Country star Chris Stapleton’s Ram Heavy Duty Traveler is retro gold

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See, your author will be the first to admit that some of his vehicle tastes to the expressive side of things. Gold-plated badges, faster stripes, and exhaust pipes the size of sewer cannons all rank pretty high in this guy’s Top 40. special edition with retro paint design and a freakin’ hood ornamentyou can bet this writer will sit up with your silver belt buckle and take notice.

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Country star Chris Stapleton’s Ram Heavy Duty Traveler is retro gold Back to video

It’s called the Ram Traveler, a collaboration between Stellantis and country music artist Chris Stapleton. The truck has a number of elegant design elements that nod to the vintage character of Ram trucks from the late 1970s through the 1980s. Anyone who was there at the time will recognize the square font used for those badging on Traveler’s doors and tailgate, not to mention the three-dimensional Ram hood ornament. Despite the corny pedestrian safety laws, Ram should immediately market the latter as an option.

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Designers call these exterior colors “Palomino-inspired,” with Linen Cream, Radar Red, Bison Brown, and Cashmere fusing to create the looks shown here. Striped graphics work well with modern truck styling, something that doesn’t always translate to older trucks made with a T-square. We would have ditched the RamBox option, by the way. Retro-inspired Turbo Fin 18-inch wheels are wrapped in white-letter knobbly BFGoodrich tires.

Inside the truck you’ll find the expected tributes you’d pay to an artist making a living in Nashville, including burr walnut trim and speaker grilles inspired by snazzy guitar amps. The checkered headrests initially seem out of place next to the Bison Brown seats until it is understood that it is the same pattern of fabric that Stapleton wore on the cover of his debut album. Under the console lid is more diamonds and a few lines from one of the songs titled – you guessed it – ‘Traveller’.

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The truck brand and Stapleton have been associated for a few years and have worked together, such as the 2016 Ram Nation concert and instrument donation for students at the singer’s former high school in Kentucky. They are also currently sponsoring a Stapleton exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. And you know that in a few weeks there will be a song on the charts with the word “Aries” in it.

Ram doesn’t seem to have any plans to migrate any of these Traveler design cues to its production versions – but this writer is pretty sure he wouldn’t be the only one to spec a new Ram Heavy Duty with a hood ornament and blocky retro badges. Message to Aries: do it.