Are the 9.25 rear differentials in the Ram 1500's really that weak??

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IQRaceworks

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I have around 144,000 miles on my 2004 Hemi Ram 1500 Quad Cab. My family and I decided to take a road trip with our 20ft camper from Springfield Missouri to Pensacola Florida for a week....about 1600 miles round trip.

The trip was going great, until the rear-end started making some horrible noises on the way home....we are actually stuck in Memphis right now waiting for the shop to put a complete used rearend in my truck. After they got the diff cover off they showed me the gears.....the ring and pinion are trashed! I actually changed the fluid in the diff before we left on our trip and everything looked great inside of it.

Are the OEM gears on the 9.25 rearends that Dodge puts in the Ram 1500's so weak that they can't stand up to regular towing? Our camper only weights around 4000lbs fully loaded. I was hoping that it was just a pinion bearing making the horrible noise.....didn't expect to see a chipped and chewed up set of ring and pinion gears.

....so now me family and I are stuck in a hotel room for a few days waiting for a new/used rearend to get swapped into my truck.....$2500. Sucks! :flame:
 

Ramunit

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Did you have the stock LSD? They are known to have retaining clip issues where they would break off and get caught up it the ring and pinion tearing it up. The ring and pinion itself is very durable on its own from reading the forums over the last 12 years.
 

Hemi450hp

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Did you have the stock LSD? They are known to have retaining clip issues where they would break off and get caught up it the ring and pinion tearing it up. The ring and pinion itself is very durable on its own from reading the forums over the last 12 years.

Bingo. The differential and the ring/pinion themseves are very durable, but the retaining clips are what caused so many problems on the 3rd gen trucks.
 
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IQRaceworks

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Did you have the stock LSD? They are known to have retaining clip issues where they would break off and get caught up it the ring and pinion tearing it up. The ring and pinion itself is very durable on its own from reading the forums over the last 12 years.

No, I don't have the factory LSD.....just the non-lsd differential.

Had 144,000 miles on it......then all of a sudden while towing cross-country...BAM, loud gear noise from the rearend. Why would the ring/pinion fail like that? I wouldn't think that towing a 4,000lb camper would overload the truck at all.
 

Thundervee

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Sorry bud. But they are putting the screws to you severely! And yes, the stock gears are fine for towing stuff with. I towed around a 30ft fifth wheel with my 05 1500 for a couple years with no issues.


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