Ram Just Can't Get Enough, Introduces Two New Trims at the State Fair of Texas
People allege that everything’s bigger in Texas. At the State Fair, they’re probably right. Ram chose the long-running extravaganza to show off a couple of new trim packages now available on their pickups.
The current list of Ram trim levels reads like a menu at a good restaurant: lots on it and plenty that you want. Ahead of next January’s Detroit show, where we will presumably see a brand-new Ram 1500 pickup, the FCA team has dropped two new models into their lineup.
This author tremendously enjoyed the Dallas series of TV shows, both the original and the reboot, so news of a Southfork edition Ram brought to mind images of JR, Bobby, and Ewing Oil.
The Southfork trim will be layered on top of the super-lux Laramie Longhorn trim that’s been coddling truck drivers for awhile now. Most of the Southfork-specific trim details are found inside the truck, with the seats covered in new Canyon Brown and Light Frost Beige leather. It’s the first time Ram has offered a near-white interior color on this iteration of the Ram and Jim Morrison, head of the Ram Truck brand, was quick to point out that all seating surfaces – even the rear – is actual, real, gen-u-wine leather.
Premium leather also wraps the interior grab handles, which doesn’t sound like a big deal until you use one to heave yourself up into the big rig. This is coming from a man who has plain plastic grab handles in his eight-year old Ram. Real walnut wood trims the steering wheel and there’s even a suede headliner borrowed from the Ram Limited Tungsten Edition.
Eagle-eyed truck spotters will spy a chrome “Longhorn” badge stretched to billboard size and spanning the width of the tailgate.
In other belt buckle news, the Texas-specific Lone Star Silver trim is now extended to the Heavy Duty line. Identified by its glitzy chrome grille with a wavy-meshy insert and a Lone Star Silver badge, this trim proved popular on the Ram 1500 line. Exterior highlights include new bright belt moldings, chrome exterior side-view mirrors, chrome wheel-to-wheel side steps, polished 20-inch wheels, and front tow hooks.
The Laramie Longhorn Southfork edition is available on just about every Ram in the catalog, from a 1500 4×2 all the way up to a 3500 4×4. Just remember to check the option box for a Crew Cab or Mega Cab. The Ewing brothers need to take all their friends along to the Oil Baron’s Ball, naturally. The Ram 1500 Southfork starts at $51,220 plus $1,395 destination, with Heavy Duty models commanding about $4,400 more.
As for the Heavy Duty Lone Star Silver edition, it is available on either the 2500 or 3500 Crew Cab pickups, driving either two or four wheels. Customers have the choice of choice of the 5.7-liter Hemi V8, the 6.4-liter Hemi V8 or the 6.7-liter Cummins inline-six diesel and its massive 930 lb-ft of torque. Pricing starts under 50 grand.
Production of the 2018 Ram Laramie Longhorn Southfork and Ram Heavy Duty Lone Star Silver models begins in the third-quarter of 2017 at both Ram assembly plants.
[Images: © 2017 Matthew Guy]
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Kudos for using the correct name "State Fair of Texas". As for the Southfork edition, I find it kinda funny. There's probably more cows used in that interior than there are walking around at the real Southfork. I live five or six minutes from Southfork, and I don't I've seen more than one or two cows grazing there in years. The road in front (Murphy Road) was widened six lanes divided in the last couple of years, and development is slowly encroaching. I finally got to tour the house a couple of years ago (the house isn't that big, really, maybe 3000 square feet) during a company get-together at the conference center, and the interior decorating is firmly stuck in the late '70s, including the room where J.R. was "shot". The children of the original owners of the house the (the Duncan family) still live in the area, and I actually knew someone once that had attended a party at the house when it was still occupied by the Duncans.
Whatever happened to those big, RWD, V8, fullsize BOF Chrysler sedans? They're now crew cab pickups! Check the specs: length, wheelbase, width, front and rear head/leg/hip room - they're just jacked up 1974 New Yorkers with no trunk lid! The classic RWD V8 sedan isn't gone, it's just called a truck to avoid car emissions limits. The prices are about what you'd pay for a '74 adjusted for inflation. For once, I think the low-rider aficionados are onto something.