Waste of Money?
 

I have a 26 ft weekend warrior trailer paired with a 2011 1500 5.7 st and trying to get some more power.... If I invest in a full exhaust, intake and diablo tuner will I notice a difference towing..... Is there one of these options that is a better investment than another... Or will it be such a small difference there is no reason to spend the money? The other option is going to a super charger with a stock truck.... I assume a Ripp supercharger would be a big strain on the trans pulling? But I think I am asking for trouble with the sc... The 1st option should be more reliable....

Most will tell you the intake is a waste of $$ as the stock air box is well tuned.

I'm in the market for a similar sized trailer, are you feeling there is not enough power to haul yours?

In my experience if you invest in a exhaust, intake and tuner, you will notice very little change, you might notice something but i think you will be dissapointed. As the diablo tuner goes i don't think it's a good idea for towing, unless they have a tow tune, bullydog might be a better option for towing, until superchips finally cracks them anyways.

Supercharger?? If your going to spend that money i would spend it on a different diff ratio. For towing that is probably your best bet. Is your truck 2wd or 4wd? What type of ratio is in it now? Switching to a higher ratio will prevent your truck from gear hunting and remain in the peak HP range. And to keep your tranny nice and cool add an additional rad.

That is just my opinion.

I tow a 26 ft JayFlight that is probably 7000 to 8000 pounds loaded with a fourwheeler in the box. I had 3.55 ratio in it before with 35" tires and the truck would pull it, but would do alot of gear hunting, especially in flat land windy areas. Also the tranny would warm quite high.

Then i went to 4.56 ratio and ended up getting an inline tranny rad, now the truck pulls without shifting gears and tranny barely warms up (just like when driving empty).

Also have the superchips tow tune when doing so.

It would be nice to have more power but it does the job.... I live in the mountains so it works very hard..... I upgraded to heavy duty high ply tires along with air bags and that made it much more stable.... Once you fill it with fuel and the 100 gallons of water it is really working..

I have a 4x4 so I think it is the stock 3.55 so I will look into the gears.... I have the stock radiator cooler but really it seems to do ok besides climbing 5000 feet... But I have pretty stock tires.... Thanks for your input...

I think I am in agreeance with these guys too. My old hemi had 3.92 gears and it did pretty good, everything else was stock and the truck handled my 30' holiday trailer just fine. I am not in any really hilly areas, so she never really got warm at all...I do know guys with the exact same setup, all except for the gears. Them guys trannys were always looking for gears, and they were running a little warmer. But again we don't have much for hills around here other then when we go to the mountains.

I never got around to modding that truck, but if I still had it I would invest in a set of bags, and get rid of those stock tires! But as far as engine power goes, IMO the Hemi had lots of power. Well enough to pull a 7klb trailer with no hassles, (I mean they run them in the 2500s!) GM and Ford have 2 versions of the gas that they would put in the 3/4 tons! Also IMO its gonna take a lot of money and time, to even get a fraction of power you want out of it. A tuner would be just about the only thing I would buy, not so much for the HP increase tho. I would more like it so I could have direct gauge readouts on my temps (bullydog) and be able to move shift points and have a little different tranny tuning. Ya its gonna help with engine timing and motor "pep" and reaction times, but its still nowhere near the capabilities with that of a diesel. But the little bit of transmission tuning you will get will probably help out a little. Spending thousands on a supercharger is gonna get you going sooner, but I don't think its really gonna help you where you need it, which seems to be at cruising speeds. Not to mention you haven't really done anything else to the motor, so its really inefficient to do so....

Just my two cents,

Thanks I appreciate it....
So do the programmers to a lot more than putting it in tow mode?

I don't have much experience with the new programmers, I ran an 07 for a few years with a bullydog GT. When I had my 2011 they were having issues with getting a programmer out, so I never ran one.

But with programmers it doesn't put your truck into a "tow mode" A programmer changes engine parameters, and at least on my 07 it did change a few transmission parameters too. I could tell a difference between running a stock tune and a 91 octane tune. The only problem with running a 91 tune is you gotta run premium grade. Which when I ran it was well before regular was $1 a liter. I also ran a transmission line booster so I guess I might have felt it more then some people. But with a tuner you can change things like shift points , tire sizing, governor. Most of what it does is all preset things. Another nice thing about any programmer is it also doubles as a code reader.

A tuner for a gas is also not something that you shift on the fly, it will download right to your vehicle, and your vehicle also have to be off. Its nothing like that of a diesel (as I have found out) Because the government heckles the diesel world with environment rules, the tuner can remove all that BS and you get run an extra 175HP at the touch of a button. You're only gonna get maybe 40 max out of a gas tuner. So some people don't believe they are worth it for a gas, and its all up to personal opinion. However to have the bullydog as a heads-up display to see exactly what my truck was doing, was a God-send. With the new EVIC in these trucks its a little better. However I liked the idea of just looking up, seeing what gear I'm in, what my transmission temp is, coolant temp. I also had throttle percentage as a display as well. I think that in itself is worth it.

Thank you for you input...

gears are your biggest concern. ive got an intake and trinity, and I'm gonna take both of and go back to stock here shortly to test my mpgs. My 4:10s in the rear plays out quite well when I'm towing.

I suggest upgrading to a diesel truck if towing is a major concern for you.
I dont believe there are 5.7 perfromance upgrades available that will benefit you for torque/towing application without paying unreasonable amount of money and fighting with tuning/programming within the dodge ecm.
Dodge did theyre best to balance hp. torque. economy and reliability and anything you do to upgrade will compromise that balance.
the cost of a sc plus install, tuning, transmission upgrades etc would cost almost as much or more that the diesel option on a different truck. and you'd end up with unmatched torque towing power and reliability with the diesel.

good luck with whatever you decide

What are you hauling in that trailer? Reason I ask, I have a 25ft NRG toy hauler. We had a Kawi side x side, two 450's in the bed of the trucks, a klx110 pit bike, full fresh water, and stocked with coolers. This was with a 2002 ford f350 7.3 diesel. On the scales, that sucker topped out at 21,000 pounds. Figure the truck alone weighs 9,000. That small 25 ft trailer weighed in close to 11-12k pounds.

Like us, your trailer may weigh WAYYYY more than you thought and the truck is doing fine, its the over weight trailer thats the problem. Anyway, you biggest benefit would be the getting the highest numerical gear ratio you can in your diffs. I think 4.56s.