2009 Dodge Ram - There's Somethin Bout A Truck

 And there's somethin bout you and me and the birds and the bees

And lord have mercy, it's a beautiful thing
Ain't nothin bout it luck, there's somethin bout a truck

 

                                                          -Kip Moore, Somethin' Bout A Truck 

 

Growing up twenty five minutes or so east of Times Square in the 1970's and '80s, no one I knew who wasn't a tradesman of some sort drove a "truck" like this 2009 Dodge Ram. Those few that did endured a fair amount of ridicule something to the affect of, "what are you, sum kinda hillbilly"? Might be old age settling in enabling me to be even more open minded or its my now more than ten years living in the Midwest, but I have fallen long and hard for simple work trucks like this. While I still have a hard time fathoming why anyone would drive a pickup as a daily driver who didn't need it's abundant utility, I love the balanced proportion of the design of these regular cab, short bed pickups.

 

 

Extended cab trucks with longer beds might offer more utility than our subject here can muster but then again, their proportion and balance of design goes out the tailgate. If I was to spring for a truck it would be something like this. Why buy a jack hammer when all I need is a hammer?

 

 

Of the Big Three's pickups,  I find the Chevrolet Silverado to be the most handsome although the Ford F series has been outselling it for years. Dodge is a distant third despite this fetchng "big rig" front end that they've been producing in some form or another since 1994. Prior to this design, Dodge truck design was clearly influenced by whatever Chevrolet or Ford was doing. Toyota and Nissan have been offering very good full size pickups for years now too and as fine appliances as they are, they don't sell nearly as well as the trucks from the Big Three.

 

 

A ram charging hood ornament first appeared on a Dodge car in 1933, the first Dodge Ram pickup debuted in 1981. Prior to that, Dodge pickups had been designated "B" series from 1948 to 1953, "C" series from 1954 to 1960 and "D" series from 1961 to 1980. The lack of engine badging on our subject here tells me this thing may very well be a 3.7 liter, SOHC V-6 powered two wheel driver. A slow poke engine and two wheel drive? Yikes. Not exactly the type of thing you want to be driving come winter here in north east Ohio.

 

 

The rust spots, the finish coming off the wheels, the littered interior (which I did not photograph) and this very expensive to replace headlight lens tells me everything I need to know about this truck; it's a no frills work-a-day hauler that's ridden hard and put a way wet. Still, I want it. Crummy V-6 and all.

 

 

As much as I like these trucks, I can't imagine ever owning one and being able to "pull it off"; my younger son said that I'm not cool enough to drive a truck. Thanks, son. Nothing quite as humiliating as driving something that some people would scoff at you for driving but I really would enjoy it's utility as much as I'd enjoy it's near perfect balance and proportion. Would be weird from a guy from Long Island to suddenly drive a truck but whatever. Insert cheesy trumpet "wah-wah" when I say that there really is, "Somethin' 'Bout A Truck".