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2019 and 2021 Ram 1500 5.7L Rebel owner review(s)

m_d_p

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Hi, this site has been pretty useful as a previously prospective, and now owner of 2 Rebels in as many months so thought I'd pay it back and help future owners with a short review/opinion piece.

Few up-front notes:
1. Be kind. First time truck owner, first time American brand owner (FCA, i know), have only ever owned European (I'm British) sports estates(wagons), family SUVs, hatchbacks, saloons and a smart car (should I leave right now?).
2. I've owned 2 Rebels in the last few months. Knowing little about trucks the first one I bought was a 2019 with 50K on the clock and ramboxes, and you can't get caps for them. Doh!. I need a cap so ended up trading it in this weekend at no $ loss (phew) to get a 2021. Both have similar high specs and the only really major differences I can tell are the 2021 has the huge screen, the 2019 had air suspension (❤️), 2021 has etorque, mileage and age.
3. I've done the usual highway/local driving in both, and a few hundred miles on logging roads and small mountains here in the PNW in mud, snow (6-12"), rocks, washboard, ice, dusty gravel etc. so have a bit of offroad(ish) experience.

Ok, my overall thought? BUY ONE!!! but wait... don't mess up like i did at the height of the market, especially from a place with huge AMV (added market value) markup. Locally I didn't have much choice as stocks are currently low across showrooms due to the chip shortages. If you can wait, I'd suggest holding off some months until covid dissipates more, there's more chip and truck production, and the AMVs are lower. Or shop around for a showroom that won't gouge you. Don't be afraid to shop in other states and get it shipped to you, you could save thousands.

Reasons TO buy a Rebel:
- It's massively capable off-road. I hammered my 2019 at low and high speeds over the conditions i mentioned above and it took it all, and the air suspension was supreme. It's had a little air, it's crashed down some huge unseen potholes. I'm sure it's made of vibranium.
- It flies down relatively even offroad surfaces at 50-60mph all day long inc. washboard, aired up or down. I'm sure offroaders on here will be telling me off by now for this and the line above. Note, i've aired down to both 35F/25R and 30F/20R and it makes a massive difference to the ride quality on bumpy trails vs. the 55F/45R for road. fwiw i have the VIAIR 400 to air back up. Works great but gets extremely hot. I have the heat burn scars to prove it.
- The engine. oooooh the engine. It sounds amazing out of the box and pulls hard at the low end. Some folks put corse/borla exhausts on for even better sound.
- It drives like a car on-road, especially on air suspension it wafts down the road. The spring system in my 2021 is still good but definitely stiffer and more jittery, especially in the wet.
- The interior imo is unmatched in the current market (as of June 2021). The new 2021/22 Ford F150s are looking pretty nice inside but there's just something about the RAMs that is nicer to me. Love the exteriors too, especially the headlight setup on the 1500 Limited and TRX.
- It's huge inside. We have the crew cab and there's loads of spare room after getting in 2 adults, a teenager and a baby (thanks isofix).
- At speed with eco mode on and a tanneau cover you can get 30mpg+ sometimes on flat roads and highways, but typically more like 25-30mpg. For the engine size that seems pretty good. Just don't look at your combined mpg 🤣
- Features. Yes, for the price it should come with tons of features and it does, but worth commenting a couple anyway:
---- The quality of the screens (physically), the speed/smoothness and the software on them imo are the best in the truck market. Again maybe 2021/22 F-150s will compete though.
---- USBs and 120v power outlets galore. I think including the bed ours has 8-10 usbs and 2-3 outlets. super convenient.

