2020 Ram 3500 Regular Cab Diesel Dually testing near Detroit

It is expected that the next generation Ram Heavy Duty will debut sometime next year as a 2020 model year vehicle and last week, our cameras caught one a heavily camouflaged Ram 3500 testing in Metro Detroit. This isn’t the first next-gen Ram HD caught on camera, but this appears to be an interesting configuration for a big truck – wrapping the regular cab, dual rear wheel, the Cummins Turbo Diesel engine and what appears to be a short cargo box up into one unique package.

Short Wheelbase

When we happened upon this 2020 Ram 3500 on the road near Detroit, what immediately caught our attention was the size of this truck. While it is hard to tell with the copious amounts of black camo, this truck appears to have an extremely short wheelbase – the kind of wheelbase that comes with a regular cab and short bed. For 2018, the Ram 3500 dually can only be ordered with the regular cab paired with an 8-foot bed, but this test truck suggests that a new, shorter bed option might be offered with the 2020 Ram 3500 HD.

We were unable to get a direct side-shot and camo might be doing its job in disguising the real size of the bed, but the area in front of the rear wheels and the area between the front and rear wheels appeared to be shorter than the current Ram 3500 HD with the regular cab and 8-foot bed.

Front End Detail

Next, we were able to get a picture of the 2020 Ram 3500 headlights through the camouflage and under a second layer of protection. While we can only see a small portion of the headlight, this truck appears to have slimmer headlights, similar to those found on the 2019 Ram 1500.

Also, the headlights appear to have Halogen-style elements rather than high-tech projection or LEDs. Considering that the current 3500 HD dually is only offered in lower-level trim, it would make sense that this truck – possibly a new Tradesman – has the basic headlights.

In our pictures of the Ram 3500 HD from the front, it looks as though the slimmer headlights from the 1500 are not joined by the half-ton hood-to-headlight relationship. While the camo might be adding some height in the middle, this truck appears to have a similar front end layout, with the hood sitting much higher into the air than the headlights, with a dramatic slope from the center of the hood down to the headlights.

Finally, through the white mesh portion of the camo, it looks as though this Ram 3500 might have a grille that is shaped similarly along the top and sides to the 1500 grille. Most notably, there does not appear to be a crosshair design behind that mesh, so it looks as though the entire Ram lineup will go away from the old crosshair grille by 2020.

The Rear End

The rear end shots of the 2020 Ram 3500 don’t reveal much, but the taillights were definitely of the LED variety, which can be seen in the image below of the truck with the brake lights lit up. There are also LED turn signals located below the brake lights.

We don’t know for sure when the next generation Ram Heavy Duty will debut, but the odds are good that it will debut early in 2019 – perhaps in Detroit – with the trucks hitting dealerships by the fall of next year.