We had some snow the other day.
I got stuck at the end of the driveway an then again later in the day.
(I want to blame the tires. My last Ram was a lot better after I changed out the HP's.)

I put it into 4wd and rocked, nothing. I shut off the ESP and backed right out.

Should ESP be off in the snow? I thought thats what it as for.

Then the other day I connected my jetski trailer and I noticed the ESP was off. Did it do it by itself?

While were at....what the dealwith Tow/Haul? You have to shift manually when it is on? Why have te button when I can shift manually without it?

 

ESP - on in the snow unless you have so little traction that you need to spin them to get moving

ESP turns itself back on when you restart the truck

Tow/Haul just changes the shift points and locks out OD, it shifts itself.

 

Tow/haul automatically shifts for you just like normal except for it raises the shift points so you stay in the power band better. The number in the dash when the button is pushed indicates the highest gear that you want the trans to be in while going down the road. You cannot shift manually, all you can do is limit the highest gear that your trans can access. If you dont believe me then do this simple test, select 2nd gear and drive at 20 mph and floor it, I will promise you that it will shift down to first gear and take off. Now as far as esp is concerned, unless you are an experienced driver in snow then its best to leave it on 90% of the time. And when you tow a trailer I would make sure esp is on since it helps with the trailer sway control that is on our trucks. I dont know why your truck would have disabled esp on its own when you hooked the trailer up, mine has never done that.

 

Full On - Normal

ESP Partially Off (ESP Light will be illuminated) - Disables the TCS function (Excepting Limited Slip Function) while leaving the rest of ESP intact.

ESP Full Off (Press and hold button for 5 seconds) - Disables the TCS function (Excepting Limited Slip) and ESP below 40 mph. When 40 mph is exceeded the system returns to partially off and then returns to full off when speed drops below 35 mph.

ESP Full Off is the only mode when in 4WD LO.

Tow/Haul Mode will shut off the 2nd Overdrive and raise shift points and downshift points.

ERS can be used to manually select gears without being in Tow/Haul.
When using ERS you can not select the 2nd Overdrive. 2 Prime, 3, and 4 are renumbered 3, 4 and 5 (0.75 OD). You can only access the 0.67 OD (Normal 5th) by exiting ERS Mode.

PS I normally use ESP Full Off when in particularly slick slow speed operation as you can lose some speed as ESP attempts to keep the truck straight.

 

Very good info, thanks.