Extreme Towing // I Take My RAM 3500 Cummins HO Dually Up & Down a Max 25% Grade with My Fifth Wheel
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- One of my favorite CZcams channels is @TFLtruck, in fact they were the very first channel I ever subscribed to on CZcams way back when Andre only spoke Russian and was measuring brake temperatures :) Anyway, they put out fantastic content so if you aren't subscribed to them you need to be! But, as many of you know @TFLtruck has a longstanding tradition testing trucks up and down the Ike Gauntlet, which is an extreme test at asignificantly high elevation and grade change...almost like a marathon for a runner. I'd say it's probably of the best towing tests out there.
Well, in today's video I make my first attempt to document a "mini" towing test of sorts more like a short sprint for a runner, using my 2021 @RamTrucks RAM 3500 Cummins High Output Dually while towing my 2021 Jayco Pinnacle 37MDQS fifthwheel up and down a maximum 25% grade.
Stick around till the end of the video as I'll answer some questions that came to mind while I was recording the uphill and downhill runs. Hopefully the video will give you an idea how the RAM/Cummins @cummins platform handles an ultra steep grade while towing heavy.
00:00 Intro
02:10 Truck & Trailer Details
04:38 Uphill Run
08:07 Downhill Run
11:49 Q&A - Max 25%?
16:24 Q&A - Why Brakes?
20:26 Q&A - Why Not 1st Gear?
22:03 Final Thoughts
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Disclaimer: Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in this video, no responsibility is taken for any error, omission, or misstatement. This video is for demonstration purposes only and should only be used as such by any prospective viewer. Reliance on such advice, information, or the content of this video is solely at your own risk, including without limitation any safety guidelines, resources, or precautions related to the setup, install, operation, maintenance, or repair of any equipment or any other information available in or through this video. All content contained in this video is not intended to form part of any guarantee or warranty and are offered on an as is, basis. I assume no responsibility for errors or omissions in the contents of this video. In no event shall I be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages such as injury, death, or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tort, arising out of or in connection with the use of the information or the contents presented in this video. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
As a guy that daily's 25-30% grades for work this is what I have figured out. If you're in manual mode it will not shift up if it over revs. If you're in manual and in first you have no exhaust brake but the torque converter will stay locked. You could go into low range but I find the exhaust brake can be intermittent. I'd recommend always being in manual for hills like that to avoid the risk of it upshifting when you don't want it to.
To convert from degrees to percent grade, take the tangent of the degrees, then multiply by 100. A scientific calculator will have the tangent function. On an iPhone, pull up the regular, Calculator, and turn the phone sideways, and it will become a scientific calculator. Very handy!
Idea is stay off the brakes as much as possible, not to overheat them. Seems like the truck did pretty well considering the grade. Trying to think out west most are around 9-10% grades but for longer stints. Your Rpm’s stayed pretty steady as well!
Great video! That road seemed pretty narrow as well as steep. Has to been somewhat stressful to say the least. As one of my clients would say, the “pucker factor” would definitely increase on the way down, especially with the wet road & fog. Nice to see the truck show off it’s capabilities so well. Thanks again. Any update on your fuel efficiency. I have 19 months of data on every fill up I have done. Would be nice to compare at some point. Finally bought a 5’er RV so I’ll soon have towing fuel efficiency data.
I'm getting 9-11mpg towing and 15-16mpg unladen with normal driving. Think about best has been 18-19mpg continuous highway under 65mph.
Great towing test you've done with your one and only 3500 dually, fellow Ram owner! That Ferd behind you after you finished descending from that incline says, "way to go Ram". Our 2023 3500 dually limited should be arriving soon to be paired with our 20k loaded Momentum toy hauler as we continue our travel fulltime on the road. Safe travels and happy trails to you and yours. Cheers from the Nevada Desert!🤠
Thank you!
@@AdventureRocks And thank you for your service to the truck and rv industry to your fellow citizens. Keep it up, sir!
@@j.l.salayao8055 thank you!
An observation -
In Alt height mode, the truck is lowered in the rear which will skew your pitch. Albeit not a lot.....
You could use 4WD high to add more friction to help dissipate the energy of the heavy load. Out here in the Northwest, we have some really treacherous and long grades to navigate. I have had to literally crawl down a steep gravel grade to maintain control in 4WD low. I have used the torque converter lock feature to hold my RAM in a lower gear many times and never had the computer force an upshift to avoid damage to the engine, so good to know there is a built in safety feature. My 30 ft trailer is nowhere near as heavy as your 5th wheel.
