- Joined
- Aug 30, 2020
- Posts
- 1,295
- Reaction score
- 4,275
- Location
- Eaton Township, Ohio
- Ram Year
- 2019
- Engine
- 6.4 Hemi
Just got back from my longest haul to date. We took the camper up to Aberdeen, South Dakota for a week. Two days of driving on the way up, and two days driving on the way back. I did some experimenting with the Tow/ Haul feature that just re-enforced my faith in USING IT whenever towing more than 1000 pounds.
Without it, the truck would change gears far too often, and I discovered no savings in fuel economy. Using it, I easily located my trucks "Sweet Spot" for speed, fuel economy and performance. Set the cruise at an EVIC speedometer reading of 66mph (GPS speed of 65) it ran the smoothest and gave me the best operational performance. Very little shifting needed, usually only down one gear for hills. RPM of about 2200, running mostly in 7th gear. Down hills it would make 8th if the decent was long enough. Running at 70, the highest I would travel towing, it changed gears on every little hill, trying to keep up the set cruise speed. Sometimes downshifting from 7th to 5th to maintain speed. The extra speed didn't mean that much for time savings and the 66 setting was much smoother, quieter, and easier on the truck.
The trip was 2530 miles and the trailer weighs about 7500lbs loaded. Three fat adults in the cab of the truck, for 12 hours of traveling each day. The Ram 2500 6.4l handled the trip with ease. There was no time where I was concerned about the performance of the truck! There were some bad spots in the road that became uncomfortable, but that was due to the bad road. The fuel economy was as I expected it would be. We got 8.35 miles per gallon, calculated. The EVIC told me the total trip got 9.4. So much for EVIC mpg accuracy. I ran midgrade 89 with ethanol most of the trip. Until I got to Wisconson and discovered you can still buy gasoline without alcohol in it. We can't do that in Ohio, so I ran alcohol free whenever I could. It cost more, but gas cost was not my biggest concern.
I hadn't been to the Dakotas since 2006 and my memory of their beauty had faded. It was nice to see it again. Living in, or close to the Big City we can forget there are places in this country where you can drive for hours and not see a house or building, or even another person. It was a lot of driving, and the RAM 2500 demonstrated it is more than capable for the LONG RUN!
Without it, the truck would change gears far too often, and I discovered no savings in fuel economy. Using it, I easily located my trucks "Sweet Spot" for speed, fuel economy and performance. Set the cruise at an EVIC speedometer reading of 66mph (GPS speed of 65) it ran the smoothest and gave me the best operational performance. Very little shifting needed, usually only down one gear for hills. RPM of about 2200, running mostly in 7th gear. Down hills it would make 8th if the decent was long enough. Running at 70, the highest I would travel towing, it changed gears on every little hill, trying to keep up the set cruise speed. Sometimes downshifting from 7th to 5th to maintain speed. The extra speed didn't mean that much for time savings and the 66 setting was much smoother, quieter, and easier on the truck.
The trip was 2530 miles and the trailer weighs about 7500lbs loaded. Three fat adults in the cab of the truck, for 12 hours of traveling each day. The Ram 2500 6.4l handled the trip with ease. There was no time where I was concerned about the performance of the truck! There were some bad spots in the road that became uncomfortable, but that was due to the bad road. The fuel economy was as I expected it would be. We got 8.35 miles per gallon, calculated. The EVIC told me the total trip got 9.4. So much for EVIC mpg accuracy. I ran midgrade 89 with ethanol most of the trip. Until I got to Wisconson and discovered you can still buy gasoline without alcohol in it. We can't do that in Ohio, so I ran alcohol free whenever I could. It cost more, but gas cost was not my biggest concern.
I hadn't been to the Dakotas since 2006 and my memory of their beauty had faded. It was nice to see it again. Living in, or close to the Big City we can forget there are places in this country where you can drive for hours and not see a house or building, or even another person. It was a lot of driving, and the RAM 2500 demonstrated it is more than capable for the LONG RUN!
