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Updated September 2, 2026 · By TruckDaily

2027 Ram Power Wagon Diesel First Drive: 1,075 lb-ft, $88,470 to Start

MotorTrend's Eric Tingwall, August 25, drove the first Cummins Power Wagon: 6.7-liter I-6, 430 hp, 1,075 lb-ft, 8-speed, 4WD. The diesel option is $12,995. Base diesel Power Wagon is $88,470 with cloth. The loaded tester was $103,395. MotorTrend says the diesel roughly doubles payload and towing versus the gas truck, to nearly 3,000 lb and 20,000 lb, while ground clearance falls from 14.2 inches to 12.6 inches.

Sources

• MotorTrend, Eric Tingwall, August 25, 2026: 2027 Ram 2500 Power Wagon Diesel First Drive
• The Drive, Byron Hurd, August 25, 2026: 2027 Ram Power Wagon Cummins First Drive Review
• Ram OEM, 2027 Heavy Duty updates (preliminary capability): What's New for 2027: Ram Heavy Duty
• Motor1, Jeff Glucker (winch and Articulink): 2027 Ram Power Wagon Diesel Review: Gain Some, Lose Some

Price flag: The Drive listed $85,545 on a prototype window sticker ($106,190 as tested). TruckDaily uses MotorTrend's $88,470 as the later numbered starting figure. A MoparInsiders $89,560-with-destination number is secondary only.

Specs

Power Wagon diesel is the truck in this first drive. Ram's 2500/3500 max tow and payload lines below are OEM preliminary 2027 Heavy Duty figures from ram.com, not a Power Wagon-only order guide. MotorTrend's "nearly 3,000 / 20,000" is the Power Wagon diesel comparison versus gas, not a certified door-sticker.

TruckDaily take

Who it's for: The diesel Power Wagon is for the owner who tows toys on pavement: side-by-sides, a boat, a camper, now with fifth-wheel / gooseneck on the table and Cummins torque that MotorTrend says roughly doubles the gas truck's payload and tow into the nearly 3,000 lb / 20,000 lb neighborhood.

Who should skip: Anyone whose point is the trail. MotorTrend says the gas 6.4 remains the better rock truck. The diesel is heavier over the front axle, sits lower (14.2 to 12.6 inches in the MotorTrend comparison), rolls on shorter-sidewall 20-inch wheels, and, Motor1 says, deletes the factory winch and Articulink.

What we'd actually buy: Buy the diesel if you tow toys on pavement. Buy the gas 6.4 if the trail is the point. Do not treat Power Wagon as one truck anymore.

This is the first Cummins Power Wagon. It is not the old truck with a Cummins.

Ram's 2027 Heavy Duty update is blunt: Ram 2500 Power Wagon is available for the first time with the 6.7-liter Cummins High-Output turbo-diesel. Same 430 hp and 1,075 lb-ft the rest of the Cummins HO 2500/3500 family advertises, through a TorqueFlite HD eight-speed, in a 4WD Power Wagon.

That is the news. The first-drive news is that it costs real money and it is not a free upgrade to the rock truck.

MotorTrend's Tingwall put a number on the option: $12,995 for the diesel, which pushes a cloth-seat Power Wagon to $88,470 to start. The truck he drove, fully loaded, landed at $103,395. Motor1's tester sat at the same $103,395. The Drive's earlier prototype sticker said $85,545 base and $106,190 as tested. TruckDaily is not averaging those stickers. The Drive figure is a prototype. MotorTrend's $88,470 is the later numbered starting price we will cite. If a dealer window says $89,560 with destination, that MoparInsiders secondary figure is not the MotorTrend number and it is not OEM.

Ram's own 2027 HD page does not print a Power Wagon MSRP. Starting price in this story is a first-drive figure, not a Chevrolet-style OEM price announcement, because Ram did not put one on that page.

MotorTrend's drive: torque on the road, less truck in the rocks

The Cummins makes 1,075 lb-ft. Tingwall says that, like other 2500s with this engine, the Power Wagon starts in second gear. Tow/Haul as a fake Sport mode gets first. He has not instrumented it yet and still expects 60 mph in less than 7.0 seconds; the printed MotorTrend estimate is 6.6 seconds. Curb is estimated at 8,300 lb. EPA is not rated.

On pavement the live axles still fidget and the recirculating-ball steering is light and vague on center. Tingwall's surprise is how civilized it is anyway: tracks straight, follows inputs, more comfortable than the formula suggests. The diesel's 20-inch wheels and 33-inch Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac all-terrains (MotorTrend's sizing) are the on-road half of the trade. Shorter sidewalls help steering. The same hardware, MotorTrend says, is how Ram effectively doubled payload and towing versus the gas Power Wagon, to nearly 3,000 lb and 20,000 lb. Clearance drops from 14.2 inches to 12.6 inches. Center of gravity comes down. Climbing in gets slightly easier. It is still a tall 2500.

