Heaviest Ram chassis cab, for large dump and crane bodies. Below: who sells it near Long Beach, what is available now, and how to choose the right configuration.
No sellers in our network are currently listed close to Long Beach. Commercial dealers routinely deliver across Southern California, so tell us what you need and we will look more widely.
5 vehicles
Big Horn 4X4 Crew Cab DRW 197" WB · Pickup
$79,472
Tradesman Regular Cab LWB DRW 169" WB · Pickup
$72,532
Tradesman Regular Cab LWB DRW 169" WB · Pickup
$68,392
Tradesman Crew Cab DRW 197" WB · Pickup
$77,017
Tradesman 4X4 Reg Cab LWB DRW 169" WB · Pickup
$69,777
No other city in this region has its commercial vehicle market defined so completely by a single piece of infrastructure. The San Pedro Bay port complex that Long Beach shares with Los Angeles is the dominant container gateway on the West Coast, handling roughly a third of the containerised international trade arriving in the country.
Drayage is the trucking discipline that follows: short-haul movement of containers between marine terminals and the warehouses, transload yards and rail ramps inland. It is a distinct business from long-haul freight, with its own equipment, its own appointment systems and its own persistent frustrations around terminal congestion and chassis availability.
Environmental regulation is stricter for port-serving vehicles than for commercial trucks generally, and it has been tightening for years. Anyone buying a used truck intended for drayage work needs to confirm its eligibility for port access before purchase rather than after, because the requirement attaches to the vehicle.
Away from the waterfront the city is substantial in its own right, with a downtown, a convention and events sector, a university and a large body of older, dense housing. That supports the full range of ordinary service trades, working in conditions closer to Santa Ana than to the open industrial yards nearby.
Marine services form a genuine niche. Vessel maintenance, marina operations and the businesses supporting recreational and commercial watercraft all need towing capability and the ability to work around harbour access, which is a specification most inland operators never consider.
Salt air reaches well inland from the waterfront and affects vehicles accordingly. Corrosion on frames, brake components and electrical connections progresses faster here than anywhere in the inland valleys, and the maintenance routine has to account for it.
Moving containers between terminals, yards and rail ramps on appointment systems that reward punctuality and punish delay. Equipment must meet port access requirements, which are stricter than general commercial standards and change over time.
Maintaining handling equipment, chassis, reefer plugs and yard machinery across marine and logistics premises. Heavy service bodies with substantial power and welding capability, responding to failures that stop container movement rather than inconvenience one user.
Perishable cargo arriving in refrigerated containers needs monitoring and rapid repair. Vans and service bodies carrying refrigeration parts and diagnostics, where a failure threatens an entire consignment rather than delaying a delivery.
Vessel maintenance, marina operations and watercraft support around the harbour. Pickups specified for towing and for manoeuvring trailers in confined quayside areas, with corrosion protection mattering more than in almost any other local application.
A convention centre, hotels and a dense restaurant sector generating deliveries into premises with shared loading and strict windows. Moderate box trucks and refrigerated vans chosen for placement rather than capacity.
Older dense housing across much of the city sustains plumbing, electrical and roofing work of the replacement kind. Shorter organised vans that reach properties on narrow streets where kerbside parking is heavily used throughout the day.
Terminal congestion and appointment windows govern the working day for anything port-related. Turn times are unpredictable, queues form without warning, and schedules built on distance rather than on realistic terminal experience fail quickly.
Salt air corrosion is aggressive and reaches well beyond the immediate waterfront. Underbody washing, inspection of brake lines and suspension mounts and attention to electrical connections all need to happen more often than a standard maintenance schedule assumes.
Older residential and downtown streets are narrow with heavy kerbside parking, which penalises long wheelbases on service work. The contrast with the open port and industrial areas within the same city is stark, and it catches out operators serving both.
Emissions requirements applying to port-serving vehicles are stricter than general commercial standards. Confirm a used truck’s eligibility before buying if drayage is any part of the intended work, because the obligation follows the vehicle rather than the operator.
Local guidance reviewed by the SoCal Work Trucks editorial team, last updated 2026-09-13.
Heaviest Ram chassis cab, for large dump and crane bodies.
The largest bodies that still stay under 19,500 lbs GVWR.
Ranges across common configurations of this model. The figures for any individual vehicle depend on its cab, wheelbase, drivetrain and upfit.
These are model ranges, not a specific truck. Payload in particular varies by well over 1,000 lbs across configurations. Always confirm against the door-jamb sticker and the manufacturer documentation for the exact vehicle before you buy or load it.
