American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has long been in the business of building seriously capable Jeep Wranglers. Wranglers built for crossing Australia or crawling across the Moab. Wranglers converted into pickups and Wranglers done up in fancy Filson duds. They all have the kind of rugged good looks that project positive sunshine competence vibes about the people who drive one. That’s no matter how big a dork the doofus behind the wheel actually is. And now AEV has moved on to modifying and producing parts and complete packages for Ram pickups. Because, why not?
Year: 2015
First drive: AEV Ram Prospector
A THREE-INCH LIFT IS JUST THE BEGINNING FOR THIS OFF-ROAD MONSTER
In those ads for active-lifestyle vehicles where there’s a guy running up a trail carrying a mountain bike over one shoulder and a kayak over the other, the guy could easily be AEV founder and president Dave Harriton. Harriton really likes that outdoor adventure stuff and built his business around getting to places to pursue it and bringing along everything a guy would need once he got there. His business, American Expedition Vehicles, is pretty big and very successful: It employs 100 people in a 100,000-square-foot facility upfitting Jeep Wranglers and other products.
WE ROMP THE AEV RAM PICKUP TRUCK
If you’re at all familiar with American Expedition Vehicles (AEV), you already know what they can do for the Jeep Wrangler. Much more than simply a conversion company, AEV engineers suspension systems, exterior upgrades, interior accessories, and wheels for Jeep vehicles. It also offers its complete Hemi Builder Kit for those looking to perform a V8 swap. Now the company has waved its wand over the Ram 2500/3500 pickup truck.
The suspension underneath the AEV Ram is its own in-house design and offers some interesting mechanical details. Built exclusively for the 2500/3500 Ram truck, it features many of the engineering basics that were incorporated into the company’s well-respected JK Wrangler suspension system. The concept from its beginning on paper was to make it a dual sport system–to have excellent road manners as well as great off-road terrain handling capability. To do this, AEV worked hard to maintain the best possible suspension and steering geometry. In addition, it partnered again, as it had on its JK suspension system design, with Bilstein to create custom-tuned shocks for the AEV Ram suspension.
A Mountain Is No Match for the AEV Ram Prospector: First Drive
It’s two o’clock in the afternoon here in Santa Clarita, CA. I was heading to a local off-road recreation area that I had never been too. According to my PR friend, “I’d love it.” I wouldn’t say I was nervous, but I was definitely pensive about the truck I was heading out to drive, and what this off-road park entailed.
The trail we went through climbed around 2,000 feet in a manner of about two miles. It is absolutely crazy how steep these trails became in such a short amount of space. We’re not talking about normal hills, or even hills like the streets of San Francisco either. We’re talking about almost vertical mountains, with ruts, outcroppings, and enough loose gravel and dirt to loosen your bowels for the next three weeks. It was the kind of verticality that makes you feel that the truck or whatever you’re in is going to just tip backwards and slinky down the hill.
AEV Hits Pay Dirt With Ram 2500/3500 Prospector
Show of hands: How many of you remember the Dodge Prospector convenience package pickup, Ramcharger or van? If you do, you have a good memory. It’s been about 30 years since the Prospector Package sat on a Dodge pickup but now it’s back, thanks to the heavy-duty outfitters from American Expedition Vehicles.
If the name AEV sounds familiar it’s because this is the same company that birthed the profitable custom Jeep pickup conversion equipment that turns a relatively stock Jeep Wrangler into a rock-crawling AEV Brute Double Cab pickup. It has an almost limitless number of custom features like different engines, axles and frame strength.
Not content with beefing up Jeep products, AEV expanded into the full-size heavy-duty pickup segment with the Ram Prospector. The end result, depending on the options chosen, is a monstrously capable full-size off-roading adventure vehicle. Despite that, it feels pretty close to a stock Ram pickup when driven on city streets or highways.
Car Cast with Adam Carolla – AEV and Amy Lerner
AEV Ram Ute – 4×4 Australia
With 15 years of experience producing Wrangler products, American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has prided itself on being a “Jeep” company, one that specializes in components that are engineered to work in concert with each other.
Their objective has been to provide the enthusiast with a one-stop source for the highest quality parts – rather than having to patch your rig together with products that may or may not be the best match. This year they’ve deviated from the Jeep-only mantra with the introduction of a new line of innovative products for Ram full-sized trucks. That line culminated in the development of this exquisite example of automotive art: The AEV Ram 2500 Ute, 4×4, in Australia.
Wheels Afield: AEV Ram Truck
American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has spent the last decade and a half building a reputation for high quality, precisely engineered and ruggedly functional accessories for the Jeep Wrangler.
Along the way it manufactured a limited number of specialty Jeeps—typically models the factory wouldn’t (or couldn’t) build for itself—with stretched wheelbases, Hemi engines and pickup beds. (Editor Mike Schoby used one of AEV’s Brute double-cab pickups in his recent Border to Border expedition).
Now AEV has turned its attention and engineering chops to the Ram pickup line. The approach is a little different from what it did with Jeep, but the results are largely the same: aftermarket accessories that are so well designed and integrated into the vehicle that they look like they came from the factory, while adding capability far beyond original-equipment spec.
Expedition Portal: AEV For Ram Truck Now Available
We have all come to consider American Expedition Vehicles as the apogee of off-road performance, particularly with regard to the Jeep Wrangler. Their comprehensive catalog of accessories and upgrades transform what is arguably one of the best vehicles in its class into something extraordinary. Now that same level of design excellence is available for the Ram HD 2500/3500 truck.
Attribute it to an ever dwindling selection of viable wagons for off-road use, or just an uptick in truck popularity, the pickup is fast becoming a bigger player in the 4×4 market. Ram continues to win its share of consumers and AEV is poised to repeat their Jeep successes with their new line of accessories for the Ram.
First released at SEMA in 2013, the crown jewel in the new AEV Ram catalog is their impressive modular bumper system. Offered in a number of configurations, the AEV bumper melds seamlessly with the truck’s fascia for a better-than-factory appearance and functionality that we’ve come to expect from AEV. Able to accommodate a 16,500-kb winch, it is a formidable addition.
Their new Ram Raised Air Intake is another notable addition to their lineup as are their two new wheel offerings, the Katla and the Salta HD. Of course the most important upgrade to the Ram is achieved with AEV’s DualSport 3” suspension kit. They’ve provided nearly everything you need to transform your Ram truck into something more––an AEV Ram.
Car and Driver: AEV Ram Products
Did you think the captains of cool over at AEV were going to stop at churning out bad-ass, Hemi-powered Jeep Wrangler conversions and a Rubicon’s worth of sweet Jeep upgrade parts? Hell no! The off-road specialists at AEV have turned their sights on the heavy-duty Ram 2500 and 3500 models, and following an enticing preview at last year’s SEMA aftermarket show in Las Vegas, they’re releasing the first batch of cosmetic and functional parts for the beastliest Ram trucks. Predictably, the results are, well, bad-ass.