blderman wrote:
ib516 wrote:
blderman wrote:
Have you guys watched the Ike Towing Test posted this weekend? I have no idea how credible the testing guys are but I was pretty disappointed in the results. It's making me second guess the 6.4 now. The F150 Ecoboost towing just 1,800lbs less made it up the hill 4 minutes faster than the Ram. It appears the 2nd gear ratio on the 6.4 is really a poor fit for the engine. Thoughts?
You have to read the comment they posted a couple hours ago. They contacted RAM about the results, and got this response:
"We spoke with Ram and here's what they said about the slower Results of this Ike Gauntlet Run: "During the Silverado drive, you spoke negatively of the shift calibration. The tested Chevy was we assume hunting between 1st and 2nd, and ranged from 5300erpm to around 2800erpm, which you didn’t seem to like. The Chevy revved very high up the hill for extended periods of time, over 5000erpm.
Ram Truck “invented” the first gear hold feature – and calibrated it – to avoid gear hunting and driving at excessively high rpm’s.
Ike is a variable grade and we worked hard to develop a calibration that appropriately manages torque on the run and other grades.
We don’t want the truck to rev high for extended periods of time and purposely hold 4,200 rpm.
Bottom line – our truck performed exactly as expected by delivering a more comfortable hauling experience, better vehicle longevity and improved fuel economy. Time to the top of the hill is only one small piece of the driving experience and our engineers take a number of variable into consideration. Ask yourself if just over one minute is worth other negative driver inputs."?
I haven't experienced any limiting in any towing I have done, but then the highest elevation I have been to so far is about 7000'.
That is the response I would expect from an engineer. It's not like they are going to admit that 2nd gear is the wrong ratio. This definitely has my plans on hold till I can do more research. It would be interesting to see how it performs in manual mode.
would you really say 2nd gear is the wrong ratio, or is the shift logic a bit off?
Really, would you allow your truck to climb steep incline like that? I know they had to keep all things as equal as they could for the test, but in the real world, are you going to let the truck slow down to 30mph? No! you are going to manually downshift and let the truck rev! The Chevy was certainly at 5k for long periods of time, and that is most likely why it got to the top faster.
A more accurate test would have been to set points along the route where you designate down shifts for both trucks and see how they fair. the fact that the Ram held second for far too long doesn't bother me because I would never have let that happen in the real world.
IMO the only thing you could knock the Ram for is failure to downshift on an tough grade. BIG DEAL!
oh, one more thing for the guys bashing the Ram, watch the Chevy video @ 19:45 they start talking about how the truck should have downshifted and is holding the gear for way to long and they are down to 35mph.
So I would say if you have no clue know how to drive a truck pulling a heavy trailer, you would be better served buying a Chevy as it will downshift for you in case you fell asleep.
and no I'm not a RAM lover, I'm a Tundra guy looking at all the options for my next truck and I really think all of the big 3 are so close you just have to pick the one that appeals to you or fits your needs the most and you can't go wrong.
