I feel my RAM slower and "heavier"

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Christian1500

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Hi everyone!

I just joined this forum to seek some advice, I thank you guys in advance :love51: I have a 2014 RAM 1500 Tradesman with the V6 Flex Fuel 3.6 Liter Pentastar and I am a little concern about the performance. I did a couple of upgrades to my RAM like 3 months ago: first I installed a Spectre CAI which I really like, I feel my truck has a better throttle response and I love the sound, and then a month later I replaced my 17"s with these 20" OEM black wheels (which changed the look completely) and right after this I feel like my truck is slower, like I'm always hauling something in the highway.
I set the cruise control to a certain speed (72-75mph) and looks like is hard for my RAM to maintain the speed; its even worse when Im going on a little uphill I get high rpms trying to maintain the speed set, I rather to just cancel the cruise control and control the revolutions myself.

I went to the Dodge RAM dealer and asked them if there is any adjustment that it need to be done after I changed my wheels but they said No, it should be good since it is about the same size and width.

Have any of you experienced something like this?, the feel like your RAM is not responding as it suppose to :hmm: What do you guys recommend me to do or to check?

Thanks!
 

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CrispyBacon

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What tires do you have? Some tires have higher rolling resistance.... You could try adding a couple psi.

Also, if the new rims/tires weigh more, you'll definitely notice a difference.
 
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Christian1500

Christian1500

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They are Goodyear Wrangler SR-A P275/60R20 (before P265/70R17) and they are little worn out I will need new tires pretty soon. I can try adding a couple PSI. Thanks!
 

crash68

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By going to a larger diameter wheel, you essentially changed raised the effective final drive ratio. The 275/60r20 are 33" the 265/70r17 are 31.5" tires.
Your engine rpms are lower for the same speed, hence why it feels sluggish. This is why lifted truck with tall tires put lower gearing to compensate for the larger diameter tire.
That dealer is full of BS, they can change the what tire size the truck has(since it is a factory size) to correct the speedometer and odometer, but it won't do anything for performance.
 

Spearsy

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I have a 2017 with the exact same setup. I'm already running the same tires and wheels (275/60r20) as they came stock. I could see some power diminishing but I have never felt my truck to be underpowered tho. I have 3.55 gears. Do you know what gears you are running?
 
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Christian1500

Christian1500

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Yeah I'm not sure what gears are on my truck, I will need to find that out. When going uphill (there is a few where I live) I feel no power when I press the gas pedal I just see the rpms going up, I'm not sure if this is normal for a V6 engine, I can't recall if it was like this before the upgrades.
Also they changed the oil on my RAM like 2 months ago and they used Synthetic, I have 35k miles on my truck, I'm not sure if this has anything to do.
 

Ratket

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I can't speak to the pen star- my work truck is a " extremely over loaded " 3.7l Ford V6 in a F150 and I have to rev the **** out of it to get it to move. But since u are essentially in stock form this shouldn't be an issue for you- can someone post the vin link so he can punch his vin in and see his gears? I can't find it ATM. But when ur truck down shifts you should definetly feel it move and see that speedo climb.
 

RysRam

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Surprised nobody has mentioned that the 20's likely weigh significantly more than the 17's. Add that to the small increase in diameter and you may have the reason for the perceived sluggishness.
 

huntergreen

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You went to s larger diameter tire. You speed is off as well as your shift pattern. The pcm needs to be flashed. In other words. The truck needs to be told you have later tires now.
 

joneseysr6

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all these answers are correct.

to make it simple, its takes more power / tourque to turn a larger tire/wheel. Youe v6 motor is now being asked to do more with the same amount of power

If you took your truck with 17's and raced from a dead stop the same turck with 20's, the truck with the 17's would win.

your truck is now in fact slower and more sluggish.
 
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RLJ10X

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This forum always gets questions similar to this, and quite often the (guy who is the) Thread Starter, omits which transmission, and differential gears, the truck has. Thats info that we need.

You said it is a Flex Fuel. Did you recently start running E85? Whst gas are you running? It took me long time to figure out that some fuels simply have more BTUs per gallon than others, because some fuels consistsntly get better mpg than others.

