We returned a day early from our first weekend camping trip due to heavy rain with our new 2013 Ram 3500. I can certainly say that I am impressed with this truck! It tows our trailer with very little effort. It is very quiet, smooth, and comfortable. I am used to hearing a lot of turbo noise from diesel engines but it is barely noticeable under few circumstances in this truck. As well, our Ford had quite a chucking motion with this trailer and the Ram does not have it at all; the trailer just made an already good ride even smoother. And power, even on some moderate grades around here the truck held 6th gear at 60 mph plus with absolutely no effort. And the exhaust brake is fantastic; I did not have to use the service brakes hardly at all!I fuelled up before hooking up and driving the 115 kilometers (70 miles home) and the lie o meter showed 18.2 liters/100 kms or 12.9 mpg. I will do a hand calculation in the future but if this is true I am a very happy camper. Judging by the distance driven and fuel consumed so far in this truck I would say it is reasonably accurate judging from past experience.I am still waiting for my mud flaps to come in which will be great because this thing gets filthy without them! I installed my new Retrax tonneau cover last weekend and it is awesome; I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a top quality tonneau cover for use with a fifth wheel.It does tow the trailer slightly nose high; I have the hitch in the lowest position, the pin box in the highest position, and the trailer suspension is in the highest position so we will just have to live with it I guess. It tows perfectly fine but it would be nice to tow it a bit more level.All in all we are very happy with our new truck and are looking forward to many more years with it. We received many compliments in the campground; it appears that Megacab duallys are quite rare in this area. I will try to post a photo of the unit when we arrived at the campground.

Here's your pic. It didn't show up for me in the OP. :)

ib516 wrote:Here's your pic. It didn't show up for me in the OP. :)Thanks very much for this; what am I doing wrong on posting photos?

Not sure. I just copied the link. On your photobucket site, click and copy the "direct" link, then click the image icon here and paste it in.BTW, that's a sweet looking truck!

.Congrats - and....how do you like the G56 (trans)?~

Nice story. Glad your flaps are coming in. In a lot of states, duallys REQUIRE flaps to be legal.

First Camping Trip with New Ram 3500 | Good Sam Community

31 Replies

Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 12, 2014
blofgren wrote:
Cummins12V98 wrote:
blofgren wrote:
Cummins12V98 wrote:
Nice setup! Also great to see someone not barely getting enough truck and thinking of the future.

You say the RV is nose high, From the pic it looks like you have at least 8" of clearance. If so drop it down to 6" that is a very safe clearance to tow with.

BTW the grin has not come off my face since Labor Day weekend 2011!

Thanks for your comments. I would love to drop it down but the hitch is as low as it goes and the pin box is as high as it goes so I'm not sure what else I can do with it. I am planning on ordering a MorRyde pin box this year for the camper and am hopeful it has more adjustment in it than the stock pin box does. If you have any more suggestions on this I am definitely open to them!

On another topic, one thing that does have me a bit frustrated about this truck is that it has a pretty severe vibration from about 100-120 km/h (roughly 60-70 mph). I have posted on the Ram/Cummins forum about this and it seems like it is a fairly common thing with the 4th gen duallys and it seems like the General tires are to blame for it. I plan on getting them balanced to see if this fixes or at least helps the issue, but did you have any issues with this with your truck? My Ford had perfect Michelin MS2's on it when I traded it and I'm kicking myself a bit for not getting Michelins thrown in on the deal.

Get Chrysler to balance them. I doubt that will help but it's a step u need to do. Then when it still vibrates tell them you want a new set of MS2's or they can have the truck back.

The General POS tires that came on my Dually were 2/3 worn by 25k. Last may at that mileage I was in Vegas and the front end felt strange. One front tire had a big tread separation. So I went do Discount Tire and put on the Michelins. I now have 25K on the new tires and they look barely worn.

Don't spend your money trying to fix this. They know there is a problem, make them fix it!

Thank you very much for your feedback. I will take it back to the dealer and get them to rebalance. I had a bad incident with a General on my Ford as well; it peeled like an orange and did $1200 damage to the truck before I could get stopped.

I can feel a big battle coming on but it will be worth it for the Michelins!

Stick with it!
blofgren
Explorer
May 11, 2014
Cummins12V98 wrote:
blofgren wrote:
Cummins12V98 wrote:
Nice setup! Also great to see someone not barely getting enough truck and thinking of the future.

You say the RV is nose high, From the pic it looks like you have at least 8" of clearance. If so drop it down to 6" that is a very safe clearance to tow with.

BTW the grin has not come off my face since Labor Day weekend 2011!

Thanks for your comments. I would love to drop it down but the hitch is as low as it goes and the pin box is as high as it goes so I'm not sure what else I can do with it. I am planning on ordering a MorRyde pin box this year for the camper and am hopeful it has more adjustment in it than the stock pin box does. If you have any more suggestions on this I am definitely open to them!

On another topic, one thing that does have me a bit frustrated about this truck is that it has a pretty severe vibration from about 100-120 km/h (roughly 60-70 mph). I have posted on the Ram/Cummins forum about this and it seems like it is a fairly common thing with the 4th gen duallys and it seems like the General tires are to blame for it. I plan on getting them balanced to see if this fixes or at least helps the issue, but did you have any issues with this with your truck? My Ford had perfect Michelin MS2's on it when I traded it and I'm kicking myself a bit for not getting Michelins thrown in on the deal.

