pounds in the new, larger Ram 3500).

Couple all of that with the glossier, chrome-laden presence of the Laramie Sport trim, and you have a vehicle whose utility matches its largess. It also came to $84,545 in this guise, including the $12,595 extra for that high-output turbodiesel, plus 20-inch wheels and a custom performance-style hood for extra menace.

Brawn is standard on these 2025 Ram heavy duties, but you’ll still get a lot of capability with the base models, priced inclusively at $47,560 for the 2500 and $48,565 for the 3500, with a 6.4-liter Hemi V8 rated at 405-hp and 429 lb-ft.

So, yes, a whole hell of a lot of truck, and perhaps a curious choice as a family vehicle not dual-purposed to pulling boats or construction trailers, but these are curious times, and the heavily improved 2500 will serve its owners well.

I spent my week and a half learning to rein in all that power and size – with a standard 6-foot-4 bed, the Mexican-built crew cab 4×4 version of the truck I drove is 239 inches long, on a 149-inch wheelbase, and 80 inches tall. Even with chromed, cabin-length running boards, you really have to reach and leap to get aboard, as there’s 13 inches of ground clearance. It’s also exactly as heavy as it looks.

What was perhaps the most remarkable was how easy the Ram 2500 is to drive, under most circumstances. You do have to keep an eye on the speedometer as that wall of diesel torque makes 80 mph the unladen truck’s default speed, so uphill and flat-out power are not an issue. It rode smoothly and can even corner impressively on Loveland Pass. (Amazingly, my I-70 pass-going mileage over the whole week ranged between 17 and 19 mpg, as well.)

Lane-control aids are also there if you don’t instinctively step into the groove of the vehicle’s size, with telescoping dual-level side mirrors playing a helpful role. They’re also critical in backing the truck into parking spots, often between other massive trucks.

I did have to be cautious when I later avoided I-70 entirely and decided to explore Keyser Creek Road, off of Ute Pass, as there were some relatively narrow spots all the way to Fraser. I have a feeling you won’t find the Ram 2500 on trails smaller than that, but then again, who knows.  

Despite all its enormity and the added, leathery gloss of the Laramie Sport package, it’s in many ways easier to operate than the shock-and-awe feature-laden Rebel or even the high-performance Ram RHO trucks. The 4×4 controls here are a simple low-high couple of buttons, and the on-the-column shifter is tiny and strangely light to use, despite everything else on the truck being oversized. 

Without a trailer to haul, the rudimentary downhill gear range buttons, mounted awkwardly on the inside of the steering wheel, allow downhill speed control, while there’s a full trailer brake setup for the real thing, as well as trailer reverse steering control and digital pages of trailer monitoring info. The digital instrument display also allows you to scroll through more than 24 screens of info, should you want to do so.

Crew cab models get a comfortably-sized rear seat with flip-up seat bottoms and pop-up cargo boxes underneath, while the Mega Cab variant offers almost minivan-styled rear space.

Other pleasantries added for 2025 include an upgraded 12 or 14.5-inch, vertically-oriented infotainment screen that accurately maps an iPhone when using CarPlay. There’s also a nine-speaker Alpine stereo system, and an available 10.25-inch passenger-side screen that can be actively repurposed to display exterior cameras, or just stream your kid’s video games. The ultra-oversized center console, with its sliding interior deck and endless space for cargo, now features two upright phone charger slots, as multiple phones can be paired with the Uconnect system.

Should you need it, there’s an onboard power converter that can provide as much as 2.4 kilowatts to two plugs in the bed. When you need all that non-hybrid juice, it’s controlled by the touchscreen and over-revs the engine to provide the output.   

Andy Stonehouse’s column “Mountain Wheels” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Stonehouse has worked as an editor and writer in Colorado since 1998, focusing on automotive coverage since 2004. He lives in Golden. Contact him at summitmountainwheels@gmail.com.