Ram owners. What gear while towing on highway?

We had a 2001 3500 8.1 chev dually to tow our 35 ft alpenlite. It would want to stay in 4th gear in tow mode at 55 "as I remember" if I could not drive faster because of traffic so I would hit the tow mode button to off so it would go to fifth and then back to tow mode. It worked good. Duramax has a different shift pattern and have not needed to do it on the old awesome 05.

chevman

Me Again wrote:
Mine will not shift into 6th in T/H until 65 MPH. So towing the trailer in most cases it stays in 5th without locking out 6th. Chris

That's because the Aisin has a mind of it's own!

drittal wrote:
My father has 4.10 and I have the 3.42. He just sets it in T/H and goes 62-65. I will let my truck use 6th on the flats and downhills, but will manually downshift to 5th for hills, and sometimes force it in to 4th for big hills. I do this before it really starts pulling the hill to limit stress and heat.

In my experience the Ram transmission logic wants to hold gears way too long, even in T/H.

I did the same until I realized I got better overall mileage towing when I locked it 5th. If you do you will be nearly identical to your Father in 6th.

Best of both worlds IMHO when towing a fairly heavy RV as in up to 27K combined or so.

Both cummins, not apples to apples. Mine is 2013, his 2012. He is towing more weight, but is also tuned with 5" exhaust. On the big hills if I don't manually shift from 6th to 5th he will start to catch up to me until my truck shifts. Then I start to regain speed and his starts to fall off a bit until his shifts, if it does at all. If I manually shift before cruise let's it lose 3-5 mph before shifting down I walk away from his truck until his shifts because he is letting his shift on its own and losing those 3-5 mph before shifting.

Empty, my all stock 2013 nets 3-4mpg better.

drittal wrote:
My father has 4.10 and I have the 3.42. He just sets it in T/H and goes 62-65. I will let my truck use 6th on the flats and downhills, but will manually downshift to 5th for hills, and sometimes force it in to 4th for big hills. I do this before it really starts pulling the hill to limit stress and heat.

In my experience the Ram transmission logic wants to hold gears way too long, even in T/H.

How does your diesel pull in comparison to your dads? Are they both Cummins?

I'm usually in 6th and it doesn't hunt between 5 and 6. Mpg while towing is 8 to 11 depending on conditions.

I mostly run in 5th and 6th. At 70 it mostly stays in 6th even in hills. If I'm doing lots of up and down I'll lock it in 5th but it's not too frequent that I bother. For the most part the trans does a great job picking gears. My fifth wheel is comparatively light at a little over 10k.

My best non-towing trip of about 400 miles netted me over 23 mpg and that's in Idaho with lots of mountains, so I like the 3.42 just fine.

Mine will not shift into 6th in T/H until 65 MPH. So towing the trailer in most cases it stays in 5th without locking out 6th. Chris

My father has 4.10 and I have the 3.42. He just sets it in T/H and goes 62-65. I will let my truck use 6th on the flats and downhills, but will manually downshift to 5th for hills, and sometimes force it in to 4th for big hills. I do this before it really starts pulling the hill to limit stress and heat.

In my experience the Ram transmission logic wants to hold gears way too long, even in T/H.

Brisk wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

Brisk wrote:
Thanks guys. I am a little bummed that the truck only came with 3.42s. I think 3.73s would keep me in 6th more.

What did you want? To tow the world in double overdrive?
Yeah the new trucks like yours might do it with deep rear gears, but I would t be bummed. I would t have even asked the question.
I tow or haul in 6th, but my 6th is like your 5th and you don't know much about trucks if you're asking this question, so yes 5th is the proper and preferable gear for what you're doing. Unless you're doing like 90+ with the 5ver behind you, in which case 6th should be well enough into the powerband to run it as well!

To not be so sarcastic, you won't experience any better mileage with running a few hundred rpms less in high gear as opposed to 5th. And it won't hurt the engine either. These motors will pull hard down low, but lugging them and high egts is not what you're after.

You got the best rig out there IMO. When pulling heavy on the flats, pick whatever gear keeps you over about 1800rpms. Going up hill, keep er at 2k rpms plus.

Well.......I was expecting it to pull moderate hills in 6th like my buddy's 2010 ram with the 350hp/650tq motor and a similar trailer did. Turns out he had 4.10s. I am happy with the truck just questioning Rams logic with 3.42 gears. I would have opted for 3.73s or 4.10s so I could run 35" tires too.

RAM's "Logic" is great with the 3.42's. They net the best unloaded mileage and towing you have 4.10 gearing in 5th. Can't get much better than that. My experience with 3.42's with 68RFE towing combined 28-29K ONLY issue was getting the load rolling on a grade. Slap an Aisin in there and I would tow 27-28K combined with no issues. Anything over that I would go Aisin with 4.10's.

Folks there are 6 gears to choose from USE THEM!!!