Ram TRX vs Ram RHO: Comparing Five-Year Cost of Ownership

The honest answer: you can budget a 2021-2024 Ram TRX against real used-market data because enough of them have changed hands to read as a market. You cannot do the same for the Ram RHO yet, because it has not been on sale long enough to generate that record. The RHO also runs a different engine architecture entirely, a twin-turbo six instead of the TRX's supercharged 6.2L V8, which changes the fuel and maintenance math on day one, before any long-term ownership data even exists. Budget the TRX off its own market history. Budget the RHO off what is actually known about its engine today, and treat everything else about it as unverified until more owners put miles on one.

What you're actually comparing

The Ram 1500 TRX ran from December 2020 to February 2024, built at Sterling Heights Assembly in Michigan, with a 6.2L supercharged HEMI V8 making 702 hp and 650 lb-ft. It is discontinued. Its replacement as Ram's flagship performance truck is the Ram 1500 SRT TRX, a 2027 model that started production in August 2026 with the same supercharged 6.2L architecture bumped to 777 hp and 680 lb-ft, starting at $99,995 plus destination. That truck has been in customer hands for weeks, not years, and what actually changed on it is still a short list because there has not been time to find out more.

The Ram 1500 RHO is a different animal, not a replacement for the TRX but a separate performance trim built around a twin-turbo Hurricane inline six instead of the supercharged V8. It sits in the lineup alongside the TRX's successor rather than instead of it, and it has its own ownership questions that have nothing to do with supercharger belts or blower bearings. For the two trucks' feel and numbers side by side, see the honest TRX vs RHO comparison.

This piece is narrower: what does five years of owning one actually cost to carry, compared to what you can honestly say about the other right now.

Insurance: two very different risk profiles for an underwriter

A 702-hp or 777-hp supercharged V8 half-ton with a six-figure replacement cost reads as high-risk to most insurers, regardless of your driving record. The RHO's twin-turbo six carries a lower starting price and a different performance profile, which can move a quote, but a turbocharged engine with its own repair complexity is not automatically the cheaper truck to insure either. Neither number belongs in this article as a flat dollar figure, because premiums vary by state, driving record, and carrier more than they vary by which of these two trucks sits in your garage.

What you can do is go in informed. The site's Ram TRX insurance cost breakdown walks through what actually moves a TRX quote, and the 2027 SRT TRX insurance and ownership budget covers how to approach a quote on a truck with no claims history behind it yet. For the RHO, treat any quote you get today as a starting point, not a verdict. It simply has not been on the road long enough for insurers to have built the kind of actuarial history they have on the TRX.

Fuel and octane: the one difference that's actually settled

This is where the two trucks genuinely diverge, and it is worth planning around because it is not speculative. The TRX's supercharged 6.2L is built around premium fuel, and running anything less is not a cost-saving move, it is a different engine strategy the factory did not design for. The 2027 SRT TRX carries the same supercharged baseline, just tuned to a higher output.

The RHO's twin-turbo six does not necessarily carry the same octane requirement, and guessing at it is exactly the kind of thing that gets repeated wrong on forums until it becomes conventional wisdom nobody actually checked. The site has a dedicated answer: what octane the RHO actually needs. Read that before assuming the RHO's smaller-displacement engine means a cheaper fill-up every time. Displacement and octane requirement are not the same thing, and a turbocharged engine often has its own pump-gas sensitivity that a naturally aspirated or supercharged engine does not share.

Tire wear: both trucks are hard on rubber, just for different reasons

Both the TRX and the RHO ship with oversized off-road tires from the factory, and both put more load and more unsprung mass through those tires than a standard half-ton does. Tire replacement is a real line item on either truck, not an afterthought, and neither one stretches a set of tires as far as a base Ram 1500 will.

Where they differ is usage pattern more than hardware. A TRX or RHO driven mostly on pavement wears tires differently than one that sees regular trail time, and tire choice itself (all-terrain versus mud-terrain, factory size versus an upsized wheel and tire setup like the Method MR707) swings the cost more than which generation of truck you're driving. If you're planning a tire or lift change on a TRX, the TRX tire and lift options guide is a reasonable starting point, though fitment guidance for the RHO should be checked against that truck's own spec sheet before you order anything.

