Let's be clear about one thing, first and foremost: the Ford F-150 Raptor is king of factory-built hardcore off-road pickup trucks. It has no direct competitors as of now, but we've heard ramblings about competing brands cooking something up. In the meantime, only Ram has made an earnest attempt at an off-road truck, the 2017 Ram Rebel. We recently spent some time with this kind of sort, but not really Raptor fighter and we appreciated it for what it is, though it's impossible to ignore what it's not.

Powered by a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 with 395 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque, power goes to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic. However, both the V8 and 4WD aren't standard; a 3.6-liter V6 with 305 hp and RWD is standard. Fortunately, the combined upgrade total is only $3,350.

Overall, the Ram Rebel isn't dramatically different from the rest of the Ram 1500 lineup. We'd say it's closest to the Ram Laramie 1500. It does have that unique front grille design and a bunch of 'Rebel' badges inside and out. One standard feature we particularly liked is the 4-corner air suspension, which helps give the truck a very nice highway ride. Our tester came equipped with just about every extra feature possible, for a grand total price of $54,800. To compare, the new Raptor and its twin-turbo V6 with 450 hp and 510 lb-ft of twist can be had for the same price. Like we said, the Ram Rebel is no Raptor beater, not even in the price department. Special thanks to DGDG.com for letting us film the car.