Upgraded to a RAM from a midsize truck

[HeyTheresTony]

You might find this interesting - upgraded to a 2015 Ram 1500 Big Horn w/Hemi and eight-speed auto from a midsize truck for better towing. The previous truck was a Nissan Frontier which towed our existing trailer just fine but we're upgrading that, too.

My observations:
This new truck is almost 2,000 heavier. Wow.

This new truck gets better mileage than the Nissan. Already seeing about 22mpg unloaded when cruising the highways around 65. The Nissan couldn't beat 20 and usually was closer to 19 under the same circumstances.

Ram has way, way, way, way more stuff going on in the computer department - so I bought an OBD device and will download the software to fiddle with it when that gets here.

Obviously the new truck is much more comfortable as well. Duh.

I have the factory brake controller BUT it's still in the box so I have to install that. That means the 3200lb trailer basically didn't have the benefit of brakes but, still, it went over the mountains fine on a recent trip.

The biggest improvement in this whole thing is that eight-speed auto. That thing and the buttons to upshift/downshift are what trailer towing dreams are made of.

Anyhow, glad I found this forum so I can post this stupid post...I've also already learned a bunch from here and I'm still a newbie.

Incidentally wife and I do a podcast and website about RVing and travel and I also write for RVTravel about...drum roll...RVs.

 

[Quyonmob]

Is that my buddy Tim? If not, he would write the same review for the same situation.

 

[Princeton_Man]

Congratulations on the new tow rig!

 

[Vman]

Congrats! I too recently bought my first Ram, it’s a 2016 Tradesman 1500 with the 5.7 Hemi V8, 8 speed tranny, 4x2 w 3.92 axle ratio. Specs say it can tow up to 10,230 lbs, which is crazy. My TT is only 4,200 lbs and my old 2007 Expedition is only rated at like 4,900 lbs or something stupid. I don’t have plans to tow anything close to 10K, but nice having peace of mind that there’s plenty of capacity left over, especially since we plan to hit the Smokies again sometime in 2021. Plus, I can go with a bigger TT someday too, if necessary.

 

[15 Handicap]

Just checked out your website and had ro bookmark it. Looks like some good stuff. Welcome aboard.

 

[grimreefer]

We traded our 2012 Titan Pro4x workhorse for a 2019 Canyon Denali 4WD thinking we could downsize. We thought wrong and the Canyon was a huge disappointment... even though it got way better mpg's than the 12 we were seeing in the Titan.