Depreciation signals: what the TRX's live inventory actually tells you

Here the TRX has an advantage the RHO simply cannot match yet: enough used listings to read as a market, not a handful of anecdotes. Live dealer inventory for the 2021-2024 TRX currently runs to roughly 1,354 listings nationally, broken out like this:

Read this as supply depth, not as a resale percentage. The 2022 model year shows the deepest used-market supply by a wide margin, which likely reflects a larger production allocation that year more than anything specific going wrong with 2022 trucks. The 2023 model year shows notably thinner supply, which can mean fewer were built, that early owners are holding onto them longer, or both. Neither reading proves a reliability story one way or the other. What it does tell a shopper is practical: a 2022 TRX gives you more trucks to choose from and more room to negotiate on price and condition, while a 2023 search will likely be tighter with less room to push back on price.

The 2027 SRT TRX is new enough that its own listings (currently averaging $108,629 across 501 live listings, per the site's own pricing data) reflect new-truck dealer markup, not a depreciation pattern, since there is not one yet to measure.

The RHO has nothing comparable to offer here. It has been on the market far too briefly to build a used-listing population worth reading as a trend, and any depreciation claim you see about it right now, including a confident-sounding percentage, is not backed by the kind of volume that makes the TRX numbers above meaningful. For the detailed single-truck breakdown of what actually drives TRX ownership cost, see Ram TRX cost of ownership: what to budget. The RHO's own version of that conversation, scoped honestly to what is actually knowable today, lives at Ram RHO cost of ownership: what to actually budget for.

Routine maintenance baseline: different engines, different bills

A supercharged V8 and a twin-turbo six do not share a maintenance checklist. The TRX's blower, belt, and associated cooling hardware are specific to a supercharged engine and don't have a direct equivalent on the RHO. The RHO's turbochargers, intercooler plumbing, and boost control hardware don't have a direct equivalent on the TRX. Neither architecture is inherently cheaper to maintain in a way that's been proven out with real repair-cost data, and this article is not going to manufacture an interval cost or a repair-rate claim for either one.

What you should actually do: price out an oil change, a set of tires, and a brake job at your own dealer or independent shop for each truck before you buy, using your own VIN and the factory maintenance schedule for your specific model year. Do not treat a forum number, including one from a site like this, as a substitute for that.

The RHO's missing track record, stated plainly

The RHO has not been in the hands of owners long enough to generate a reliable pattern of known problems, average repair costs, or resale behavior. That is not a knock on the truck. It is just where it sits in its life cycle right now, the same place the SRT TRX sits: too new for the data to exist. Anyone telling you with confidence what a five-year-old RHO will have cost to own is making that number up, whether they know it or not.

How to actually weigh this before you buy

Treat the known differences and the unknown ones as two separate columns, not one blended score.

1. Known and settled: the TRX needs premium fuel and has a supercharged-specific maintenance list; the RHO's fuel and maintenance needs are tied to a twin-turbo six and should be confirmed against its own spec sheet, not assumed from the TRX.
2. Known and measurable today: the TRX has years of used-market supply and pricing behind it, broken out by model year, that you can actually shop against. The RHO does not have that yet.
3. Unknown for both: long-term repair costs, real-world maintenance-interval spending, and depreciation curves beyond the current snapshot averages above. Do not let anyone, including a confident internet stranger, fill that gap with a number that sounds precise.

If you want a truck you can budget with real market data behind it today, that favors the TRX, and the used TRX buying guide is the next stop. If you're drawn to the RHO's different engine and are comfortable being an early adopter on the cost side the way early TRX buyers once were, go in with your eyes open about which numbers are known and which are still guesses.

The short version

• The TRX's cost of ownership can be budgeted against real used-market data: four model years, roughly 1,354 live listings, and pricing that climbs from an average of about $68,500 for 2021 trucks to about $93,100 for 2024 trucks.
• The 2027 SRT TRX and the Ram RHO are both too new to show a depreciation pattern. Treat any specific resale or repair-cost claim for either one as unverified until more owners report real data.
• The TRX's supercharged V8 and the RHO's twin-turbo six have different fuel and maintenance needs. Confirm the RHO's actual requirements from its own spec sheet rather than assuming anything from TRX ownership experience.
• Decide based on what you can actually verify today (fuel needs, used-market supply, starting price) and go in clear-eyed about what genuinely cannot be known yet for either truck.