That is an absolutely gorgeous truck! Thanks for another awesome video.
Great tip on the 4WD. I did not think about that. Maybe I can try that next time. Thank you for sharing.
You do not want to use 4wd on asphalt/concrete (unless there is snow/ice on it) unless you want to be replacing wheel u-joints. 4wd is not AWD. 4wd does not have a center differential to allow differnat wheel speeds between the front and rear axles. Thus why it always says "only use 4wd/4wd low on slippery surfaces only. Also in low range the truck will not go into overdrive gears to prevent damage.
You can buy simply plug and play kits for $200-300 bucks to engage low range and stay in 2wd. Very handy.
This hill reminds me of a trip up to a state park in southern Ga mountains….shew it was steep and twisty, but a beautiful state park. Looks like the Ram had no problems with it. Thanks for sharing some good info with us.
Thank you, appreciate the kind words.
There is not any mountains in South Georgia
no go to Doll Mtn or Ft Mtn or go from Helen to Hiawassee, pulled my same size fifth wheel in my 2500 short bed, not a good idea@@apj3510able
25 percent grade is pretty close to 14 degrees according to the quick chart I looked up. My F350 tends to underestimate slope up and down as well. Oddly, the roll seems pretty accurate.
As others have said, percentage and degrees are totally different. Percentage is the feet in elevation change in 100 foot forward. So a 45 degree hill would be a 100 percent grade. By the way, nice truck. FYI, check the grid heater bolt!!! Good video.
Yes, right on! @ 12:24
10 degrees angle would be about 18% grade. So if your display is truly showing in degrees, the 20% grade sign is pretty close to accurate.
Just curious about the trailer brake gain setting you used. I listened twice and didn't hear you mention it, so sorry if i missed it. Thank you. Great video!
I think with my current setup I've got it on heavy electric and the gain somewhere around 6 to 7. It changes a little bit from truck to truck and trailer to trailer, but the way I've always calibrated my trucks is to have everything connected and be at a complete standstill on a flat level plane, and then adjust the gain such that without the truck brakes engaged the trailer brakes alone just barely hold everything still with the manual squeeze lever fully engaged. I try that a few times until I get it set where it just barely holds with the trailer brakes alone. That seems to make everything happy when coming to stops from higher speeds and such without the truck breaking too much or the trailer braking too much. Hope that makes sense.
I'd like to do a tow comparison with my 2018 ram 3500 g56 4x4 as well.
How is your 21 ram high output been treating you this time? Im looking at slightly used with only 16k 2021 ram high output diesel with the aisin transmission. Thanks in advance. Nice ram night edition by the way!
Thanks. So far so good. No issues whatsoever! I'd definitely buy it all over again. I would imagine you'd get the rest of the factory warranty, which would be reassuring.
Thanks for the video, can you tell what brand of tonneau cover you have on the truck? And do you like it?
Thank you. Yes, it is Truxedo Truxport cover. It's kinda old school in that it sits above the bed rails completely and rolls up (compared to the sleaker profiles that sit lower/concealed), but I've had it on my last 2 trucks and they never leak and both have held up really well...no issues with wear, discoloring, tearing, etc. The sleaker profiles look nice too, but some complexity given channels/gutters to collect rain, plus they narrow the distance between rails. So anyway, not the sleakest look, but I've had no issues with the Truxport simplicity. Sometimes Amazon will have a "warehouse deal" on an open box one for $150-$250. Here's the one - amzn.to/3KdYl7y
@@AdventureRocks perfect thank you for the info. I just picked up my 2023 Ram dually and I need to find an affordable cover to use until the sting of the new vehicle price has subsided! 🤣
I thought the alt trailer height was for bumper pulls and turns off if the air ride doesn’t experience enough load. I’ve had no idea you could keep it on.
I think it will turn off if no load on rear, but works for bumper pull or gooseneck/fifth wheel. I remember I turned it on by accident one time empty and it said something about ride height not achieved due to lack of payload.
What’s size tires you running, looks nice. Any mod on front? Thanks
Thanks! Yes, just stock tire size, but Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws @ LT235/80R17. I'm enjoying them so far at about 6K miles or so. Here's a video with more details on the tires:
czcams.com/video/z9jlBAIC8Yk/video.html
And, only other mod is Centramatics running on both front and rear:
czcams.com/video/iEZ4J5-bLFA/video.html
Where is this hill located,that is insanely steep!
