Field Dented :: 2026 Ram 1500 Warlock

Orange and blue are on opposite sides of the color wheel; this is a major reason why photography from the desert Southwest is often so striking. The eye immediately registers the high variance between the two hues—the tangerines and vermillions of sandstone and soil set against the azures and cobalts of a deep and arcing sky. I contemplated the science of the color wheel from a cliffside above a remote Utah campsite where a dozen four-wheel drives were clustered closely together under an immense orange butte. All were painted or wrapped in some variation of black, grey, silver, white, or dark green. But one stood out among them: a 2026 Ram 1500 Warlock in shocking, can’t-miss-me Hydro Blue Pearl. Quite a contrast. 

Also in contrast to Ram’s (until recently) heavily-touted EV pickup program, was what lurked under that bright blue hood. EV power has been canceled, and the Hemi is back, this time fitted with the eTorque mild hybrid drive system and a “Symbol of Protest” badge proudly fixed to the side. My brand-new loaner Warlock from Ram also had standard G/T exhaust for a defiant burble and a beefed-up off-road package that included extensive steel underbody protection and a trail-tuned suspension. 

And a huge dent in the right front fender.

Ram 1500 Warlock—Ride the Rumble

More on that rearranged bodywork in a bit—let’s consider first how Ram was able to conjure up a Hemi once again for its full-size pickups. Stellantis pulled the plug on its EV truck initiative in September of this year. Consistently a few steps behind both GM and Ford along the electrification curve, once the political and regulatory winds shifted, it was a straightforward move to axe the capital-intensive Ram EV. With a superhuman yank of the metaphorical hand brake, Ram made a U-turn straight back to what it knows best: big, rumbly V8s. 

In the 1500 pickup specifically, the Hemi V8 displaces 5.7 liters and features variable camshaft timing and the fuel-saving Multi-Displacement System, which closes down half the cylinders in low-demand driving contexts. The 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque flow outwards through the 8-speed 8HP75 automatic transmission and a high- and low-range transfer case. This is all fairly standard stuff on the third-generation Hemi, whose roots stretch back to 2003. 

However, there is still some electric sorcery up this Warlock’s sleeve. The eTorque mild hybrid system (introduced in 2019) replaces the alternator with a motor generator unit that adds an additional 130 pound-feet of torque to the equation. The small 48-volt lithium-ion battery pack lives behind the rear seat and takes charge partially from regenerative braking. eTorque not only boosts power (especially off the line), it also contributes to the 1500’s efficiency by taking over some electrical tasks, and it deploys between shifts to flatten out power delivery through the 8-speed automatic. Automatic start/stop can be defeated with the push of a button, but the motor generator lessens the aural and physical effects of turning the engine on and off at every stop light (the loud G/T exhaust does not). The upshot is an EPA-rated 16 mpg city and 20 mpg highway, for a combined fuel efficiency rating of 18 mpg. Certainly worse than an EV, but better than a V8 GMC Sierra 1500 4WD, and about on par with a Ford F-150 4WD with the 5.0-liter V8. 

In all, it’s an impressive technological package for a fairly long-in-the-tooth powertrain, even if it significantly lags behind Ram’s new high-output 540-horsepower twin-turbo Hurricane inline six cylinder (HO turbo Rams hit 60 mph from a standstill in just 4.2 seconds!). The V8 sounds mean at full throttle, power pours on smoothly, and kick-downs are immediate. It dispatches dicey passing situations on two-lane highways with ease, and big four-wheel discs at all corners haul the nearly 6,000-pound pickup down to more reasonable speeds with no drama. Advanced brake assist and ABS are standard, along with electronic roll mitigation and stability control (which also integrates anti-sway technology for trailers).

Tradesman Roots

At its heart, the Warlock is a Tradesman-spec Ram, and it only comes in the 5-foot, 7-inch short bed and four-door crew cab configuration. This is the bottom rung for standard equipment in the Ram 1500 pecking order, but that sounds worse than it really is. The interior is where you’ll find most of the base-level appointments, including black cloth upholstery on the full-width front and rear bench seats and a hard plastic dash. When the center front seat converts to an armrest console, its uses are limited, since it can’t be very deep—even if it does mean your best guy or gal can ride right next to you, arm over their shoulder. I don’t mind a bench seat, however, and this is one of the most comfortable I’ve ever used in a large pickup. The cloth doesn’t feel like you’re taking a penalty; it’s surprisingly soft, but also seems like it will take a beating for years to come. Rear leg room and storage are immense, so bringing the whole family on your adventures won’t be a problem.

