3.55 Gearing for Tow Package WTF

Observation (and rant) of the week:

Who was the genius that came up with the idea of 3.55:1 gearing for the factory tow package? My truck felt like I was dragging an anchor while towing my 2,000-ish pound car trailer for the first time. Fortunately I don't have to tow very often, but I'm dreading putting a vehicle on the trailer.

Granted, I am running 33" tall tires, but that's only 4% larger than the stock size. It's not like I'm getting great MPG with the high gearing. Shoot, I bet if I had 4.11 gears, I'd probably get just as good if not better mileage, and it would tow a hell of a lot better! Now where's that soapbox emoticon?!

Since gearing changes are expensive, it looks like I'm going to go back to a 31-1/2" to 32" tall tire to try to improve things.

Have the same setup but running 35s. What were they thinking?

I get like 6mpg

I had the same set up on my truck as well. Dodge only did 4.10's in the ORE trucks, unless you specially ordered them otherwise


Sent from the howitzer

You could get 3.92s in em from the factory, but most trucks were auto-ordered at 3.55 gears.





*minirant* ****** me off that I have every option in my truck....except security and *3.92 GEARS!!!* /rantover

Towed about 6,300# a little over 70 miles yesterday and felt like I should have had the slow moving vehicle orange triangle on the back. Every single uphill was awful, not to mention embarrassing. A kid on a moped and an Amish family in a horse drawn wagon both passed me.

3.92's would have been much better and should have been the minimum for the tow package! Shoot, I had 3.92's in an early 2000's Dakota. Some smaller tires are definitely in my near future.

#4.88ftw

Those 33s really do make that big of a difference though too. Nothing adding power, stock tires, 3.55s and 7k is there but not too crazy.

With how my truck is setup now, noticeable difference between my 265s and 245s on stock 3.55s. Still pulls 4k easy as pie though

I pulled a LARGE enclosed trailer about 50 mi home one time, probably weighed about 3000 lbs....didn't care for it with a blown plenum. lol

Just filled up my gas tank today, and I manged to get almost 11 MPG with almost half of that towing a total of over 6,200#. Weird. I expected to get about 8 MPG towing. I kept overdrive off even with the empty trailer. Most of my regular highway driving only gets me 14 MPG with a minimal load in the bed and no trailer. The silly thing would probably get better mileage with 3.92's!

Drove around today with a bale of straw in the back; gearing seemed appropriate for that.

I get 10 mpg unloaded. Wtf dude!

The only time mine felt bogged down was pulling a double axle loaded trailer that was probably 6500 lbs. I was doing everything wrong though. I had o/d turned on, my plenum (at the time) was blown, I had 33 inch mud tires. So the conditions wearnt ideal.

Whenver I tow our camper it does fine. Thats probably around 4000 lbs.

Yeah I wish I had 4.10's but 3.55s are okay.

Ok, a little mea culpa on my part. With a little more looking at things with a critical eye, I realize my torque converter isn't unlocking when it should, so that could have been a big part of my issue. To get it to unlock, I have to force a downshift by flooring it or manually switching down a gear. That would be from third to second, as I turn off OD even with the empty trailer.

Checking Google, I see some possibilities with the throttle position sensor or the ECM (based on this and a couple of other issues.) I'll start a separate thread on my observations to request help in troubleshooting (where to start based on all the separate symptoms.) My trans was rebuilt by prior owner by AAMCO (ugh!) and has a mild shift kit. With the torque converter locking/unlocking at the appropriate times, this probably won't be as bad...but I still wish I had 3.92's!

As for the gas mileage, I don't know if this thing has some kind of performance chip/tune, but it absolutely requires 92 octane. Anything less, and I get detonation. I'm planning on getting rid of the 39# boat anchor 20" wheels an going with some 17's sometime this year, so hopefully my MPG will be even better.

If it requires 91 or higher, it likely had a blown plenum. 91 was the only thing I could feed mine or it would knock, even still it would with 91.

dodge dude94 said:

If it requires 91 or higher, it likely had a blown plenum. 91 was the only thing I could feed mine or it would knock, even still it would with 91.

Click to expand...

Well that just sucks...something to add to the list!

Blue Truck said:

Well that just sucks...something to add to the list!

Click to expand...

Always something. Be suspicious when the truck doesn't want something done for a while.

dodge dude94 said:

Always something. Be suspicious when the truck doesn't want something done for a while.

Click to expand...

That's a good way to look at it!

Blue Truck said:

That's a good way to look at it!

Click to expand...

Did the trans and water pump last year. This year it's looking like brakes again and possibly the dreaded heater core.

I am having the worst luck with brake pads lately. I must just be buying ****** pads.

bassslayer25 said:

I am having the worst luck with brake pads lately. I must just be buying ****** pads.

Click to expand...

No, these trucks are just that hard on pads. Lol