2014 Ram 2500 6.4L Tow Review

[e-light]

Today I took my new Ram for its longest tow to date, a 350 mile trek through Ky and and the Smokey Mountains ending the day in NC. This was a good test with light to heavy rain all day, low visabilty and lots of elevation and long sweeping turns at grade. Overall the Ram performed amazingly.

The cargo was my 8000 lb travel trailer, my family of four and my 60 lb pit bull. The 6.4L hemi handled the workload with ease. On flats I was able to run 60-65 at around 2000 rpms in 5th gear. On slight grades 4th gear and 2500-3000 rpms did the trick easily. On severe grades 3rd gear at 3000-4200 rpms was the ticket. 99% of the time the truck stayed between 1900 and 2500 rpms. The low rpm torque is evident, especially coming from a Tundra that loved to rev.

The transmission is also great. In tow mode it holds gears perfectly up grade and downsifts to utilize engine braking on the way down. On severe grades I used the manual mode to hold gears up and down the slopes. I rarely had to use the brakes, only when slower vehicles left me pinned in a lane. And this was all the way through I40 and the Smokey Mountains to Ashville. Quite a workout for sure. The Ram handled it with ease.

Temperatures stayed consistent all through the trip. Coolant running 195-210, oil temp 195-215, trans temp stayed at 160-165.

I am extremely happy with my purchase. I love my truck.

A shot at the campground this evening.

[parkersdad]

e-light wrote:

mowin wrote:

e-light wrote:

Buck50HD wrote:

e-light wrote:

LimogesMan wrote:
This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for reading...we all love talkin' trucks thats for sure 🙂

Just did another test for the guy that asked how the fuel mileage would be while lightly loaded. Had to pickup a scoop (cubic yard) of mulch for the house today. Family of four in tote and 800-1000 lbs of mulch and you really couldn't tell it was in there. About a 7 mile highway ride home showed normal economy numbers on the EVIC, just like normal highway driving at 60 mph (prob around 19 mpg average in my HILLY area, hills limit the amount of time MDS can run). I turned on tow/haul...even though it probably didn't need it, just to see what it would do economy would do. Looks like it averaged about 16 mpg @ 60 mph with tow/haul engaged.

To the guy that asked, with a 700 lb load, you wouldn't need tow/haul in the flats. You would get a lot of MDS use at 60 mph and you would get good fuel economy. Prob 17-20 on highways and 14-16 city. Light foot as always!

The 6.4 is starting to sound like the prius of gas 3/4 tons around here. I'm skeptical and the forums seem to tell a different story. But, it doesn't seem to do any worse than the other gas options which is promising.

Its all in how you drive it. If you are zipping around town in city traffic with quick starts and stops you are going to see 9-10 mpg easy. If you pay attention to your right foot and take it easy and drive the posted limits you can get some good numbers for a truck like this.

Here is my EVIC after 100 miles of mixed driving including some ligbt hauling that I me tioned earlier.

Its a disease called "Hemi Foot". Its hard to overcome....

I am finding this out more and more 🙂

My last tank of almost all city driving was 13.8 mpg. Still not bad for a big truck...man I love this truck though. No buyers remorse here, Id buy this truck again in a second! In fact I'd prob even get more options...starting to think I will never need a Cummins, actually I know Ill never NEED a Cummins, but my want is growing less and less.

Just don't drive a Cummins and you will be ok. I drove one and traded my gas 2500.

[e-light]

mowin wrote:

e-light wrote:

Buck50HD wrote:

e-light wrote:

LimogesMan wrote:
This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for reading...we all love talkin' trucks thats for sure 🙂

Just did another test for the guy that asked how the fuel mileage would be while lightly loaded. Had to pickup a scoop (cubic yard) of mulch for the house today. Family of four in tote and 800-1000 lbs of mulch and you really couldn't tell it was in there. About a 7 mile highway ride home showed normal economy numbers on the EVIC, just like normal highway driving at 60 mph (prob around 19 mpg average in my HILLY area, hills limit the amount of time MDS can run). I turned on tow/haul...even though it probably didn't need it, just to see what it would do economy would do. Looks like it averaged about 16 mpg @ 60 mph with tow/haul engaged.

To the guy that asked, with a 700 lb load, you wouldn't need tow/haul in the flats. You would get a lot of MDS use at 60 mph and you would get good fuel economy. Prob 17-20 on highways and 14-16 city. Light foot as always!

