Motor Trend gets a first look at the chassis and materials used for the 2019 RAM 1500!
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00:00 [ Music ]
00:05 In materials engineering, one of our fundamental approaches is the right material
00:10 for the right application, and that worked out very well in a vehicle like the new Ram 1500,
00:16 where attributes like durability, strength,
00:20 and those things are very important to the customer.
00:22 If you think of steel in its most basic form, there's mild steel, and it has a small amount
00:27 of carbon and some alloying materials.
00:29 So what we want to do is something as important as the frame of a vehicle,
00:33 that carries the weight of the vehicle, performs an impact,
00:37 needs to be durable as you're hauling, you're going off-road.
00:40 That's where we go to the high-strength or the advanced high-strength steels.
00:44 They're very complicated materials with complex microstructure and chemistry,
00:50 tuned to the specific application so it gives you a specific performance.
00:56 You get increased strength, but then you also get ductility, which is very important for things
01:01 like forming the parts as you're stamping, drawing.
01:04 One great example where materials was involved is the front upper control arm and the suspension.
01:10 This is a hybrid design of the control arm that's unique from anything we've done before.
01:15 It's basically a stamped steel structure that's overmolded with a structural plastic.
01:22 It allows benefits from the standpoint of good performance.
01:26 It's a weight save over the traditional control arm.
01:29 We used splayed front frame rails, and they're advanced high-strength steel that is,
01:38 it's tubular, and then it's formed over a mandrel, so you get a variation
01:43 in the section and the gauge thickness.
01:46 And that gives you tailored performance and repeatable performance,
01:50 both for impact and for durability, and also helps you save weight there.
01:55 As you progress to areas, say for example, fenders, doors, the roof panel,
02:03 we use a variety of steel that's called bake-hardened steel there.
02:07 And what that does is it allows you to get increases in strength.
02:11 Other examples would be in our door beams in our impact that we wouldn't be able to get
02:17 with traditional forming operations, and that allows us to have great impact protection,
02:23 side impact protection for the occupants in the vehicle.
02:25 Through the proper choice of materials,
02:29 we were able to drop the overall weight of the vehicle 225 pounds.
02:34 When we use these high-strength steels and advanced high-strength steels,
02:37 they give you a performance that you need, the durability, the fatigue performance,
02:43 the impact performance, with a thinner gauge material,
02:47 so subsequently you can take weight out compared to the old truck.
02:50 Pretty proud to say that the cab of this vehicle behind me has 54% high-strength steel,
02:55 and the frame itself, 98%.
02:58 And through clever engineering, this is without a doubt the best frame
03:02 in the pickup truck market.
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