Hello,am drooling over a2010 or 2011 ram 1500 hemi. Just have a few questions I was hoping I could get some feed back on. I tow a travel trailer that weighs around 7500 to 8000 lbs loaded. I now tow with a 1 ton GMC van with the 6.5 diesel and 373 gears. It is under powered on the hills and light winds(15 mph and more approx. ) I am wondering if anyone can give me feed back about towing experience with the ram ? Power, mpg's etc. I am looking at SLT with Big Horn option. The ram I am looking at has 355 gears and 20 in. wheels.
Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to the site. I will move this thread to the fourth generation Ram section,
FF

 

Thanks, looking forward to some valuable feedback

 

From what I have read you should switch to 17 inch wheels you will be closer to the tow rating then especially with 355's but if you want to tow a lot you will be much happier with a 2500

 

Go with the 2500 or at least a 1500 with the 3:92's. You are coming from a 1 ton, go with the 1500 and 3:55's and it won't be a fair comparison to what you are use to. Yes power will be more, but less gear and a 1/2 ton vs a 1 ton not an apples to apples comparison would hate for you to be unhappy because you did not buy enough truck and hold the truck responsible for it.

 

Here is a little info that might be useful to you:

Technical review of towing experience

Rob

 

Thanks for the answers. Why are you suggesting going with the 2500. Is for the suspension? I do not see where the power would be any different.
I have been considering the 392's. rob can you tell me what kind of mileage you get with your truck?

Thanks Jeff

 

My towing review post (fixed the link BTW) talks about towing mileage. Basically, it wasn't great but it wasn't awful. And lightening the load by two cycles and two people jumped MPG from 8.x to almost 11, which I was very surprised about. That could have had to do with average speed too, since the 8.x was at interstate speeds and the 11 was on slower roads. But the interstates were flat and the slow roads were REAL mountain driving. I figured grades would have more effect than speed but who knows?

The suggestions for going with a 2500 are probably because what you're towing is near the upper limit of capability of the 1500. Can it be done? Yes. Can it be done over and over for long distances and many miles through the life of the 1500? Not as comfortably as a 2500 will handle it. It's the typical situation of whether you max out something's capability or get something else where you are using just 50-75% of capability. If you do it only rarely, like me, then the other benefits make the 1500 worthwhile. If you pull the max trailer weight every other weekend all summer long then consider the more capable vehicle.

Rob

 

I would assume your diesel has way more torque than the 1500, especially at low rpms. I don't think you'd be happy with a Ram 1500 towing 8,000 lbs after being in a diesel and thinking it was under powered.

 

I don't have any input as far as towing goes but if you are looking at a big horn then it should have the 3.92's. Mine does.