What does all this MEAN? TV help.
So, we bought a truck last year on a whim (Ram 1500), and then bought a rig. Didn't plan the 2 purchases out very well. Technically the 5er is within the specs of the truck....but we towed over I-70...
Forum Discussion
LeonineThor wrote:
I don't expect to be flying up the hills, but I really felt the truck was struggling too much. We were doing maybe 30mph at 5000rpm in 2nd gear. I kept thinking I hope I don't stop or I will never get started again. Interestingly enough, I felt fine with the truck holding back the weight on the downhill side of the pass.
It is really a struggle to find the balance between a truck I will use to pull this rig 7-8 times a year, and a truck I run around town in. To answer the question about the gas RAM2500....There are some things I'm not super thrilled about with the RAM in general, so was thinking this is the opportunity to get away from those....."maybe"
There is one hill we go up each year in September. The grade is 21 miles long and starts at 500 feet above sea level and ends up at nearly 6000 feet. It's 6% to 10 % switch backs. The only way I can go up the hill is in first gear at nearly full throttle at between 15 to 22MPH... So it takes over an hour. The outside temp is usually near 80 degrees. My gas engined truck will get a little above normal temperature but not over heat. It truly feels as if this truck could do this all day long...but with 40 gallons of gas it would only last about 6 hours at 3MPG.
Truck engines & transmissions are designed for hard long pulling. The key is to find the correct gear so your engine is not lugging up the hill. Sometimes shifting down a gear and adjusting the throttle input to keep the RPMs up is better than trying to stay in a higher gear with low RPM.
