Long Uphill Pull

[Fliposo]

Will be pulling Berthoud pass in Colorado soon. It's a fairly long pull with some tight U-turns. Truck is an '08 Dodge Ram 1500 QC, 5.7 Hemi..auto trans with T/H mode. TT is an '09 Jayco 23FB, weight 7000#. What would be the best gear to use? Thanks

[Fliposo]

Thanks for the input. Flip

[coolbreeze01]

Pick a gear that makes your engine happy. Not lugging or revving at red-line. The drive-train will run cooler if you rev enough to move air with the fan and circulate water. I have a 6-speed and use all 6 depending on conditions. Have fun.

[BarneyS]

I would pick a gear that lets you pull with a steady speed with the transmission locked up. Try to use the same gear or even lower when going back down.

[lanerd]

When I had my truck and TT, my truck didn't have the T/H feature so I would do as smkettner said and keep the rpms up around max torque... in my truck that was around 3600 rpms. In my experience, it was the trans temp that I really had to watch rather than the engine's.

Ron

[shum02]

Put it in T/H and let the truck decide.

[time2roll]

Use the gear that keeps you up close to 4000 rpm.
Use the lever to minimize hunting, especially at full throttle.

[APT]

Put the transmission in drive (overdrive off) and use tow/haul mode. I suspect the truck's computers will select second gear uphill, which means you should also probably use 2nd gear down for the engine compression braking.