Rear end thunk shifting from park into or past reverse when on an incline

[vdavidoff]

Just trying to figure out if this is considered normal on my 2019 1500. It doesn't sound or feel good, but also doesn't sound terrible.

My driveway has a bit of a steep incline on the way in and out. I stop there to open and close a gate. When I shift out of park into drive whether I'm coming in or going out (so, whether the truck is on an incline or a decline as far as where the front is facing) I get a pretty solid thunk from the rear end when I pass reverse. It's quite loud and I can feel it. If I shift to reverse instead of past it the same thing happens.

It feels/sounds like slack is being suddenly taken up, or let loose then catching as the driveline takes the weight of the truck, as the weight of the truck causes it to roll a bit. But I'm not sure. This happens whether I'm in 4x or 2x. It may be louder/worse in one or the other, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, before I go through the potential pain of trying to get the dealer to reproduce it, figured I'd ask if anyone else has experienced this, and if it's maybe considered normal. Form search didn't turn up anything.

Thanks.
Andy

 

[Njt07]

Do you engage the emergency brake? If you dont, that may be the reason.

 

[KeithP]

Your putting a lot of pressure on the parking pawl in your transmission. The release of that pressure when you shift out of park could be what your experiencing. You may also have a U-Joint starting to go out or a combination of both. If the only time you experience this is when you’re parked on this type of incline I would guess it’s the release of the parking pawl pressure. Try setting your parking brake before putting in park. Let the brake be the holder of the weight of the truck. The parking pawl should only be a safety back up in case the parking brake doesn’t hold. Then put it back into gear before releasing the brake. If you have the auto park brake feature, this may be a good example of why it exists. Most of us have disabled it in settings.

 

[vdavidoff]

Hey, thanks. Yeah, I do have that feature, and I do have it disabled. I'll turn it on and see how it goes. That was one of my first thoughts but it just seemed like it shouldn't be necessary (I have never experienced this on any other vehicle), but if it is, that's fine. I may still want the dealer to inspect the driveline anyway, but if I can keep this from happening in the mean time, that's good.

I'll report back.

 

[ramffml]

My truck does it too. Here is what I do. First set parking brake to auto engage in park. Then when ready to park, keep foot on brake, shift to neutral, wait a second and then lightly lift off brakes, then shift to park and hold brakes until parking brake has stopped moving. Works every time, no clunk.

 

[vdavidoff]

No surprise, but using the auto parking brake solved it, as you'd expect. Thank you. I'm not doing anything with neutral, though, I'm just putting my foot on the brake in drive and holding it while I put it in park, and not lifting off the brake until the parking brake is engaged. I imagine what's described above with neutral is to take load off the drive gear before the parking brake is set?

 

[MADDOG]

Yup...you have to pull up until you are ready to park, press the brake firmly, set the parking brake, put the transmission in Park then release the foot brake. It's a lot easier on the parking pawl and rest of the driveline.

 

[Elkman]

There is a load on the rear differential gears that is being released and this is not a reason for concern.