First Tow with 2500 Ram

[packpe89]

Just got back from a short vacation with my 2016 2500 MegaCab Cummins I purchased last year. Visited Table Rock State park area in upstate SC. Great towing experience!
Stats, 28' TT, 6500#+/- dry, and maybe 7K wet (we traveled lite), hitch weight around 700# and did use WDH hitch. Listed payload is 1900#, so well within range for DW and myself.
Experience, Averaged around 11.5mpg towing (speed limit or slightly under if 70mph), so did not have to fill up on 300 mile trip with the camper attached. Always used auto exhaust brake. Very stable, only felt sway a couple of times from wind gusts. No problem in mountains with going uphill or down. Also used the two/haul mode when coming down twisting mountain roads, six speed did a great job maintaining speed. Never saw the transmission temp go over 169. Did bounce a little on SC roads...
Previous TV was F150EB with 6.5 bed. Also towed well but mileage was only around 7 or 8, and not quite as stable, but not a 3/4 ton, so shouldn't really compare.
Overall, very happy with new truck. If we upgrade, it will be to a small fifth wheel, but purchased the truck to go west and maybe Alaska in the next few years.

[Cummins12V98]

spoon059 wrote:

Me Again wrote:

Towing out West one gets a lot of opportunities to practice the skills of descending a pass without using your service brake. Which gives you nice cool service brake if they are required.

The worst part is when you're behind a tractor trailer that is going just slow enough that you can't get your speed up to lock the torque convertor so your exhaust brake won't engage.

That’s REALLY slow. Mine stays locked down to about 13 mph in 2nd gear.

[SweetLou]

FishOnOne wrote:

SweetLou wrote:
I have a tow caravan going to lake Powell next month with a friend towing his ski boat with his new Roush Ford 150. I tow a fully loaded Wells Cargo trailer weighing in at 6,500 lbs wth my CTD. I told him I run about 68 mph and just purr along but he says he will stay at 60 mph. I probably will have the best towing experience and mileage ever 🙂 Spotify on and a lot of chillin. Hopefully that Ford will keep up or do the best it can

LOL...Just a friendly tip that the Roush Ford 150 has a Super Charged 650 HP engine. The only reason your friend might be behind you is because he chooses to.

I know that. Tell him to get moving

[FishOnOne]

SweetLou wrote:
I have a tow caravan going to lake Powell next month with a friend towing his ski boat with his new Roush Ford 150. I tow a fully loaded Wells Cargo trailer weighing in at 6,500 lbs wth my CTD. I told him I run about 68 mph and just purr along but he says he will stay at 60 mph. I probably will have the best towing experience and mileage ever 🙂 Spotify on and a lot of chillin. Hopefully that Ford will keep up or do the best it can

LOL...Just a friendly tip that the Roush Ford 150 has a Super Charged 650 HP engine. The only reason your friend might be behind you is because he chooses to.

[spoon059]

Me Again wrote:

Towing out West one gets a lot of opportunities to practice the skills of descending a pass without using your service brake. Which gives you nice cool service brake if they are required.

The worst part is when you're behind a tractor trailer that is going just slow enough that you can't get your speed up to lock the torque convertor so your exhaust brake won't engage.

[Fisherman]

SweetLou wrote:
I have a tow caravan going to lake Powell next month with a friend towing his ski boat with his new Roush Ford 150. I tow a fully loaded Wells Cargo trailer weighing in at 6,500 lbs wth my CTD. I told him I run about 68 mph and just purr along but he says he will stay at 60 mph. I probably will have the best towing experience and mileage ever 🙂 Spotify on and a lot of chillin. Hopefully that Ford will keep up or do the best it can

You can likely hook him up behind your trailer and not notice too much different.

[Grit_dog]

SweetLou wrote:
I have a tow caravan going to lake Powell next month with a friend towing his ski boat with his new Roush Ford 150. I tow a fully loaded Wells Cargo trailer weighing in at 6,500 lbs wth my CTD. I told him I run about 68 mph and just purr along but he says he will stay at 60 mph. I probably will have the best towing experience and mileage ever 🙂 Spotify on and a lot of chillin. Hopefully that Ford will keep up or do the best it can

Tell him to use more than the bottom half of his power band and giddy up!

Edit, Roush? Bottom 1/3!

[cummins2014]

TravelinDog wrote:
Congrats on your great experience with your CTD.
I also had a great first towing experience when we got our 2017 CTD. I use the EB all the time when towing and also T/H mode.
I set the CC at 65mpg and let the truck do it's thing. It maintains the speed whether going uphill or downhill with ZERO input from me and even in the mountainous west.

Although as said , mine usually gains 5mph on the steeper descents and I adjust accordingly.

