Just when you thought a Dodge Ram pickup truck couldn’t be any cooler, enter the 2015 RAM 1500 Texas Ranger concept edition.
Designed to honor the legendary Texas Ranger law enforcers, this truck is rugged and ready for anything.
With any luck, Ram will decide to add this beauty to its production line sooner than later, which is an exciting prospect for those Ranger wannabes, not just in Texas, but all over the country.
The 2015 RAM 1500 Texas Ranger is the final accessory for anyone who has always dreamed of saddling up with those good guys donning the white hat and silver star.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a used Dodge RAM for sale, check out the tough lineup at your local Dodge Ram dealership.
If you just can’t wait to find out if and when this special Ranger edition will go on sale, take a look at the 2015 RAM 1500 Laramie and the 2015 RAM 1500 Laramie Longhorn..
Or, take a gander at the 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 Lone Star Premium Package, the original Texan-inspired truck.
But, don’t miss stealing a glimpse or two at this one of a kind Texas Ranger edition.
A Texas Trend
This is not the first time that Ram has designed a Texas-themed truck, but the Ram 1500 Texas Ranger edition goes even further when it comes to celebrating Texan culture.
And why shouldn’t it?
First of all, there are more pickup truck drivers in Texas than any other state.
In fact, Texas pickup truck registrations average twenty percent to the national twelve percent average.
For a state that reveres the pickup truck, Ram delivers, celebrating a Texan heritage and recognizing the current work and sacrifices of the Texas Ranger law enforcement division.
Respect My Authority
Covered in two-tone white over silver, the exterior colors were chosen to represent the white hats and silver badges worn by the Rangers, but that’s just the bare-bones beginning of the tribute.
Although at first glance the truck looks like a white over silver Ram 1500, a closer inspection reveals the center caps on the 20-inch wheels are Lone Star badges, replicas of those signifying a Texas Ranger’s authority.
The front driver and passenger side fenders also have the stars, with a third found on the tailgate.
Noticeably absent from this truck are a brush guard, side steps, and a roll bar.
Though you have to look close to appreciate the Ranger-specific details of this edition, once you’ve seen them, you can’t miss them.
But these details are ramped up considerably when it comes to the truck’s interior.
The Wild West on Wheels
Though the Texas Rangers were horsemen, as times change, so does transportation.
But this concept truck respects its four-legged predecessors, getting 395 horsepower and 410 lb.-ft. of torque.
Equipped with a 5.7-liter HEMI V8 engine, this truck gets 15 mpg city and 21 mpg highway fuel economy.
Outfitted with the same brown and tan leather as the Laramie Longhorn, the interior of the Ranger-inspired Ram concept is decked out in Ranger Lone Star badges throughout the cabin.
The center armrest, driver’s TFT display, 8.4-inch Uconnect screen, and seatbacks all feature Lone Star badges.
Speaking of that sizable Uconnect screen, a black and white photo featuring some of the original Texas Rangers is ghosted into the panel, so you’ll always feel like you’re riding with your own posse.
Hey, it’s fun to pretend!
Covered in Natura Plus leather, the center console is covered by a tambour door, concealing a storage bin with a lock box in the center armrest.
Now, this three-digit combination lock box is able to store anything, but is clearly designed for storing what any law enforcement officer needs: a peacemaker.
Ram doesn’t tout the storage bin as a gun box, but it’s hard to imagine what else a Texas Ranger, past or present, would use it for.
Keeping an i-phone dust-free?
Hardly.
Another authentic detail comes from the four real Mexican five-peso silver coins installed in the wood accents on the door panels.
Minted between 1947-1948, the Mexican five-peso silver coins were used to make the first official Ranger star badges.
On the front doors, the heads stare out from the coins, while the coin’s tails-side adorn the rear doors.
An inlaid “Founded 1823, Texas, USA” medallion dresses up the passenger dash, leaving no question as to the truck’s origins.
Speaking of origins, this Ram 1500 concept represents an amazing history.
Who are the Texas Rangers?
Yes, they are the state’s baseball team, but we’re talking about the original Texas Rangers.
The good guys celebrated for kicking ass and taking names, the Texas Rangers are a storied crew.
Founded in 1823, the Texas Rangers are the oldest state law enforcement agency in the United States and are often compared to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Scotland Yard, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
They’ve been around long enough to have served under five different flags throughout America’s history, including Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States, the Confederacy of Texas, and the United States once again.
A division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rangers are responsible for leading criminal investigations, involving major incident crime scenes, unsolved or serial crimes, public corruption, officer-involved shooting investigations, and border security.
Currently, there are 150 commissioned Rangers working for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
No matter the turmoil, the Texas Rangers have remained constant to their mission since their beginnings.
A Ram Inspiration
That constancy is what Ram wants to establish for itself in the automotive industry.
By all accounts it already has, in part by consistently supporting the Texan legacy, and most recently the Texas Rangers’ heritage of the past, efforts in the present, and goals for the future.
In 2002, Ram introduced the Lone Star pickup truck edition, the first specifically designed by and built for Texans.
This model continues to be Ram’s best-selling model in Texas, making up forty percent of its sales, and selling a whopping 230,000 models.
Taking the rugged reputation up a notch, Ram introduced the Laramie Longhorn in 2010, its most luxurious truck to date.
Overall, Ram is the fastest growing truck brand in Texas.
As such, Ram donated $100,000 to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, located in Waco, Texas, to help with the agency’s historic preservation and prepare for its upcoming bicentennial in 2023.
An Iconic Truck for a Legendary League
As ubiquitous as pickup trucks are on the Texan highways and backroads, the Texas Rangers have populated the landscape of the country’s imagination for generations.
Immortalized in literature, both fiction and nonfiction, the Texas Rangers have been and are consistently celebrated on the big screen.
Actors like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne have embodied the Texas Ranger persona in films like The Outlaw Josey Wales and the Comancheros, respectively. Not to mention the dozens of other actors who have worn the white hat and played the part of the good guy in Western films.
And who can forget Chuck Norris?
An actor who has essentially built his acting career on the character Cordell Walker, in the television show, “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which ran for eight years.
Whether a classic film, a Zane Grey novel, or a contemporary television show, the image of the Texas Ranger has shaped the collective American memory and its identification of the tough guys on the right side of the law.
The late Colonel Homer Garrison, Jr., summed up the Texas Rangers perfectly, “They were men who could not be stampeded.”
Get behind the wheel of any Ram pickup truck and Dodge your own stampede.
