2018+ Ecodiesel Travel Trailer Towing, GDE question

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Rancher4j

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I've learned so much from this forum, just wanted to give back a little and ask a few more questions from owners with 2018-2019 ecodiesels.

I bought a used 2018 Ecodiesel Tradesman with 3.55 gears with P265/70R17 from the factory, P27560R20 put on afterward by previous owner. It got the EGR upgrade right before I bought it and I had to change out the lift pump on warranty (fuel pressure issues under 1/4 tank) right after so I'm hoping I'm good. I have a 100k certified preowned warranty with Chrysler. I've read comments on 3.92 gears, GDE tunes and am ******* for both but would like to hear more from 2018 and 2019 owners.

For GDE, did GDE tunes work on these years, how much have they helped for these newer models, are there more obstacles, etc. There are a lot of comments about GDE from 2014-2016 owners, but not a lot from the 2018-2019 owners.

I think the back and forth on 3.55 vs 3.92 tradeoffs are well documented and I suspect don't change much with years. I don't want to reignite the whole things, only a few comments from newer truck owners who did the 3.55 to 3.92 change for towing and what results they experienced. I would probably not do 4.10s as I do like the mpgs.

I live near the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and was looking hard for towing stats from those living in mountain stats, so thought this might be useful if you want results from someone who lives near the Rockies. Towing on flat ground and towing in these Rockies are two different things as many know.

I rented a Lance 2185. By travel trailer weight standards, its pretty light at 4000 unloaded. It is a little over 25' long. We pulled with no water and maybe added 500-700 lbs max as there are only 2 of us. I would eventually like to tow more than this, but started here. I thought this would not tax the truck much.

I pulled the trailer from Denver to Carbondale and back over the Ike Gauntlet as they call it (I70, Eisenhower tunnel) as well as over Vail pass. About a 400 round trip journey. Climbing up Oil temps rose to 230-240s pretty fast. There were a few spots where it starting climbing to 250. Having read Vern Diesel I just kept it under 3k and slowed down. I know there is a lot of people that will drive it to 260s+, but I wanted to keep it under 250. In some steeper and longer grades, I had to slow down to 50 on the way over and 40-45 on the way back to keep it under 3k. I noticed if I went over 3k rpm, it got hot fast so confirmed that rule. I never went over 65 on flats or downhill. ... rented traiiler. :)

I got about 13.7 mpg average for the round trip. I had previously pulled a car on a car transport for a test right after I bought it over this same pass that weighed about 5k combined and had average over 19mpg so I can see that wind resistance of the trailer adds a lot of drag.

It took me a while to figure out how to use fixed gears going down the hill to save brakes a little. I used tow/haul the whole way but after reading some of the posts, might try to do without it next time and see if I can get a little better gas mileage, especially on getting it to kick in 8th gear on flats. Maybe I'm dreaming.

The trailer had a WDH so no sway to speak of. I think if I was just pulling on flat highway I would get in the 15-16 on a good day, but might be wrong. It did dip in the back and was not completely level, despite the WDH, so I now have airbags on my list. Probably Airlift 5000s. Perhaps a more level tow would have helped gas mileage.

Overall, I guess I was a little disappointed. It did the job, but barley. I really want to be able to tow 5500+ unloaded and up to 7000 loaded. My GCWR on this truck is 13750, GVWR is 6800 and payload capacity is 1241. So I think the specs are tight and will accommodate this. . I was looking at 2 trailers - one weighs 5200 unloaded and can go up to 7000 loaded. The other weighs 5920 unloaded with over 8000 loaded. I've dropped this last one from consideration for obvious reasons.

Now I am trying to figure out how to give this truck a little more capacity for towing, especially to handle the one that is close to 7000 loaded. If it barely did the job with 5500, another 1000-1500 lbs is going to be tough I'm guessing. I don't want to be doing 25mph up the Ike pass.

Any sage advice? Would the gde tune really help? Upgrading to 3.92? Waiting for a used 2020?

I hope I've given back a little for someone who needs Rocky Mountain tow stats and looking forward to feedback from people that don't own 2014-2016 ecodiesel trucks.
 
