Mike Cairns / 2015 Ram Rebel interview
4K views
Nov 10, 2024
Talking with Mike Cairns, the esteeemed Ram Chief Engineer, about the 2015 Ram Rebel and engineering the former Dodge pickup trucks
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0:06
hi I'm Mike Terren head of ram truck
0:07
engineering we're here today talking
0:09
about the Ram 1500 Rebel this is a new
0:12
model we're just launching as you can
0:14
see awesome off-road looking truck but
0:17
it's also got chops to deliver that we
0:19
use our four corner air suspension and
0:21
we set the ride height 1 in higher than
0:23
normal to give us a best-in-class ground
0:26
clearance of over 10 in and you can also
0:28
see we are able to fit beautiful 33in
0:31
Toyo Open Country allterrain ta tires
0:35
awesome Tire love these tires they not
0:37
only deliver great mud snow traction but
0:39
they also have really good onroad ride
0:42
and handling very important of course to
0:44
our Customer because we have a great
0:45
ride in this truck we didn't want to
0:47
give it up just because you get an
0:48
off-road truck um the interior also is
0:51
just awesome you have to get some shots
0:53
of that really cool looking really
0:55
accenting and letting the customer know
0:57
this is something
1:03
um Grill is it just aesthetic or it have
1:06
some ex cooling function to um the grill
1:09
that's one of the things when you do new
1:10
grills um obviously The Styling guys we
1:13
work very closely with our product
1:15
design office guys um we have to make
1:18
sure it still delivers good aerodynamics
1:20
as well as good cooling air flow so
1:22
there's a lot of work goes into that we
1:24
actually take it in the wind tunnel to
1:25
develop the shape and the size to make
1:27
sure we still can deliver the awesome
1:30
toe capability of a Ram hemi as well as
1:33
the good aerodynamics and fuel economy
1:35
that we deliver in all our
1:38
power concern from the hardore this is
1:42
the new for the whole
1:44
line package for now or uh it's a great
1:48
question is this the new grill of all
1:50
Ram no this is a unique model we really
1:52
wanted to signify that this is something
1:54
special and different so the traditional
1:57
Ram Crosshair grills are still out there
1:58
in all our other models
2:00
but we really wanted this to look
2:02
different and really have this very
2:03
aggressive that matte black look gives
2:05
it a tough aggressive
2:08
look I'm guessing the price isn't
2:10
available yet um we'll have price you
2:13
have a a higher
2:19
range yes yeah this this model though we
2:22
haven't announced pricing will be
2:24
somewhere kind of above a big horn
2:26
package uh somewhere between Big Horn
2:28
sport model that thing so a little bit
2:31
of a premium price but not not bad I
2:33
think you'll all be very happy with the
2:34
price soon as we announc everything we
2:37
see
2:38
standards on this yes there there are
2:41
options I should say sorry this does
2:43
feature ram box which is an option there
2:46
are options within the package it is a
2:48
new model that will have a bunch of
2:51
other uh free-standing
2:53
options the air suspension is set
2:56
higher standard setting dve higher than
2:59
say a regular for half the mar exactly
3:01
so sorry I look at you camera um exactly
3:05
the uh by using the four corner air
3:07
suspension we set the normal ride height
3:10
1 in higher than the normal 4x4 so it'll
3:13
run around at all speeds at that higher
3:15
ride height uh we do offer though the
3:18
same feature you can turn on the Arrow
3:19
mode where if you're over about 60 M
3:22
hour it'll drop down to improve
3:24
aerodynamics and highway speeds but you
3:26
can turn that off also if you want uh
3:28
and then there's also an off an
3:30
additional off-road mode which will
3:32
raise the truck another inch over what
3:34
you see here and then the park entry
3:37
exit position which will lower the truck
3:40
now that it's an inch higher it actually
3:41
lower about 3 in for Ingress erass and
3:45
of course using the bed getting in and
3:46
out of the bed loading gear which is
3:49
really great I use it all the
3:51
time the speed limit on the offro
3:55
mode um yeah in the high off-road mode
3:58
about 25 miles an hour uh we will drop
4:01
down then to the normal ride height uh
4:03
in a regular 4x4 that that this ride
4:06
height would normally only be allowed up
4:09
to about 45 mph but we've retuned the
4:12
suspension with the fill Steen shocks
4:14
changed the geometry a little bit so it
4:16
still handles great even at higher speed
4:17
so this ride height will stay L up to
4:20
its top
4:22
speed bu up to any other
4:25
R suspension bu up to uh
4:30
um it'd be very expensive because the
4:33
air suspension is all unique um if you
4:36
had an air suspension we're not making
4:38
available the different controller to
4:40
change a regular air suspension set at
4:42
this ride height because there is
4:44
geometry changes and we've done all the
4:46
dynamic tuning with these tires these
4:48
shocks and that
4:50
ride throwing levels to the tow ratings
4:55
all stay the same as a regular 36 4x4
4:58
the 57 4x2
5:01
um come tennar or heny was there there
5:04
no Eco diesel was there any
5:05
consideration Eco diesel sure we we
5:08
consider putting the EC diesel in we
5:09
love that engine we're very proud of it
5:11
but um we have such Demand right now
5:13
we're looking at increased capacity so
5:16
we really felt on this model we just at
5:18
this time stick with the gas engine
5:24
off interior standard all running yes
5:27
the interior that's standard interior
5:29
awesome looking beautiful and that's in
5:31
the rebel package every exterior yeah uh
5:34
there are five exterior colors the red
5:38
yes yeah yeah yeah and that's why we
5:41
limited to five colors CU we wanted to
5:43
make sure that interior matches with all
5:46
the exterior colors
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