6.4 Dodge???

[jabres]

I know this has probably been posted a hundred times, but I am looking for some reviews/ real life experiences with the 6.4 Dodge motor.

I currently have a 2007 GMC 2500 6.0 gas in my landscaping/camping hauling fleet. I am looking to add another truck this time around, but thinking about trying out a Dodge 3500 with 6.4.
My GMC 2500HD 6.0 pulls camper perfect (7500#s) but when pulling my dump trailer its nothing to haul 11-12k pounds with my GMC. It does fine as I do have the 4.10 rear end, but at times struggles when I am approaching 12k or more. I am wanting to stay away from a diesel, so just wanting reviews on how much people are pulling with the 6.4's. Are they easy to work on? Easy to change belts? Plugs and Wires?
Lastly, I am looking to add an aluminum dump bet insert into the truck, and I believe it would work great with this combo

[kirkl]

I have a 2017 6.4 2500 3.73 longbed and just pulled my 24ft TT on the trucks first long trip with it which probably weighs about 7500 when loaded and it pulled it great. There was a couple good hills where it ran at 4500 rpm but it kept me at speed.
A couple times i was using the manual shift to lock it out of higher gears if I was climbing a hill and it was in a gear that it liked. I got about 9.7 pulling it. For only pulling a trailer a few times a year this truck does perfect for what I need it for.
When I retire in 14-15 years I will go back to a diesel again as we will likely travel alot more.

[Wills6_4_Hemi]

I have a 2016 3500 DRW CC LB 6.4 and love it. it has the 3;73 gears,if I had ordered it I would have got the 4:10's. I tow a 8500 lb TT and put the golf cart in the bed. it tows great. I can get 16.4 mpg empty and 9.6 towing on flat land. I am sure it would be far less in the mountains. The oil is easy to find and the plugs will be changed at the shop when needed. The truck is the best I have ever owned and I have had many. JMHO. Good Luck. BTW you can change the gears manually if you feel the need.

[Grodyman]

Just got a towing report from my father pulling a 32' Wildcat 5th wheel up to Shaver lake in Ca. Elevation 5600ft. (Ca Hwy 168).

Said that with his 6.4 Hemi/4.10 geared 3500 SRW he was in second gear struggling up the hill at 30mph max and could go no faster (he said he suspected it wad really in 1st).

Absolutely pathetic and unacceptable. I never thought that truck would be that weak. That Ike gauntlet video is true, but at half the elevation it seems. He is pulling 11000 lbs max.

I just read that there is about 11 mile stretch of 7% grade, but below 5600 feet. The 6.4 Ram can't handle that above 30mph towing a 11000lb fiver above 30 MPH.

The Ram gasser transmission and programming must really suck hard.

Gman

[mowin]

I've owned both the GM 6.0 w 3:73 and Ram 6.4 with same gears.

I tow a landscape trailer every day during the spring and summer. With two zturns and required gear in the bed. The GM, it can't even come close to my 6.4.

IMHO, the GM 6.0 is a solid motor, but underpowered.
As far as diesel, my stop and go slower speed driving reaked havoc with my diesels. Didn't feel like taking them for a "run" to clean them out after working all day. So the gasser made more sense for me.

I tow a 11k 5er with my 6.4. I take my time and have no complaints.
In fact, I liked my 2014 so much, I got a new one in March.

Towing my mowing rig around town, I'm getting 10-11 mpg. 5er, 8-9. Unloaded highway, 17-19 depending on speed.

[garyp4951]

I had truck problems in Cheyenne, and everyone said do not go to Cheyenne, or Denver, but that Fort Collins had a good dealer.
Its pretty bad bad when all the locals won't use these dealers, so I went to a local shop, and clutch fan fixed in 1 hr.

[Fixed_Sight_Tra]

Grit dog wrote:

Fixed Sight Training wrote:
I have a '16 Ram 2500 6.4 hemi w 7k miles.

When it's running I get 12.5 MPG empty and 9 pulling the camper.

I took it in at 4k miles when a check engine light came on. Took them a week to fix the tranny and the day after I got it back the check engine light came back on and it got stuck in 4th gear. It took the dealership three weeks to get it in and another three weeks to rebuild the tranny.

