Tow/haul trailing braking info

Fearfact · Sep 21, 2019

I just wanted to throw this out there as myself, friends with similar trucks and my local sales team didn’t know this existed.... I know the only input back will likely be **** talking and/or the ones saying they knew it....
I have 3-6.4s and two CTDs in our little fleet.... the only complaints about the 6.4s are typically the confused shifting and ****** brakes while towing (we are moving 14-15k daily between small excavators and their trailers)... one of the guys was screwing with the radio and found through the setting where you can choose trailer options- to include LIGHT ELECTRIC, HEAVY ELECTRIC, LIGHT ELECTRIC/HYDRAULIC,HEAVY ELECTRIC/HYDRAULIC.... the trucks were all defaulted to light electric, the change to heavy has made a major difference and improvement in the trailer brake engagement while pulling heavy...
I showed this to a friend with an 18 6.4 that sells/delivers/moves small equipment (bobcat salesman) and it has completely changed his opinion on this truck
Hope this helps someone!

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U&A · Sep 21, 2019

AWSOME info.

Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

Michael · Sep 21, 2019

That setting is helpful.

I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but man, do they ever come up with some great ideas

Jimmy07 · Sep 21, 2019

Fearfact said:
I just wanted to throw this out there as myself, friends with similar trucks and my local sales team didn’t know this existed.... I know the only input back will likely be **** talking and/or the ones saying they knew it....
I have 3-6.4s and two CTDs in our little fleet.... the only complaints about the 6.4s are typically the confused shifting and ****** brakes while towing (we are moving 14-15k daily between small excavators and their trailers)... one of the guys was screwing with the radio and found through the setting where you can choose trailer options- to include LIGHT ELECTRIC, HEAVY ELECTRIC, LIGHT ELECTRIC/HYDRAULIC,HEAVY ELECTRIC/HYDRAULIC.... the trucks were all defaulted to light electric, the change to heavy has made a major difference and improvement in the trailer brake engagement while pulling heavy...
I showed this to a friend with an 18 6.4 that sells/delivers/moves small equipment (bobcat salesman) and it has completely changed his opinion on this truck
Hope this helps someone!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can also name and save each of your trailer’s gain settings.

Fearfact · Sep 21, 2019

Michael said:
That setting is helpful.

I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but man, do they ever come up with some great ideas

Agreed by WTF have it hidden in there I control and not accessible via the dash monitoring where it makes the most sense!

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Michael · Sep 21, 2019

Fearfact said:
Agreed by WTF have it hidden in there I control and not accessible via the dash monitoring where it makes the most sense!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why would anyone want it to make sense? <Sarcasm>

I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but man, do they ever come up with some great ideas

crash68 · Sep 21, 2019

Fearfact said:
one of the guys was screwing with the radio and found through the setting where you can choose trailer options- to include LIGHT ELECTRIC, HEAVY ELECTRIC, LIGHT ELECTRIC/HYDRAULIC,HEAVY ELECTRIC/HYDRAULIC....

The same trailer brake options are available in the 1500's also.
As someone else mentioned, you can have 4 different trailers settings saved. The truck will also log the miles you have towed that particular trailer.
You can also find the Hill Start Assist setting in the radio also, it helps to keep the truck from rolling backwards. If the truck is on enough of an incline, the HSA will hold the brakes briefly or until the throttle is pushed down. It works real good when pulling a boat out of the water, no need to "two foot" to keep from rolling further in the water.

Fearfact · Sep 21, 2019

I’ll have to check out the HSA as I never noticed but that is good knowledge as we work on the road shoulders a lot and often move equipment multiple times a day....thanks!

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GsRAM · Sep 21, 2019

Yep. Your correct. Selecting heavy electric makes a big difference with trailer braking. No harm in putting that out there for those that might not know.

BossHogg · Sep 22, 2019

All this is in the owners' manual. Does anyone read those anymore?

