Shudder and strange motion while towing.

[jon0m0berry]

Let me first start by saying im fairly new at towing. I have a 2010 ram hemi 4x4 crew cab with 3.92 rear end. Can tow almost 10k lbs. I just picked up a pop up trailer weighing about 3500 lbs. I know im way under my limit and power wise it did fine moving the trailer. But I noticed on upshifts, regardless of speed, there was a half second long slight shudder like feeling. It didnt do it 100% of time, really only if the rpm was under 3000rpm. Any idea what that is? Also I was in tow mode. I also at random times felt like a jerky motion pulling my truck around. Im leaning that its just the trailers lack of a good suspension slightly bouncing and my trucks 11 year old suspension not absorbing the motion. But any ideas are greatly appriciated. Thanks for your time.

 

[2003F350]

The random 'jerky' motion would definitely be the pop-up bouncing around, you're going to get that with any trailer that doesn't have a lot of tongue weight.

Was the trailer pretty level, or was it nose-high or low? If it wasn't level you're going to need to get a different drop hitch to accommodate for that - it will just plain haul better if it's level, even if you don't have dual axles under it (most pop-ups don't).

The shudder when shifting would have me concerned as well. I don't know for sure what it could be, pop-ups are generally light enough that you don't get the acceleration 'shudder' from moving a lot of weight. I've felt it when I was pulling my old 42' toyhauler with my old dually when I was trying to get up to speed quickly, but I've never felt it in the Wagon pulling anything.

 

[MADDOG]

I agree with @2003F350 on that popup being bouncy and causing some motion.

How many miles on your transmission and when was the transmission last serviced?

 

[Firebird]

Small single axle trailers bounce pretty good. How many miles are on your truck?

 

[NH RAM]

If it's just prior to shifting it's possible that the MDS is coming out of eco mode and transitioning to all 8 cylinders doing work, but that shouldn't happen on every gear change. If that's the case then I'd be thinking about checking into the transmission. IIRC, tow/haul doesn't disable the mds on 1500's. Try manually changing the gears so it takes the truck out of mds mode and see if it still happens.

 

[2003F350]

If it's just prior to shifting it's possible that the MDS is coming out of eco mode and transitioning to all 8 cylinders doing work, but that shouldn't happen on every gear change. If that's the case then I'd be thinking about checking into the transmission. IIRC, tow/haul doesn't disable the mds on 1500's. Try manually changing the gears so it takes the truck out of mds mode and see if it still happens.

If he's in tow mode, his MDS shouldn't be activating. Definitely don't think it's MDS. If it IS his MDS, then he's got a programming issue.

 

[jon0m0berry]

The trailer was kinda leaning a little lower in the back as opposed to the front. Getting an adjustable hitch was something I thought about doing. So I guess I'll try that out and see if it helps. But my truck has 125k on it but I did do a tranny filter change around 75k. I do also have a line booster aswell.

 

[BrenttheMouse]

The trailer was kinda leaning a little lower in the back as opposed to the front. Getting an adjustable hitch was something I thought about doing. So I guess I'll try that out and see if it helps. But my truck has 125k on it but I did do a tranny filter change around 75k. I do also have a line booster aswell.

Any update on this?