Two months later the engine is running rough and very loud and the check engine light has come on again. I made an appt when it started running rough but they are over two weeks out before they will even look at it.

Luckily I bought the extended warrenty but I still want to dump this POS and buy a Ford. And I know that anyone can build a lemon but the chrysler dealerships in the Denver area truly don't seem to give a ****.

Sounds like u got a turd. And btw if it's Christopher Dodge, they can suck my _____! They're horrible.

I tried Larry H Miller and they were pretty useless. Back to back mechanics saying different things. This dealership is Medved in Castle rock. I really havn't been impressed but I called Chrysler and started talking about returning or getting a replacement truck. They say they will call me back in one to three business days. We'll see.

[Grit_dog]

Fixed Sight Training wrote:
I have a '16 Ram 2500 6.4 hemi w 7k miles.

When it's running I get 12.5 MPG empty and 9 pulling the camper.

I took it in at 4k miles when a check engine light came on. Took them a week to fix the tranny and the day after I got it back the check engine light came back on and it got stuck in 4th gear. It took the dealership three weeks to get it in and another three weeks to rebuild the tranny.

Two months later the engine is running rough and very loud and the check engine light has come on again. I made an appt when it started running rough but they are over two weeks out before they will even look at it.

Luckily I bought the extended warrenty but I still want to dump this POS and buy a Ford. And I know that anyone can build a lemon but the chrysler dealerships in the Denver area truly don't seem to give a ****.

Sounds like u got a turd. And btw if it's Christopher Dodge, they can suck my _____! They're horrible.

[Bionic_Man]

Fixed Sight Training wrote:
I have a '16 Ram 2500 6.4 hemi w 7k miles.

When it's running I get 12.5 MPG empty and 9 pulling the camper.

I took it in at 4k miles when a check engine light came on. Took them a week to fix the tranny and the day after I got it back the check engine light came back on and it got stuck in 4th gear. It took the dealership three weeks to get it in and another three weeks to rebuild the tranny.

Two months later the engine is running rough and very loud and the check engine light has come on again. I made an appt when it started running rough but they are over two weeks out before they will even look at it.

Luckily I bought the extended warrenty but I still want to dump this POS and buy a Ford. And I know that anyone can build a lemon but the chrysler dealerships in the Denver area truly don't seem to give a ****.

Ive said it before. You need to find a different dealership. My RAM has needed very little in way of service but I have never had to wait to get it into Christopher.

[Fixed_Sight_Tra]

I have a '16 Ram 2500 6.4 hemi w 7k miles.

When it's running I get 12.5 MPG empty and 9 pulling the camper.

I took it in at 4k miles when a check engine light came on. Took them a week to fix the tranny and the day after I got it back the check engine light came back on and it got stuck in 4th gear. It took the dealership three weeks to get it in and another three weeks to rebuild the tranny.

Two months later the engine is running rough and very loud and the check engine light has come on again. I made an appt when it started running rough but they are over two weeks out before they will even look at it.

Luckily I bought the extended warrenty but I still want to dump this POS and buy a Ford. And I know that anyone can build a lemon but the chrysler dealerships in the Denver area truly don't seem to give a ****.

[RoyJ]

I've said this a million times already, but Dodge REALLY need to put the 8HP90 ZF based 8 speed into the 2500 Hemi!

In 2009, the Ram 1500 with its 390 was beat by every truck, save for the ancient 305 hp Titan, in towing tests. In 2014, when they shoved in the 8HP70, it absolutely cleaned up, beating even the 3.5 Ecoboost in an uphill towing test @ pickuptrucks.com

[skidooman93]

kzspree320 wrote:
As an owner of the 2016 Ram 2500 with 6.4 hemi and 4.10, I can tell you first hand that the gearing issue is a big part of the problem. Let's take a look at the Chevy vs Ram gearing:
Chevy Ram
1st gear 4.03:1 3.23:1
2nd gear 2.36:1 1.84:1
3rd gear 1.53:1 1.41:1
4th gear 1.15:1 1.00:1
5th gear .85:1 .82:1
6th gear .67:1 .63:1

So the Ram has more torque but the gearing is much higher (lower numbers) in 1st thru 4th gears. While the Ram has enough power at lower altitudes to overcome this higher gearing, when you take away 30 percent of the power on the Ike Guantlet, it just can't overcome its gearing deficiency vs the Chevy. The Ram engineers added programming so the trucks rpms would be limited in this situation and protect the truck.

