Hey look, i love my Dodge Ram, don't get me wrong. BUT, if you want some advice, I would say wait until the summer time.
Wait for a 90 or 95 degree day, then try out the AC....I don't know if you can wait that long or not.
But on a hot day, you will be able to tell if the AC system will be able to handle the load or not.
Just my .02 cents.

 

Sorry for the epic, but I thought sharing my story might help. See the last paragraph for a summary if you don't want to read the whole thing.

I bought my Mega Cab in late summer last year, when it wasn't crazy hot here in Vegas. When we took aMega Cabfor a test drive, the temp of the A/C was cold and it seemed like it did an ok job. Since they didn't have the exact set of options we wanted, they had to go out and find another truck. When we picked it up in the evening, we drove it but did not have a chance (or the knowledge that we should have) to test out the A/C during the afternoon sun.

The weather got hot again, and we noticed the inability for the A/C to cool the vehicle to an acceptable level. The air coming out is cold, but there is a severe lack of airflow. The blower makes plenty of noise, but the airflow coming out of the front vents barely moves paper 12 in from the opening.

On the day we were taking it to the dealership, there was a loud grinding noise from the lower front dash. Turning off the blower got rid of the problem, but it turned out one of the recirculation unit doors had fallen off and dropped into a fan. They replaced the recirc unit, but it didn't fix the air flow issue. When we brought one of the Techs out to look at it, he basically said that because of the way the recirc unit is plumbed, about 1/3 of the available air goes back to the rear vents. BTW, there is no way to completely shut off the rear vents. They have the standard directional louvers (sp?), but at full closed, they still leak air. Not that it would completely solve the problem. With the vent selector **** in thepanel position, we still got significant airflow out of the heater vents.

There was also leaking along the center console unit, presumably from the floor ducting to the rear vents. The truck was not popping any codes, and we left there with the old "Its operating as it was designed" explanation. Two other MC on the lot had the same A/C performance...meh

So...the weather cooled, we got busy taking our trailer out, and we pretty much forgot about it until recently. We had a few days of high 90s, and had to use theA/C again. With our last experience, we didn't expect anything different by taking it back to the dealership, so I emailed Dodge with the problem. The customer service rep replied by saying they couldn't diagnose the problem via email (dur), and suggested to get a second opinion. We did that, they found that the recirc unit was popping codes, and replaced the unit.

We went to pick it up tonight, and found that the airflow has not improved a bit. The air coming out of the floor vents was reduced somewhat, but the panel vents still can't push a paper at 12 inches. Again, they gave us the "Its operating as it was designed" explanation.

I figured if it was a MC problem, others would have the same issue, which led me here. If there is a campaign to petition DC to fix the problem, count me in. Send me a PM w/ some info. I'm not too keen on a lawsuit here. Since there is no distinct claim to cool the cab toxx deg when its 1xx, there is nothing to sue over. That doesn't mean we can't help out all the others in hot/humid areas. I'm thinking of making magnetic or window signs that say "My AC sucks, don't buy a Mega Cab". I'd come up with somethinga bit more witty, but I'm too tiredright now. Plus, with "The Chopper" (aka "The King of Cars" on A&E) owning the local dealership, he may have more to lose from local Dodge-negative advertising.

Everything else about my truck is great. The Cummins is a beast, never giving me any problems pulling the trailer. I hope they acknowledge the problem and fix what is a serious engineering flaw.

Thanks for reading-

Trout

The summary I promised based on my experience:
The compressor cools the air fine, its the blower plumbing that is the problem. Its not even the increased MC cab volume. I don't know where the air is going, but it certainly is not blowing out the panel vents. This cannot be helped by ANY of the standard A/C tips like opening windows to let the hot air vent,tinting the windows, etc. The suggestions, while well intentioned, can't fix the flawed design.

 

I agree with darend. My 06 1500 mega is freaking COLD! Temp yesterday was upper 80's and it took only a couple minutes to cool down and once I closed the windows and pointed the rear ducts upward, the entire truck got too cold. I ended up comfortable at the second notch on the blower. I haven't read the entire post but I know there was a TSB about the rear ducts having a bad linkage that needed to be replaced. Is it possible you guys with problems simple don't have any air flow in the back? That would make a big difference I would think.

