Tow Vehicle for 22,000 Pounds Plus
Is anyone towing 22,000 lbs. plus? If so, what are you towing with? Which rear end, what kind of mileage do you get? Do you have any tips? Have you pulled in the mountains, any problems? Thanks s...
Forum Discussion
RustyJC wrote:
Which is precisely my point. When towing, you effectively don't have a 6 speed transmission. You have a 5 speed transmission with a taller 1st gear as compared to a truck with 4.10s. If you like to operate that way, that's fine - your money and your choice. Is the truck capacity optimized operating that way? No.
There's a reason why Ram GCWR ratings increase so markedly as axle ratios step from 3.42 to 3.73 to 4.10.
Rusty
First off, I do have an effective 6 speed. My truck will not shift into 6th until you hit 65 mph in tow haul mode. When running 68 or so it does lug a little more than I would like. I am not the one here that is asking the question about gears. I know what I have and what they are capable of and I also know the exact reason why I have these gears. I do not want or need a DRW truck so unless I buy another brand of truck I'm stuck with the 3.42's. I will just change the diff, oil more because I know it creates more heat.
As far as what I'm saying about the 3.73. I am just assuming here but I was thinking that the OP is looking at DRW trucks here. When you look on here ( Ram Bodybuilder Clicky ), a Ram DRW Crew Cab with Aisin and 3.73 gear has a GCVWR of 33,800# and a Max trailer weight of 25,010 #. Now I didn't go to all the big name schools but simple math says that truck will have ZERO problems handling a 22,000# camper. Yes the truck with the 4.10 has even more capacity but so does a HDT/MDT.
I know people say that there ain't much difference in fuel mileage but I'm here to tell you there is. I have test driven brand new trucks set up exactly the same right down to the radios back to back running the exact same routes with the two gear ratios we are talking about and when you figure I personally saw 2 MPG difference (14-16) I'm not going to be easily persuaded to think otherwise. I just changed the gears in my F350 from 4.11-3.73 today so I will definitely be able to see what the difference is. I have just over 200,000 miles on the truck with the 4.11's so I am curious to see the difference.