Amicalola Falls in Georgia. Here's an updated video I did with my gasser and lighter TT:
czcams.com/video/qVVJkoaVkK0/video.html
I have a question for you, if you don’t mind. Have you towed the same weight trailer or close to it with a single rear wheel truck? What was the difference if so.
My wife wants an RV and my Raptor will be the sacrificial lamb. We recently rented and towed a 36 foot, 9,500 pound Grand Design RV from Dallas, Texas to Lake Powell (Pace,Arizona), for 5 days then to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and back. The tow vehicle was a maxed out 2019 Ram 1500. The mountains were no joke but I never felt pushed or heated up the brakes. I just limited the gears and rarely used the service brakes. 2,400 miles and 9 days in total 😅.
I like the way the dully looks but I really won’t be towing the RV but a couple times a year. However I am for sure open to the idea. Thought I would check to see your experience if you had a SRW truck before your DRW truck.
Sure no problem. So the biggest difference is going to be the payload with GVWR factored in. People don't talk about payload as much because, well, most people are overweight on their truck to begin with. Truck brands and dealers don't talk about it much either, they just tout the max towing capacity. With nearly every truck you'll run out of payload before towing capacity. In other words your truck may have 10K towing capacity, but the payload capacity (GVWR) may limit it to 6-8K. Payload is everything in the truck including gear, passengers, and whatever pin weight or tongue weight exerted from trailer. To make matters more confusing the pin weight or tongue weight advertised on RVs is typically without options, unloaded without liquids in tanks and no personal belongings. My pin weight went from 3,200 advertised to nearly 4,400 after fully loaded. Anyway, that's the main reason I chose a dually as I didn't have a choice with the pin weight on my fifth wheel. Again though, most people are overweight with their truck and RV, it's just an uncomfortable topic to discuss. Otherwise you'll get a little more stability with a dually compared to SRW, but payload is the big difference. Here's a video that explains it better:
czcams.com/video/uoshpcrBm-8/video.html
@@AdventureRocks Thank you for that and yes most are over loaded via payload and the last thing I want is to be on the stand perceived as I have done something wrong. The Ford F350 SRW HO Power Stroke is my most likely target. The RV we are looking at is a Brinkley Z3100, very cool if you haven’t seen them, it’s 12k dry and almost 14k loaded if I remember correctly. My biggest concern is how much more stable is the DRW vs SRW over a long haul. We got blown around a fair amount with that 8,500 pund 36’ RV in that RAM 1500. I did watch your other video, good information.
@@Captain-Awesome A lot to like on Brinkley! I think you'll be more satisfied long-term with the dually personally in that weight classification. You'll see people doing same unit with the single rear wheel, but I would imagine they're pretty close to their limits if they actually weigh themselves once fully loaded. Plus, dually gives you the flexibility if you wanted to add additional cargo in your bed such as a toolbox, scooters, or other items. Items. You'll just feel a lot more planted and stable with the dually I think. Only reason I can think of to stick with a single rear wheel is if you're not going to be towing it much, or other factors like you don't have anywhere to store the truck or you are just really opposed to a dually in general. But then definitely stick to a one ton single rear wheel and long bed to get max payload. Hope this helps.
@@AdventureRocks it sure does, thank you!
Which do you prefer the Duramax or the Cummins? And why? I'm torn between the two...
Tough call. Both great choices. I remember the extra horsepower on the Duramax felt nice when taking off unladen. Not that the Cummins is slow by any means, just I remember that difference unladen with the Duramax. While towing, both do a great job. Both are very agressive in downshifting, engine brake, exhaust brake while towing and going down grades...very confidence inspiring. As far as the actual transmission experience while towing I will say I think the Cummins/Aisin combo overall handles the shifting better than the Duramax/Allison combo...not saying the Duramax is bad there by any means, but it just seems like while towing the Cummins just delivers a more enjoyable experience in my opinion. I believe the inline 6 has a lot to do with that. Again, though both are great choices. I'd say for me what tipped the scale was more the Cummins in combination with the Uconnect infotainment setup and just overall truck controls/UI...I'm more familiar with the Uconnect platform and prefer it over the GM setup. So I could see if someone had the opposite preference and liked the GM controls/infotainment the scale could easily be tipped toward the Duramax. Don't think you can go wrong with either though. Here's my build video btw:
czcams.com/video/xb4joWYpClQ/video.html
@@AdventureRocks thank you