The story
For 1981 Dodge restyled its pickups and renamed them Ram, and the Ramcharger came along. The formula stayed the same: take a half-ton 4x4 pickup, shorten it to a 106-inch wheelbase, and put seats where the bed used to be. What changed was the roof. The removable top of the first-generation truck was gone, replaced by a welded steel roof and a one-piece rear liftgate. Then Dodge left the truck alone. It ran for 13 model years, picking up fuel injection, overdrive, rear anti-lock brakes and, at the very end, Magnum V8s.
A RAM WITH THE BED ROOFED OVER
The new Ram trucks went on sale in October 1980 with squarer bodies, wraparound taillights and a Ram's-head hood ornament last used on Dodges in 1954. The Ramcharger shared most of its parts with the pickups, from the engines and axles to the front sheet metal. Plymouth's Trail Duster got the new body too, but only for 1981 before Plymouth dropped it. The rivals were the K5 Blazer and the full-size Bronco, and both still let you take the top off. Hagerty notes that many Mopar fans still hold the fixed roof against the second generation.
Dodge made a virtue of it. Its 1993 brochure said the all-steel roof was 'more resistant to squeaks and rattles than Ford Bronco's bolted-on piece of fiberglass', and claimed more cargo room than the Bronco or Blazer: 86.1 cubic feet behind the rear seat, or 105.7 with it removed. It also pointed out that the Ramcharger was the only full-size SUV you could still buy with two-wheel drive, which had an independent front suspension, or with four-wheel drive and a solid front axle.
SMALL BLOCKS THAT SLOWLY GOT SMARTER
There were no big-blocks in the second generation, only the 318 (5.2-liter) and 360 (5.9-liter) small-block V8s. Through 1987 they had carburetors. Throttle-body injection reached the 318 in 1988 and the 360 in 1989, and Dodge's 1990 brochure rated the TBI 318 at 170 hp. For 1992 the 5.2 became a Magnum, with multi-port injection, new heads and a 'beer keg' intake, and made 230 hp. The 5.9 Magnum followed for 1993 with 230 hp and 325 lb-ft. Dodge called the Ramcharger 'America's most powerful sport utility vehicle'. Hagerty's view is that the Magnum trucks are the ones to have.
Behind the engines, most automatic trucks had the three-speed TorqueFlite, and the most common manual was the NP435 four-speed with its very low first gear. Dodge's 1990 brochure introduced a four-speed overdrive automatic, standard on two-wheel-drive trucks and optional on 4x4s. By 1993 Dodge listed only that automatic for the Ramcharger. Owners say the overdrive units are the weak link if they run hot, and that the tall factory axle ratios, typically 3.21 or 3.55, make them work harder still.
THE AXLE THAT DISCONNECTS ITSELF
Every second-generation 4x4 had part-time four-wheel drive, a Dana 44 front axle and a Chrysler rear, usually the 9.25-inch. From 1981 to 1984 the front axle was a conventional open-knuckle Dana 44 with locking hubs, and the transfer case was the chain-drive NP208. For 1985 Dodge introduced Ram-Trac, which meant shift-on-the-fly with a Center Axle Disconnect (CAD). The hubs are always locked, and a vacuum motor on the axle tube slides a collar to join a two-piece axle shaft when you shift into 4WD. Dodge's brochures said you could shift between 2WD and 4WD High at up to 55 mph.
It works when it's new. After 30-odd years of cracked vacuum lines, sticky shift forks and tired switches, it's often the reason a truck won't go into 4WD. RamCharger Central members call it notorious for failing at the worst moment. They also point out that it's easy to fix, or to lock permanently and pair with manual hubs. The NP208 gave way to the NP241 for 1988. Rear-wheel anti-lock brakes became standard for 1990, the same year a new instrument cluster with an electronic speedometer arrived.
HOW IT ENDED
Trim names changed often. Hagerty lists a Macho 4x4 for 1981, there were Royal SE and Prospector packages in the early and mid-1980s, LE trucks from the late 1980s, and a cheap '150 S' in 1990. For 1993 the line ran S, S-Plus, Base, LE and Canyon Sport. American production ended with the 1993 models, and the 1994 Ram's new body never got a US-market Ramcharger. Mexico kept building the old Ramcharger until 1996. From 1999 to 2001 it built a two-wheel-drive Ramcharger on the newer Ram platform, sold only in Mexico. In the US, Dodge's next SUV was the Durango.
Today the second generation is the cheap way into a classic full-size American 4x4. Hagerty found Ramchargers harder to find than Broncos or Blazers, because they sold in smaller numbers when new. On Bring a Trailer in the year to October 2026, second-generation trucks sold for $6,250 to $28,000. The parts are shared with a decade of Dodge pickups, the axles are Dana and Chrysler units that every 4x4 shop recognizes, and the 9.25 rear and Dana 44 front take regearing and lockers like any other.
SIDEBAR · CANYON SPORT
The loaded last hurrah
The Canyon Sport was the Ramcharger's final dress-up package, and it's the one collectors look for. Dodge's 1993 brochure lists a Magnum V8, an automatic transmission, a heavy-duty transfer case, outlined-white-letter tires and a 600-amp battery as standard on the 4x4. It also had a body-color grille, Light Sand Metallic lower paint and bumpers, cast aluminum wheels and an upper tape stripe. Upper colors were Black, Bright White, Flame Red and Emerald Green.
Bring a Trailer's listing for a 1993 example calls it one of about 200 Canyon Sports built that year. That truck had the 5.9 Magnum, a four-speed automatic, a limited-slip rear, fuel-tank and transfer-case skid plates and an auxiliary transmission cooler. Canyon Sports were also sold for 1992, when one BaT truck had the 360 TBI and a four-speed automatic. The package is mostly paint, tape and trim, so check the VIN, the engine and the lower body color before you pay a premium for one.