Hey guys I'm sure it's been discussed numerous times but I want to ask about towing. I'm currently in Afghanistan but when I leave here I only have about 11 months left in the army. My question is when I first moved from Indiana to Kansas me and my wife had hardly anything to our name besides our neon and my ram. Now that we have lived in Kansas for a few years I'm curious what I should do to my truck to tow a fully loaded 18 ft car trailer and my bed being full. My ram is an 01 with a 318 and 3.55 gears and 4x4 auto. I know when we moved to Kansas it did fine but got terrible gas mileage like 12 I think. And I figured since I'm over here I should save up to get a programmer and good exhaust. Is there anything else y'all would recommend? I know my gears are killing me but idk if I should put 3.73 in it or not. Any help would be awesome.

 

I did PA to FL with my 5.2 (man) 4x4 SWB, bed loaded to the roof line, and a car trailer with my wife's neon on it (also loaded full).
With a big load, I wouldn't expect great mileage... I think I'd be happy with 12mpg considering these things aren't great on gas to start with.

 

Be careful not to overload the truck. GVWR is 6400. Mine weighs about 5300 empty and it's 2wd. I wouldn't get a tuner as you would want the torque management when towing. Exhaust and intake would help a little. If you want gears I would go 4.10's or numerically higher. The nice thing about the 3.55's is when you're towing with o/d off the engine isn't screaming when going down the road @ 60 mph. If you don't have a trans cooler I'd recommend one. 12 mpg towing is great! When I towed a 7x16 high top trailer from FL to TN I averaged 7 mpg @ 65 mph, 8 mpg @ 60. Make sure plenum gasket is good and check valve for trans is removed .

 

I took our 96 1500 5.9 4x4 long bed with 20ft car trailer empty to ala last oct and got 14mpg and came back with my 96 ext cab 1500 on it and got 9mpg to dallas and then about 6-7 to colorado !

 

I'd want a shift kit to up the line pressures and quicken the shifts, and a nice external cooler.

But that motor is a DOG with a load. It'll get you there, but slow and steady.

 

If you've got the cash, you might get gears before you leave. But you'll need to break them in for 500-1000mi before you go hauling stuff.


And I don't see why a tuner would hurt towing since you're unleashing ALL the engine's potential.

 

Well I plan on buying the sct tuner. Then going to summit for headers and then ordering the Pypes violator cat back system. I need to check into eliminating the tranny check valve, and maybe putting electric fans on the truck and taking off my clutch fan. I hope I can get by without new gears.

 

That's a good start. Have you fixed your plenum yet?

 

As far as I know it isn't leaking and the last time i checked I had no oil in my intake

 

I thought the same.
It was blown. lol
Well, go for it, but be aware that your tuner will **** off the engine if the plenum is blown.

And install a 180* t-stat before the tuner. Since, the tuner requires it.