5.7 L performance

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Midloguy

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So, we've upgraded from a Minivan pulling a pop-up to this Ram 1500, 5.7L pulling a 24ft Wildwood. For info, I weighted the truck and trailer at a local scale today, 5040 for the truck, 4820 for the trailer. Per all the truck data I researched, towing capacity is rated at 8900 lbs. GCVR is 13,000.

So, here is what I'm experiencing. Towing in towing/haul mode.
Once the truck gets to highway speed, say 60 mph. It's into 4th gear, almost 2000 rpm. At this point, it feels like something is holding me back. Pushing down the accelerator pedal more does not illicit any more "noise" from the engine. I can maintain 60 on the level, but just any slight incline and she looses speed. At some point, I can punch the accelerator pedal down to get it to down-shift. When I do, it goes to 2nd gear, winds up and eventually gets me back up to speed.

The question I have to you other Ram 5.7L engine owners that tow is, does this sound normal? I guess I was anticipating that even at 60 mph, she'd still have some power left to increase speed or climb a small incline. She seems to be at the wall.

If it's not normal, any recommendations?
 

HockeyPops

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Try setting your gears to 8. It turns the MDS off. MDS may be kicking in even in tow mode.

But I’m a novice.
 

yoda

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He has the 45RFE not the 8 speed. At 2000 rpms your not really in your torque area of the Hemi, I cant remember on the 04, can you manually select 3rd or drive on the shifter, if so pull it down manually into 3rd when you need to climb a hill or accelerate.
 

crash68

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^^^^ wut @yoda stated
Looks like the torque specs for the '04 Hemi is 375 ft/lbs @ 4400 rpms, so your going to need to get the rpms up there when climbing.
Some people get freeked out about winding a gasser up into the torque band, but it's what needs to happen to pull the load.
 
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Midloguy

Midloguy

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Unfortunately, there is no "manual" mode on this 04 to select a gear. That would have been great.
It just seems odd to me that she's got no reserve of power when on a level road.
 

HemiLonestar

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Nope, all you have is OD off (3rd gear), 2nd and 1st gear shifting manually
 
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Midloguy

Midloguy

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Actually, all I have is 1,2, and D. Tow/Haul on/off. That's it. This is a 5 speed with OD. Tow mode changes the shift profile and prevents it from going into 5th. (OD)
 

Marley

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OD off is really non existent for this year, just the final gear.

I pull a 5500 lb trailer with 3.73 gears and experience the same thing, wanting to lug.

That said, the 5.7 is not afraid of RPMS and starts to show off some muscle when you climb into the power band.

The wife and I were camping this past weekend climbing steep mountain grades and on one particular grade kept the rpms over 4000 for quite sometime without any issues.
 

ST-8

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Yea us 04 guys got screwed with the od off option. My buddies 07 would shut od off. I think his 03 would too, I’d love to be able to do that
 

ThunderMug95

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Hey there neighbor in Midlothian!
Forgive my 3rd gen ignorance... Can you get a tune for the ‘04’s? If so, it could help your power/shift points. I know throwing money at it prob isnt what you want to hear, but if its an option, look into it.
 

HemiLonestar

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Actually, all I have is 1,2, and D. Tow/Haul on/off. That's it. This is a 5 speed with OD. Tow mode changes the shift profile and prevents it from going into 5th. (OD)

Sigh...yes I know it's a 5 speed (I've had my truck with the same trans you have for about 14yrs lol), your 5 speed (the infamous 545RFE) has 3 gears (1st, 2nd, then 3rd is the 1:1), then 2 OD gears (4th and 5th)....which means you have 1st, 2nd and 3rd (as I said) since (as you said) OD is locked out with tow/haul.....anything that locks out overdrive takes both 4th and 5th away from you because they are both OD gears. It also locks out 2 prime (the extra kickdown gear). Got it now lol? Here's the list of ratios, it might help illustrate:
  • 1st 3.00:1
  • 2nd 1.67:1
  • 2nd Prime 1.50:1
  • 3rd 1.00:1
  • 4th 0.75:1
  • 5th 0.67:1
  • Reverse 3.00:1

Yea us 04 guys got screwed with the od off option. My buddies 07 would shut od off. I think his 03 would too, I’d love to be able to do that

My 03 just has OD off; it's only a function of programming, I wonder if it's related to whether a truck came with tow package or not. Mine didn't.
 

HemiLonestar

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Hey there neighbor in Midlothian!
Forgive my 3rd gen ignorance... Can you get a tune for the ‘04’s? If so, it could help your power/shift points. I know throwing money at it prob isnt what you want to hear, but if its an option, look into it.

With Superchips yes, but Diablo CMR doesn't support it if you need a custom tune.
 
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Midloguy

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For what it's worth, I just cleaned the throttle body. I was very dirty. Don't anticipate this making any difference on the high RPM end, but may improve idling and low end starts. Plugs and wires look like they've been replaced. Running Autolite Platinum 5263 plugs. The one I pulled looks real good.
 
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Midloguy

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To HemiLonestar. Yes, I found that same gear ratio chart yesterday and noticed that 3rd was 1:1 and both 4 and 5 were technically OD ratios. But, it really does feel like it goes into 4th. 3rd hangs on a long time till I ease back on the pedal.
 

HemiLonestar

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To HemiLonestar. Yes, I found that same gear ratio chart yesterday and noticed that 3rd was 1:1 and both 4 and 5 were technically OD ratios. But, it really does feel like it goes into 4th. 3rd hangs on a long time till I ease back on the pedal.

Not technically, they both very much are. The 45RFE didn't have 5th programmed in. You're probably feeling 3rd going into lockup. I hate the RFE but there weren't really any alternatives I liked until very recently; most automatics people put in place were stronger but only had one OD gear. With 4.56 gears I wasn't having it lol. Down the road I think an 8HP70 is gonna go in mine.
 
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Midloguy

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So, is there some sort of torque limiter that could come into play?
 

HemiLonestar

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There is always torque management, that is the only thing that keeps these things alive behind a hemi (and not doing full throttle downshifts from OD). TM only comes into play right before the shift though; it drops rpm, executes the shift, then brings it back up.
 

BigBlue05

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For what it's worth, I just cleaned the throttle body. I was very dirty. Don't anticipate this making any difference on the high RPM end, but may improve idling and low end starts. Plugs and wires look like they've been replaced. Running Autolite Platinum 5263 plugs. The one I pulled looks real good.

While the platinum plugs may be working fine. The general consensus on here is that copper plugs work best in the hemi.
 
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Midloguy

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So I'm curious, what difference would I expect to see if I changed from the Platinum to the Copper?? Would it be anything noticeable?
Is it possible that Torque Management could be coming into play, even though the tranny is not at a shift point? How would you know?
 
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HemiLonestar

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While the platinum plugs may be working fine. The general consensus on here is that copper plugs work best in the hemi.

Normally, though there are oddball cases

So I'm curious, what difference would I expect to see if I changed from the Platinum to the Copper?? Would it be anything noticeable?
Is it possible that Torque Management could be coming into play, even though the tranny is not at a shift point? How would you know?

If you're having igntion issues it may smooth things out since that's what is called for and more often than not people have issues with platinum or iridium in these engines (beyond the expense of 16 plugs for an 8 cyl engine). You wouldn't only way to know for sure about the TM is to hook up a scanner capable of live data reading if/when that happens.
 
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