dreeder wrote:
My next truck is most likely going to be a Ram with the 6.4. With that said, this response (not directed at you OP but this excuse used by Dodge in general) holds no water for me. I take this excuse a couple of different ways.
1.) Ford and Chevy are on the verge of exploding parts because they seem to be putting the drivetrains performance to the ground when needed.
2.) Ford and Chevy are actually much better towing platforms because they are durable enough to put the power down in a reliable manner under extreme conditions while Ram's drivetrain isn't up to the task of handling the same extreme conditions, forcing them to manipulate the drivetrain in order to save it from itself.
Now I don't believe that 1 or 2 are the reasons, I think Ram just copped out by claiming they did this for longevity instead of doing it the right way and correcting the problem.
I do live in Colorado and drive that section of 70 often so it does matter a bit to me and like others pointed out, that isn't the only taxing section of roadway in this country.
With experience working for various manufacturers I can tell you why they probably did and the reason is why all manufacturers do things like this, which is to save or make them money. Ram offered (at the time of the gauntlet) a 100k powertrain warranty and also still offer an optional lifetime warranty which is rather popular from what I have seen. Now Ram, just like all manufacturers, is going to stack the deck in their favor to ensure they will pay out as little as possible during these "lifetime" warranties and are betting on the owner trading or selling the vehicle before major failures which will void the lifetime warranty. How do they do this? By programming "nannies" into the vehicle to decrease the chances of failures even if it hinders normal use of the vehicle for it's intended purpose.
I can tell you that the high revs that the Ford and GM trucks did up that hill was not hurting the powertrain as long as the oil, coolant, and trans oil were all within the specs that they are rated to handle. If I were going to be doing these kind of pulls a lot in those trucks then I would PM my vehicles under the "severe" usage. These engines can take the abuse as long as the fluids are changed when they need to be. Hell, we used to run engines at wide open throttle for days on end and they still passed wear tests so the occasional 5,000 rpm for a few thousand miles of the engines whole life is not going to kill it. Yes, it will wear faster, but not as to the exaggerations that some make it out to be. Afterall, even with less engine torque the Ford and GM HD gassers engines are putting more torque to the ground than the 6.4L in just about every gear due to torque multiplication in their transmissions.
