When V8 power and four-wheel drive are more important than gas mileage, Dodge does the trick.

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Sometimes, you need muscle. You need a pickup truck. You need a Dodge Ram 1500 Crew Cab SLT, preferably with a long cargo bed, if you can get it. If not, the short bed properly loaded will do.

Our 2009-model test truck came with the short cargo bed — five feet and seven inches long. Had we gotten one with the long cargo bed, eight feet, we could have distributed our cargo over a longer surface, thereby reducing its height. We would have gotten better mileage that way.

It’s a matter of physics. Cargo stacked high in the bed of a pickup truck increases wind drag, and anything that increases wind drag sucks fuel.

In a bid to save gasoline, we opted for modest Ram muscle, choosing the pickup with the 4.7-liter, 310-horsepower V8 over the more rambunctious model with the 5.7-liter, 390-horsepower Hemi V8. But I’m not sure we saved anything by going with the smaller engine.

We lost mileage to wind drag — the high-stacked cargo — and our lust for options. We were carrying furniture from Virginia to our daughter Binta’s home in upstate New York, where the roads can sometimes be tricky and slippery, which makes four-wheel-drive a desirable technology. Our Ram 1500 came with four-wheel drive.

The problem with that, of course, is that it usually takes more energy to drive four wheels than it does to drive two, especially if much of that driving will be uphill, which was the case on the New York end of our trip.

The upshot is that we burned regular gasoline at the disappointing rate of 15 miles per gallon on the highway, an egregious consumption accompanied by a total $225 fuel bill for a round trip of nearly 700 miles.

Sometimes, you need muscle. But, when flexing it at that price, it’s easy to understand why pickup truck sales have plummeted in an era of expensive fuel.

The good news is that those falling sales, down by as much as 33 percent at Chrysler, maker of Dodge trucks, could prove a boon for people who really need pickups. Chrysler is whacking as much as 40 percent off Rams’ list price.

Those steep discounts could translate to point-of-sale savings of $10,000 or more per truck, enough to support the V8 Ram’s thirst for gasoline, even at 15 miles per gallon.

But selling vehicles at discount is not a recipe for corporate profitability, nor is it necessarily a good way to win the hearts and minds of customers. Seduction in the marketplace is best effected through desirable products — for example, the development of powerful pickups that also deliver good fuel economy.

Chrysler’s engineers are working hard toward that end. And there’s some evidence, in the Hemi V8 version of the Ram, for example, that they are making some progress. Even with its 80 extra horsepower, the Hemi V8 Ram has a computerized engine-management system that might have given us better mileage — or certainly as good as what we got from the tested 4.7-liter V8 model.

When less power is needed in the Hemi V8, Chrysler’s “multi-displacement system” automatically deactivates four of the engine’s eight cylinders, saving fuel. All of the Hemi V8’s cylinders go to work whenever full power is needed.

It’s a neat compromise, one worth exploring for consumers who need the power of a big V8 engine. But if Chrysler really wants to reel in buyers who might be willing to pay premiums for Rams, the company should get to market as quickly as possible with its models that reportedly will be powered by Cummins diesel engines.

Diesels offer 30 percent better fuel efficiency over gasoline-powered models. They also offer more torque, engine twisting power.

Diesel engines cost more than those powered by gasoline. But here’s betting that Chrysler won’t have to sell one Cummins Diesel Ram at discount.

Dodge Ram 1500 Crew Cab SLT

Complaint: Our Ram’s power was what we needed to move our payload of 600 pounds. And perhaps we should not complain about the fuel costs of doing that work. But, alas, we wanted better.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Chrysler replaced the Ram’s bouncy leaf springs, giving the 2009 Ram some of the best ride and handling characteristics of any full-size pickup available.

Head-turning quotient: The Ram is one of the most intimidating, in-your-face, big pickups ever designed.

Body style/layout: The Ram is a front-engine, full-size pickup truck with body-on-frame construction. It is available with rear-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive. Three cargo beds are available — long (8 feet); regular (6 feet, 4 inches), and short (5 feet, 7 inches). There also are three available cabins: regular, Crew Cab with four side doors, and Quad Cab with rear cabin access.

Engine/transmission: Three engines are available: a 390-horsepower, 5.7-liter Hemi V8; the tested 310-horsepower, 4.7-liter V8; and a 210-horsepower, 3.7-liter V6. The 4.7-liter V8 develops 310 horsepower at 5.65 revolutions per minute and 330 foot-pounds of torque at 3,950 revolutions per minute. It is mated to a five-speed automatic transmission.

Capacities: There are seats for six people in the four-wheel-drive Crew Cab Ram. Maximum payload, the weight of what can be carried onboard, is 1,410 pounds. The pickup can be equipped to tow 8,400 pounds. Fuel capacity is 26 gallons. This one can run on regular gasoline or E85 ethanol.

Mileage: Nearly all mileage on this drive was accumulated on the highway, at an average of 15 miles per gallon carrying bulky loads. Highway mileage improved to 17 miles per gallon with an empty cargo bed.

Safety: Standard equipment includes electronic stability control, four-wheel antilock brakes, side and head air bags.

Price: Base price on the 4.7-liter V8 is $34,850. Dealer’s invoice price on that model is $30,766. Price as tested is $39,205, including $3,455 in options (premium washable cloth seats, aluminum wheels, premium sound system, mud flaps and automatic garage opener) and a $900 destination charge. Dealer’s price as tested is $34,707. Prices sourced from Dodge, Edmunds.com and Cars.com, an affiliate of The Washington Post.

Purse-strings note: The Ram 1500 is one of the best full-size pickups made. Deep discounts could make it a bargain for buyers in need of big pickup power.