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crash68

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A tune would help, regearing would also help but helping the cooling system out is equally beneficial. Part of the problem is the intercooler heat soaks the radiator, haven't heard of too many attempting a relocation. The best cooling gains are from an external air oil cooler. There are some premade kits but it sounds like you need to go big
 

sandawilliams

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I got about 13.7 mpg average for the round trip. I had previously pulled a car on a car transport for a test right after I bought it over this same pass that weighed about 5k combined and had average over 19mpg so I can see that wind resistance of the trailer adds a lot of drag.

Looks like your mpg is from the evic. Hand calculate and see what your true mileage is. It may bring a tear to your eye.
 
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Rancher4j

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I looked into 3.92 gear upgrade. I guess for my truck, they welded the gear to the carrier in the front, so part has to come from Dodge and cost is crazy expensive. Total starts climbing near $4k+ range for the job. I think I'm not likely to pursue this unless I can see some cheaper path.

Going to dig into GDE tune next. If it gives me some extra horse and torque, that might do the trick.

I would also do oil cooler but approaches like BountyHunter are over $5k, so will poke around more for cheaper approaches.

Lastly, I looked into AirLift 5000s today. The 4 Wheel Parts guy said it wouldn't work for my truck as I have coils, not leaf springs. I know some people in this forum did it for their RAM trucks so I'm going to circle back to see what they did.
 

VernDiesel

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A tune with a brake would be on my shortlist. Especially towing in the mountains. So would a factory TBC trailer brake controller. Between the two assuming good weather roads you should be able to descend a pass with trailer and not even need your service brakes to control downhill speed. Nice to have the reassuring down hill control and cool service brakes for an emergency stop. Also really helps service pads last. Green Diesel, SKT & HD Diesel are the most prominent in the ED world. After governmental interference GDE can now only provide it with EGR but its still a great tune. SKT & HD Diesel out of Canada still have the soot and unburnt diesel recirculator turned off. (EGR) This helps keep critical bearing oil passages and intake passages open to avoid engine failures & fires. At least thats my non lawyerly opinion.

SKT currently has a special on the combo of both engine & trans tunes with hardware to uninstall & reinstall for dealer service trips. Fellow TT transporter raves about it with the rally time tune addition. But to me the biggest benefit of a tune is keeping your truck out of the dealer service bay. Amazing how much a tune will prevent this assuming you don't currently have emissions issues. Last would be the additional power or mileage.

https://www.sofakingtuned.com/store/p36/TSCOMBO.html#/

Here is a link for the Timbergroves axle to frame airbags. Quality good service and better pricing than Airlift 5000.

https://timbergroveenterprises.com/old-home

The 3.92 is not beneficial enough to warranty the high cost of a swap (4WD) with the 8 speed transmission.

If the back was sagging with that trailer weight you likely were under utilising your WDH. The ideal is to set your truck and trailer up by CAT scale results. The two main things are to try to replace the unloaded steer weight and second is to get your tongue weight ideally around 12.0 percent of gross trailer weight. This will provide the maximum stability and often as a side benefit fix sag. That said the axle to frame bags are still a great addition as they will help support and dampen the rear suspension for the best ride road feel and control over rough pavement.

Sandy is used to a gas truck. Keeping to no more than 65 mph using reasonable driving methods with cruise as much as prudent and having a tune averaging between 14.0 & 15.9 mpg towing that trailer would be expected.

Commonly people add nearly 1,000 pounds going from dry to camp ready. Batteries, propane, minimal water, supplies. So your larger choice 5,900 dry would often end up at 7,000 camp ready. I'd set my WDH & loading so that it comes in with a tongue weight of around 840 pounds as seen in the truck combined axle weight. 3k rpm with tune this should still climb a pass at about 50 mph no derate passing semi trucks that are in the truck lane but being passed by cars that are in the hammer lane. This is completely fine by me I've been the truck driver climbing the truck lane at 25 mph flat on the floor with 4 wheelers pulling in front of you last minute to kill your down hill momentum. That was stressful this isn't.

