2014 Ram 2500 6.4L Hemi

[e-light]

Just made a deal on a granite 2014 Ram 2500 6.4L Hemi, 4.10 rear end, crew cab. 3250 lbs payload, 15,500 max towing...I pick it up tomorrow. Can't wait!

I've been lurking here for 4 years or so and never posted. I'm trading in my 2013 Toyota Tundra double cab, 4x4, 4.6L with factory tow package. I had installed Firestone air bags and a Prodigy P3 brake controller in the Toyota.

The truck was great for pulling my popup. We recently purchased a new Summerland 2800BHGS, 6300 lbs dry, 8300 lbs max. The Tundra actually pulled it fine. No issues from Lexington to Louisville and the metro area. The platform was very stable, and the motor had to work on hills, but it got the job done just fine. I tow at 60mph and it was able to keep up on the small inclines around here just fine.

The problem was that I was right at the edge of my 7900 lb towing capacity and likely over my max payload once I got the family all loaded in the truck. Now the truck was safe. But I really wanted a HD truck for some of the trips that we had planned.

The new Ram should be PLENTY for my TT. And we'll have plenty of payload left to load up the truck with goodies as well. Looking forward to pulling through the Smokey mountains with this Hemi beast!

Anyone else have this truck? Any comments you'd like to share?

[got_a_real_truc]

Will be going across canada and come back this summer. That will be s 10000km drivd with my 6.4 ram 4:10 gear black out edition
Just purchased a 5 th wheeler this weekend 11500 wet ,going with the 2 kid and the wife . I guess that should be the ultimate test to see if that truck is worth it or if i need to get a diesel half way thrue 🙂
I will let you guy know how it gonna turn out

[ib516]

Both the trucks (mine and friends) are Laramies. The trim levels go up from there to the Laramie Longhorn and the Limited. That said, the only options I didn't get were the CD Player, RamBoxes, and the rear air suspension. Otherwise, my truck has every option available.

I have heated and cooled front leather seats, sunroof, power driver and passenger seats, sunroof, auto dimming headlights, rain sensing wipers, heated rear seats, spray in bed liner, etc. It all adds weight.

[transamz9]

Gonecamping444 wrote:
Would that be a Tradesmen or what brand Ram,Thanks

I believe his truck is a Laramie Limited.

[Gonecamping444]

Would that be a Tradesmen or what brand Ram,Thanks

[ib516]

mikeysotp wrote:

Aren't you WAY over on the pin weight/payload? How is the suspension handling that?

Here's my truck (100% stock 2014 RAM 2500 Hemi) hitched to a friends 14,000# 5er than was 41' long and had 4 slides. I have just over 3000# payload. It handled it just fine on my test pulls.

[mikeysotp]

horsepower488 wrote:
I've had my 2014 Ram 2500 for about 6 weeks now. Its an outdoorsman crew long bed with the 6.4 and 4.10 rears. Its awesome. I pull a Sandpiper 365SAQ which is 12600 empty and 14000 lbs. loaded. It does great. Its the first vehicle I felt comfortable using the cruise control in, because it does a great job of shifting and holding the gears, so you dont get all the fuss. The computer MPG will lie to you so dont go by that. 7mpg pulling the 5er, 9mpg pulling other trailers, 12mpg city and 15mpg highway. And plenty of power.

Aren't you WAY over on the pin weight/payload? How is the suspension handling that?

[Hannibal]

I've towed well over my GCWR around the southeast with several trucks. But well within the GCWR of the same truck with more engine and gear reduction so braking and handling was and is within my trucks capabilities.

[ib516]

I'm Rick James wrote:

ib516 wrote:
Tow rating on the 3.73 equipped trucks is 12xxx, and 4.10s gets you 3000# more for 15xxx depending on cab style, 2wd, 4wd etc. I believe a 2wd stripper with 4.10s can get you into the 16000 range.

So the poster above is towing 1k to 5k over his truck's ratings?

Appears so.

[I_m_Rick_James]

royspocketpc wrote:
Hello group... i now have 4k miles on my 3500 6.4. Unlike you guys i have good and bad to report. I am currently in California along the coast towing 17k or so (gooseneck ... no worries!). at 200-500 over sea level the truck feels STRONG and it lives in 5th gear unless it hits a hill at which it drops to a nice quiet 4th and chugs right up. At over 2-3k of altitude the power loss is VERY noticeable. going on i40 in AZ from about 4000 ft to 7300 at williams az the truck had to downshift to 2nd gear ALOT. It would stay at the cruise control set 55 most of the time but on the 6-7 percent grades it had to go to second gear at around 40-45 MPH. Overall fuel economy from tx to CA was 9.2 on the display and 8.8 hand calculated. The highs (besides 99 on the display going downhill) were in the flats in TX and CA at around 12 MPG at 60 MPH and the lows were 2-3 going up the 6-7 Percent grades on I40 in AZ. I would consider this a great personal vehicle but i could not use it full time for my business as the fuel range is 200-280 miles altitude dependent towing 17k. The Cummins is 300-350 on the same size tank plus no loss of speed on the uphills so far. I will say that the downhill engine braking was impressive! i had the cruise set at 55 and when it hit 60 it downshifted down to 2nd gear from 5th and held it until the speed hit 55 then it would upshift only when throttle input was needed to keep 55. Again... impressed with this truck for personal use. I could not endorse it for business as ram is trying to pass it for. I will say i am VERY impressed with unloaded MPG... i am right around 20-25 in mix driving. i am about 85% towing mileage so far but the few times i have unhooked the display is averaging around 25! and the range indicator changes accordingly. I think 450-500 is possible with the stock tank at 60MPH. I have to drive back to TX from CA this week with hopefully less weight and ill see how it does. I was at 24k total weight truck and trailer. Not sure how much the truck weights but estimating 7k i was towing a bit over 17k. Again... only had an issue with speed keeping on 5-7% hills on the interstate. I will say that on one backroad i got down to 38 but the hill probably had a 10-12% incline (backroads are not mandated to 7% or less!) and the truck lane had trucks going 5-15MPH so it was not the slowest by any measure. Not to mention lots of broke down vehicles and i was NOT one so that alone made me a happy camper!