[SweetLou]

I have a tow caravan going to lake Powell next month with a friend towing his ski boat with his new Roush Ford 150. I tow a fully loaded Wells Cargo trailer weighing in at 6,500 lbs wth my CTD. I told him I run about 68 mph and just purr along but he says he will stay at 60 mph. I probably will have the best towing experience and mileage ever 🙂 Spotify on and a lot of chillin. Hopefully that Ford will keep up or do the best it can

[TravelinDog]

Congrats on your great experience with your CTD.
I also had a great first towing experience when we got our 2017 CTD. I use the EB all the time when towing and also T/H mode.
I set the CC at 65mpg and let the truck do it's thing. It maintains the speed whether going uphill or downhill with ZERO input from me and even in the mountainous west.

[Cummins12V98]

Simply run tH and EB ALL the time and when towing run your cruise Control. Control speed with the up/down selector and drop the gear to get the RPM's up.

Try it you will like it!

[cummins2014]

Me Again wrote:

wanderingbob wrote:
Same truck , when coming down a hill I turn off the tow haul as I do not like it shifting for me , tends to really get the revs above what I like . I will shift manually , maybe it is just me .

The higher the rev the more braking HP the exhaust brake is able to make. I Towed 24,500 combined with our 2015 and descended mountain passes in TH and full exhaust brake, then selected the gear required to hold back without using service brakes.

If it slowed to much a little foot on the throttle turned off the exhaust brake until speed went to the point the exhaust brake was needed again. SO your throttle foot allows you to be in control of your descent along with selecting a lower or higher gear as required.

Towing out West one gets a lot of opportunities to practice the skills of descending a pass without using your service brake. Which gives you nice cool service brake if they are required.

What you guys are failing to say is if cruise is used , it takes care of all that . If that is possible I always set the cruise for 5 mph under what I want it to run , and let it do it’s thing , never touching the brakes . Most Ram owners I have talked to say they experience the same 5 mph gain on cruise on a decent , and then it settles in .

[mkirsch]

Lwiddis wrote:
You had a very positive experience with the 3/4 ton!

People rarely have a negative experience when moving up from a 1/2 ton truck.

[Me_Again]

wanderingbob wrote:
Same truck , when coming down a hill I turn off the tow haul as I do not like it shifting for me , tends to really get the revs above what I like . I will shift manually , maybe it is just me .

The higher the rev the more braking HP the exhaust brake is able to make. I Towed 24,500 combined with our 2015 and descended mountain passes in TH and full exhaust brake, then selected the gear required to hold back without using service brakes.

If it slowed to much a little foot on the throttle turned off the exhaust brake until speed went to the point the exhaust brake was needed again. SO your throttle foot allows you to be in control of your descent along with selecting a lower or higher gear as required.

Towing out West one gets a lot of opportunities to practice the skills of descending a pass without using your service brake. Which gives you nice cool service brake if they are required.

[MFL]

Bionic Man wrote:

philh wrote:

wanderingbob wrote:
Same truck , when coming down a hill I turn off the tow haul as I do not like it shifting for me , tends to really get the revs above what I like . I will shift manually , maybe it is just me .

OEM's spend many millions of dollars calibrating the computer to properly select gears. I trust they know how to put the trans in the correct gears.

The only thing the computer does to "select gears" when going down hill with tow haul on is continue to downshift anytime it can to try to keep slowing the truck down. Personally, I am not a fan of it either. My first choice would be to have paddles where you could actually determine which gear you go in. Shifting manually really isn't an option as the only thing the toggle does is limits the top available gear.

Long way of saying that there is room for improvement here, and the computer most certainly does not know best.

I am not familiar with the Ram transmissions, but my Ford has M (manual) available to select. In this mode, it does shift manually, needing to be shifted up/down with the paddles.

I don't use T/H on a long steep decent, as it will lower the gear, each time braking, and end up with too low of speed, and higher rpm than I want. Using the manual mode in my Ford, is IMO, a much better choice for long downhills of 7% or more.

Jerry

[Bionic_Man]

philh wrote:

wanderingbob wrote:
Same truck , when coming down a hill I turn off the tow haul as I do not like it shifting for me , tends to really get the revs above what I like . I will shift manually , maybe it is just me .

OEM's spend many millions of dollars calibrating the computer to properly select gears. I trust they know how to put the trans in the correct gears.

The only thing the computer does to "select gears" when going down hill with tow haul on is continue to downshift anytime it can to try to keep slowing the truck down. Personally, I am not a fan of it either. My first choice would be to have paddles where you could actually determine which gear you go in. Shifting manually really isn't an option as the only thing the toggle does is limits the top available gear.

Long way of saying that there is room for improvement here, and the computer most certainly does not know best.