RoadDog66
Senior Member
Well today was the first real test of my 6.4 towing our 7000 lb loaded travel trailer with 500 lbs in the bed about 140 miles in the MD hills & shorter mountain grades in PA. I gotta say I was underwhelmed. I don't know if it's the poor 6-speed gearing choices in the 66RFE or the torque management or both, but my 317hp/385lb ft torque Titan with 3.36 gears felt like it had more grunt making the same trip as it did with the 6.4 and 3.73 gears.
The Ram's stability & ride was 10x better than the Titan, but I sure expected more from the Hemi on the hills. I passed a few semis on the steep grades, but the 6.4 worked for it. I locked out 6th and used tow/haul mode for the trip, but 4th was the Ram's favorite gear and it spent a good amount in 3rd and occasionally 2nd on the hills. And from a stop, the shift from 1st to 2nd on a grade was terrible. There's absolutely no power under 2500 rpm and that's where it drops into 2nd with major lag. Unloaded and not towing this truck has enormous power and the shifting rpm drop off is much less pronounced.
Will the 6.4 Hemi tow, yes. It's just not how I was expecting it to be. Saw 8.3 mpg...nearly same as my Titan (7.2 - 8.6 mpg depending on load). Granted the Ram weighs nearly 1500 lbs more and has twice the payload so similar mpg's were expected. I did only have 1275 miles on my odometer starting out today, so maybe it'll get better after another 3-4 thousand miles and an oil change (I'm really really hoping). I want to love this truck for towing as much as I do for non-towing use...but teetering on the fence.
The Ram's stability & ride was 10x better than the Titan, but I sure expected more from the Hemi on the hills. I passed a few semis on the steep grades, but the 6.4 worked for it. I locked out 6th and used tow/haul mode for the trip, but 4th was the Ram's favorite gear and it spent a good amount in 3rd and occasionally 2nd on the hills. And from a stop, the shift from 1st to 2nd on a grade was terrible. There's absolutely no power under 2500 rpm and that's where it drops into 2nd with major lag. Unloaded and not towing this truck has enormous power and the shifting rpm drop off is much less pronounced.
Will the 6.4 Hemi tow, yes. It's just not how I was expecting it to be. Saw 8.3 mpg...nearly same as my Titan (7.2 - 8.6 mpg depending on load). Granted the Ram weighs nearly 1500 lbs more and has twice the payload so similar mpg's were expected. I did only have 1275 miles on my odometer starting out today, so maybe it'll get better after another 3-4 thousand miles and an oil change (I'm really really hoping). I want to love this truck for towing as much as I do for non-towing use...but teetering on the fence.