Reasons NOT TO buy a Rebel:
- You value your money too much. Seriously, these things and many other trucks at this spec are just way overpriced for what they are. All in with taxes (WA) and fees these things start to approach 80-100k. You can buy some serious high-tech sports cars for that money, and lets not forget this is an offroad truck but can make you hesitant to go offroad in. It's kinda like the $120K+ Ranger Rover issue. Massively capable but I would not be offroading my posh RRs in case I got a little dirt on my cream leather :LOL:
- You won't use it for what it's capable of. If all it's going to do is be a fashion thing, a school run thing, a highway cruiser, I would go with something cheaper like a Big Horn. Still buy RAM though ;)
- It's huge. Wish they did a Tacoma/Ranger sized version. On an average large US road you don't notice but as soon as you get on offroad trails and parking lots you start to wish for a Tacoma. I wish it was about 6-10inch narrower because in my 2019 I had to jump out of the car SO many times offroading to cut down brush so i could get through unscratched, but regardless it started to get a whole bunch of pinstripes from trails.

Minor gripes and wishes. NOT deal breakers:
- Relates to the above but the hood and the V8 hood ornament are just too big/bulbous. Corners are hard to judge and you can't see over hill crests. Neither truck had front cameras to help (do they even offer this?). I'm going to buy an aftermarket one I think.
- Traction control is never fully off. I've seen some forums saying to hold down the button for like 5secs but I've not found a way to get it completely off. Result is yes you can do a doughnut and try to drift/squirm but it always kicks in if you push too much. I've been half-way into drifts on gravel roads a few times now and TCS kicks the brakes on all of a sudden and corrects you. grr...
- The parking brake sometimes stuck on in my 2019. Have had some scares up the sides of mountains where I've tried to reverse or set off and it just kicks in and won't move. Visions of getting logging trucks to tow me out came to mind. It even jolted the truck once and stalled it. Usually remedied it by playing around with the gear dial, switching on/off etc.
- The 2021 has start/stop. It doesn't work if you have climate control on. I'm sure the engineers have valid reasons but that seems ridiculous. From my testing it would not switch on until i completely turned all climate stuff off including the fans. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it makes it an unusable feature.
- The gearbox is smooth but hesitant on acceleration in both cars. In the 2021 I've noticed it's a little notchy/clunky at low speeds e.g. stop/start traffic and down-shifts. Maybe it's due to still wearing in.
- The paint seems thin and very easy to scratch, especially on the plastic ramboxes. As mentioned above my 2019 got scratched up from bits of brush easily, and the ramboxes scratch down to white plastic or white base layer so you have bright white scratches. Not helped by the fact the 2019 was black and showed everything.
- The engine could have more power and mid/high end torque. It's a 5.7L V8. Imo there's a bunch of headroom there to get more N/A power than 400bhp. The europeans have been doing it for a long time with 500bhp+, 600bhp+ etc... Also i've noticed under hard acceleration it loses steam in the mid/higher revs which is somewhat expected with torque curves but still... would be nice. Then again, it's a truck, not a sports car, so I should curb my expectations a little too.
- Would have been nice if they could have developed the etorque system so you could use it for short electric-only runs e.g. 15-20mile range to the shops and back.
- No manual eco mode, and eco mode is very intermittent. Eco mode gives you a bunch more mpg but A) there's no eco button to force it on, B) it often takes a while to kick in even on flat roads, C) it switches off way too easily based on tiny inclines or slight pedal changes.
- Fuel costs. I know I know, it's a V8, I'm not complaining but it's worth mentioning. If this is a concern for you just get the V6. By the way, I highly recommend getting the larger fuel storage. My 2019 had it and you're at the pump way less then my 2021.
- No cap for for rambox beds. Imo RAM/Mopar should be offering this themselves knowing that no other manufacturer does. Yes there's some highly customized lift solutions (ezlift) out there but most people won't do that. I've called/emailed every cap company i could find and the only one even thinking about this is nuthouse industries in Ohio. They're prototyping one and only because a customer said he'd pay site unseen for them to develop one. It's not certain they'll make it a part of their line-up and they said it would be 9-12 months before they decided. It will likely also cost major $$$.
- The blindspot monitoring and tyre pressure system on my 2019 flaked out. Might have just needed a system reset but worth mentioning. Luckily they're warranty repairs.
- The tyres are good on/offroad, my only minor gripes are they do seem to struggle on gradients with pebbly/1-2" gravel surfaces, they're bad in uncompacted snow anymore than a few inches (slip/wheel spin easy), and give some minor drone sound on tarmac above ~20mph. Still perfectly drivable, just mentioning.
- Lateral movement when running over road imperfections. e.g. there's a corner i drive on quite often where i live that has a very tiny pothole (several inches long, 1-2" deep) but each time i run over it the truck jumps to the side a bit. Happens quite a bit when hitting potholes or cornering off-road too. That's more about the suspension setup though and I don't have enough truck experience to know if it's normal for truck. Maybe it just needs more rebound.
- On fast downhill sections offroad the brakes heat up quick (I'm not riding them btw). I'm sure most cars/trucks would, but it seems an opportunity for better (ventilated?) discs or extra cooling. Come time to replace my discs I may look into ventilated ones.