The analog gauges in the instrument panel flank a basic trip computer and screen for manipulating various vehicle settings via steering wheel controls, such as blind spot monitoring, 360-degree cameras, and adaptive cruise. The Warlock is stuck with the smaller 8.4-inch TFT touchscreen high in the middle of the dash. Fancier Rams get a whole suite of screens, including a huge 14.5-inch center screen, front passenger touchscreen display, and a fully interactive digital cluster display for the IP. The traditionalist in me is happy to do without so many pixels taking up all the line-of-sight space, and the center 8.4-incher does the job with excellent connectivity for your devices and zero latency. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard.

That about does it for features inside the Warlock. Don’t expect other niceties like heated or ventilated seats, power folding mirrors, comprehensive audio controls on the steering wheel, or a sublime sound system. My Warlock had optional towing packages that added about a dozen doodads and settings for pulling trailers, but there’s no automatic climate control—this is a true work truck.

Warlock Overland—The Forest for the Trees

How does the Warlock work on-trail and as an adventure travel platform? I drove this Ram for a week over approximately 1,000 miles of mixed use, including dicing with urban traffic in Salt Lake City, long high-speed stretches of freeway, bumping around in low-range through highly variable off-road terrain in Utah’s southern deserts, and careening straight into a large juniper tree. In short, all the conditions that both long-term and weekend warrior travelers commonly face. 

My encounter with the Bears Ears National Monument’s most familiar flora happened on a very narrow two-track that had suffered significant washouts during a record rainstorm the week before we arrived. A misplaced wheel collapsed the steep sides of a gulley and sent me headlong into the juniper at walking speeds. I didn’t realize immediately how much damage was done, but those trees are unforgiving and hard as iron; I did some real vandalism to all that beautiful blue paintwork. The Warlock barely had 4,000 miles on the odometer. Our expedition leader, the always unflappable Nick Jaynes from Differential Communications, had booked the truck and flown me to Utah for this trip, and I paid him back by breaking his pickup. 

Nick shrugged it off, and Ram also seems nonplussed about the whole event, but all that disclosure is important because even though I feel genuinely terrible about damaging a brand-new truck on a press trip, guilt won’t color my driving impressions. We’re professionals at Expedition Portal, even if the driving doesn’t always suggest it. On gravel, rock, mud, and sand, I found the Warlock an excellent trail companion—narrower tracks notwithstanding, but if you’re getting into the full-size revolution, you should be keeping that in mind anyway. On the Goodyear Duratrac all-terrains (LT275/70R18E on Warlock-spec 18-inch black alloys), the Ram was sure-footed barring operator error, and the coil-sprung rear axle contributes to good articulation and consistent tire/trail contact.

The Warlock trim includes a lot of functional off-piste equipment, including “performance-tuned” shocks and a 1-inch increased ride height, steel skid plates for the steering gear, transfer case, and fuel tank, rated tow hooks, and a full-size spare wheel and tire. Also standard for the Warlock are an electronic locking rear differential and Selec-Speed Control, a low-speed off-road cruise control and hill descent feature found on Jeeps as well. These are genuinely useful upgrades, and I deployed all of them on the challenging routes that Utah threw at us both in Bears Ears and Canyonlands National Park. Even with the modest 21-22 degree breakover angle (24.3 degrees of approach angle). expected for a full-size truck, the Warlock crawled confidently through rocky obstacles and step downs that at first glance might have seemed over its head. The Ram’s more sloping nose (at least compared to equivalent Fords and GM trucks) created decent sightlines for such a large pickup.  

