Why not just get a 6 speed? Problems solved.

 

Mine won't shift into 4 at anything less than 45 and I have to really coax it at that.
I haven't done any towing in the hills yet so time will tell. I like the way it works so far but would like the addition of a lockout.

 

Comstock,
Your elected to get that new puppy hooked up and burn some diesel. Try this thing out and see how you like it . Hilly, crooked road , where you want to run 50, where you have to slowdown for curves, and then get back on it to pull a grade etc. In that type a situation locking in 3rd you'd stay in 3rd. But I'm afraid this setup will be going back and forth from 3rd to 4th . Now keep in mind this isnt just hunting between 3rd and 4th its going in and out of torque converter lockup for every gear too.
Keep in mind that if your in 4th and you bear down on throttle and truck downshifts to 3rd ,to pull a grade, heres what happens. The converter clutch relieses in 4th ,trans shifts to 3rd , remember now your pulling your trailer up a grade, then converter clutch engages in 3rd while pulling under 610 ft. lb. of torque.
To relate that to a stick shift , this is what happens. Your in 6th gear , cant pull the hill so you push in clutch, shift to 5th, then throttle the motor and let the clutch pull the rpm down under 610 ft lb of torque. All you stick shift boys know your clutch wont last long doing that. But thats what happens to the torque converter clutch when it engages in 3rd pulling up hill with power on.

 

i tried holding in the tow/hual button on mine the other day it still shifted into od i think im gonna start messing with that servo motor and see what i can do. because i thought i was gonna drop my tranny when i was pulling through the moutains and curves in Az

 

Is there any difference in the switch itself on the end of the stalk in between the 05's and the earlier trucks? Could the 05's have a momentary switch and the earlier trucks have a switch that will stay on or off? I haven't driven my 04.5 in a while and can not remember how the tow/haul swich works/feels when I use it. Maybe the easy thing would be to replace the switch with one the will make constant contact? Might be a real easy swap if the switch itself is different for the 05's than the earlier trucks. That would help if you came to that steep twisty hill and your button pusher happens to be asleep in the far passanger side. And you all know what would happen if you jabbed your button pusher in the ribs when she's in the middle of some dream.

 

Pencandude, Thanks for streaghtening me out on holding the button. My local dodge dealer trans man had a scaner hooked on one and told me that if you held the button in it locked out 4th as long as you held it in . So that wont work!! So we dont have to worry about pokeing the sleeping button pusher. My button pusher wouldnt be sleeping anyway because shes too buisy driveing the rig from the passenger seat.

 

SHOOT! I wish I knew about all this OD/ tow haul stuff and the 70mph vibe BEFORE I whapped out 37 K for this truck, I would have looked else where or bought a 6 speed,,,,,,,,,,SHOOT! again!

 

no vibe here but mines a 2wd is the vibes only on 4x4s?

 

Got a 4x4 and don't have the supposed '70mpg vibe'.
Must be a quality control problem on drive shafts.

 

John Rodrigues,
You got to get Chris Strichland onto this . My trans man mentioned that a simple on off switch would work also. He even showed me the wire plug . Where the center wire was hot and about 8 ground prongs circling it. He said if you know which ground wire controles 4th ,then you just tap that wire with a off switch and switch it off. And it wont go into 4th.( WELL BUT) I looked at it and asked him what controlled 3rd. He said a different ground wire. Well so all these grounds are controlled by the computer. So what happens when the computer wants to shift from 3rd to 4th?? Its in 3rd so its grounding 3rd gear wire Its got to do more then just ground 4th or you'll be in two gears at once. Its got to release 3rd AND ground 4th So you got more going on then just one off on switch will handle. Sounds to me like if you lockout 4th with a switch on the wire. and the computer trys to shift and it releases 3rd and theres no 4th your going to have a no gear situation. Maybe CHRIS can streaghten this out. Or maybe I'm wrong . I was wrong about the pushbutton bit.

 

There's got to be a easy fix.

 

ME TOO

 

bump

 

 

Well we got one man over on the TDR site that says the new 2005 48re works great. And he has towed in the mountains also. It's hard for me to believe that this trans wont follow your foot feed signals and at the right speed with the right grades shift down when you step on it and shift up when you ease off. Climing a mountian with a crooked road, your on and off that throttle all the time .