At this weight, driver licensing and registration classes need checking against how the finished truck will actually be operated and loaded.
Vehicles commonly cross-shopped against the Ram 5500.
The Ram 5500 sits at the top of Ram's chassis cab range and is bought almost exclusively as a platform for a body — dump, service, crane, flatbed or tow. It is a direct alternative to the Ford F-550 and Chevrolet Silverado 5500HD, and for most applications the three are genuinely interchangeable on capability.
The Cummins 6.7-litre inline-six is the reason many operators specify Ram at this weight. Inline-six diesels are inherently well balanced and the Cummins has a long reputation for durability and strong low-end torque — the characteristic that matters when pulling a loaded trailer away from a stop or climbing out of a site with a full dump body. Among operators who have run all three brands, Cummins preference is a real and persistent thing.
Its 19,500 lb rating is chosen rather than incidental. It sits deliberately under the point at which California licensing rules change, which means a contractor can put a substantial body on this truck and still hire from the ordinary driver market. Every manufacturer builds to that same ceiling for the same reason, and it explains why this weight class dominates contractor yards across the region.
Ram's commercial support runs through the Ram Professional and BusinessLink programmes, which provide priority service and commercial-specific sales support at participating dealers. The network across Southern California is real but less dense than Ford Pro, and quality varies by store — worth assessing the specific dealership rather than the programme.
The practical decision between the three brands at this weight usually comes down to three things: which engine your mechanics prefer working on, which dealer will actually prioritise your service, and what the body quote looks like. The body is a large share of total cost and builders sometimes quote differently depending on the chassis, so get complete quotes rather than comparing chassis prices.
The one area where Ram diverges usefully is the cab. Ram interiors at this weight are generally regarded as more comfortable than the competition, which matters for a crew cab that carries a team to site every day. It is a soft advantage but a genuine one over a long ownership period.
Landscaping · Hardscape · Grading · Demolition
The dominant application at this weight in Southern California. A 10 to 14 ft dump body carries genuinely useful volumes of soil, aggregate or green waste with real payload margin, which is what a one-ton lacks. The Cummins low-end torque is particularly appreciated pulling a loaded body off a site.
Typical configuration: Regular Cab with 84 to 120 in cab-to-axle and a 10 to 14 ft dump body
Mobile mechanics · Equipment service · Industrial maintenance · Welding
Where a one-ton service body is at its limit with a crane and full tool inventory aboard, the 5500 has real headroom. Power take-off provisions to drive a compressor or hydraulic crane must be specified at order — your body builder will tell you exactly what the chassis needs.
Typical configuration: Regular or Crew Cab with a mechanic body, crane and PTO provisions
Building supply · Steel · Equipment rental · Fencing
A 14 to 16 ft flatbed carries palletised material that would overload a one-ton, loaded by forklift from either side. Deck height matters as much as deck length — confirm it against the yards you actually collect from, because it determines whether their forklift can load you without a ramp.
Typical configuration: Regular Cab with 120 to 144 in cab-to-axle and a 14 to 16 ft flatbed
Towing · Roadside recovery · Vehicle transport
A common rollback and wrecker base, carrying the body and a recovered vehicle while staying under the CDL threshold. Body certification and rating are what matter here far more than chassis specification, and the Cummins torque suits the stop-start, heavily-loaded duty cycle recovery work involves.
Typical configuration: Regular Cab with extended cab-to-axle and a rollback or wrecker body
Concrete · Paving · Utility contracting · Municipal
A Crew Cab 5500 moves a full crew and carries a loaded body, which no one-ton manages realistically. Ram cab comfort is a genuine advantage here, since the crew is in the vehicle daily. The cost is a longer wheelbase and a substantially larger truck to place on site.
Typical configuration: Crew Cab with a dump or flatbed body and a longer wheelbase
Municipal · Public works · Water districts · Utilities
Public-sector fleets standardise on this weight class across dump, utility and service bodies, keeping one chassis, one parts inventory and one training programme. Fleet procurement and documented maintenance matter more than purchase price in this segment.
Typical configuration: Regular Cab with upfitter switches, PTO provisions and a utility body
Your first phone call should be to whoever is building the body, and only your second to a salesperson. The builder will tell you which frame length, rear overhang and driveline provisions their body assumes, and those requirements have to be written into the order before it is placed because none of them can be altered once the chassis is built. Buying the truck first and working out the body afterwards is how contractors end up with an expensive vehicle that will not accept the equipment they bought it for.
