Towing heavy fifth wheel with manual tranny

redskinredtaco · Jul 17, 2016

I have someone buying my 2500 6.4 tomorrow and am going to look at a 2014 SLT crew cab 4x4 8' bed. 6.7 Cummins 6 speed manual. I plan on towing my 38' fifth wheel with it. The fifth wheel has 3000lb pin weight and an empty weight oh 13,000lbs. Anyone else towing with the Cummins with manual tranny?

mtofell · Jul 17, 2016

The biggest bummer about the manual tranny is the de-rating of the engine since that tranny is only rated for so much. I believe you get something like 660 torque with the manual and 800 with basic auto or 900 with the Aisin.

BossHogg · Jul 18, 2016

I don't think, don't know first hand but from reading the Cummins forums, the torque management is reduced with the manual so you may not really see much difference.

mesotall13 · Jul 21, 2016

I tow heavy with my 16 cummins manual. On stock sized tires it did great. Now that I'm on 35's at freeway speed I have to downshift to 5th when climbing serious grades. Just always start in 1st gear when loaded and it does fine. The best thing I have added to my truck was the bd throttle sensitivity booster!!! Every time I shift it took forever to respool the turbo. Now it spools a lot faster after each shift!

U&A · Jul 21, 2016

mtofell said:
The biggest bummer about the manual tranny is the de-rating of the engine since that tranny is only rated for so much. I believe you get something like 660 torque with the manual and 800 with basic auto or 900 with the Aisin.

can I as WHY in the world they would make the manual transmission less capable (towing wise) than the auto? is it just an old design and the low demand keeps them from funding the making of a more capable one?

BossHogg · Jul 22, 2016

U&A said:
can I as WHY in the world they would make the manual transmission less capable (towing wise) than the auto? is it just an old design and the low demand keeps them from funding the making of a more capable one?

From what I've read on the Cummins forums, the driveline weakness is the clutch. Guys that have tuned their engine with manual transmissions had to go with an aftermarket clutch, with success.

U&A · Jul 22, 2016

BossHogg said:
From what I've read on the Cummins forums, the driveline weakness is the clutch. Guys that have tuned their engine with manual transmissions had to go with an aftermarket clutch, with success.

thanks for the info.

LOL if the clutch is the only reason that RAM de-rates the trucks with a manual transmission, than RAM is dropping the ball BIG TIME on this one. I understand that clutches are expensive but seriously...

Towing heavy fifth wheel with manual tranny

redskinredtaco

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mtofell

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BossHogg

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mesotall13

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U&A

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U&A

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