I'll be honest, my reaction was vastly different than my colleagues at Motor1 after Ram unveiled its all-new 777-horsepower supercharged V8 TRX pickup.
For those who haven't been keeping up with the goings on in the automotive realm, the Raptor-fighting truck had gone away for a short period as Stellantis pushed toward EVs. But as that utterly failed, causing the CEO to split as the stock price tumbled and inventory piled up, the group saw fit to go back to what it knows best: big-ass V8s.
Yet, while my colleagues applauded the truck's return, as I probably would've done myself in a past life, I saw that $103,000 starting price and its 13-ish inches of suspension travel and thought, "Um, why wouldn't you just buy a side-by-side? It'd be better."
In fact, not only could you buy literally any of the top-tier, go-fast side-by-sides on the market, but you could also buy a pickup truck to tow your new UTV—if your state doesn't allow them on the road—and still have money left over for gas and snacks.
Huzzah, more Uncrustables!
Seriously, though, you'd have something that could kick the TRX or Raptor's ass in literally any scenario apart from highway driving. But that's what the additional truck is for. Who in their right mind would buy one of these overpriced, oversized monstrosities that don't really have a lick of capability? I sure as hell wouldn't, and I'm going to show you exactly why.
Take any of the specs from big three desert-running, Dakar-winning, Baja-blasting side-by-sides—Kawasaki's Teryx H2, Can-Am's Maverick R Max, and Polaris' RZR Pro R 4—and pit them against the Ram TRX or Ford Raptor and you begin to truly see what I'm talking about. Sure, the pickups have more power than the UTVs, but they also weigh over two tons respectively. The side-by-sides, meanwhile, do not.
But even so, we're talking about both supercharged and turbocharged four and three-cylinder engines all pumping out more than 240 horsepower. And like their performance automotive cousins, we all know that each of the brands are sand-bagging those figures to a degree. So what you end up with are these machines that weigh about the same as a moderately loaded washing machine capable of doing 0-60 in less than 4 seconds; and because of their suspension setups, also doing over 100mph across any terrain.
And that's something you need to consider more than anything else.
See, the big selling points of both the TRX and the Raptor when they were first introduced were the suspension travels they were each capable of. 13 to 14 inches was unheard of in the truck community, outside of the trophy truck rigs that blasted through desert racing. But even those unholy monsters were capable of twice those original TRX and Raptor figures, which were never truly built for hardcore abuse. Many, however, believed otherwise. That's why early Raptors kept snapping in half, bending frames, or setting off the airbags when you jumped it.
I seem to recall hearing a story about Motor Trend breaking a number of them on a photoshoot with the late Ken Block. That isn't a worry in any of the three side-by-sides I've used as metrics here.
The new Kawasaki Teryx H2? It has 23 inches of travel at the front, with 24 inches at the rear. The Can-Am Maverick R Max? It has 24 inches at each corner. And the Polaris RZR Pro R 4 has an insane 27 inches at the front and 29 inches at the rear. Compared to the TRX's 13 inches of travel at the front and 14 at the rear, well, there's no competition. Add that they're all on-the-fly adjustable, with piggyback reservoirs, and they're literally designed to be abused in the manner you see folks abusing their Raptors and TRXs only to horrible, internet-shaming, viral results. But that abuse, and subsequent FAFO-ing is especially funny given how much the TRX and Raptors cost compared to any of these three side-by-sides.
As mentioned, the new Ram TRX will start at $103,000. Ford's a bit better, as you can get a regular twin-turbocharged V6 F-150 Raptor for $79,005. However, that price increases to $114,220 if you go with the TRX-fighting supercharged V8 Raptor R.
But even when you consider the most expensive side-by-sides on the market from each of the three factories I've mentioned, they're around half of what those trucks cost. Kawasaki wants $37,199 for the Teryx H2. Can-Am demands $43,299 for the Maverick R Max. And Polaris will ask you politely for $47,999 of your hard-earned paycheck. Obviously, you can throw in some add-ons to increase those prices, or spend the same as the V8 trucks and buy a fully kitted-out race-spec RZR. But even so, you're getting a more capable machine for less than half of the cost of the regular Raptor, and almost a third of the price of either the TRX or Raptor R.
That savings means you could also find yourself a brand-new pickup truck, and probably a trailer to tow your machine, without ever coming close to the TRX or Raptor R's price tag. I mean, a base Ram 1500 or Ford F-150 would be more than enough to tow either of these, and you can pick those up for under $55,000. Or if you're like me, a Honda Ridgeline is more than capable of doing the deed, too.
So again, why the hell would anyone want these machines just to have something more expensive, less capable, and more prone to breaking down when you're actually smashing the sandy deserts around the world? It seems like these are just for lighting money on fire and not much else. Or measuring...something that might not be all that big. Maybe my Motor1 colleagues and I will have to settle this IRL someday soon?