The 6.4 is starting to sound like the prius of gas 3/4 tons around here. I'm skeptical and the forums seem to tell a different story. But, it doesn't seem to do any worse than the other gas options which is promising.

Its all in how you drive it. If you are zipping around town in city traffic with quick starts and stops you are going to see 9-10 mpg easy. If you pay attention to your right foot and take it easy and drive the posted limits you can get some good numbers for a truck like this.

Here is my EVIC after 100 miles of mixed driving including some ligbt hauling that I me tioned earlier.

Its a disease called "Hemi Foot". Its hard to overcome....

I am finding this out more and more 🙂

My last tank of almost all city driving was 13.8 mpg. Still not bad for a big truck...man I love this truck though. No buyers remorse here, Id buy this truck again in a second! In fact I'd prob even get more options...starting to think I will never need a Cummins, actually I know Ill never NEED a Cummins, but my want is growing less and less.

[Buck50HD]

childofthewind wrote:

Buck50HD wrote:
Actually, I had to verify my assumption so I ran the numbers on the 6.4 with 4.10's.

3rd gear = 3700RPM @ ~295HP (6.2 with 3.73 can make 260 in 3rd; 6.2 with 4.30's would be able to make 310HP)
2nd gear = 4830RPM @ ~385HP

So, the 6.4 with 4.10's would be in 2nd gear at 4800RPM to get 20,000 lb up a 6% grade at 60MPH.

Interesting, how are you calculating the HP? I haven't seen any power/torque curves for the 6.4L Hemi. I would love to get data / calculator for that.

It's possible to estimate curves from the advertised HP and TQ and RPM #'s. I also was unable to find a real chart. Can't even find a dyno run, although those inertia based dynos used at most places are not very accurate, particularly for big trucks with a lot of driveline inertia. For towing, the steady-state numbers are far more meaningful since the accel rates are low.

[mowin]

e-light wrote:

Buck50HD wrote:

e-light wrote:

LimogesMan wrote:
This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for reading...we all love talkin' trucks thats for sure 🙂

Just did another test for the guy that asked how the fuel mileage would be while lightly loaded. Had to pickup a scoop (cubic yard) of mulch for the house today. Family of four in tote and 800-1000 lbs of mulch and you really couldn't tell it was in there. About a 7 mile highway ride home showed normal economy numbers on the EVIC, just like normal highway driving at 60 mph (prob around 19 mpg average in my HILLY area, hills limit the amount of time MDS can run). I turned on tow/haul...even though it probably didn't need it, just to see what it would do economy would do. Looks like it averaged about 16 mpg @ 60 mph with tow/haul engaged.

To the guy that asked, with a 700 lb load, you wouldn't need tow/haul in the flats. You would get a lot of MDS use at 60 mph and you would get good fuel economy. Prob 17-20 on highways and 14-16 city. Light foot as always!

The 6.4 is starting to sound like the prius of gas 3/4 tons around here. I'm skeptical and the forums seem to tell a different story. But, it doesn't seem to do any worse than the other gas options which is promising.

Its all in how you drive it. If you are zipping around town in city traffic with quick starts and stops you are going to see 9-10 mpg easy. If you pay attention to your right foot and take it easy and drive the posted limits you can get some good numbers for a truck like this.

Here is my EVIC after 100 miles of mixed driving including some ligbt hauling that I me tioned earlier.

Its a disease called "Hemi Foot". Its hard to overcome....

[childofthewind]

Buck50HD wrote:
Actually, I had to verify my assumption so I ran the numbers on the 6.4 with 4.10's.

3rd gear = 3700RPM @ ~295HP (6.2 with 3.73 can make 260 in 3rd; 6.2 with 4.30's would be able to make 310HP)
2nd gear = 4830RPM @ ~385HP

So, the 6.4 with 4.10's would be in 2nd gear at 4800RPM to get 20,000 lb up a 6% grade at 60MPH.

Interesting, how are you calculating the HP? I haven't seen any power/torque curves for the 6.4L Hemi. I would love to get data / calculator for that.