HOLY WALL OF TEXT!!!

[I_m_Rick_James]

ib516 wrote:
Tow rating on the 3.73 equipped trucks is 12xxx, and 4.10s gets you 3000# more for 15xxx depending on cab style, 2wd, 4wd etc. I believe a 2wd stripper with 4.10s can get you into the 16000 range.

So the poster above is towing 1k to 5k over his truck's ratings?

[ib516]

Tow rating on the 3.73 equipped trucks is 12xxx, and 4.10s gets you 3000# more for 15xxx depending on cab style, 2wd, 4wd etc. I believe a 2wd stripper with 4.10s can get you into the 16000 range.

[BurbMan]

good post and thanks for sharing that info. What is the tow rating on the truck? 17k sounds a bit heavy....i am still thinking it will do the job for my 32' TT that weighs exactly half as much...although an aftermarket turbo may be whats needed at altitude....

[royspocketpc]

Hello group... i now have 4k miles on my 3500 6.4. Unlike you guys i have good and bad to report. I am currently in California along the coast towing 17k or so (gooseneck ... no worries!). at 200-500 over sea level the truck feels STRONG and it lives in 5th gear unless it hits a hill at which it drops to a nice quiet 4th and chugs right up. At over 2-3k of altitude the power loss is VERY noticeable. going on i40 in AZ from about 4000 ft to 7300 at williams az the truck had to downshift to 2nd gear ALOT. It would stay at the cruise control set 55 most of the time but on the 6-7 percent grades it had to go to second gear at around 40-45 MPH. Overall fuel economy from tx to CA was 9.2 on the display and 8.8 hand calculated. The highs (besides 99 on the display going downhill) were in the flats in TX and CA at around 12 MPG at 60 MPH and the lows were 2-3 going up the 6-7 Percent grades on I40 in AZ. I would consider this a great personal vehicle but i could not use it full time for my business as the fuel range is 200-280 miles altitude dependent towing 17k. The Cummins is 300-350 on the same size tank plus no loss of speed on the uphills so far. I will say that the downhill engine braking was impressive! i had the cruise set at 55 and when it hit 60 it downshifted down to 2nd gear from 5th and held it until the speed hit 55 then it would upshift only when throttle input was needed to keep 55. Again... impressed with this truck for personal use. I could not endorse it for business as ram is trying to pass it for. I will say i am VERY impressed with unloaded MPG... i am right around 20-25 in mix driving. i am about 85% towing mileage so far but the few times i have unhooked the display is averaging around 25! and the range indicator changes accordingly. I think 450-500 is possible with the stock tank at 60MPH. I have to drive back to TX from CA this week with hopefully less weight and ill see how it does. I was at 24k total weight truck and trailer. Not sure how much the truck weights but estimating 7k i was towing a bit over 17k. Again... only had an issue with speed keeping on 5-7% hills on the interstate. I will say that on one backroad i got down to 38 but the hill probably had a 10-12% incline (backroads are not mandated to 7% or less!) and the truck lane had trucks going 5-15MPH so it was not the slowest by any measure. Not to mention lots of broke down vehicles and i was NOT one so that alone made me a happy camper!

[royspocketpc]

Hello group... i now have 4k miles on my 3500 6.4. Unlike you guys i have good and bad to report. I am currently in California along the coast towing 17k or so (gooseneck ... no worries!). at 200-500 over sea level the truck feels STRONG and it lives in 5th gear unless it hits a hill at which it drops to a nice quiet 4th and chugs right up. At over 2-3k of altitude the power loss is VERY noticeable. going on i40 in AZ from about 4000 ft to 7300 at williams az the truck had to downshift to 2nd gear ALOT. It would stay at the cruise control set 55 most of the time but on the 6-7 percent grades it had to go to second gear at around 40-45 MPH. Overall fuel economy from tx to CA was 9.2 on the display and 8.8 hand calculated. The highs (besides 99 on the display going downhill) were in the flats in TX and CA at around 12 MPG at 60 MPH and the lows were 2-3 going up the 6-7 Percent grades on I40 in AZ. I would consider this a great personal vehicle but i could not use it full time for my business as the fuel range is 200-280 miles altitude dependent towing 17k. The Cummins is 300-350 on the same size tank plus no loss of speed on the uphills so far. I will say that the downhill engine braking was impressive! i had the cruise set at 55 and when it hit 60 it downshifted down to 2nd gear from 5th and held it until the speed hit 55 then it would upshift only when throttle input was needed to keep 55. Again... impressed with this truck for personal use. I could not endorse it for business as ram is trying to pass it for. I will say i am VERY impressed with unloaded MPG... i am right around 20-25 in mix driving. i am about 85% towing mileage so far but the few times i have unhooked the display is averaging around 25! and the range indicator changes accordingly. I think 450-500 is possible with the stock tank at 60MPH. I have to drive back to TX from CA this week with hopefully less weight and ill see how it does. I was at 24k total weight truck and trailer. Not sure how much the truck weights but estimating 7k i was towing a bit over 17k. Again... only had an issue with speed keeping on 5-7% hills on the interstate. I will say that on one backroad i got down to 38 but the hill probably had a 10-12% incline (backroads are not mandated to 7% or less!) and the truck lane had trucks going 5-15MPH so it was not the slowest by any measure. Not to mention lots of broke down vehicles and i was NOT one so that alone made me a happy camper!