I have always been able to tow at least 65 mph in no less than 3rd gear in areas like TN and KY. Unless you tow regularly at very high altitudes, I would suggest a potential buyer not place too much emphasis on this one test.

I completely agree with this. I just got back from towing my 5th wheel, over 12K camping weight. We did 500 miles to and from the camp site. It towed excellent but was mostly flat land in Minnesota. The hills I did climb it never lacked power. The only problem I ran into was when I got close to home. There is a "Y" turn off of the highway onto the county road that I take for 1/2 mile. The turn is half way up a long steep hill. So you need to slow down make the turn and then continue up the hill. This time I slowed down, made the turn it down shifted to 1st then I eased into the throttle. When the trans shifted to 2nd the rpms were at about 4000, after I shifted to second it gained rpm until about 3k then it fell on its face and slammed into first, I stayed in first for a about another 10 seconds until i was starting to crest the hill. It is a short hill. But the huge gap between 1st and 2nd bit me. I should have had my foot to the floor and let it get more rpms before shifting. Since I know it is coming I can prepared next time. But it is a horrible engineering decision to have such a gap between 1st and 2nd. That engine makes tons of power, enough that I am extremely happy with my decision, it pulls my 5th wheel great. But with better gearing the 6.4 would be even better.

I don't think the 8 speed chrysler uses is in the half tons is a viable option. There would be to much gear hunting when towing heavy. The just need to use different gear ratios in each speed.

[kzspree320]

As an owner of the 2016 Ram 2500 with 6.4 hemi and 4.10, I can tell you first hand that the gearing issue is a big part of the problem. Let's take a look at the Chevy vs Ram gearing:
Chevy Ram
1st gear 4.03:1 3.23:1
2nd gear 2.36:1 1.84:1
3rd gear 1.53:1 1.41:1
4th gear 1.15:1 1.00:1
5th gear .85:1 .82:1
6th gear .67:1 .63:1

So the Ram has more torque but the gearing is much higher (lower numbers) in 1st thru 4th gears. While the Ram has enough power at lower altitudes to overcome this higher gearing, when you take away 30 percent of the power on the Ike Guantlet, it just can't overcome its gearing deficiency vs the Chevy. The Ram engineers added programming so the trucks rpms would be limited in this situation and protect the truck.

I have always been able to tow at least 65 mph in no less than 3rd gear in areas like TN and KY. Unless you tow regularly at very high altitudes, I would suggest a potential buyer not place too much emphasis on this one test.

[transamz9]

normal_dave wrote:
Excellent real world evaluation.

I think the transmission gearing is the main issue with this IKE Gauntlet test foolishness vs. the 6.0 GM. The numbers just don't add up. You'd think Ram would have a solution for this pretty quick.

Kinda reminds me of two guys I knew back in the day that often got into a casual "race" while towing their race cars. The 2nd gen 12V Cummins vs. the new Ford diesel of the day. The Ford had much more impressive numbers in terms of power, but somehow the Dodge got the work done faster. We gave the win to transmission gearing and final gear ratio. After several losing trips, the Ford guy just gave up. Careful here, not a Ford vs Dodge example, just illustrating the importance of the right gearing...:C

I don't think it's gearing in this situation but more programming. They are de-tuning the engine under curtain circumstances. Whether it to be to save the weakest link in the drive train or the fact that they can't keep the 410 hp cool at the slower speeds. IDK but I don't believe it is a gearing issue.

[normal_dave]

Excellent real world evaluation.

I think the transmission gearing is the main issue with this IKE Gauntlet test foolishness vs. the 6.0 GM. The numbers just don't add up. You'd think Ram would have a solution for this pretty quick.

Kinda reminds me of two guys I knew back in the day that often got into a casual "race" while towing their race cars. The 2nd gen 12V Cummins vs. the new Ford diesel of the day. The Ford had much more impressive numbers in terms of power, but somehow the Dodge got the work done faster. We gave the win to transmission gearing and final gear ratio. After several losing trips, the Ford guy just gave up. Careful here, not a Ford vs Dodge example, just illustrating the importance of the right gearing...:C