If you have 3.21 final gears, 70-75 mph in hi gear, is a tall order for that Pentastar, which needs RPM to produce power.

If you do have the 3.21/8 combo, why not just avoid 8th gear. Leave it in 7th, so the Pentastar has some RPM to work with.

A Petal Commander will make your truck feel more responsive.

I pull trailers for UPS for a living. What direction the wind is blowing makes a big difference. These trucks are about as aerodynamic as a dehumidifier.
 
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CrispyBacon

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Surprised nobody has mentioned that the 20's likely weigh significantly more than the 17's. Add that to the small increase in diameter and you may have the reason for the perceived sluggishness.

I did mention it.
 

crash68

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Also they changed the oil on my RAM like 2 months ago and they used Synthetic, I have 35k miles on my truck, I'm not sure if this has anything to do.

Synthetic oil wouldn't have anything to do with losing "power". If anything your engine make be making more. There have been a few head to head Dyno tests between conventional and synthetic oils that show a slightly increase with the synthetic.

I can't speak to the pen star- my work truck is a " extremely over loaded " 3.7l Ford V6 in a F150 and I have to rev the **** out of it to get it to move.

If it's the same 3.7L Ford puts in the Transit, it likes between 3-4K rpms and pulls nicely up to just over 5K. The trick is to not stomp it to the point where the torque converter unlocks and the engine winds upwards of 6K. Manually shifting the trans helps.
 
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Christian1500

Christian1500

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You went to s larger diameter tire. You speed is off as well as your shift pattern. The pcm needs to be flashed. In other words. The truck needs to be told you have later tires now.

This was my first thought but after asking my dealer and they said that there is nothing to be adjust on my RAM I ignored this idea for a while. I'll need to go back and ask them to flash my pcm. Thanks!
 
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Christian1500

Christian1500

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This forum always gets questions similar to this, and quite often the (guy who is the) Thread Starter, omits which transmission, and differential gears, the truck has. Thats info that we need.

You said it is a Flex Fuel. Did you recently start running E85? What gas are you running? It took me long time to figure out that some fuels simply have more BTUs per gallon than others, because some fuels consistently get better mpg than others.

If you have 3.21 final gears, 70-75 mph in hi gear, is a tall order for that Pentastar, which needs RPM to produce power.

If you do have the 3.21/8 combo, why not just avoid 8th gear. Leave it in 7th, so the Pentastar has some RPM to work with.

A Petal Commander will make your truck feel more responsive.

I pull trailers for UPS for a living. What direction the wind is blowing makes a big difference. These trucks are about as aerodynamic as a dehumidifier.

I have the 8-speed transmission and I just sent my VIN to find out what gears my RAM is running.
I'm running regular (87) I did try running E85 at first when I bought it but it was consuming it very fast. Thanks I'll check the Pedal Commander as a possible solution to improve the response.
 

RysRam

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I did mention it.

Congrats, you win all the internets! Just kidding, I missed it.

But seriously, I ran into the same problem with my old '06 Sierra. It came from GM with 17's and I added OEM 20's. I instantly lost 2mpg and the truck became even doggier than it was before. They were on the truck for a month before I took them off and sold them.
 

averageguy

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You could get shorter tires when you get new ones to get back closer to stock diameter and they will probably be lighter.
 
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Christian1500

Christian1500

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all these answers are correct.

to make it simple, its takes more power / tourque to turn a larger tire/wheel. Youe v6 motor is now being asked to do more with the same amount of power

If you took your truck with 17's and raced from a dead stop the same turck with 20's, the truck with the 17's would win.

your truck is now in fact slower and more sluggish.

Will this damage the motor in the long term? Since now is being asked to do more for all the time.
 

SHOOT2KILL

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IMO...The 1500 is too much truck for the 3.6 pentstar...My wifes Caravan (3.6) is an absolute dog when you put 4-5 adults in it...Although with 2 adults and a steady pedal @ under 65 mph, I recently got 27.7 mpg on the evic during a 220 mile trip....
 

averageguy

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I doubt it will damage it, but it will of course wear things out faster the harder they work. The motor may only last 195000 miles instead of 200000.
 

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