Ramcharger
“Dodge's answer to the Blazer and the Bronco was a half-ton Dodge pickup with the bed roofed over. It's big, thirsty and easy to underestimate, and today it sells for a lot less than a K5 Blazer.”
Dodge was late to the full-size two-door 4x4 party. The Ramcharger arrived for 1974, built on a Dodge D-series pickup chassis cut 9 inches shorter. Dodge called it the 'Rhino' during development, and Plymouth sold its own version as the Trail Duster. It was aimed squarely at the Chevrolet K5 Blazer and later the full-size Ford Bronco, and it shared its engines, axles and brakes with the pickups.
The first generation (1974–1980) had a removable top, full-time 4WD until 1979 and big-block V8s until 1978. The second generation (1981–1993) followed the pickup's restyle into the Ram, swapped the removable top for a welded steel roof and a one-piece liftgate, and ran for 13 model years. Over that time it went from carburetors to throttle-body injection and finally to Magnum V8s.
US production ended with the 1993 models. Mexico kept building the old truck until 1996, and from 1999 to 2001 it built a two-wheel-drive Ramcharger on the newer Ram platform for the Mexican market only. In 2023 Stellantis revived the name for a range-extended version of the Ram 1500 pickup, which has nothing in common with these trucks.
Every generation
Best Dodge Ramcharger years to buy, and which to avoid →