New sighting

[Cougarfamily]

This may or may not be news to all. Driving through town today near our local Dodge dealer, I pulled along side a brand new Ram 2500 that had just pulled out on a test drive. It had the Hemi, and on the side of the bed it had "Powered By Compressed Natural Gas" painted in green along with a leaf. I new it was different at first because of the large square tank in the bed, and the blue CNG sticker on tailgate.

Wonder what the tow rating is, since I have always understood that CNG doesn't produce a lot of hp. And from my view point, the tank looked to take up at least a fourth, if not more, of the bed. Enough room for a 5th wheel hitch?

Is this truely the wave of the future? I didn't look to see if it had a regular tank opening. Some of our vehicles at work have both tanks, but the CNG is never utilized. The only CNG station I know of here was removed years ago, due to lack of demand.

[audio1der]

Huh; this is the first I'd heard of this. After some reading it seems the tank takes almost half the bed space, is an $11,000 option and due to the Hemi in a 3/4 ton chassis combined with CNG, the towing isn't that hot.
I don't know why a person wouldn't wait for the 2014 EcoDiesil (V6 diesel in the Ram 1500)
(Quote)
The Ram 2500 CNG offers 1,580-pounds of payload capability, 4-foot-8-inches usable bed length and 7,650 pounds of towing capability. For those living in areas where snow is a concern, front GAWR is rated up to 5,200 pounds, allowing for the use of snow plow attachments.

[Jim W]

This option is too make the driver feel good and save some money maybe?
Just like someone driving a LEAF.
Jim W.

[SlowPoke]

Bah I say... MORE GAS, MORE POWER, MORE HP, LESS MPG... I honestly don't care about my footprint... and not to get into a political upheaval but most of those political figureheads that rave about carbon footprints, don't seem to care about their own. The company I work for is all about the "Green", but it always comes down to anbother type of green at the end of the day. Also, as I've worked in a commercial capacity in electrical for most of my employed life, I have seen more money wasted on "Green" and "Recycle" than just doing it the old fashioned way and saving the bucks. "Save the environment" they say, BAH... I agree with doing our part to help the earth, but what we are doing to help overall IMHO has not made a diddly squat to what Mother Nature has in store for everyone. She will do what she wants to do regardless of how many times we sort trash, and poot in our tanks.

Just an opinion, I know everyone has theirs, and I mean NOT to offend anyone.

[KenBob]

The CNG Ram was designed for fleet purposes. You will likely see few owned by the general public. There is no reason, other than curiosity, to crunch numbers for towing for this vehicle. Buying this vehicle for recreational towing would be a waste.