Test Drive: 2015 Ram Rebel Crew Cab 4X4 [Autos.ca]

Before handing over the key to the freshly detailed Flame Red 2015 Ram Rebel parked out front of FCA Canada’s Fleet Office, the PR rep warned:

A word to the wise: don’t go off-roading with me; I seem to be cursed.

“This isn’t a Raptor-fighter, you know. Don’t go trying to jump it or anything.”

He had previously admitted to heeding extra caution with the Rebel assignments and the intents of the folks reviewing it, wanting to keep it from becoming damaged on trails too narrow for a full-size truck.

All this is fair enough – especially considering the price tag shows a number north of $60-large for this rig – and wouldn’t normally be a problem except that my editor assigned the Rebel to me with the instruction that I was expected to take it properly off-road and see how much farther a truck like this could be expected to go beyond the capabilities of a “normal” truck.

Fortunately for the Ram folks (and unfortunately for me who has to answer to the editor), my plans to take the Rebel deep enough off-road to get it stuck so deep, a tractor would need to yank it out (like I did with a Jeep Wrangler and Toyota FJ Cruiser previously) fell through at the last minute. So I needed to go only as far off the beaten path as my nerve – and lack of tow help – would allow.

As luck would have it, the Niagara Region not far from my house is crisscrossed with countless “Unassumed Rural Roads” that range in ruggedness from gentle gravel (such as the one that consumed Jacob Black’s Volvo XC60 a while back) to a forest with no discernable pathway, let alone “road”. Following my brother riding his dual-sport motorcycle, we sought out something halfway between.

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