Rancher4j
Junior Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2020
- Posts
- 8
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- Centennial, CO
- Ram Year
- 2018
- Engine
- Ecodiesel 3.0L
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.
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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