2026 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Review: Towing Test

Our automotive expert tests the towing capability and technology of the 2026 Ram 2500 by hauling a race car to the track.

Benjamin Hunting | 

Aug 7, 2026 | 7 min read

Benjamin Hunting

• Pros: The Ram 2500's diesel engine was surprisingly frugal at the fuel pump, and I really appreciated its bed-lowering technology and towing cameras.
• Cons: Not all of the Ram's towing-related software worked reliably, and it doesn't feel as mighty as other heavy-duty trucks while accelerating.
• The Takeaway: With the optional turbo-diesel engine, the Ram 2500 is a capable tow vehicle.

Heavy-duty (HD), three-quarter-ton pickups such as the 2026 Ram 2500 are the next step up when light-duty, half-ton trucks can't get the job done. Featuring an overbuilt chassis and an optional turbo-diesel engine that can boost towing capacity to 20,000 pounds, the brawny Ram 2500 is vastly more capable than its light-duty, half-ton, Ram 1500 sibling, which maxes out at 11,610 pounds. The added capability makes it appealing to people with large camping, livestock, or vehicle-transport trailers, as well as commercial operators hauling heavy equipment and construction supplies.

• About the Test Vehicle
  
• The 2026 Ram 2500 Gets Useful Tech and Towing Features
  
• Not All the Software Systems Worked While Towing
  
• The Ram 2500's Turbo-Diesel Is Surprisingly Efficient
  

About the Test Vehicle

I tested the 2026 Ram 2500 in Laramie trim, which has a base price of $65,105, including its $2,795 destination charge. This four-door crew-cab pickup was equipped with the optional 6.7-liter inline six-cylinder Cummins turbo-diesel engine rated at 430 horsepower and 1,075 pound-feet of torque, matched with four-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Additional options such as the Laramie Level 2 Plus package, the Sport Appearance package, and the Towing Technology package increased its manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) to $93,410. Ram provided the vehicle for this 2500 Laramie review.

The heavy-duty (HD) 2500 Laramie was a lot of truck for what I needed: towing a 3,500-pound Ford Mustang track car on a 2,000-pound, 20-foot steel trailer to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, for a full day of road-course fun. The nearly 700-mile journey offered ample opportunity to test the Ram's trailer-specific features and get a feel for how it handles a wide range of driving situations when loaded down.

Benjamin Hunting

The 2026 Ram 2500 Gets Useful Tech and Towing Features

The air suspension in my heavy-duty, three-quarter ton 2026 Ram 2500 test truck was impressive, as it allowed me to lower the cargo bed at the touch of a button. Given the pickup's towering ride height, this reduced the strain associated with loading jacks, cinder blocks, a paddock canopy, chairs, and tables into the cargo bed.

It also simplified hitching up and dropping the trailer since I didn't have to put multiple blocks under its jack to level it with the hitch. This has been an issue for me in the past when towing with off-road-oriented HD pickups that didn't offer this feature.

If your trailer rides low, you can use the Alternate Trailer Height feature to keep the rear end squatted while towing, helping keep the load level. This is particularly beneficial when using a fifth-wheel hitch in the truck's bed, rather than the Class V hitch outfitted from the factory.

The vehicle's towing cameras were also handy, offering a variety of views of the trailer, its load, and the areas around the sides of the truck. Those were a big help when maneuvering through tight spaces. You can even add auxiliary cameras to your trailer that connect to Ram's system, which can then display those auxiliary angles on the infotainment screen.

The Ram 2500's multiple available trailer profiles are simpler than those I've encountered in heavy duty trucks from General Motors. You can name the rig, specify the type of braking system it uses, and check its tire pressures if you've installed sensors.

Benjamin Hunting

Not All the Software Systems Worked While Towing

Not all of the Ram 2500's towing features were useful, or even functional. For example, I loved the command center-style dashboard view that let me keep tabs on various vehicle data at a glance, but I could have done without the always-on readout displaying my trailer length. I already know how long my own trailer is, and I suspect the same is true for most HD truck customers.

