Hey all,

I do a fair amount of towing with our truck, ~9K# loaded weight 28' enclosed car trailer, at least once sometimes 2-3 times a month. The truck has been good except brakes, we seem to go through rotors and pads at least 1-2 times a year. We are getting ready to move acrossed country in about a year, and we were looking to start getting it ready for the long haul (X2, since I will be making 2, if not 3 trips) from Philly PA to Portland OR. I have been reading up on a lot of the posts about towing through mountains, and towing in general with these trucks so I know of some of the options but thought I would post here to see what I need when it comes to actually laying the money down...

The truck is an '05 QC 4X4 Hemi that's mostly stock aside from a stock replacement K&N filter, with 3.55 gears and open diff, running 31.5" tires (265 70 17's stock tires were 245 70 17's) so I know gears would be a big step up in performance, so that will be the first thing I do so I will start with those questions...

What all do I need?

I know front and rear gear sets, but do I need an sort of LSD or other carrier? The truck has performed well with the open rear, and I heard a lot of horror stories of the stock LSD trucks having clip breaking issues. Would an LSD perfom better then open diff when towing? I have also read in other posts that if you have less then the 3.92's the front carrier needs to be upgraded, why and with what?

Since, we are moving to the west coast and there may be more off-road possibilities, should I spring for and LSD now or what? Do guys run any sort of locker on the front as well? I was thinking, if it's worth the money get an air locker or something up front for those just in case times I want the front locked (since I already have an onboard air system running my helper springs), are they even available for these trucks and worth the price considering I will be in there getting the gears done anyway?

Does anyone know of a good shop in the Greater Philly area that could do a quality job on installing these? BTW, I have no issues with driving out of the area (within reason) for a good shop either...

Tuning - I plan on also running a SC computer, and hear the 91 octane setting is the best one, but is that still true for towing crossed country? I guess I will have a few months to play with it once I get it to test all the settings since my first trip out isn't going to be until next spring, but just wondering what others might think of it.

Power - I would like to get a little more power out of it, so I was thinking that aside from the tuner I would also add some other things, but what? I was was thinking the Ram Hammer intake, if that's still around, or whatever the best performing intake is now adays (it has been over a year since I researched intakes). Since the truck is used for towing I heard that changing the exhaust (headers and free flowing exhaust) drops some of the lowend grunt and I want to keep that, so the question is would it be a greater benefit to keep the stock exhaust or switch for my application?

Braking - I know this trip will be hell on the brakes in these trucks, what are the best options for adding stopping power, I have been going at it the cheep way and it has been costing me a lot, so if there is an expensive alternative to getting brakes to last I am all ears. By cheep way, I mean I have been getting stock replacement rotors and the toughest stock replacement pads from the local pep boys and costing me about $300 to replace then 1-2 times per year. I was thinking about going with a vented/cross drilled type rotor next but in looking @ summit racing (http://www.summitracing.com/search/y...s/?Ns=Rank|Asc) and there are tons of choices and most have rotors that cost more then my entire normal brake job, so I need help in figuring out what will last. Also any suggestions on finding the right pads? I red that the ceramic are not worth it because they fade quickly, and I already get that with the current selection I use, but I have also read that the ECB green stuff is good, but in looking for that there are a bunch of different series' (http://www.summitracing.com/search/Y...s/?Ns=Rank|Asc), so I am back to what do you guys use and what do you think is best for my application?

Anything else - Is there anything else I should consider doing to make the truck better all around, as well as towing crossed country through mountains?

 

Just to answer a few questions, the LSD would help towing only on wet ground, other than that I wouldn't worry too much about it, but if you plan to wheel at all, definitely spring for a nice lsd in the rear. Get the 4.56 gears first before you look at any other performance alternatives. They will make a huge difference from what I've heard and you may no longer have this need after the change. As far as tuning goes, I would run the towing tune while towing. It will prevent knock as it's detuned a little bit. As far as brakes, do you have a trailer brake system? Shouldn't this be preventing your truck brakes from getting fried? Either which way, brakes are only as good as the money you spend on them. Don't go drilled, only slotted, drilled are notorious for cracking. There's my 2 cents.

 

Yeah the trailer has 2 sets of brakes, but I go through a lot of stop and go traffic in my daily commute too (highways that are dead stop, sprint to 30-40, then dead stop, over and over again for miles at a time) that chews up my brakes, not just the towing...

Then again that was my old job, now I only have to deal with that traffic once or twice a week, so I see the brakes lasting longer now anyway...

 

Let me see if I can help, as we have essentially the same truck and I've done many of these mods already. As you know, this motor will run good when in the powerband. It seems like there is a big jump in power/torque right at 2200 rpm. Right now, I'm running worn out 32" tires on 20's, with 4.56's. Its almost like adding a gear in the low-mid range, in that it actually uses 3rd gear, instead of 1-2-3 for 2 seconds then the 2 O/D's.

For towing it is worlds better. At highway speeds, I'm seeing about 2250 rpm at 70 mph. I did one axle at a time to see how I liked it (obviously don't use 4wd with different axle ratios front to rear). Yukon gears with Mopar bearings etc in the rear. Motive gears with Motive install kit in the front. Cost is about $500 per axle for parts and probably around $500 in labor per axle.

As for brakes, I like EBC pads. First I had EBC Yellow (their heaviest duty) on the front and their 6000 series Green on the rear with cheap slotted and drilled rotors all around. They went about 8K miles before warping, so I was not happy! Now I've got EBC 7000 series Green on the front and 6000 rear with Power Slot rotors. I prefer the slotted rotors and wish I had the EBC yellow on the front as I feel they have a bit more bite.

Hope this helps!

 

So you would think the sloted rotor and EBC Yellow and green 6000 on the rear would be a good combo for brakes, that is good and sounds quite do-able...

I have been researching the prices on the gears and it isn't too bad, it looks like maybe just over $1K for the parts (front/rear gears, front/rear master install kits, and DTT) plus whatever the labor would be in my area, that sounds about inline with what you posted above.

Thanks for the feedback.

Anyone else or any other answers or suggestions on what I should do?

 

Gears are your best bet for either over sized tires and/or towing, hands down. Tuner will help. A good quality limited slip like the Auburn or TruTrac will be a nice asset for towing on wet or snowy conditions, plus if you have it installed at the same time as the rear ring and pinion, you'll save considerably on labor as opposed to adding it later.
I have always liked the PowerSlot rotors and either Hawk or EBC pads...