For the towing newbies...

[JJEH]

.... or the ones who are a little scared. Here's some real life data from a tow I did today. Nothing spectacular, I just want to put your mind at ease a little before perhaps you start to overthink this subject.

Our RAM 1500 is listed with a towing capacity of 10K and some change. Trailer weighs 2,200 and some change and the car 3,400 and some change curb weight, which makes it an approx. 5,700 pound tow.
Easy right?! And plenty of room to go.





Sagging a little, but nothing to be concerned about. Suspension wise our RAM is factory btw.

Look at this cute little fella:



It's a Weigh Safe hitch, has integrated scale, comes with 2 different ball sizes (3 available total), height adjustable, made in the U.S. and worth every penny!
Got mine at Summit Racing, my favorite store after a bakery.



Under 800 lbs tongue weight. Perfect.

What's also important, if not more, is a secure load!!!!
Make sure you take extra time and care to secure your load. Buy books, consult the internet, take a course, I don't care.
This is time and money well spend. Take time preparing and you'll be safe and sound on the road!!!



Again, Summit Racing has you covered. I'm not getting anything to say that btw.

And for the people concerned about the gas mileage... how does 15MPG sound?



Granted, half that way I was empty, but still, I can't complain. This truck rode like a dream!
I did inflate both rear tires to 60psi and put it into tow/haul mode once loaded. Transmission shifted like butter, and you can control those shifts easily with your right foot, it really lets you use that power band.

Weather was dry, temp was between 40 and 50 degrees. Heavy traffic at times but I did only between 65 and 70 miles an hour, with plenty of space in front of me.
Again, safety first and all the idiots who can't wait to get to their destinations have 2 other lanes to pass me.





I hope this puts your mind at ease a little. Know the numbers (if you don't know your payload/towing/what class hitch you have/etc please contact RAM. They'll give you everything there is to know!), check your equipment, secure the load and take your time!!!!

 

[gofishn]

Why 60psi?

Thought they qere 44 or soem such

 

[GTyankee]

it would be 44 pound running empty or a fairly light load.

I run about 500 to 700 pounds in my Rams bed, at all times
So i add a couple of PSI on the rears

If i were to pull a vehicle on a trailer, i would raise the PSI even more

 

[BossHogg]

Trailer weighs 2,200 and some change and the car 3,400 and some change curb weight, which makes it an approx. 5,700 pound tow.

Under 800 lbs tongue weight. Perfect.

The tongue weight is 14% of the trailer weight, which seems to be a bit on the high side given the recommended of 10 to 12 percent for a bumper pull. I would think the trailer was just a touch unstable. I'm thinking the vehicle on the trailer could have been loaded with the front of the vehicle facing backward. That may have brought the tongue weight down a bit.

FYI, I have Weight Safe hitches for both my trucks and I love them. If you sign up at the Weight Safe website, you will receive special offers on sales. I recently enjoyed a 20% off everything sale with free FedEx shipping.

 

[Irishthreeper]

And if you don’t set things up right you may be facing this. Camping season is near, everyone be careful and stay safe!

 

[Travelin Ram]

Tire pressures on the door sticker are for max GVWR.

I wouldn’t recommend anything higher without an understanding of what tire and wheel are involved.

 

[Sherman Bird]

.... or the ones who are a little scared. Here's some real life data from a tow I did today. Nothing spectacular, I just want to put your mind at ease a little before perhaps you start to overthink this subject.

Our RAM 1500 is listed with a towing capacity of 10K and some change. Trailer weighs 2,200 and some change and the car 3,400 and some change curb weight, which makes it an approx. 5,700 pound tow.
Easy right?! And plenty of room to go.

View attachment 516901

View attachment 516902

Sagging a little, but nothing to be concerned about. Suspension wise our RAM is factory btw.

Look at this cute little fella:

View attachment 516903

It's a Weigh Safe hitch, has integrated scale, comes with 2 different ball sizes (3 available total), height adjustable, made in the U.S. and worth every penny!
Got mine at Summit Racing, my favorite store after a bakery.

View attachment 516904

Under 800 lbs tongue weight. Perfect.

What's also important, if not more, is a secure load!!!!
Make sure you take extra time and care to secure your load. Buy books, consult the internet, take a course, I don't care.
This is time and money well spend. Take time preparing and you'll be safe and sound on the road!!!

View attachment 516905

Again, Summit Racing has you covered. I'm not getting anything to say that btw.

And for the people concerned about the gas mileage... how does 15MPG sound?

View attachment 516906

Granted, half that way I was empty, but still, I can't complain. This truck rode like a dream!
I did inflate both rear tires to 60psi and put it into tow/haul mode once loaded. Transmission shifted like butter, and you can control those shifts easily with your right foot, it really lets you use that power band.

Weather was dry, temp was between 40 and 50 degrees. Heavy traffic at times but I did only between 65 and 70 miles an hour, with plenty of space in front of me.
Again, safety first and all the idiots who can't wait to get to their destinations have 2 other lanes to pass me.

View attachment 516907

View attachment 516908

I hope this puts your mind at ease a little. Know the numbers (if you don't know your payload/towing/what class hitch you have/etc please contact RAM. They'll give you everything there is to know!), check your equipment, secure the load and take your time!!!!

Let's talk about the "Tow/ Haul" mode. Why is it there?

As a former automatic transmission specialist for GM and Ford, I'll happily share with you the training I got from world-class gurus at those factory training facilities.

Automatic transmissions with integral "overdrive" have a great advantage over non overdrive units in their abilities to reduce high speed cruising engine RPM, thus improving both fuel economy and engine life! Problem is, for every advantage, there are usually one or multiple disadvantages.

