Yes, I refer to it as the resonator from my history of fords, and their terminology of mufflers/resonators. I killed the rearmost muffler/resonator to give me the extra sound

- good call

 

From my experience, the "small mufflers" near the tips are called resonators. The muffler is much larger and is before these.

I removed the resonators a few days ago. The sound increase isn't huge, but it is noticeable. Just enough to where I can notice, but the wife did not. Also, it's not deafening in the cab, but is a little louder.

If stock is a 1, flowmasters a 10, magnaflow a 8, this is a 3.5.

 

I'd say 4 but can work with 3.5

 

You might want to consider swapping out the stock muffler and keeping the resonators. If you compare what it costs to remove the resonators (@$70 to $100.00) vs swapping out the stock muffler ($99 to $150.00). If you don't want a loud exhaust, look for the longest muffler you can find. I had a universal Magnaflow 18" (wanted a 24" but the shop did not have one in stock) muffler installed for $99.00 and left the resonators in. The Magnaflow is significantly louder than stock, but it grows on you. The sound is addictive and makes your hemi sound like a vette. Yeah my wife complained at first but you get used to it. I have since added a K&N drop in filter and the truck pulls harder past 3,000 RPM and my in city mileage has improved by almost 2 MPG. I have not had the chance to test my highway mileage yet, I'll post my results later.

 

1) Resonator removal is $70 at most.

2) A Hemi will never sound like a vette

3) Any mangaflow or muffler swap, even a 24", is louder than resonator removal. That is too loud for me and some others on this forum. My wife could here my me driving through the whole neighborhood when I had the magnaflow on my '07.

4) A K&N filer and Magnaflow won't get you 2 mpg more. I've been there and done that on my last truck and it didn't happen.

 

It's just that 3 foot of pipe to replace the thing a bit much. . .

I'm thinking og the gibson 30". Should basically swap right in and give just the amount of increase.

 

Dude, you seem to have an answer (more like an opinion) for everything! For the record, I have a 09 Crew Cab 2wd with the hemi and 3:21 gear ratio. For the first 500 miles, I drove it nice and easy and the EVIC would only read 11's to high 12's MPG around town. I now have 1200 miles on the ODO, after the muffler/filter swap my EVIC has been reading 13's to 14's MPG all week. Keep in mind, I have been driving the truck much more aggressivily, the hemi is much more responsive than before and begs to rev over 3K. Believe me, take a look at your stock muffler, it is a pig!!! Ditching that porker will let your hemi breath much more freely. The wife and neighbors will get over it, just like mine did. Go down to your local drag strip and listen to LT1/LS1 F-bodies and vettes and they sound pretty damn close. I had a 98 T/A with a dynomax muffler on the LS1. The sound is pretty close, but not an absolute scientific match.

 

Getting as good mpg as possible is pretty hot right now. If Dodge really could claim an extra 2 MPG from a more free flowing muffler it would be on the truck. The increased MPG is most likely as a result of the engine breaking in. It's very common that MPG starts out below the ratings and slowly increases over the first 1,000 - 2,000 miles. It's a coincidence that this is when you replaced your muffler. Also, I've owned a vette and was active in the local vette club. I'm very well aware of what they sound like.

 

I'm still not convinced that the stock muffler is very restrictive. Look at it this way: If someone told you that they had a pair of mufflers that could support 780 honest hp, you'd probably be interested. Well, your dodge dealer does-2 of the stock mufflers on these trucks. Thought of that way, they're not so restrictive are they? Plenty of folks put dual aftermarket mufflers on all kinds of stuff and don't make the 390 hp our trucks do stock.

Sure, they're big. ANY muffler that can flow enough for this much power while being whisper quiet HAS to be big. Now, if you want a louder tone, fine, replace/remove the muffler. I just don't agree that the stock muffler is very restrictive, at least not without someone doing something halfway scientific like measuring backpressure at WOT or putting one on a flowbench, etc.

 

Agree completely. The Hemi makes 390 HP, they can't be that bad.

Real data to back claims, not data of the butt dyno, is what I like to see.