Compare the three brands on complete quotes, not chassis prices. The body is a large share of total cost, and builders sometimes price differently by chassis. A Ram that looks cheaper on the chassis can end up more expensive finished, or the reverse — you cannot know without quoting the whole truck.
Weight the engine decision by who maintains your fleet. The Cummins inline-six has a strong following and many independent diesel shops know it intimately, which can mean faster and cheaper service than a dealer-only relationship. If your mechanics have a preference among Cummins, Power Stroke and Duramax, that preference is worth respecting — familiarity genuinely reduces diagnosis time.
Protect the 26,001 lb line deliberately. At 19,500 lbs the Ram 5500 stays comfortably under the threshold that generally requires a commercial driver licence, which keeps hiring wide and cheap. Treat it as a design constraint when specifying a heavy body rather than assuming the margin will look after itself.
Assess the specific dealership rather than the programme. Ram Professional and BusinessLink provide commercial support on paper, but the value depends entirely on whether your local store genuinely stocks commercial parts and prioritises commercial service. Ask directly what their turnaround looks like for a truck that is off the road.
Finally, build your project timetable around the builder rather than the dealership. Queues at Southern California body shops routinely stretch across several months, and anything unusual stretches them further. Place both orders together, insist on a written completion estimate from whoever is fitting the body, and treat that estimate rather than the vehicle delivery date as the one you promise work against. The truck itself is seldom what keeps you waiting.
An editorial evaluation written by the SoCal Work Trucks editorial team, last reviewed 2026-09-03. It is our own assessment, not customer reviews or ratings.
A genuinely competitive medium-duty chassis that deserves cross-shopping rather than being dismissed in favour of the default Ford. The Cummins is a real reason to choose it, particularly if your mechanics know the engine, and the cab is the nicest in the class. Against that, the commercial dealer network is thinner than Ford's and upfitter familiarity slightly less deep. Compare complete finished-truck quotes before deciding.
The Cummins inline-six
Strong low-end torque and a long durability reputation, and many independent diesel shops know it intimately. That familiarity can mean faster, cheaper service than a dealer-only relationship, which matters when a truck is off the road.
Best cab in the class
Ram interiors at this weight are generally more comfortable than the competition, which is a genuine advantage for a crew cab carrying a team to site every working day.
Real payload for a serious body
Roughly 9,500 to 12,500 lbs means a dump or crane body plus a full load without the payload anxiety that dogs one-ton trucks.
Stays under the CDL threshold
At 19,500 lbs GVWR it keeps the hiring pool wide, which is the strategic reason this whole weight class exists for contractors.
Competitive on complete-truck quotes
Ram frequently prices well once the body is included, and because builders sometimes quote differently by chassis, it is worth getting the full comparison rather than assuming Ford.
Thinner commercial dealer network
Ram Professional and BusinessLink exist across Southern California but are less dense than Ford Pro, and quality varies by store. Assess the specific dealership rather than the programme.
Slightly less upfitter familiarity
Body builders work on all three brands, but Ford chassis cabs pass through most shops in greater numbers. That occasionally shows up as marginally longer quotes or lead times.
Cab-to-axle errors are unrecoverable
Order the wrong dimension and the body will not fit. The fix is a different chassis, not an adjustment — weeks of delay plus a truck you cannot use.
Resale trails Ford at this weight
Super Duty chassis cabs generally hold value better, which over a full ownership cycle can offset part of any purchase advantage. Compare total cost rather than sticker.
Large and firm for anything but working use
Springs rated for 19,500 lbs are unforgiving unladen and the truck is big. This is a working platform, not a general-purpose vehicle.
On a used 5500 the body carries most of the value and most of the risk. On a dump, check the hoist cylinder for leaks, the pivot pins for wear and the subframe for cracking. On a crane, ask for the current inspection certificate and rated capacity — an uncertified crane is a liability rather than an asset.
Inspect the body-to-frame mounting carefully. Repeated heavy loading and tipping stresses those points, and cracking or corrosion there is a walk-away rather than a negotiation. Frame rails should be straight with no unexplained welds or repairs.
Cummins service history is the powertrain assessment. Ask for fuel filter intervals, after-treatment work and any oil analysis. The engine has a good reputation but that depends on maintenance — ask directly what the truck hauled and how often, because a truck run at its rating daily has worked far harder than the odometer suggests.
Manufacturer and regulatory sources for specifications and requirements. We do not link to other vehicle-selling websites.