The Drive's Byron Hurd, in a separate August 25 first drive, called the Cummins the reason the truck exists and listed 13.2 inches of diesel ground clearance, 26.1-degree approach, 26-degree departure, 20.6-degree breakover, and a 19,630-lb max tow as a touch under the tip-top 2500. That 13.2-inch clearance and 19,630-lb tow are The Drive's figures, not MotorTrend's 12.6 and "nearly 20,000." We are flagging both, the same way we flag The Drive's $85,545 sticker. MotorTrend is the numbered first-drive table this page follows.

Hurd also noted a 3.42:1 axle and a GVWR of more than 11,000 pounds on the diesel Power Wagon. Those are The Drive's observations. They are not a Power Wagon line on ram.com, so they stay flagged, not copied into the OEM preliminary table.

Gas 6.4 is still the rock truck. Motor1: no factory winch, no Articulink.

MotorTrend's off-road verdict is not subtle. Everything that makes the diesel better on the road makes it worse in the muck: more weight on the front axle, an intercooler where the gas truck's standard winch lives, shorter sidewalls, less clearance, no Articulink front suspension. It keeps the disconnecting front anti-roll bar. Tingwall's line: if off-road capability is your only concern, the gas 6.4-liter V-8 is still the Power Wagon to get. "Worse" is relative. He still puts the diesel ahead of every other heavy-duty truck off-road, because no other automaker offers a locking front axle or a disconnecting anti-roll bar on an HD, gas or diesel.

Motor1's Jeff Glucker names the two deletions in plain language. Because of the room the Cummins takes, there is no space for the factory winch in the front bumper, and the Articulink front-control-arm setup goes away. Attribute that pair to Motor1. Ram's OEM 2027 HD page says a Warn electric winch is now a standalone option on Rebel and Power Wagon with the 6.4-liter HEMI V8. That is the gas truck. It is not the diesel.

The gas 6.4 remains 405 hp and 429 lb-ft per Ram. Ram also reintroduces an optional beadlock-capable wheel on Power Wagon with that HEMI. MotorTrend says Ram backed away from plans to offer self-leveling rear air springs as a Power Wagon option. The diesel, in MotorTrend's telling, is the complement: road miles with toys, more tow, fifth-wheel and gooseneck now on the menu. It is not a replacement for the gas truck.

Do not treat Power Wagon as one truck anymore. There are two.

Ram's preliminary 2027 HD scorecard (not Power Wagon-only)

Cite ram.com, and keep the word preliminary on the page. These are 2027 Heavy Duty maximums, not a promise that a Power Wagon diesel will match the 2500 Cummins HO peak payload.

• Ram 2500 HEMI V8: up to 17,740 lb max towing; up to 4,580 lb max payload
• Ram 2500 Cummins HO turbo diesel: up to 20,000 lb max towing; up to 3,990 lb max payload
• Ram 3500 HEMI V8: up to 18,140 lb max towing; up to 7,580 lb max payload
• Ram 3500 Cummins HO turbo diesel: up to 37,020 lb max towing; up to 6,460 lb max payload

The 4,580 lb 2500 payload is the $835 Payload Upgrade Package on most Ram 2500s with the 6.4 HEMI: GVWR from 10,000 lb to 11,040 lb, 3500 frame, leaf springs, anti-spin rear differential, on select trims including Tradesman, Big Horn / Lone Star, Laramie, Limited, and Limited Longhorn. That package is a gas-2500 story. It is not why the Power Wagon diesel suddenly hauls nearly 3,000 lb. MotorTrend credits the diesel's wheels, tires, and the engine package for doubling Power Wagon payload and tow versus gas.

Cab and bed, from the same ram.com page: Regular Cab 8-foot; Crew Cab 6-foot-4 and 8-foot; Mega Cab 6-foot-4, 4x4 only. HD is 4x2 or 4x4. Power Wagon is 4WD. Model lineup on that page still runs Tradesman through Limited Longhorn, with Power Wagon in the middle of the off-road set (Warlock, Rebel, Power Wagon). Availability: in dealerships this August, Saltillo Truck Assembly Plant.

Those HD maxes are why a diesel Power Wagon can talk 20,000 lb in the same breath as a 2500 Cummins HO. They are also why you should not copy 37,020 lb onto a Power Wagon. That 37,020 lb line is a 3500 Cummins HO maximum.

What the money buys, and what it does not

$12,995 is the Cummins button. $88,470 is MotorTrend's cloth-seat starting diesel Power Wagon. $103,395 is the loaded tester two first drives actually sat in (MotorTrend and Motor1). Six figures is a lot of truck for cloth-to-leather decisions.

What you are buying is 1,075 lb-ft, an 8-speed, 4WD, lockers, a disconnecting sway bar, and MotorTrend's nearly doubled payload and tow versus the gas Power Wagon, with fifth-wheel / gooseneck in play. What you are not buying, if Motor1 and MotorTrend are right, is the factory winch, Articulink, and the 14.2-inch gas clearance.

The Drive's prototype as-tested $106,190 is a third data point from an earlier truck. We are leaving it in the flag, not in the lede.

Ram says the 2027 HD family is in dealerships this August. If you are shopping one, the decision is no longer "Power Wagon or not." It is diesel pavement or gas trail.

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Editorial news. Last updated September 2, 2026. Author: TruckDaily. Photo credit on the still.