[e-light]

Buck50HD wrote:

e-light wrote:

LimogesMan wrote:
This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for reading...we all love talkin' trucks thats for sure 🙂

Just did another test for the guy that asked how the fuel mileage would be while lightly loaded. Had to pickup a scoop (cubic yard) of mulch for the house today. Family of four in tote and 800-1000 lbs of mulch and you really couldn't tell it was in there. About a 7 mile highway ride home showed normal economy numbers on the EVIC, just like normal highway driving at 60 mph (prob around 19 mpg average in my HILLY area, hills limit the amount of time MDS can run). I turned on tow/haul...even though it probably didn't need it, just to see what it would do economy would do. Looks like it averaged about 16 mpg @ 60 mph with tow/haul engaged.

To the guy that asked, with a 700 lb load, you wouldn't need tow/haul in the flats. You would get a lot of MDS use at 60 mph and you would get good fuel economy. Prob 17-20 on highways and 14-16 city. Light foot as always!

The 6.4 is starting to sound like the prius of gas 3/4 tons around here. I'm skeptical and the forums seem to tell a different story. But, it doesn't seem to do any worse than the other gas options which is promising.

Its all in how you drive it. If you are zipping around town in city traffic with quick starts and stops you are going to see 9-10 mpg easy. If you pay attention to your right foot and take it easy and drive the posted limits you can get some good numbers for a truck like this.

Here is my EVIC after 100 miles of mixed driving including some ligbt hauling that I me tioned earlier.

[Buck50HD]

e-light wrote:

LimogesMan wrote:
This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for reading...we all love talkin' trucks thats for sure 🙂

Just did another test for the guy that asked how the fuel mileage would be while lightly loaded. Had to pickup a scoop (cubic yard) of mulch for the house today. Family of four in tote and 800-1000 lbs of mulch and you really couldn't tell it was in there. About a 7 mile highway ride home showed normal economy numbers on the EVIC, just like normal highway driving at 60 mph (prob around 19 mpg average in my HILLY area, hills limit the amount of time MDS can run). I turned on tow/haul...even though it probably didn't need it, just to see what it would do economy would do. Looks like it averaged about 16 mpg @ 60 mph with tow/haul engaged.

To the guy that asked, with a 700 lb load, you wouldn't need tow/haul in the flats. You would get a lot of MDS use at 60 mph and you would get good fuel economy. Prob 17-20 on highways and 14-16 city. Light foot as always!

The 6.4 is starting to sound like the prius of gas 3/4 tons around here. I'm skeptical and the forums seem to tell a different story. But, it doesn't seem to do any worse than the other gas options which is promising.

[e-light]

LimogesMan wrote:
This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

Thanks for reading...we all love talkin' trucks thats for sure 🙂

Just did another test for the guy that asked how the fuel mileage would be while lightly loaded. Had to pickup a scoop (cubic yard) of mulch for the house today. Family of four in tote and 800-1000 lbs of mulch and you really couldn't tell it was in there. About a 7 mile highway ride home showed normal economy numbers on the EVIC, just like normal highway driving at 60 mph (prob around 19 mpg average in my HILLY area, hills limit the amount of time MDS can run). I turned on tow/haul...even though it probably didn't need it, just to see what it would do economy would do. Looks like it averaged about 16 mpg @ 60 mph with tow/haul engaged.

To the guy that asked, with a 700 lb load, you wouldn't need tow/haul in the flats. You would get a lot of MDS use at 60 mph and you would get good fuel economy. Prob 17-20 on highways and 14-16 city. Light foot as always!

[LimogesMan]

This was a great read and that's what keeps me coming back to RV.net

Thanks everyone.

[e-light]

Hank McMauser wrote:
Just wanted to log in & let you all know I'm really enjoying this thread. Due to other car payments andstudent loans I'm about 5 years away from a new truck I'm really impressed with the new 2500 6.4 he I, and hope its still doing as well in 2019 when I can get one.

It's a great truck Hank...the Hemi is a pretty solid motor and this version has some neat technology to increase service life, like oil injection in the pistons to keep things cool, sodium filled valves, plenty of cooling jackets around the pistons, cast iron block, etc. Of course it is new so like the guy above says by 2019 all the bugs will have been worked out.

Or more likely they will have developed engines that make the same or more power and use less fuel.

[Dave_H_M]

Hank McMauser wrote:
Just wanted to log in & let you all know I'm really enjoying this thread. Due to other car payments andstudent loans I'm about 5 years away from a new truck I'm really impressed with the new 2500 6.4 he I, and hope its still doing as well in 2019 when I can get one.

You got the best of both world's Hank. By they it will have proven itself or fallen by the wayside.