 

I have some airflow out the back vents. I found the TSB you mentioned, but that covers a broken vent actuator. If the replacement of the actuator didn't require pulling the steering column out, I might consider closing off the rear vent just to get some panel vent pressure. That doesn't help much if I have pax tho.

 

The A/C sucks *** in all of these trucks. My regular cab makes alot of damn noise.....sure it cools...but interior volume is small......RECALL IN ORDER! The ones who give these guys a hard time can kiss it....Wyoming, Montana...etc...ain't no damn TEJAS FOR HEAT....


CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT IS IN ORDER.

 

Maybe your fan is bad, mine is very quite, only sound is that of the air flowing out, and a very slight hum. I'll see how well it does in the next month when I'm out in the desert. Wyoming does get over 100 btw.

 

I live in south texas

 

Wow, the first page of this thread is entertaining.

 

I have followed this thread from the begining. I live in Phoenix Az, andbought myMegaCab in September of 2006. I have read what everyone is saying and VxVegasRam descibed exactly what I have found. Anything over about 85 degrees, and this thing just can't cool it down. I agree, I do not believe it is a compressor problem, but an airflow problem. The blower makes a lot of noise, but blows almost nothing out of the panel vents. I have taken it in to the dealer twice because I get a lot of cold air leaking at my feet. I have even tried to make a small panel to block the rear seat air vents to force more airfrom the front panel. Bottom line is when it is 106 degrees outside, and you get in this rig, you can try everything you want but it just doesn't cool down. The best trick I have found is to open the rear windows and the rear slider for 10 or so minutes to get as much hot air out as possible, then turn it to recirc. I have tinted all my windows darker than legal, and use a sun shield religously.

As for the class action debate... I find the repsonses to this quite puzzling. Those that don't understand what a class action is, or evenwhat constitutes a class action, should probably do more research before poking fun of someone that suggests it might be necessary. In fact, a situation like what we are experiencing is exactly what constitutes a "class action". Whether it will be recognized and upheld is another matter.

The bottom line is that as consumers, we are not responsible for waiting to purchase a vehicle until the weather turns hot enough to double check the operation of a particular system. You wouldn't use that same logic with regards to the SRS system would you. You expect that the airbags will deploy upon impact. In other words, when purchasing a vehicle,we have reasonable expactations that all systems are designed to function properly. The AC in manyMega Cab's appears not to do this. And in fact consistantly operates far below acceptable levels.

I am on my fourth trip to the dealer to try to remedy this problem. They have fixed a bad mixing door, mixing vavle, and who know what else. The end result is always the same. I fear the only remedy may beto purchase another vehicle (different brand). I have owned 4 Dodge trucks over the past 20 years, fromregular to quad to mega. I am a Dodge truck lover.For those of you who are not experiencing this problem, you have no idea how bad it is, for those thatdo know,I hope we/Dodge can find a remedy. But I for one will not go througha summer in Arizona with this AC operating the way it does.

If anyone has any recent information on this issue, please post. Ireally love this rig and will try anythingto resolve this problem.

 

Hey your not alone, and you need to calm down!!! This is a "known" issue and i have heard a TSB is being considered. Lets start with the basics first, make sure the PCM software is up to date. Make sure there are no acitve or recorded faults in the PCM memory, make sure the ac charge rate is correct, THEN check the center vent outlet temp with the blower on medium and the selector on dash recirc, you should get 40-46 degrees. If all that correct, then ask the DCX DM for a meeting and request a retrofit to a non mega cab distribution unit. The issue is not the capacity of the system but the additional ducts added for the rear cabin. I did one today for one of my customers, he is very happy with the performance following the retrofit! FYI, threats will get you now where especially in dealing with DCX, keep your calm in the meeting and stick to the facts, leave your emotions at home. FYI, AC performance is a "comfort" concern and not a valid cause for letigious action. Think about the "ford" owners with defective brake switches that suddenly catch fire, one of our neighbors houses burned down last Saturday night because his explorer was in the garage and his switch decided to fail!