Few additions we've made:
- VIOFO A129 Pro Duo F/R dashcam. Do not buy this. So so many issues on forums and consistently failed to do loop recording once the SD card was full. Can you believe VIOFO support wanted to send me a capacitor for me to solder and replace the existing one? That would be like samsung, apple or even RAM saying here's a capacitor to solder into the onboard computer of your tv, phone or car. Crazy. Don't know what I'll replace it with but stay away!!!
- Truxedo rambox tanneau cover (link) on the 2019. Few things. A) It does what it needs to with no major issues, B) it's not dust/water tight, C) imo costs way too much for what it is, D) the faux leather version gets dirty quick and looks dirty. Very hard to clean and get back to black.
- It's a bit instagram'y but we've hung a color matching scarf from the passenger side handle with pins of places we've been. Some folks slap stickers all over their truck, we chose pins :)
- Bought a whole bunch of offroading gear that's probably not worth listing out here. Things like axes, recovery boards, pulleys, spade, fire extinguisher etc... that stayed in the 2019 ramboxes. The axe by far has been the most useful as i've had to cut down several trees across trails. Fiskars all the way :)

Future plans for the truck? Once we get a cap for it (possibly the RSI smartcap) it'll become a big family hauler inc. 2 dogs, light/medium off-roading and for camping (no roof-top tent). It won't become an overlander, though it would make a great truck for that :)

Let me know if you have any questions. I'll post pics of both later.
 
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m_d_p

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Few pics of the black 2019.
 

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m_d_p

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Silver 2021
 

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PhillyPhan

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Thanks for the info, good stuff. 25-30mpg? I'm getting 14-15mpg on average. Best was 16.1mpg. I don't have etorque, but I doubt that's getting you over 10 more mpgs. My numbers are hand calculated using the Fuelly app. Numbers average between .5-1mpg lower than truck software reports.
 

m_d_p

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Hey, sorry if it wasn't clear enough but those figures are what the real-time mpg tell me when driving on pretty flat roads at steady speeds and with a tanneau. My average is way lower, similar to yours.
 

TSL

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Thanks for posting the review. I have a '22 Rebel on order and your review confirms I won't be disappointed ! It'll be a first truck for me to and I'll also be meandering around the forests of the PNW in mine !
 

Standing Wolf

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I just found this. Thank you. It's good reading. I have the 2021 Rebel the midnight edition. So far I really like it. I have been adding some carbon fiber to it. I just installed the carbon fiber steering wheel. Now I am looking to get carbon fiber hood bezel and vents. But it seems no one makes them or I just can't locate them for some reason.
 

edgarrian

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I have a 2019 and mine has the 12" inch screen. Which is the big screen. I elected not to get air suspension b/c when its frigid they have been known to have issues. I could have gotten the E-torque but elected not to. Im not sure if there is any difference between the years. If there is its very limited. Its been a great truck for me. My big screen did go out and i had to have it replaced. Luckily I was still under warranty b/c it was 1400. I just changed the diffs and transfer case oil. And im getting ready to do the tranny here soon. Other than the radio taking a crap. Its been a good truck Welcome to the rebel family
 

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