Michael · Sep 22, 2019

BossHogg said:
All this is in the owners' manual. Does anyone read those anymore?

I can’t remember if it’s in the owner’s manual. I found it by drilling threw all the options to see what was available.

Fearfact · Sep 22, 2019

BossHogg said:
All this is in the owners' manual. Does anyone read those anymore?

Hahaha...no

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Gr8bawana · Sep 27, 2019

BossHogg said:
All this is in the owners' manual. Does anyone read those anymore?

Oh it's in there, I found out by reading all 728 pages of it. I had the dealer order one for me when I bought the truck and a second key free of charge. I actually found out a lot of stuff I didn't know about my 2017.

Michael · Sep 27, 2019

BossHogg said:
All this is in the owners' manual. Does anyone read those anymore?

kurek · Oct 2, 2019

How would this work if someone didn't have the OE radio?

My Tradesman came with the 3.0 radio, it didn't have any vehicle controls in it to begin with and now I have an aftermarket radio in the dash.

The truck did not come with the integrated trailer brake controller, but I can buy the parts and I've read that I can have towing enabled by paying the dealer to add the sales code to my VIN.

But then what happens with these brake settings?

Jimmy07 · Oct 2, 2019

kurek said:
How would this work if someone didn't have the OE radio?

My Tradesman came with the 3.0 radio, it didn't have any vehicle controls in it to begin with and now I have an aftermarket radio in the dash.

The truck did not come with the integrated trailer brake controller, but I can buy the parts and I've read that I can have towing enabled by paying the dealer to add the sales code to my VIN.

But then what happens with these brake settings?

Trucks that came with the 3.0 radio have the settings in the instrument cluster screen, and are accessed using the steering wheel controls.

sandawilliams · Oct 2, 2019

Yep- owners manual is a great thing although most of us are men and usually don't read stuff like that.

Toddbigboytruck · Oct 2, 2019

GsRAM said:
Yep. Your correct. Selecting heavy electric makes a big difference with trailer braking. No harm in putting that out there for those that might not know.

I see you have a 2500 but I have read a lot but heavy is that a setting in all 1500 I tow my tt I just set it on the setting and away I go. My truck is 18 Laramie 5.7 cc 6.4 bed with 3:21. My tt is a 5500 lbs so should I set on heavy and why

GsRAM · Oct 3, 2019

Toddbigboytruck said:
I see you have a 2500 but I have read a lot but heavy is that a setting in all 1500 I tow my tt I just set it on the setting and away I go. My truck is 18 Laramie 5.7 cc 6.4 bed with 3:21. My tt is a 5500 lbs so should I set on heavy and why

No you set it to where the system gives you the braking performance you want. My trailer is old and the brake magnets are not as strong as they were when new, so I use heavy electric and 9 on the gain setting and my rig stops very well. Its almost seamless how well the system applies my trailer brakes. It feels good to me so that's where I run it.

Yours may be different. If your rig is newer you can probably use light electric and have similar performance. I've been towing trailers and tts now for over 25 years so I know the type of trailer brake feel I want.

Typically you set the gain by doing maybe 15-20 mph and use the manual slider control and increase gain until the trailer brakes just lock up under full application and then back it off a notch.

Good luck

Toddbigboytruck · Oct 3, 2019

GsRAM said:
No you set it to where the system gives you the braking performance you want. My trailer is old and the brake magnets are not as strong as they were when new, so I use heavy electric and 9 on the gain setting and my rig stops very well. Its almost seamless how well the system applies my trailer brakes. It feels good to me so that's where I run it.

Yours may be different. If your rig is newer you can probably use light electric and have similar performance. I've been towing trailers and tts now for over 25 years so I know the type of trailer brake feel I want.

Typically you set the gain by doing maybe 15-20 mph and use the manual slider control and increase gain until the trailer brakes just lock up under full application and then back it off a notch.

Good luck

Thank you. I have my fain at 6. The trailer is only 2 years old.

Tow/haul trailing braking info

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