Towing: I may have a problem...
Good afternoon all - I first wanted to say I am very new to this entire thing (Camping, towing, etc). I just bought a 2018 Starcraft Autumn Ridge Outfitter 26BHS about 2 months ago, and have brought ...
Forum Discussion
One thing to keep in mind, your truck uses Chrysler's engineered AFT+4 and it doesn't age like typical trans fluid. According to Chrysler the dyes used in ATF+4 may or may not change with age, therefore color can no longer be used as an indicator when determining the health of the fluid. Also as it ages, it doesn't produce the typical burnt smell so you can't tell by smell either. It's pretty difficult to tell if the fluid is any good so it's best to just stick with the maintenance schedule. If the sensors have tested good then I would have the fluid, filter, and spin on filter changed.
Rams came from the factory with a few different transmission cooler options. To figure out which one you have, just count the cooling rows in the cooler. The base cooler had very few rows, something like 8-10 rows. The trucks with the tow package came with coolers that have about 16 rows.
If you're truly overheating then you can upgrade to an even larger cooler. There was a 24 row cooler that was made for the 5.7L 3500's. The radiators used for the 5.7's all had the same mount points, so you could mount the 3500 trans cooler in a 1500. It's quite the beast.
I had an 08' 1500 Hemi that had the same 545RFE transmission as yours. We towed heavy with it for almost 10 years. My truck came with the towing package so I had a 16 row cooler. We never overheated even when pulling in the heat. A 16 row should be enough, but there's a 24 row cooler out there just in case it's not.
Rams came from the factory with a few different transmission cooler options. To figure out which one you have, just count the cooling rows in the cooler. The base cooler had very few rows, something like 8-10 rows. The trucks with the tow package came with coolers that have about 16 rows.
If you're truly overheating then you can upgrade to an even larger cooler. There was a 24 row cooler that was made for the 5.7L 3500's. The radiators used for the 5.7's all had the same mount points, so you could mount the 3500 trans cooler in a 1500. It's quite the beast.
I had an 08' 1500 Hemi that had the same 545RFE transmission as yours. We towed heavy with it for almost 10 years. My truck came with the towing package so I had a 16 row cooler. We never overheated even when pulling in the heat. A 16 row should be enough, but there's a 24 row cooler out there just in case it's not.
