V6 vs V8

[Wahrsuul]

V6 with 3.55 gears for the win!!!

Yeah, sometimes wish I could have found one of those when I was looking.... Still, the Hemi sounds great when I get annoyed with some id10t on the road and hammer it.

 

[dearchristopher]

No..with the 8 speed transmission, the Tow/Haul does not lock out eight gear. T/H raises the shift point closer to the engine torque peak. Depending on how heavy the trailer is and 3.21 gearing, you would probably have to get moving around/above 75 mph(or be coasting down a hill) to see the transmission shift into 8th

interesting. I run in tow/haul when I have performance mode on my truck going, and I can’t ever seem to hit 8th.


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[bchap05]

Yeah, sometimes wish I could have found one of those when I was looking.... Still, the Hemi sounds great when I get annoyed with some id10t on the road and hammer it.

When I bought my Hemi the dealers around here had a ton of v6's with 3.55s. I don't even think I ever saw a v6 without 3.55's. Surprised that so many have 3.21's. Not that I did much testing but I drove both trucks the 3.55 v6 and my 3.21 Hemi and the mpg was nearly identical on my test drives.

 

[PoMansRam]

It would be interesting to know exactly what it is why the V6, 8spd, 3.21s can only pull ~4100, where the hemi, 8spd, 3.21s can pull 8100.

Obviously the hemi has more power, but they are both coupled to the same drivetrain, brakes and suspension as far as I know? Like said above, I wonder if it has to do with the cooling capacity of the V6 vs the Hemi?

Then again, just jumping the Pentastar V6 to 3.55gears nearly doubles it's towing capacity?!? It's just doesn't make sense to me being such a non-linear change in towing capacity.

 

[csuder99]

It would be interesting to know exactly what it is why the V6, 8spd, 3.21s can only pull ~4100, where the hemi, 8spd, 3.21s can pull 8100.

Obviously the hemi has more power, but they are both coupled to the same drivetrain, brakes and suspension as far as I know? Like said above, I wonder if it has to do with the cooling capacity of the V6 vs the Hemi?

Then again, just jumping the Pentastar V6 to 3.55gears nearly doubles it's towing capacity?!? It's just doesn't make sense to me being such a non-linear change in towing capacity.

The V6 and V8 do not have the *exact* same drive train, the V6 uses a Chrysler variant of the 8HP45 while the V8 (and the Ecodiesel) uses the 8HP70. That may be the reason for the steep drop of the V6 with 3.21 but I'm more inclined to think there's just not enough torque with the V6 to get more than ~11k going on a steep incline.

 

[Tim7139]

The V6 and V8 do not have the *exact* same drive train, the V6 uses a Chrysler variant of the 8HP45 while the V8 (and the Ecodiesel) uses the 8HP70. That may be the reason for the steep drop of the V6 with 3.21 but I'm more inclined to think there's just not enough torque with the V6 to get more than ~11k going on a steep incline.

The big difference seems to be the acceleration portion of the SAE towing testing. This article digs into how it's determined. http://www.trucktrend.com/how-to/towing/1502-sae-j2807-tow-tests-the-standard/

 

[PoMansRam]

The V6 and V8 do not have the *exact* same drive train, the V6 uses a Chrysler variant of the 8HP45 while the V8 (and the Ecodiesel) uses the 8HP70. That may be the reason for the steep drop of the V6 with 3.21 but I'm more inclined to think there's just not enough torque with the V6 to get more than ~11k going on a steep incline.

Ah! That makes total sense. I had no idea the V6 Ram used the lower torque 8HP45 version of the ZF8 transmission. It's rated at ~400Nm vs ~700 for the 8HP70 hemi and diesel version if what I just looked up is accurate. Apparently the 8HP45 coupled with the 3.55 gears reduces the torque load on this transmission enough to increase the tow rating substantially. Interesting!! Thanks for that.

 

[Wahrsuul]

When I bought my Hemi the dealers around here had a ton of v6's with 3.55s. I don't even think I ever saw a v6 without 3.55's. Surprised that so many have 3.21's. Not that I did much testing but I drove both trucks the 3.55 v6 and my 3.21 Hemi and the mpg was nearly identical on my test drives.

If I had been buying new, I could have gotten it, but, couldn't afford a new one. The only V6 I found in my price range was a decent tradesman with the 3.21 gears. I thought it was a nice setup, and really thought about buying it and maybe swapping gears later, but the salesman came off a bit shady to me (it was a small independent dealer), so I passed.