The 1500 American truck has towing capacity of 4.5 tonne, making it a favourite with the equestrian community

It’s easy to be cast under the spell of the Ram Warlock, despite its size, cost of running and well, again size if you live in the inner city.

The fourth variety of the Ram 1500 has gone on sale in New Zealand, and like the rest of its siblings is proving a success. So much so that don’t be surprised if the Warlock disappears … into someone's garage as there is such demand. And you’d be thinking, “curses, if only I had bought one”. (Okay magic puns will finish now.)

Priced from $119,000, the hefty American-made full-sized truck is powered by the V8 Hemi petrol engine that produces  291kW of power and 556Nm of torque, and has 4.5 tonne max towing.

And it’s that towing capacity that has won over Kiwis, especially the equestrian community that needs a whole lot of oomph to tow horse trailers.

Warlock is based on the Ram 1500 Crew Cab, which means a bigger cab in exchange for a shorter tub out back. This model gets 20in wheels, a six-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, tub liner, reversing camera (essential around town), remote central locking, cruise control, electric front seats that adjust 10 ways, sat nav, partial leather trim (but a plastic steering wheel!), heated door mirrors, electric front seats and a full-size spare under the tray.

It also gets the new Rebel grille and sports hood, decals, black tow hooks, Rebel front/rear bumpers & fender flares and a 1-inch suspension lift.

The Warlock comes standard with the class-exclusive RamBox Cargo Management System which is more than just a tool box. It features a lit, secure/lockable, durable and drainable storage system incorporated into the side rails of the truck tub.

The security system allows remote locking and unlocking of the RamBox, as well as the rest of your Ram Truck with the push of a button. 

RamBox vehicles come equipped with a cargo bed extender/divider, cargo bed rails with four adjustable tie-down cleats, as well as cargo box lighting and a tonneau cover.

The crew cab has seating for five, but the middle rear seat is a half cushion so pick the smallest member of your crew to sit there. The cargo tub is 1.7m long so it can fit most equipment and for the horse community, those bales of hay.

The cabin is quite plasticky with a massive tub under the armrest and at least six cupholders. The info system is dated but it has Apple CarPlay and these days that is all you need. 

It measures a massive 5.85m long, and is 2097mm wide, with the tray volume 1400 litres and the turning circle is 12.1 metres. Actually it will take you 12 manoeuvres to angle park the Ram. I know. I had to reverse the Ram into the car park beside my house via a narrow shared driveway that took eight manoeuvres to get into place. My neighbour Adi even came out of her house to watch me back the beast as she struggles to park her Toyota Corolla!

The Ram1500 also takes up one and half spaces in a supermarket carpark and good luck if you have to squeeze through some narrow lanes.

The height means you sit at eye level with bus and truck drivers, and no-one will try to cut in front of you, or else you’ll get the ‘thunderous’ horn. Actually, one tip for Ram’s Detroit team, please give it a more booming horn, because what you get at the moment is more of a ‘honk, honk’ that you’ll get in a used Toyota Prius, rather than the monstrous beast that is the Ram Warlock.

Around the city it’s easy to forget you're driving a large truck, as the steering is comfortable and the handling is plush, but the Ram 1500 doesn’t belong in the city – and you do get looks from other drivers as if to say, “get out of here you country bumpkin”.

So out to the country I went. Heading to Parihoa on the north-western motorway, the power that you get from the 5.7litre V8 Hemi engine is impressive. Need to overtake? Just plant your foot, though with its size 0-100km isn’t warp speed, as the Ram Warlock has a 2600kg kerb weight. Officially, 0-100km is in 6.7 seconds. 

The eight-speed transmission is activated via a Jaguar-like rotary, and is well tuned to the weight and power delivery, with the Ram smoothly notching through the gears to eighth for optimum performance.

But the Ram Warlock came into its own on the farm. I wanted to shoot it at one of the southern paddocks with Muriwai beach in the background, and as a storm was brewing I had to get there fast. 

I dialled the Ram from two-wheel to four-wheel high and powered first along the gravel track, then onto the grass before speeding up the clay path to my field of dreams.

The Ram was like one of Parihoa’s resident rams; it owned the route and effortlessly drove over some bumpy patches until I reached the cliff-side paddock. 

As you’ll see from the photos, the grass was so tall in the paddock that the Ram looked more like a medium-size ute a la a Toyota Hilux. But don’t be fooled, there was so rough terrain under those tyres.

After the photo shoot, I headed back to the main house and dialled in four-low as the grass was wet from the storm, and I didn’t want the  2.6 tonne truck losing control on the slippery path, especially as I didn’t have any weight in the tub.

That empty tub also proved a negotiation when driving back to the city via winding, country roads; I had to carefully navigate the tight corners and take them slowly as I didn’t want the Ram to fishtail.

The official fuel efficiency figures are  relatively modest 12.2L/100km but my testing resulted in a 17.4L/100km on the trip computer, thanks to a lot of motorway trips.