crawl under truck and grab ahold of the drive shaft, see if you can turn it either way, if so, the u-joints are shot and need to be replaced, also if your truck has the corporate rear like mine. they dont like to go backwards for a long period of time, something to due with the gear messing. the teeth start to wear in a certain pattern, and when going in reverse you are fighting that pattern

 

I've been having a similar shuddering occasionally when I put mine in reverse as well. First time it happened was about a month ago. I was along a curb and put the truck in reverse and went I started backwards I feld this shuddering. I thought I curbed the truck but when I looked I wasn't even close to the curb.

Since then I've noticed it a half a dozen times or so. It seems to not do it if I put it in reverse and wait a second before moving. To me it seems like it hasn't fully switched to reverse when you start to move and it hops momentarily. I'm getting inspection done tomorrow and the guy that does it for me was a Dodge Mechanic for the past 20 years up until last year when the dealership closed. He has his own shop now but knows dodges inside and out (was the only mechanic allowed to service Vipers at his dealership) and I bet he will have an answer for me. In the past he has always told me to put a vehicle in neutral before going to another gear. I sort of expect a similar answer with this.

 

I asked my mechanic today about this and he said this was a known problem with these trucks. He it had to do with the transmission pressure for reverse. They (Dodge) was supposed to correct the problem but he's not sure if they ever did.

Nonetheless, he said it's nothing really to worry about as it is not going to cause any problems. He said putting it in neutral first will help, but may not totally eliminate it.

 

My only major concern with this problem is it only does it in my truck after I do a brake-stand or there is a big load on the trucks drivetrain. If it starts to do it while Im stopped in reverse, if I stand on the brake and feather the gas a little bit just enough to get the tires to scratch the payment, the shudder will go away.

 

The only reasoning I could see behind this is that after you've been hard on the truck, you've heated the transmission fluid up a lot, which should cause a slight drop in the pressure with the fluid getting thinner. Make sense? I'm not sure how much truth there is to this, it's just a theory.

 

It will keep shuddering even if I turn the truck off, let it cool off, and do a cold start up the next morning .... but when I do the small brake stand in reverse on the cold truck, its fine. I cant figure out what it is. All it does is shudder .... never affects performance and it only does it while Im on the brake, stopped in reverse.

I tried to pinpoint the problem once when it was shuddering. I put the truck in reverse while on the brake at a dead stop and felt the truck shuddering. When I went to put the parking brake on so I could get under the truck with the truck in reverse, the shuddering went away. After I took the parking brake off and was on the regular brake again, the shuddering was back.