Get Chrysler to balance them. I doubt that will help but it's a step u need to do. Then when it still vibrates tell them you want a new set of MS2's or they can have the truck back.

The General POS tires that came on my Dually were 2/3 worn by 25k. Last may at that mileage I was in Vegas and the front end felt strange. One front tire had a big tread separation. So I went do Discount Tire and put on the Michelins. I now have 25K on the new tires and they look barely worn.

Don't spend your money trying to fix this. They know there is a problem, make them fix it!

Thank you very much for your feedback. I will take it back to the dealer and get them to rebalance. I had a bad incident with a General on my Ford as well; it peeled like an orange and did $1200 damage to the truck before I could get stopped.

I can feel a big battle coming on but it will be worth it for the Michelins!
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 11, 2014
blofgren wrote:
Cummins12V98 wrote:
Nice setup! Also great to see someone not barely getting enough truck and thinking of the future.

You say the RV is nose high, From the pic it looks like you have at least 8" of clearance. If so drop it down to 6" that is a very safe clearance to tow with.

BTW the grin has not come off my face since Labor Day weekend 2011!

Thanks for your comments. I would love to drop it down but the hitch is as low as it goes and the pin box is as high as it goes so I'm not sure what else I can do with it. I am planning on ordering a MorRyde pin box this year for the camper and am hopeful it has more adjustment in it than the stock pin box does. If you have any more suggestions on this I am definitely open to them!

On another topic, one thing that does have me a bit frustrated about this truck is that it has a pretty severe vibration from about 100-120 km/h (roughly 60-70 mph). I have posted on the Ram/Cummins forum about this and it seems like it is a fairly common thing with the 4th gen duallys and it seems like the General tires are to blame for it. I plan on getting them balanced to see if this fixes or at least helps the issue, but did you have any issues with this with your truck? My Ford had perfect Michelin MS2's on it when I traded it and I'm kicking myself a bit for not getting Michelins thrown in on the deal.

Get Chrysler to balance them. I doubt that will help but it's a step u need to do. Then when it still vibrates tell them you want a new set of MS2's or they can have the truck back.

The General POS tires that came on my Dually were 2/3 worn by 25k. Last may at that mileage I was in Vegas and the front end felt strange. One front tire had a big tread separation. So I went do Discount Tire and put on the Michelins. I now have 25K on the new tires and they look barely worn.

Don't spend your money trying to fix this. They know there is a problem, make them fix it!
blofgren
Explorer
May 10, 2014
Cummins12V98 wrote:
Nice setup! Also great to see someone not barely getting enough truck and thinking of the future.

You say the RV is nose high, From the pic it looks like you have at least 8" of clearance. If so drop it down to 6" that is a very safe clearance to tow with.

BTW the grin has not come off my face since Labor Day weekend 2011!

Thanks for your comments. I would love to drop it down but the hitch is as low as it goes and the pin box is as high as it goes so I'm not sure what else I can do with it. I am planning on ordering a MorRyde pin box this year for the camper and am hopeful it has more adjustment in it than the stock pin box does. If you have any more suggestions on this I am definitely open to them!

On another topic, one thing that does have me a bit frustrated about this truck is that it has a pretty severe vibration from about 100-120 km/h (roughly 60-70 mph). I have posted on the Ram/Cummins forum about this and it seems like it is a fairly common thing with the 4th gen duallys and it seems like the General tires are to blame for it. I plan on getting them balanced to see if this fixes or at least helps the issue, but did you have any issues with this with your truck? My Ford had perfect Michelin MS2's on it when I traded it and I'm kicking myself a bit for not getting Michelins thrown in on the deal.
blofgren
Explorer
May 10, 2014
gtsum wrote:
ib516 wrote:

Here's your pic. It didn't show up for me in the OP. :)

Great pic! You have fine taste in rigs and the color too! :) Here's my Max Steel..

Thanks, your truck looks fabulous! I swore I was not going to buy another dark colored truck (my Ford was dark blue) because they are so hard to keep clean but we just loved the Maximum Steel when we saw it. It is very unique in how it looks so different in various light!
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 10, 2014
Nice setup! Also great to see someone not barely getting enough truck and thinking of the future.

You say the RV is nose high, From the pic it looks like you have at least 8" of clearance. If so drop it down to 6" that is a very safe clearance to tow with.

BTW the grin has not come off my face since Labor Day weekend 2011!
gtsum
Explorer
May 10, 2014
ib516 wrote:

Here's your pic. It didn't show up for me in the OP. :)

Great pic! You have fine taste in rigs and the color too! :) Here's my Max Steel..
rtate
Explorer
May 10, 2014
Just returned from our 1st camping trip with our 2014 srw ram 3500. I had been towing my rig with a 2005 srw ran 2500 and just thought I was happy. No comparison particularly when stopping. You will love it.
Perrysburg_Dodg
Explorer
May 10, 2014
ib516 wrote:
Not sure. I just copied the link.

On your photobucket site, click and copy the "direct" link, then click the image icon here and paste it in.

BTW, that's a sweet looking truck!

And don't forget to resize it to 750 X 750 max please! :W :B

And agreed sweet rig you have there!

Something you may not be aware of, but with the Ram manual trans the clutch is a Zero Launch system. This means you give the truck NO fuel as you let out on the clutch! It operates the same as the big boys do.

Don
ib516
Explorer II
May 10, 2014
One of the diesel magazines did an article on a Ram front hub conversion. I think it was diesel power magazine, and I think they used "dyna track" hubs. But I'm going on memory.