Ram 1500 SSV (Yes, the Cop Version)

Incarceration is big business. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics from 2014, almost 2.2 million citizens are doing time in federal, state, and county slammers here in the land of the free. That’s a lot of orange jumpsuits and a head count greater than all of the active and reserve U.S. military personnel serving in our armed forces. Whether one considers the root cause to be torn social fabric, economic inequality, or a criminal-justice system on steroids, the cold fact is that the United States has more prisoners­—and a greater proportion of the populace—behind bars than any other nation on the planet. Call it our “other” 1 percent. Those bitter pills swallowed, we can all agree that law enforcement has its hands full.

One tool available to police charged with keeping the peace is this Ram 1500 Special Service Vehicle. Our nation today rolls mostly in SUVs, crossovers, and pickups, and that includes the cops. The Ram 1500 SSV has been available to law-enforcement agencies (sorry, civilians can’t buy one) since 2012. The surprising thing, in these days of intimidating military-issue MRAPs and such, is that the cop pickup is nearly identical mechanically to the one in your neighbor's driveway. Including the optional gun rack.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

The SSV starts out as a Ram 1500 crew cab with four-wheel drive and 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 power. So, no special cop motor for outdragging Hellcats, but at 395 horsepower, the Hemi’s no slouch. It has the same four-wheel disc brakes, coil-spring suspension (no air springs here), hydraulically boosted power steering, and heavy-duty cooling as on the civilian V-8 truck. The SSV version adds 100,000-mile spark plugs and a higher-capacity oil cooler to cope with extended periods of idling. It also features a larger (220 amp) alternator from the stop/start–enabled Ram HFE, as well as an upgraded wiring harness and power distribution center with two 100-amp fused circuits to handle the greater electrical loads of lights, sirens, computers, radios, radar guns, and cameras. Our test truck also had the optional shorter 3.92:1 final-drive ratio for better low-speed oomph, plus optional on-/off-road tires because the bad guys don’t always stick to the pavement. A tried-and-true six-speed automatic transmission from the bare-bones 1500 Tradesman model replaces the ZF eight-speed unit found in most other Ram pickups.

Inside the cavernous 125-cubic-foot crew-cab cabin, the 1500 SSV gets a few more tweaks. Law enforcement can be messy, so the front seats are stain-resistant cloth buckets, and rear-seat guests are treated to an available all-vinyl hose-it-out bench to accompany the truck’s hose-it-out vinyl flooring (oddly, rear passengers also can access two underfloor stash bins and a pair of latte-cradling cupholders). The rear window is fixed—no slider glass back there to tempt a quick exit. A trusty column-mounted shift lever replaces the dash-mounted rotary knob, and the factory console is removed to make room for an all-steel upfitter unit that houses the control module for the lights, siren, and other cop stuff, such as rugged laptops.

A certified speedometer eliminates differences of opinion about how fast you were driving, while two special meters monitor engine running hours and how many of those have accrued while idling. The front door structures have beefed-up welds to handle the added mass of any ballistic material that may be added later. And the SSV is available with a pair of lockable RamBox storage bins alongside the bed for long guns, first-aid kits, and other necessities.

Coptions

From this point, the SSV is customized by upfitters according to the specs of individual law-enforcement agencies. Our test vehicle was equipped with $5880 in such “coptions,” including the aforementioned all-steel Havis VS-series cop console ($614), Whelen CenCom Carbide lights and siren control module ($1429) and roof light bar ($3077), and a Setina PB 450-L push bumper ($760). In full gear, the SSV could also have a rear-seat partition screen/window, rear window guards, and some sort of firearm mounting system. But for the purposes of this test, the lights and siren alone were enough to draw every 10-year-old kid in the neighborhood. Using the CenCom Carbide control module buttons, we added some new words such as “wail” and “yelp” to our lexicon. And we discovered that pushing the “takedown” button pretty much lit up the place like the Fourth of July. Good thing the truck has that big alternator.

Unsurprisingly, the Ram 1500 SSV drives pretty much the same as its civilian 1500 4WD crew-cab counterpart, which is to say that it's a massive thing to maneuver. The major difference we noticed was that a higher percentage of drivers around us observed posted speed limits and stayed to the right lane. Four-wheel-drive traction is a boon, as anyone who has ever driven a rear-drive pickup at the limits of adhesion will attest. You can floor the SSV from rest without any wheelspin—the big Ram just rears up and pile-drives ahead. The 1500 Rams, whether fitted with the standard steel coils or the optional air springs, have the best ride in the full-size-pickup universe. The SSV’s steering, while no model of communication, is at least linear and naturally weighted. Something of a disappointment were the SSV’s brakes, which did a satisfactory job of halting the 5734-pound Ram at first but suffered heavy fading on the third stab from 70 mph in our testing. The on-/off-road Goodyear Wrangler tires, while good for chasing suspects in the dirt, no doubt contributed to the lengthy dry-pavement stops as well. We’re figuring a serious on-road chase involves the officer getting on the CenCom Carbide radio and calling ahead for the more athletic Dodge Charger Pursuit unit.

But concentrating on the Ram SSV’s high-speed stats (it's governed to 106 mph, by the way) would be missing the point. The big pickup offers the kind of spread-out room needed for all manner of modern law-enforcement equipment, and its cargo bed can accommodate confiscated contraband or the weightiest of evidence. The front seats (the driver’s is 10-way power adjustable) are comfortable enough for long stakeouts, and the tall roof means no one—not even the person in handcuffs—has to duck getting in. And when it comes time to employ the Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) maneuver to end a dangerous pursuit, the 1500 SSV is big enough to take down the large pickups and SUVs on today’s roads. They don’t call it a Ram for nothing.

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door truck

PRICE AS TESTED: $49,750 (base price: $40,130)

ENGINE TYPE: pushrod 16-valve V-8, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injection

Displacement: 345 cu in, 5654 cc
Power: 395 hp @ 5600 rpm
Torque: 410 lb-ft @ 3950 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 6-speed automatic

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 140.5 in
Length: 229.0 in
Width: 79.4 in Height: 77.5 in
Passenger volume: 125 cu ft
Cargo volume: 50 cu ft
Curb weight: 5734 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 7.5 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 24.1 sec
Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 7.8 sec
Top gear, 30–50 mph: 4.5 sec
Top gear, 50–70 mph: 5.2 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 15.9 sec @ 86 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 106 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 214 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.66 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 13/19 mpg


*Stability-control-inhibited