This is a great site. I'm looking for some advice..

I recently purchased a wildwood 26tbss travel trailer. It's 5760 dry and I estimate it to be around 7000 loaded up. I have a 2006 dodge mega cab ram 2500 4x4 with a hemi and 3.73 gears. I bought the truck a few months ago i really like the truck. But....the previous owner installed a 6 inch lift with 37 inch tires on it.

It's a dog. It's not to bad around town but on the highway it's going in and out of o/d all the time and I'm not even towing anything. At 60 mph I'm only at about 1400 RPM. This weekend was our first camping trip with the truck and trailer. I was going from sea level to about 2500 feet. This was a gradual climb with only a few good inclines. The truck was really struggling and even went into 1st a few times :Wow1:

My question is should I put 4.56 gears in. I have an appointment this week to get them done but its going to cost me $1700. I'm afraid that with these big tires the 4.56 still won't be enough.

What is your advice? Is a new truck in my future?

Thanks

 

4.56 would only bring your 1400rpm to around 1700 but I imagine this is in OD. Probably want to be 2100-2200+ or so minimum to pull the trailer and 4.88's might be a better match for 37" tires. The Hemi has lots of power to haul around a combined weight of around 13500 lbs but not anywhere near those low rpms. I do all day long on OD when hooked up but I don't have anywhere near 37" tires!

 

Thanks for the reply. I weighed my truck and it ways a little over 7000 empty. I'm traveling with my wife, two kids, dog, a few bikes, and a couple armfuls of wood. So maybe around 7500 loaded. With trailer I'm thinking I'm at around 14500 pounds I was told that 4.56 was the lowest gears that fit in the front axle.

 

If you are going to be hauling a trailer often, you would probably be better off dropping the truck back down with smaller tires. Not all the way and I know it sucks and wouldn't be cheap but a jacked up rig and towing are hard to fit together. Mine is leveled and I am running 34's but I have load rated tires and I didn't want to go bigger because I do tow an rv sometimes.

I have a similar dilemma now because I just got a Chevy hd and I hate the little wheels and tires and that darn rake. I can level it and maybe put some rear blocks on and fit some bigger tires but not as big as I would like. Or I could lift it 6 inches and do what I want but I know that will make towing the rv less practical.

 

I'm not familiar with the front axle on the 2500 so I'm sure you're right. Basically the 4.56's will up your revs by 22% so you can see where that will take you compared to now. I think your tires are just too big to keep your overall ratio up enough to be happy with it. Before dumping 2K+ on gears, any way you can temporarily throw a set of stock wheels/tires on there and see if you like the results? That would be about the equivalent on changing your gears.

 

Agree, smaller tires. And re-gear