Towing during break in period

C'mon man, you're a Pirate dammit!

96Pirate said:

Lol...I tend to overthink a lot of things.

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I drove mine off the dealer lot, 100 miles home and hooked up the hay trailer. Loaded trailer is only 4500 pounds or so and I towed it everyday from December '17 until this march. 8500 miles on the truck now with no problems.


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Great feed... here's a twist, perhaps you could help ... I have a 2015 6.4 Hemi that is being replaced (only 40k miles). They're putting a new crate engine in... I need to tow my 8000lb trailer up lots of hills... the tranny and axels are more than broken in... just concerned whether the new engine will be up for it.

pastort55 said:

I have a 2015 6.4 Hemi that is being replaced (only 40k miles). They're putting a new crate engine in... I need to tow my 8000lb trailer up lots of hills... the tranny and axels are more than broken in... just concerned whether the new engine will be up for it.

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Same concept, but I'd venture to say that this engine will get a better "break in". Towing a trailer up and down hills will give the engine a wider range of rpms and loads. Hook and GO!

pastort55 said:

Great feed... here's a twist, perhaps you could help ... I have a 2015 6.4 Hemi that is being replaced (only 40k miles). They're putting a new crate engine in... I need to tow my 8000lb trailer up lots of hills... the tranny and axels are more than broken in... just concerned whether the new engine will be up for it.

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Yes it will be up for any task you put it up to do. Don’t worry just hook up n go. Don’t treat it like a semi or race car but don’t be afraid to use your truck. You bought it for a reason so use it for the intended purpose of hauling your trailer. No Fear.


I Love My 2018 RAM 2500HD 4x4 6.4L. USMC (ret)

TRCM said:

I followed it because I had to do a similar break in on my outboard, and if you do not follow it, they will know, and will likely tell you sorry if it breaks under warranty as a result of incorrect break in.

If you ain't priced outboards lately, they are pricey....mine was 8k with a 1 yr old trade in in excellent shape.

Without, would have been in the 13k+ range.

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Not to be a sa but there is no way to tell how a motor was broke in...Only thing they can determine is abuse in the extreme....Tow and go! No one will ever know!

pastort55 said:

Great feed... here's a twist, perhaps you could help ... I have a 2015 6.4 Hemi that is being replaced (only 40k miles). They're putting a new crate engine in... I need to tow my 8000lb trailer up lots of hills... the tranny and axels are more than broken in... just concerned whether the new engine will be up for it.

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Break it in like you're gonna use it.

Ramit355 said:

Not to be a sa but there is no way to tell how a motor was broke in...Only thing they can determine is abuse in the extreme....Tow and go! No one will ever know!

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Worse thing you can do is break it in like a *****. Meaning low and steady RPMs. Rings will seat and begin to form a ridge at the top of the cylinders cause they only go so far at low to mid RPMs. Then when you got 1500 miles on it and decide to redline the tach the rods stretch .010 or .015 and now they're hitting that lip on the cyl wall and bang broken rings, ugly sounds, big money. Be sensible don't redline it for 500 or so miles, but do let it see 4000 or so rpm here and there.

If you’ve got 1200 miles on that truck then let her rip. As said above, you actually don’t want to continue to drive the truck at a slower steady speed. From the time you drive it off the lot you want to methodically exercise the engine and drive train for the best break in. And after 300-500, full RPM range with redlines and 65+ MPH. Even with a trailer attached. Don’t worry about it now. You are way past that point.

Most new cars on dealer lots take a beating from dealer employees to customer test drives before they even see their first owner.

Ramit355 said:

Not to be a sa but there is no way to tell how a motor was broke in...Only thing they can determine is abuse in the extreme....Tow and go! No one will ever know!

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Well, I can tell you for a fact there is.....you'd be very surprised at the data these computers can pull up & store....now, will they ?? I don't know......but if they can tell when a tuner has been connected they can tell you anything else you want to know.

On my outboard, they can pull up the throttle position, rpm, load, gear, fuel & oil levels, trim, timing, air pressure, injector pressure..... all the pertinents for any time period it was running.

I do not know if the computers on these trucks are that detailed, but I was not going to take the chance....and yes, someone will know....me.

Do things the way you want. I'll do the same.

NO sweat off my back either way, but I will take a little extra time & follow the rules from the people who designed & built it and KNOW nothing is wrong, instead of doing whatever and HOPING nothing is wrong.

TRCM...very true... bombardier tells alot..for example..diff.rpm ranges say 0-500,501-1000 etc.and for how long those ranges ran..does tell alot nowadays.I have to reset these after a rebuild to"break in"..pretty much dumps more oil into the motor (2stroke)..doesn't let motor hit higher ranges for a certain time period.