2006 Ram 2500 Hemi gearing
#1
04-23-2017 | 11:24 PM
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2006 Ram 2500 Hemi gearing
Hello Everyone,
Just joined the forum and have a question or looking for opinions on gear ratios for my '06 Ram 2500 with the 5.7 liter hemi, 5 speed automatic
Currently have 3.73 gears, hemi is stock - no programmers or add-ons, tire size is 285/70/17.
I don't do a lot of towing, usually 6 - 8 times a year towing my mud racer (early Bronco).
My Bronco weighs around 3000 lbs. / trailer is a Holmes 16 ft. pretty heavy duty and weighs around 1,900 lbs.
The current setup does pretty good on flats but suffers on grades. I tow with the tow/haul button engaged but on a grade, it will shift down to 3rd, sometimes 2nd and the motor is screaming.
My son has an '08 Ram 2500 with the 5.9 diesel, 6 speed manual with 35" Mickey Thompson tires and I use it occasionally and there is no comparison between the two.
I know a gear change won't net me a diesel but I'm looking to bridge the gap some.
I've talked to a couple local garage friends and they're suggesting to swap the 3.73 gears to either 4.10s or 4.56s and also consider a programmer.
I've done some research on both gears and have used the tire / gear ratio chart that shows the RPM ranges but I was hoping to get some advice based on actual experience rather than theories on charts. Also not sure about programmers - are they beneficial?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance
DJs06Hemi
Just joined the forum and have a question or looking for opinions on gear ratios for my '06 Ram 2500 with the 5.7 liter hemi, 5 speed automatic
Currently have 3.73 gears, hemi is stock - no programmers or add-ons, tire size is 285/70/17.
I don't do a lot of towing, usually 6 - 8 times a year towing my mud racer (early Bronco).
My Bronco weighs around 3000 lbs. / trailer is a Holmes 16 ft. pretty heavy duty and weighs around 1,900 lbs.
The current setup does pretty good on flats but suffers on grades. I tow with the tow/haul button engaged but on a grade, it will shift down to 3rd, sometimes 2nd and the motor is screaming.
My son has an '08 Ram 2500 with the 5.9 diesel, 6 speed manual with 35" Mickey Thompson tires and I use it occasionally and there is no comparison between the two.
I know a gear change won't net me a diesel but I'm looking to bridge the gap some.
I've talked to a couple local garage friends and they're suggesting to swap the 3.73 gears to either 4.10s or 4.56s and also consider a programmer.
I've done some research on both gears and have used the tire / gear ratio chart that shows the RPM ranges but I was hoping to get some advice based on actual experience rather than theories on charts. Also not sure about programmers - are they beneficial?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance
DJs06Hemi
#2
04-24-2017 | 08:30 AM
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Joined: Apr 2010
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From: Clayton MI
Factory tuning isn't 'optimized' for any particular purpose, except maybe fuel economy.... so, a tuner is most certainly a worthwhile investment. Compliment the tuner with things like shorty headers, and other simple, bolt-on mods, and you can get a nice bump in power. It's a system, everything works together.
Before deciding on gears, you should decide if you ever want to go to larger tires.... and gear for those. Gear changes are NOT inexpensive..... you only wanna do that once.
The diesel is a torque MONSTER.
It would take a LOT of work to get your hemi to that kind of performance.
Welcome to DF! Going to move this to the third gen Ram section, folks there can give you some good ideas for your truck.
Before deciding on gears, you should decide if you ever want to go to larger tires.... and gear for those. Gear changes are NOT inexpensive..... you only wanna do that once.
The diesel is a torque MONSTER.
It would take a LOT of work to get your hemi to that kind of performance. Welcome to DF! Going to move this to the third gen Ram section, folks there can give you some good ideas for your truck.
#3
04-24-2017 | 08:40 AM
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Joined: Apr 2017
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Thanks HeyYou! I appreciate the welcome and the advice. I did consider the tire size and that's why I was thinking about the 4.56s in addition to the 4.10s
The 4.56s should not be too bad with the 285s since I have 4th and 5th gears and if I switch tires someday, I would probably not go beyond a 35" or metric 315 so was thinking the 4.56s would go well with them too.
I'll wait for further replies, thanks again
DJs06Hemi
The 4.56s should not be too bad with the 285s since I have 4th and 5th gears and if I switch tires someday, I would probably not go beyond a 35" or metric 315 so was thinking the 4.56s would go well with them too.
I'll wait for further replies, thanks again
DJs06Hemi