I suppose this could be useful for rental trailers, but if you own an HD pickup, you likely already own a gargantuan rig that prompted the truck's purchase.

More problematic was the trailer-reverse steering knob at the base of the infotainment system. It's intended to simplify control of trailer direction while reversing by allowing you to steer with the knob to the left or right, instead of using the steering wheel, which requires inverse inputs when backing up.

I could not get this system to work. Every time I tried to use it, it told me it had to be calibrated. Fair enough. Following the onscreen directions to get this done, pulling forward, reversing, turning left, then right, simply didn't pan out. At one point, I was turning big, slow circles in a massive parking lot outside the paddock while the TURN LEFT instruction just stayed plastered on the display.

The last time I towed with a Ram (a half-ton 1500), I had a similar issue with the trailer-steering setup, which worked only intermittently. The owner's manual says you can add high-visibility stickers to your trailer if the system's cameras can't detect it. Perhaps that was the issue here, but it's not a problem I've encountered with similar systems from other manufacturers.

Benjamin Hunting

The Ram 2500's Turbo-Diesel Is Surprisingly Efficient

With the test truck pulling only a fraction of its max-rated towing capacity, the Cummins turbo-diesel six-cylinder engine rarely had to work hard. I had plenty of get-up-and-go when accelerating off the line, and on the highway, the vehicle cruised effortlessly. There's an exhaust-brake feature to help slow things down, too, which was overkill for my purposes but functioned perfectly.

The adaptive cruise control automatically accounts for the trailer's weight, maximizing the following distance when activated. The blind-spot-monitoring system also accounts for the trailer's length, which was helpful when pulling back in after a pass, especially around twilight, when visibility at the far end of the load was at its lowest.

The only flaw I could detect was an occasional vibration moving from the road through the truck's floor to my foot through the accelerator. This seemed to happen while maintaining a steady speed at low RPM, and it didn't appear to matter whether I used the transmission's Tow/Haul mode or not — it was on for the majority of my trailering. Whether this was due to rough asphalt or a driveline wiggle, I'm unable to say for sure.

I drove half the trip at 65 mph. After 350-ish miles, the Ram 2500 returned fuel economy of around 18 mpg. On the return home, I increased the pace to 75 mph, which dropped efficiency to 16 mpg. Each of those numbers surpasses those of the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD I used on the same route last year, with the same Mustang and the same trailer.

While the Ram may have been more efficient, its six-cylinder lacked the explosive power I observed with the Duramax 6.6-liter turbo-diesel V8 in the Chevrolet. The Silverado was noticeably quicker to merge and more adept at slipping past highway traffic when I needed to slide into an open gap in the right lane. This is despite its turbo-diesel V8 putting out roughly 10% more horsepower but less torque than the Ram.

Whether that matters boils down to personal preference. I'm happy to exchange a bit of giddy-up for the additional frugality in a truck that still has enough torque to pull every stump in the forest surrounding my home. The 2026 Ram 2500 Laramie put in excellent work on my racetrack road trip, and it's well worth a look for heavy-duty pickup shoppers willing to ignore its occasional software snafus.

Benjamin Hunting

Nearly two decades into his career as an automotive journalist, Benjamin has had his hands greasy, his hair blown back, and his heart broken by more than one project car. In addition to his work at Capital One, he has contributed features and reviews to Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Hagerty, Driving Line, Inside Hook, Super Street, European Car, Roadkill Magazine, Motor 1, The Drive, the Toronto Star, the National Post, Business Insider, NAPA, Autoblog, Automotive News Canada, and AutoGuide. He is also cohost of the Unnamed Automotive Podcast and cocreator of the Code 45 and Dead Air graphic novels. In his spare time, he's a friend to vinyl and enjoys keeping the shiny side up during track days.