If you still have the 17" wheels they will also help by lowering weight, rolling resistance, and gearing. Also fwiw all season tires waste less power and fuel than high rolling resistance heavy all terrain tires. This has a bigger effect than most people realise. Currently I'm running a slightly shorter 265/60/20. I'm sure you know taking a TT over I-70 between Denver and Grand Junction is one the worse case scenarios. BTW I don't normally tow a TT in 8th. It does nothing for mileage puts unnecessary load on the bearing and slows lubricating oil flow. 740k on my truck towing with this motor take it or leave it. FWIW Crash & I volunteer over at Ram1500diesel should you need help with anything.
 
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Rancher4j

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Gosh, this is exactly the kind of direction I was looking for. I was definitely thinking about the Tune as a next step too and have been reading up on GDE vs SFT. I did not know the government stepped in and limited the GDE tune. Thought that was only CA. What exactly did they take away?

GDE likes to say they are real diesel engineers wind other tunes are more resellers of overseas products. Any truth to that and does it matter?

I’m sure the WDH wasn’t optimized with my truck as it was only a rental and there was no time for that so it is encouraging that when I buy my own trailer, there is more to do.

Thanks for the tip on the airbags. That is 2nd on my list. I already installed the factory integrated brake controller so that is done.

I’m hoping with the airbags, tune and better WDH adjustments, I’ll optimize this truck for pulling a 6000-7000 loaded trailer.

Thanks gain Vern!
 

crash68

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GDE likes to say they are real diesel engineers wind other tunes are more resellers of overseas products. Any truth to that and does it matter?
GDE has done engineering for FCA and other vehicle OEMs. They test their tunes in the same fashion that the OEMs do taking in account component parameters.
SFT has openly admitted that the tunes he sells are from an overseas tuner that he resells and even modifies before reselling. Not much mention of testing other than HP and fuel economy numbers.
Does it matter? One of the choke points of making power with the EcoDiesel is the turbo. Making boost level changes sound simple until you factor in overspeeding turbo. The difference is longevity of the components, a properly engineered tune takes that in to account.
 
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Rancher4j

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Thanks Crash68. Great answer. Can you address what GDE can no longer do? They cannot turn off the EGR recirculator?
 

chri5k

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GDE may not be an option. It seems the EAP made a visit to their shop. I don't think GDE is selling tunes in the US. Not sure what the outcome will be but the Feds have asked for more data from GDE>
 

crash68

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Can you address what GDE can no longer do? They cannot turn off the EGR recirculator?

From what I've read they have minimized usage of the EGR. Sadly EGR usage is mandated even if the manufacturer can prove it meets the emissions requirements without it.
 

crash68

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GDE may not be an option. It seems the EAP made a visit to their shop. I don't think GDE is selling tunes in the US. Not sure what the outcome will be but the Feds have asked for more data from GDE>

GDE is back selling tunes to the US. They have the first EPA approved tune available. Last I heard they were still waiting on Cali to approve it but it's due to Covid-19 delays but the testing part has been approved.
GDE original tune is still supported for those outside of the US also.
 
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Rancher4j

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So, as a follow up, I've added the Timber Grove Airbags. Was pretty easy except for that one bolt that goes thru the lever arms. Very tricky. They seem to work fine although I haven't tested them with towing yet. I did not add compressor. We'll see how much its needed later. Just put up with little compressor that plugs into cigarette lighter.

Also finished Sofa King Tune today. Got to say I was nervous to say the list but it uploaded to truck just fine. I immediately noticed turbo lag was gone, it shifted thru gears faster and it had more pep on acceleration. Have not tested gas mileage yet. Will do later this week. So far so good.

This in addition to integrated brake controller I added will help make towing more tolerable.

There is few more things I've been thinking about and wanted to get feedback on:
1. I've been told in addition to turning off EGR recirculation with the tune, that using a gas additive helps keeps turbo clean. Suggestions on best brand?
2. I've been also thinking about getting some tow mirrors that extend more. Suggestions on brand?
3. Lastly, I still really hate how hot the oil gets in this truck. I've seen that Sofa king makes a adapter to allow an external oil cooler to be added. Anyone try this? I don't really want to go crazy and spend $5k like some people have on this forum. Was looking for a solution that was around $1k. Maybe I'm dreaming. Any ideas?
4. I gave up on changing gear ratios and aren't going to change my truck tires anytime soon, but if I've missed anything to best equip me for towing, feel free.
 

JohnnyMac

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