We realized that we have had Brutus, our RAM 3500 Truck, for just over a year and thought it would be a good time to get an update out! Honestly so far we love almost everything about Brutus! If you have not met Brutus yet, head on over to our Get to Know Brutus post.

Things that we Love about Brutus:

We LOVE having Android Auto – Having our phones connect to the truck and run Google maps through the integrated screen is amazing! We also use it for Google Play!

Our Mpg has been around 16 mpg with all the city driving we have been doing. However when we get on the interstate its closer to 18 mpg. Keep in mind this is NOT our MPG while towing, since at this time we are not doing much of that.

4WD has been used often and has been wonderful. Since we have been living in Colorado and the winters out here include a lot of snow… 4WD has gotten a good workout!

We do still have the factory tires on Brutus… They are doing great so far, wearing normally… The tires have been rotated twice so far. We are more than likely going to be getting new tires after this winter.

The long bed has been wonderful, all our bikes and bike trailers fit perfectly as well as all the kayaks fully inflated. The inconvenience caused by a long bed is definitely not as much as some people may expect and totally worth the trade-off with functionality.

As far as towing goes, we have towed a few times and Brutus has handled beautifully each time. He was definitely ordered for towing and does his job well!

We love the factory air suspension, it works as it should!

The negatives… If you want to call them that:

The one thing we wish would have been stock on Brutus is a shoulder belt instead of just a lap belt in the front middle seat. Since we are a family of 6, that means one of our 4 boys has to sit in the front with us. For safety reasons we would prefer them to have some sort of a shoulder belt. We have been looking into getting one installed. So if we are able to figure that out, we will definitely share that with ya’ll

Then of course there is the obvious… Parking… Since he is a long bed dually finding a place to park him can at times be a challenge… With that said, we have not had many problems. Basically as long as we stay outside of downtown Denver we can usually find a place to park him. Downtown the spaces are too narrow as well as to short.

Another area where we struggle to fit is drive through’s… They just don’t make drive through lanes for big trucks here in Colorado… But its not too big of a deal for us to just park and go inside to get food.

Over all:

We LOVE our truck! He does everything we need him to do! As a family of 6 we fit great so far. I am sure that will change as the boys get bigger but we are looking to stay in one vehicle as long as possible. We would prefer to not have to have a chase vehicle especially while the boys are young.

We are onto the next adventure.