if you look in my gallery at my hemi with the snowmobile trailer, or my cummins with the snowmobile trailer, my hemi could barely pull it in tow/haul. It was an 04, 3.92 gears, 20" wheels. The snowmobile trailer MIGHT be 3000lbs total. The hemi would barely pull it in tow/haul mode. it had to be in 3rd gear to do any good pulling. The cummins will probably break the hitch off the trailer its got so much power

 

I had to put her into OD lockout for this with 3.73s... I'm sure with 4.10s it would've been fine.

http://xj.cdevco.net/photos/dodge/hauls/dumpbed.jpg

 

"my hemi could barely pull it in tow/haul"

wait a minute, I have to roll up my pants legs...
Ok, carry on...

You had a Hemi powered Ram with 3.92 gears that would barely pull less than 3k lbs and now you have a Cummins powered Ram to tow all that weight... I bet it tows it like it's not even there.

Next time out in a week and two days I'll make some mpegs of our Hemi towing 10,040 lbs 65mph in O/D/1800rpm and up the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at 65mph in second gear/4200rpm barely revving for the Hemi. It's a little more thirsty than my previous Cummins Rams but there's nothing weak about it.

 

good to hear you are rolling your pant legs up, signifying that my post is bs. My brother can vouch for me that the truck did not want to pull it. If you would look at my location before calling BS, i live in Colorado. 8500ft altitude. the hemi loses about 20% power up here. Yes, the Hemi did have trouble pulling that. When you are in tow/haul you are in 4th gear, Not overdrive. sure you can call it a double overdrive, but you are really in 4th gear and 5th gear is overdrive. I konw the hemi as i had one for a while and got to find out quite a bit about it. ive pulled 10,500 with the hemi. it was a bobcat and a trailer. my 0-60 time was probably 10 minutes.

 

You certainly have allot of experience for being 17 years old.
It is a fact at that altitude you do lose allot of power.

 

The 545RFE behind the Hemi has a .75 (4th) O/D and .67 (5th) O/D. 3rd is direct. There are also two 2nd ratios. One for upshifts and one for downshifts.
I was towing with small block gas engines before you were born. Sorry, I didn't realize you were just a kid who's daddy bought him a new toy.

 

Well guys lets not get nasty now . Pulling something well and pulling something bad depends on opinion, and situation. If I had to move a dozer 20 miles to next job and had to use 1st second and maybe third to get it there I'd be happy to get it there. But I wouldnt want that kind of performance traveling accrost the U.S. with my travel trailer. And the boys right ,you get above 8500 ft and you loose much more with a gasser then the turbo charged diesel.

 

This is true but less than 3k with no wind resistance? I think that's stretching it a bit to justify the diesel. Of course i wouldn't want to tow our heavy 5th wheel out there with our Hemi. I wouldn't want to tow our 5th out there with our previous de-rated automatic Cummins powered Ram either. But 3k is barely a load. I've carried that much in the bed. I would tow in the Rockies with our '98 5spd 4.10 Cummins. That thing was unstoppable!
While some take offense that I traded my fourth Cummins for a Hemi, keep in mind, I didn't trade because I thought the Hemi is better in any way. I traded because after almost two years of arguing with Dodge about the driveline vibration in my '03 Dodge/Cummins, I decided to give the Hemi a try while DC figures out how to install the mighty Cummins in the 3rd gen Ram as well as they did the 2nd gen without unusual damaging vibrations and bandaids to cover them up. My '03 diff sounded about shot after our last trip out with it at 44k miles. Driveline vibrations will do that. It was bad enough to rattle change in the ash tray and dealership said it's normal. It did it with the motor off and the tranny in neutral at 68mph. The fact that the Hemi is doing a fine job with our 5th wheel here in the southeast shouldn't offend anyone. Nor should it when someone claims a 345hp V8 won't pull -3k in the mountains and I roll my pants up.

 

OK Folks,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Before this thread gets any further off-track,,,,,, and we start posting on"What is BS" and "What is not BS",,,,,,,,, Let's try to remember that the thread started with a new DIESEL owner asking for info about his truck. Let's also remember that even when using other examples of experiences with whatever vehicle,,,,, All vehicles are NOT created equal, even when built with identical parts. I've been around plenty of vehicles that were identical and one performed over expectations and the other was a dog.

Please keep this thread unlocked and continue posting good info without the personal attacks or straying off-topic.


Thanks,

 

This theard is just what I was about to ask.

I tow just a standard ball hitch dual axle car hauler... empty or with my wrx on it. my car weights only 3200lbs.

should i run it down the highway in with overdrive turned off? i've had both a mechanic and a salesman tell me anytime you have anything behind you turn off overdrive or you'll burn it out.

i'm about to do a 3400 mile round trip to salt lake city to pick up a wrx and the last thing i wanna do is burn my tranny out.

 

I towed with all four of my Cummins Rams in O/D even the two autos with 3.55 ratio. You'll be surprised how it holds O/D even at full throttle. Not a problem. It'll ease along at lower speed in O/D too without any trouble. If you need to accelerate or climb a good hill at 45~ just lock out O/D until you flatten back out. But over 1800rpm, let it run in O/D in the hills.

 

I'm with the rest of the guys,,,

I tow my 5er in OD as long as it doesn't hunt or lug. If I'm going to slow down to a speed 55mph or under,,,, or once it downshifts when climbing a long grade, I lock it out. If I come to a stop, I automatically lock out OD. When the truck gets up to speed of around 55mph, I'll lift off the throttle just a tad and push the button, letting the tranny ease into OD. I used this method when the truck was slam stock and never had any problems until I added the EZ @ around 60K and then I started to slip the torque converter when running empty. I put a GB TC and VB in and everything inside the tranny was fine other than the stock TC. The sweet spot in my truck is right around 1800-2200 and that's where it pulls the best.

 

Thanks for the info guys, info really helps me out and makes me feel more comfortable when I do tow, especially since I finally talked to the guy that had originally owned the truck and found out the tranny had valve body work done and a heavy duty TC installed. Thanks again Greg.

 

Remember - salesmen know next to nothing about actually USING these trucks.. The mechanics also don't tow with them, they fix 'em.

How many times do we read posts about going in for service and knowing more than everyone in the service dept. combined? So why should we take their word on towing in OD?

I drop out of OD when the RPM gets down below 1500 towing my 7k load, it just doesn't seem happy, and EGT's climb. (Yeah, my truck is overkill..and I like it )

 

they know nothing, period. A salesman here said all trucks on the lot were 04.5's, but he wasnt sure if it was a 600 or a 610 I drove 700 miles for better service and a hell of a deal.