Roush Performance just added a third nameplate to its factory-collaboration portfolio, and this one’s a direct shot across Ram’s own bow. The 2027 Ram 1500 Direct Connection by Roush takes a Big Horn crew cab with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 and turns it into an off-road truck that does what the RHO won’t — let you keep the eight-cylinder rumble.
That’s the tension baked into this truck’s existence. Ram built the RHO as its successor to the beloved TRX, but it ditched the supercharged Hemi for the Hurricane inline-six. Enthusiasts noticed. Roush apparently noticed too.
The package starts with a specific build: Big Horn 4×4 crew cab, Hemi V-8, 3.92 rear axle, Level II equipment group, and Ram’s own Direct Connection upgrades including skid plates, a locking rear differential, TRX-style running boards, and that aggressively ventilated Sport Performance hood. Then Roush layers on its own suspension, wheels, tires, exhaust, and enough visual swagger to make sure nobody mistakes it for a work truck.
Roush’s contribution centers on a 2.0 coil-over system with twin-tube hydraulic dampers that raises ground clearance beyond stock. The factory 20-inch Night Edition wheels get swapped for 18s wrapped in 33-inch General Grabber A/TX rubber. It’s a setup that prioritizes capability over curb appeal, though Roush clearly isn’t ignoring the latter.
The aesthetic hit list runs deep: fender flares with clearance lights at all four corners, a grille with triple marker lights and a red-outlined Ram logo, color-matched bumper with red tow hooks, hood and door graphics, bedside American flags, and five available paint colors. It’s not subtle, but subtlety was never the point.
The real headline lives under the truck. Roush fits an active cat-back exhaust with driver-selectable bypass modes, routing as much or as little of the Hemi’s output around the mufflers as the driver desires. Full bypass on a 5.7-liter Hemi is not a polite sound.
It’s a visceral one, the kind of noise the Hurricane — for all its engineering brilliance — simply cannot replicate. Car and Driver ran exhaust cutouts on a long-term 2009 Ram 1500 and still talks about it fondly. That tells you something.
The price tells you something too. The Roush portion costs $15,995, stacked on top of a Ram Big Horn configuration that stickers around $64,305. Total damage: $80,300.
A 2027 Ram 1500 RHO starts at $78,085 before options. So for roughly two grand more, buyers get a V-8 with theatrical exhaust instead of a turbocharged six with more power but less soul.
Roush backs its parts with a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty, and the entire package can be ordered through any Ram dealer. No aftermarket gray area, no warranty anxiety. That’s the model Roush perfected with Ford over decades and recently extended to the Nissan Frontier.
The broader play here is fascinating. Roush is no longer just Ford’s tuning house. It’s becoming a brand-agnostic truck modifier with factory backing from three different manufacturers — manufacturers who compete with each other on dealer lots every single day.
That takes either extraordinary diplomacy or extraordinary confidence that each automaker values the arrangement enough to tolerate the others.
For Ram, this collaboration fills a gap the company created when it retired the Hemi from its performance truck lineup. The RHO is the faster, more capable machine on paper. But paper doesn’t make the hair on your neck stand up at a stoplight.
The Roush package exists because a meaningful number of truck buyers still want a V-8, still want the noise, and are willing to pay a premium to get both with a warranty attached. Roush knows its audience. It always has.
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