5 Of The Loudest Pickup Trucks Ever Made

It's no secret that trucks are generally regarded as being louder than cars. However, there is a lot more overlap here than many may realize. The loudest cars ever built can easily bypass most modern trucks. For example, the 2021 Pagani Huayra R can get upwards of 110 decibels. By contrast, most modern trucks average around 80 to 90 decibels outside the cabin. Thus, while trucks are generally considered louder than cars, they aren't that much louder than cars, at least not anymore. There are some caveats there. For example, diesel trucks tend to be louder because of the way compression works in diesel engines.

In any case, despite their penchant for being louder, trucks aren't typically what enthusiasts go for when it comes loud engines. That's why you can generally find tons of lists out there talking about loud car engines and much fewer talking about loud trucks. Additionally, consumers are more concerned than ever with in-cabin engine noise, so a lot of today's loudness tests are done within the cabin to gauge quietness, like you see in the loudest SUVs on the market. 

If you want to find out which trucks are the quietest inside the cabin for comfort purposes, car reviewers like Car Confections have a list specifically for that. Today's modern truck is way quieter inside the cabin than older ones, with the loudest truck measured in recent history being the Toyota Tundra 1794 Hybrid at just 64.2 decibels. 

The Lamborghini LM002 is one funky looking truck, and it's also one of the loudest trucks. Lamborghini made the truck from 1986 through the 1993 model year as a result of a military program that ultimately failed. It also had one of the coolest nicknames ever, being referred to by enthusiasts as the Rambo-Lambo. While the LM002 was ultimately unsuccessful, it did blend some things that are a lot more common today, like performance, off-road prowess, and some luxury appointments all in the same package. It doesn't hold a candle to the best off roaders ever, but it comes close.

Car and Driver measured the truck when they reviewed it all the way back in 1987. It remains to this day the loudest truck that the auto blog has ever measured at an astounding 97 decibels. Mostly to blame for this is the truck's beefy 5.2-liter V12, which output 444 horsepower. In an era where automobiles were reducing power thanks to oil shortages and the Clean Air Act of 1970. For reference, its immense V12 would've put this truck on the list of the highest horsepower sports cars of the 1980s if it were a sports car and not a truck. 

As such, we tip our hats to one of the loudest trucks in its era and of all time. You won't find many of these driving around, and only a few of them even go on sale at a time.

The Ram 1500 TRX is the sportiest version of one of the most popular pickups on the market. This version isn't made for long work hours, but rather for long play hours. Ram makes this particular model to compete with the excessively powerful versions of other trucks, like the Ford F-150 Raptor R and other such trucks. As such, it's not really built with the same mindset as other Dodge Ram 1500 trucks, leading it to be one of the loudest trucks we were able to find. 

In its factory configuration, the truck makes 107 decibels from the tailpipe. That is largely thanks to its supercharged 6.2-liter V8, which pumps out 702 horsepower. That is right around par for the course for Ram, as it uses Dodge engines, and Dodge engines can get pretty beefy. As such, this truck is more built for speed rather than play. That is no better personified than by its zero to 60 MPH time, which is a little under four seconds. 

Interestingly, this is one of the trucks that people like to fiddle with. Enthusiasts have made YouTube videos of things like muffler deletes that make the truck way louder. In this video by Exhaust Addicts, the engine is measured at 117 decibels. That is about as loud as attending a rock concert or an ambulance siren. The stock version comes pretty loud, but it can get much louder with a few inexpensive modifications.

It's an accepted fact that diesel engines tend to be louder than their regular gas counterparts, so it shouldn't be surprising to learn that diesel engine trucks make the list. It's mostly due to how compression in the engine works. For diesel engines, the cylinders are already compressed when the fuel is pumped, which helps contribute to its louder sound. In any case, for this list, we'll talk about trucks equipped with the Cummins 6BT, which is largely considered one of the greatest diesel engines of all time.

This engine can get pretty loud, which is about the only bad thing about it since its longevity is legendary and it does basically everything else well. Measurements for trucks equipped with this engine were hard to obtain, but Cummins has a spec sheet that shows that the engine can emit as much as 121 decibels from the tailpipe. It's likely much less loud from within the cabin, so you won't be too uncomfortable but your neighbors might be. 

That makes the Cummins 6BT the loudest diesel engine that we could find on a pickup truck where we could also verify the numbers. The engine famously came in the first-generation Dodge Ram trucks, and the two companies working together started a trend of diesel engines in pickups that lasts to this day. Other than noise, the 6BT was easily the best (or at least second best) engine that Cummins has ever made. 

As we briefly discussed with the Ram 1500 TRX, modified trucks are about as loud as it gets in the loud truck space. The mixture of things like removing the exhaust and various engine modifications can increase loudness quite significantly. While researching this article, modified trucks were easily the most common thing that I saw. Generally, I like to try to avoid modified vehicles on lists like these because it's kind of obvious. In this case, modified trucks really do comprise the largest demographic of loud trucks on the road. 

One of the first vehicles I found on my journey with this article was this 2016 Ford F-150, which clocked in at 126 decibels. The video creators say that it's the loudest F-150 they've ever had. Those same guys also made this video about a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 with a Hemi engine, which measured 125 decibels in the video. These trucks had several modifications, including a muffler delete that essentially turns the tailpipe into a loudspeaker for engine noise. You can find videos like these by the dozens on YouTube, although most creators don't measure decibels at the tailpipe like Exhaust Addicts do. 

Other types of modified trucks make the list too. Monster trucks can get up to 125 decibels when full revved out, which is part of what makes Monster Jam shows so loud. Monster trucks use some of the same modifications as the earlier trucks, though, so we're including them side by side here. 

Finally, we come to the final truck in our lineup today: the Ford Raptor R. Much like the Ram 1500 TRX, this truck is built for speed and play rather than work and towing. It's also adept at off-roading, which is why you'll see so many product images of this thing jumping around dunes. In any case, among the frolicking fun that the Ford-150 Raptor R promises, one of the things Ford doesn't tell you is that the engine in this thing is really loud. Even inside the cabin, where the exhaust is quietest, the sound levels were measured at a hair over 80 decibels, which is louder than any modern pickup truck. 

The loudest measurement we found for the Ford F-150 Raptor R is 130 decibels, and that is measured at the tailpipe at full throttle with the 2023 variant in Baja mode. This is almost exclusively thanks to Ford's supercharged 5.2-liter V8, which outputs an impressive 700 horsepower. That's slightly less than the TRX, but Ford told Car and Driver that they couldn't tell the difference. Ford proves it too, making this truck scoot to 60 MPH in 3.6 seconds, which is a tenth of a second faster than the TRX while clearing the quarter mile run about 0.3 seconds faster.

Thus, if you want the loudest truck on the market currently and don't want to modify it, the Ford F-150 Raptor R is your best bet.