I have the prodigy and love it too, I have towed a ton of stuff with my old Durango with it and now its transferred over to the Ram and still working great!

 

The problem with doing heavier towing with a 1500 is usually they dont have tow packages and therefore do not have transmission coolers, as well as the heavier duty frames and suspension components. Infrequent or short light trips is one thing, large amounts of heavier towing longer distances is going to kill the tranny, burn up braking components and motor real fast. be prepared to sink a lot of money into tranny rebuilds and u-joints. Not to mention tires, rotors, pads and shocks. Sorry, but 1500's are not really built for heavy-duty use pulling regular heavy loads, that's the reason they made the HD line 2500 and 3500's.

A 1500 QC/SB 4x4 5.7L V8 w/ 5sp Auto ST with 3.92 gears, is rated at 8500lbs max towing. w/ 3.55 gears its 7500lbs. The SLT you lose 50lbs capacity, Laramie you lose 150lbs.

While yes the manufacturers derate their trucks, anything above that rating can affect any insurance claim or warranty. Plus its harder on the components of the truck and causes faster wear and failure.

 

wow in that case i went from 7450lb capacity to 9150 going from 3.55 to 4.56. vey nice.

for the record, i also use the p3 and love love love it. best controller i've ever used

 

I also recommend the P3. The harness for the controller is tucked up under the dash, should be a blue 4 pin connector. If you have the factory tow package, all four pins will connected and you will be good to go. If you do not, the pin for the actual brake controller will need to be connected. You can either tap into it near the connector, or I'm told that the harness terminates somewhere on top of the drivers side fender. I recommend going with the OEM tow harness if you need one. You will need to run the wire back for the brake controller, and tap into the drivers rear taillight for reverse lights. I also agree that towing from the bumper for anything more than cement mixer or 10' aluminum skiff should be a crime.

Get yourself an SRT A Pillar pod (one hole), and mount up your favorite transmission temperature gauge to monitor the trans temps which should be cooled further by your new auxiliary transmission cooler. Get the biggest trans cooler you can fit/afford.

If you are towing things that are really wide, don't screw around with any of the removable/strap on towing mirrors, and go with a set of real towing mirrors. Your preference for the sliding or powered variety.

Use the tow/haul button whenever towing and leave it on! Don't try to over think it and guess when you can turn it off in an effort to get better gas mileage. Running with tow/haul on aslo has the benefit of sooner downshifts so that you are less likely to run away when going down a hill.The tow/haul button should never be confused with the functions a tuner will add. i.e, always use the tow/haul button even if you run a tuner. On that note....

Get yourself a tuner. I can only speak to Superchips, and I love mine. Fill up with 93 octane, set the tuner to towing and get on down the road. I also like the data logging ability of the SC. When towing, I like to set it to monitor the actual 3 digit engine temp rather than looking at the gauge and guessing. I also display the knock retard to see if I'm lugging the engine at all so I can then either let off the gas, or step on it to get it to down shift. I hear that future versions of SC will have the ability to monitor trans temps as well, so you might skip on the trans gauge and wait on SC.

Good luck.

Oh yeah, don't screw around with worn/crappy tires either. I towed somewhere around 7500 lbs, 1600 miles last summer in California and Arizona heat on my well used stock 20" Goodyears. You could see the heat prostration in the rubber of the tires and they had begun to crack and dry rot in between the treads. Luckily nothing happened, but I regret putting myself through the worry of thinking about the tires for the whole trip.

 

Hey Hammer, i always like your posts, so i thought id ask you personally, what all comes with the 3rd generation Ram 1500 towing/camper package. What class of a hitch reciever and all comes with that? Thanks buddy

 

The factory receiver hitch is just bolted on to the frame of the bumper hitch. So what makes the receiver hitch so much safer? I'm just curious.

 

The bumper has no where near the reinforcement as a hitch does. The bumper is cheesmo 16ga?? steel where as the hitches are like 1/4"or 3/8" thick. Pls the brackets for the bumper aren;t as strong either.

I would never tow with my bumper. It's too high for mostly anything and as stated already should only be used for a very small fishing boat or thing like a log splitter or items that weight under 1,000lbs

 

I don't think you are understanding what I'm saying. The factory hitch goes underneath the bumper. So when you put a ball on the bumper, it actually goes through the hole on the frame of the factory hitch. The receiver hitch just bolts to the main body of the factory receiver hitch.