I wish I could give you a good answer, but I am a flat lander! Not many hills in Illinois unless you are in the river valley areas of the Illinois or Mississippi. When I have had to pull up a steep grade, the truck does very well. It does not struggle, or even show signs of overheating the engine or transmission. But, this terrian is nothing like the Mts!

 

About those videos and testing with a 6500 trailer.NO MENTION of GEAR ratios except for the Tundra(4.30) and a slight mention about the GM 3.42? What WAS the gear in the Ram? Dodge has now UPPED the tow capacity for 2010 with NO changes to the truck. I'm looking to tow a fifth wheel with mine but no bigger then a 25 footer and really shopping for one in the 20/22 foot range and under 6k. When I was shopping and test driving I could not find a GM 6.2 period on a GM lot.Plus the GMs are still butt ugly.The Fords had no power with the 5.4 and did not even think of buying a Tundra.Plus a Tundra OUGHT to pull with a 4.30 gear,chezz. On the TOW test reviews I read when shopping Edmonds and Trailer Life etc.they rated the DODGE at the top of the heap.Not by much but at the top none the less with 3.92 2wd and 17 inch wheels.

 

This is what I currently have I am planning on upgrading to a 40Ft 5th Wheel toy hauler in the near future.. That is why I have a little more truck than I need currently, or some people claim it's more than I need...

 

I do not have the sag Problem I have the problem when towing it seems like it takes for ever for the truck to down shift when coming to a incline then when it shifts it tachs up to 5k. Does anyone else have this problem

 

Mine doesn't have a problem downshifting when I come to hills. I keep it in tow/haul mode and let it do it's thing. I think maybe one time I used the manual selector to force it down one gear when I didn't agree with what it was using.

 

I have a 2009 crew cab with 3.92 and it pulls my trailer fine. In tow/haul mode i set it to 4 and it pulls fine. It drinks a crap load of gas, but i knew that when i bought it. My last truck (2005 quad cab 5.7l) drank a lot of gas to. Haven't noticed any diff in mileage from one to the other. This new truck has more power but seems to pull the same. I am going to add air helper bags and it will be fine. My trailer has a high tongue weight and even with the equalizer bars it dropped quit a bit. I will let you know how the bags work. I'm not sure how it will tow with your gear ratio. I had to special order mine with the 3.92

 

I just pulled a 35' KZ SPREE 324BHS with my 09 Crew 3.55 gears 20" tires. I pulled it from baltimore to blackfoot Idaho.... it pulled great even throught the mountains.. gas milage sucked but go figure.

 

sharrison03 i will try that with mine to put it in 4th gear. thanks for the info.

 

Summer of camping, 09 ram 1500 hemi with 25 1/2 fifthwheel 6000lbs

Squated like a girl and never came back up all the way.
Sounded like a race car going up hills, but no trouble with shifting, tow haul worked well.
handled great on gravel roads with camper.
no trouble backing up once the wife figured how to guide me back.
she ate fuel like a chubby girl
even scene MDS come on while pulling camper(going down a hill)
box was shorter then GM, squished dog kennel...opps sorry buddy

only troubles was getting the fifth wheel hitch installed, no one wanted to do it cause of the special bracket.

 

Tell me more about this 5th wheel setup. I haven't heard of anyone else using a 5th wheel with the 09.