[Hank_McMauser]

Just wanted to log in & let you all know I'm really enjoying this thread. Due to other car payments andstudent loans I'm about 5 years away from a new truck I'm really impressed with the new 2500 6.4 he I, and hope its still doing as well in 2019 when I can get one.

[e-light]

mowin wrote:

e-light wrote:

mowin wrote:

childofthewind wrote:

mowin wrote:
I opted for the 3.73's in my 3500 SRW. Payload is the same as 4.10's.
And I dont plan on towing anymore than the 12700 its rated for.
If you think you might need the extra 3000lbs towing, then definitely get the 4.10's. I was more interested in the MPG's so 3.73 made sense for me.

Also if you are looking at a 3500 Mega cab, be aware they are detuned to 370 hp from 410. Also the 3500's have the leaf spring suspension not the coil. Good luck in your search.

Thanks. So how you are liking the 6.4L / 3.73?
Have you had a chance to pull with it yet?

Did a short pull with m nephews mini excavator (12k total). The 3.73 handled it well. I also pulled my JD tractor which scales in around 7500lbs total, handles that with ease. I left my 11,000 lb tt on site this winter, so I wont be towing that till fall.

Thats awesome to hear! Thanks for the report...

The 3.73 would have prob been better for me. But I just came out of a truck that wasnt quite enough. I wanted to buy more than I needed this time...in case the 5er bug hits me....and believe me now that I have the truck its starting to hit me

I here ya on the 5er bug... DW and I stoped at the rv dealer for some supplies, and we walked around the lot checking out the 5er's. But DW and I got our Keystone Hornet 38 bhds last yr, and its going to be a few yrs before were ready for a change. By that time, it'll be time for a new truck.

Ha! You and I think alike...I plan to keep this truck about 5 yrs and prob my tt the same as well. My next rig will be a decked out loaded ram cummins though, that much im sure of.

[mowin]

e-light wrote:

mowin wrote:

childofthewind wrote:

mowin wrote:
I opted for the 3.73's in my 3500 SRW. Payload is the same as 4.10's.
And I dont plan on towing anymore than the 12700 its rated for.
If you think you might need the extra 3000lbs towing, then definitely get the 4.10's. I was more interested in the MPG's so 3.73 made sense for me.

Also if you are looking at a 3500 Mega cab, be aware they are detuned to 370 hp from 410. Also the 3500's have the leaf spring suspension not the coil. Good luck in your search.

Thanks. So how you are liking the 6.4L / 3.73?
Have you had a chance to pull with it yet?

Did a short pull with m nephews mini excavator (12k total). The 3.73 handled it well. I also pulled my JD tractor which scales in around 7500lbs total, handles that with ease. I left my 11,000 lb tt on site this winter, so I wont be towing that till fall.

Thats awesome to hear! Thanks for the report...

The 3.73 would have prob been better for me. But I just came out of a truck that wasnt quite enough. I wanted to buy more than I needed this time...in case the 5er bug hits me....and believe me now that I have the truck its starting to hit me

I here ya on the 5er bug... DW and I stoped at the rv dealer for some supplies, and we walked around the lot checking out the 5er's. But DW and I got our Keystone Hornet 38 bhds last yr, and its going to be a few yrs before were ready for a change. By that time, it'll be time for a new truck.

[e-light]

mowin wrote:

childofthewind wrote:

mowin wrote:
I opted for the 3.73's in my 3500 SRW. Payload is the same as 4.10's.
And I dont plan on towing anymore than the 12700 its rated for.
If you think you might need the extra 3000lbs towing, then definitely get the 4.10's. I was more interested in the MPG's so 3.73 made sense for me.

Also if you are looking at a 3500 Mega cab, be aware they are detuned to 370 hp from 410. Also the 3500's have the leaf spring suspension not the coil. Good luck in your search.

Thanks. So how you are liking the 6.4L / 3.73?
Have you had a chance to pull with it yet?

Did a short pull with my nephews mini excavator (12k total). The 3.73 handled it well. I also pulled my JD tractor which scales in around 7500lbs total, handles that with ease. I left my 11,000 lb tt on site this winter, so I wont be towing that till fall.

Thats awesome to hear! Thanks for the report...

The 3.73 would have prob been better for me. But I just came out of a truck that wasnt quite enough. I wanted to buy more than I needed this time...in case the 5er bug hits me....and believe me now that I have the truck its starting to hit me