Sorry kind of a long story but I wanted to share. This wheat harvest I rented a combine to a customer with a 40ft MacDon draper header (I'm a farm equipment salesman). There has been threat of long term rain and he's trying to get done in time before that. Well this weekend I was splitting firewood when I got a call from that customer yelling at me because his header quit working and our mechanics are already in a mad rush with other people. Long story short I said I'll bring you another 40ft draper header. My work pickup is a POS Ford ranger that can't even tow it's own weight. Well, my I had the oil draining in my 2005 1 ton cummins so I couldn't use that immediately. I grabbed the keys to my 95 and drove to work, hooked the header up and started the journey to his field. The ol girl pulled it pretty good up and down hills for the slow 25 mph trip there until the very last hill which was the steepest and longest one. I dropped it into 1st started up the hill and immediately the truck started losing RPM's real fast and heating up. I put my foot to the floor which didn't help at all. I ended up making it to the top at 1200 rpm. I thought I was gonna power out. I knew these headers weighed about 7000 lbs from what our service manager told me, no big deal right? I looked in our literature for those headers....9500 lbs. That was a good tug for it. Oh and there's no tongue weight on these headers in transport either because they're designed to be towed behind the combine. Hopefully the picture works

 

What's the spec on your 95? 1500?


That's a pretty good haul for a gassed

 

it's a 2500

 

Capacity is listed at 7800 pounds...... Even going over that by several hundred shouldn't strain your truck that badly.....

 

I can't seem to get any good hard work out of mine without it complaining. I'm only talking a couple jet skis here tho... Not like you're doing (real work, haha) I am actually hoping my plenum gasket is blown real bad to explain the abysmal towing performance.

Good thing I've got the '76 for the tough stuff!

 

What size tires on your dodge?

 

I'm running 265 75 16 on it so those shouldn't hinder hardly at all. But Like I said it did fine going up and down fairly good sized hills but the last one was a doozy. It was close to 90 degrees outside too. I was just excited when I found out I pulled that much with my 95. The most I've pulled with it was around 4500lbs (boat and trailer) Usually I save the heavy stuff for my 05 cummins for obvious reasons haha

 

You are right, tires shouldn't be an issue.....

But, you have fixed your plenum already.... so, that shouldn't be the issue either. Maybe do a compression test?

 

ya I do need to do a compression test to get an idea where it's at. I'm wanting to do some engine work to give it some more ponies when funds allow, but that's a ways away yet. I know my options are limited to about a cam, roller rockers, better heads, headers and maybe an intake...no hemifever tune or anything like that with a 95!

 

I don't know much about towing, but would it have been a good idea to put it in 4 low? Maybe better yet 2 low if you had a posi lok?