In the good old days, transmissions didn't have lock up torque converters, AND the final drive ratio OF the transmission was always 1 to 1. So, as my late grandfather would do, he would back his 455 powered Pontiac Grandville with the venerable TH400 tranny to his heavy boat trailer, hook said boat and trailer to the receiver, and put the shifter into "D", and go. No problem.

Enter the more modern 3-speed trannies of the early 80's that incorporated lock up torque converters, and the problems began. The twinky-noodle clutch in the converter for lock up was good only for cruise speeds at light throttle to maintain cruise conditions, NOT for towing of heavy loads. Period.
Add in the internal overdrive system of, oh, say the MD8 (TH 700R4) introduced in 1981. This combined both the overdrive WITH the TCC (Torque Converter Clutch) locking up. This was/ is a recipe for disaster when one tows a load or lades down a truck/van/ SUV and drives high speeds in overdrive. Why?

Enter that ancient dead dude, Archimedes. The laws of leverage and "mechanical advantage". See, most modern transmissions operate at anywhere between .69 to .75 to 1 ratio for overdrive. This means one is using the short end of a lever straddling a fulcrum to provide power to move a car/ truck. This is known as "Mechanical disadvantage". Add a load, and the stresses on the gear train of the O/D planetary set under overdrive conditions, and their longevity goes into the toilet, simply because the strain on them rises exponentially.

Add the twinky-noodle converter clutch into the equation, and what we have here in an unscheduled Bar-B-Que due to a combination of naturally lower line pressure and the mechanical disadvantage of overdrive AND NOW Ladies and Gentlemen!, We add WAY more heat into the equation! And "Whizz-Bang" go components!

Through much trial end error on the Big3 companies' R&D departments, they figured all these dynamics out! Upgrades over 40 + years have developed into a "Tow/Haul" mode which in many cases disables the overdrive, increases line pressures for the added stresses to the drive components IN the transmission, and in some cases turns off TCC. You ever notice, too, that Tow package equipped vehicles have larger radiators and external transmission oil coolers? Yup.

Some light trucks come equipped with transmissions originally designed for medium duty trucks... e.g. Allisons in GM's. This enables use of overdrive AND TCC in some instances, but let's talk overkill!

 

[JJEH]

Why 60psi?

Thought they qere 44 or soem such

Need to add more pressure for the added weight on the rear axle. Driving with flat tires is worse than driving with overinflated tires

The tongue weight is 14% of the trailer weight, which seems to be a bit on the high side given the recommended of 10 to 12 percent for a bumper pull. I would think the trailer was just a touch unstable. I'm thinking the vehicle on the trailer could have been loaded with the front of the vehicle facing backward. That may have brought the tongue weight down a bit.

FYI, I have Weight Safe hitches for both my trucks and I love them. If you sign up at the Weight Safe website, you will receive special offers on sales. I recently enjoyed a 20% off everything sale with free FedEx shipping.

10 to 15 percent, yes. The trailer was not unstable at all, but I also did only between 65-70mph, and I was looking very far ahead.

As to loading the car backwards; on a flatbed tow truck yes (if that's how you have access to the car), but not on a bumper pull trailer. You want the majority of the weight in front of the trailer axles.

Don't cheat tongue weight by wrongly loading the trailer, it will cause accidents.

And if you don’t set things up right you may be facing this. Camping season is near, everyone be careful and stay safe!View attachment 517315

I hate to sound like a wiseguy, but most of them accidents are preventable. Loading it correctly, reducing speed and looking far ahead makes a whole lot of a difference!! It's also more enjoyable to drive, no stress, take your time.

Through much trial end error on the Big3 companies' R&D departments, they figured all these dynamics out! Upgrades over 40 + years have developed into a "Tow/Haul" mode which in many cases disables the overdrive, increases line pressures for the added stresses to the drive components IN the transmission, and in some cases turns off TCC. You ever notice, too, that Tow package equipped vehicles have larger radiators and external transmission oil coolers? Yup.

Some light trucks come equipped with transmissions originally designed for medium duty trucks... e.g. Allisons in GM's. This enables use of overdrive AND TCC in some instances, but let's talk overkill!

You say it like it's a bad thing to have

Not sure if it was really needed in this case, but it's a great feature since you really can use the powerband and it lets you control the shift points with your right foot.

 

[gofishn]

... Enter that ancient dead dude, Archimedes....

Archimedes?
Duuude, this ain't the Prius forum, m8eee.

Archimedes?
WTH?

Throw out some Beers, definitely,
but leave that Math shirt, in school.

Oh, BTW, great rear. Just having Fun.
Sorta.
Could use a beer or 12, right now.

 

[Sherman Bird]

Not sure if it was really needed in this case, but it's a great feature since you really can use the powerband and it lets you control the shift points with your right foot.

I rebuilt Many, Many transmissions under warranty which had bar-b-qued the internals due to towing in overdrive, especially GM's with 4L60E or 700R4s in Suburbans and trucks. The hapless owners would make subjective justifications to their reason(s) for ignoring the admonition in the owner's manual to not towing in overdrive, right before the innards were barfed. "I tow a little pop-up trailer, but it doesn't weigh that much!". Gee, it was enough to grenade your transmission...

I personally have towed/ hauled/ loaded my truck and my old Suburbans with these transmissions... did NOT tow in overdrive and got many thousands of trouble-free miles from all of them over the years.

Maybe the fellas which designed and developed these machines knew a thing or 2.