There are also a handful of amenities that make living out of the Ram more convenient. The 400-watt inverter has 115-volt outlets both in the cab and in the bed, and the bed lighting is bright and well-aimed for evening or early-morning tasks on the tailgate. A foldable bed step eases access, and adjustable tie downs on burly rails make securing gear a snap. The power sliding rear window lets in the breeze, and all four doors open wide for easy cab access. Payload capacity is 1,780 pounds, enough to accommodate a fairly wide range of modest truck campers, and the Warlock will tow an impressive 11,900 pounds (and it feels like it can). 

But on this particular trip, one aspect of the Ram 1500 Warlock stood above the rest. In the more remote parts of southern Utah, fuel is rare, and depending on how and where you drive, distances between fill-ups can be vast. Throw in hard wheeling for hours in sand or mud in low gear, and fuel economy can collapse. The Warlock’s 33-gallon fuel tank and eTorque assist pair up to offer serious fuel range. On the trail-focused parts of our route, even with low-range engaged for large parts of the day, I rarely saw my efficiency drop below 15 mpg, while the F-150 Raptors, Sierras, Tundras, Gladiators, and even Tacomas in our group often struggled to get out of the single digits. An under-stressed engine and a light load out on my Ram contributed to the relatively high efficiency, but it’s a clear check mark in the win column for the Warlock.

Casting a Spell

There were many moments during my week with the Warlock where I caught myself thinking, “I could legitimately live with this truck on a daily basis.” The driving position is outstanding, and the seat never left me stiff or sore after an exhausting day on trails that required constant concentration to navigate. The uprated suspension displayed exceptional body control, steering was precise, and the throttle-by-wire accelerator pedal always engaged predictably, with no lag or jumpiness—a boon off-road.

My complaints are few; if you walk into the dealership intent on looking at a Warlock, you’re already prepared to compromise on creature comforts in exchange for more rough-road capability. But I missed two features that would be helpful in off-road contexts. The first is the lack of height adjustability on the manual driver’s seat. In a larger vehicle, I like to ratchet up the height for better vision on more technical trails, and there’s plenty of headroom in the Warlock to accommodate that move. Second, the automatic transmission does not have true manual control. There is a gear limiter function that allows you to choose a ceiling for upshifts or hold the lowest gear, but some flappy paddles would make selecting that just-right ratio on technical terrain a lot easier. The aftermarket is still a little thin for Ram trucks, but it’s swiftly catching up, pulled along in the wake of AEV’s special editions, like the Prospector. 

The Ram 1500 Warlock starts at $54,460 with destination charges, and the example I drove (and crashed into a tree) rang in at $61,230, which included $295 for that attention-grabbing blue paint, a couple of optional towing packages, the Bed Utility Group, and a $550 soft tonneau cover. That sounds like a lot for a truck without heated seats, but sixty large is in line with what nearly all decently well-equipped full-size pickups sticker for these days. If a 1500-series truck is on your radar for overland and adventure duty, the Warlock is worth a look—just get it in the good color.

From $54,460 | ramtrucks.com

Pros:

• Powerful yet surprisingly efficient V8 engine 
• Massive tow rating
• Huge fuel range
• Genuinely useful off-road upgrades

Cons:

• Limited interior appointments
• Novelty of the rumbly G/T exhaust wears off quickly
• Not tree-proof

2o26 Ram 1500 Warlock Specifications

Engine: 5.7-liter Hemi V8 with eTorque mild hybrid assist

Transmission: 8-speed 8HP75 automatic with gear limiting function

Engine Performance: 395 horsepower, 410 pound-feet of torque with an additional 130 pound-feet of torque from hybrid assist

EPA Fuel Economy: 16 mpg city / 20 mpg highway / 18 mpg combined

Fuel Capacity: 33 gallons

Tow Rating: 11,900 pounds

Payload Capacity: 1,780 pounds

Curb Weight: 5,970 pounds

Ground Clearance: 10.1 inches 

Approach / Breakover / Departure Angles: 24.3 / 22 / 21 degrees

Wheels and Tires: 18 x 8-inch painted alloy wheels, Goodyear Duratrack A/T LT275/70R18E tires (full-size spare)

Warlock Package Off-road Upgrades: Steel underbody protection for steering gear, transfer case, and fuel tank, rated tow hooks, 1-inch lift with performance-tuned shocks, electronic locking rear differential, Selec-Speed Control, G/T Exhaust 

Images: Stephan Edwards, Ram

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