I think your right when in manual mode it should not go into 6th. Unless they made the 2012 different than earlier years it shouldn't do that. If you manually select 5 it should not shift higher than 5. I understand what you mean and believe there's something wrong there, unless like i said they changed something in the 2012's.

Does it do the same thing when your not towing and manually select 5? Or even selecting 4th does it limit to that gear? If not then that would make the manual selection totally usueless, so something is wrong.

I found that for towing 2000 RPM and higher is the best, but if you can't even limit the gear then I understand your frustation. I know when i lock mine in 4th it will stay there until i change it, it will not change on it's own unless i forget about it and rev's at like 4000 rpm, but even then i havent had that happen yet so.

No word from chrysler?

 

What happens when you manually shift to a lower gear in those conditions (bump the shifter to the left)? Regardless of what number is appearing in the display, bumping to the next lowest gear should force a downshift and result in an RPM increase. If it does that then stop worrying about the specific gear you believe it to be in and shift to whatever gear where it tows most effectively. If it doesn't downshift then something is wrong - have the dealer fix that issue.

Rob

 

I want to thank everyone for their interest and help. Thats what these forums are for and about, again thank you very much!! Problems over, out of frustration I wraped it around a tree!!!! Will be getting a new one in a while!! LOL. Bad joke. Actually everyone had some good suggestions, went to dealer yesterday, he kinda explained it just as many of you did. tow mode alone will NOT lock it out of 6th gear, contrary to what even the dealer, both sales and service previously told me, it just plain won't. According to what Chrysler told them and they told me, put it in tow, then bump shift to left whichthey said will put it in 4th and it will not shift above. partially right!! I told them if I wanted to run 70 with boat, and they agreed I should be able to, it will be turning 2500+, god forbid 75! Also told them its a good thing it doesn't have 5.92 or 4.11 gears, if you have to lock it in 4th you'd be turning close to 3500 or so at 70!!
here is how it DOES work. When in tow mode alone it WILL go in 6th! And if you "bump" shift it will drop to 5th and MAYBE not shift back to 6th, I'm not sure yet, but I THINK it will. regardless, per DODGE even in manual alone it won't go in any gear higher than is shown on dash, my problem is mine does. They don't agree so we agreed they need to have a tranny, and motor on hand because I should need one about every 10,000 miles. They said fine and we parted company. Its a fuel miser when not towing, honestly with 20" tires and 3.56 I'm already getting 18.5 at 85-90 MPH. this was on a 3 1/2 hr trip! Engine I imagine is still breaking in, only about 2000 miles on it so if they want it turning 2500 + towing or maybe even 3000, thats fine except for the fuel mileage. If it locked in 5th like it should it would turn 2000 at 65, that would be fine. Anyhow, at least they explained HOW its supposed to work even though it doesn't. Thanks again for everyones help!

 

Glad to see your making some headway? I'm a little confused with what everyones saying- it shouldn't lockout 6th, it should just lockout 6th OD? You need to manually drop it one more to lock it out of 6th.

I was going to also suggest "counting" your shifts. If you hear it "shift" 7 times your in 6 gear OD. on mine, tow mode locks out just the OD, so it will shift "6" times instead of 7. , but I manually knock it down 1 more when towing over 5k lbs by hitting down another gear in the gear selector.

Then again I have the 4.7L, but it tows 5k lbs like a dream. I could only imagine the 5.7s got to tow even better, but the weight your towing is nothing.

Hopefully everything works out with the dealer, and if you have to get a new tranny, at least its under warranty. I lost a tranny on my 2010 chevy at 1600 miles and they had to drop a new one in, so no matter what brand you drive, manufacturing variances happen!

A friend of mine talks about his 2012 ram's 8 speeds- 1-6, TC lock, MDS on! The systems are getting too complex for me. Thats why I went with the 4.7L. I just dont trust the MDS systems on the 5.7 even though theres no logic behind it. I also just bought a 1980. They were so much easier to understand...haha. I can't imagine trying to work on a 2012 truck in 2025...

 

It will be very hard for him to count shifts. 2nd and 2nd prime you can't feel because the difference is so minor. its BS call them a 6 speed trans. As far as working on a 2012 in 2025 for he most part it will be a OLD simple system. Thats how its always been as time marches on. 1980s with lean burn and electronic igntion with egr etc. were a bitch back then to work on. Its always changing. Now with a DRB a tech can go with the owner on a test drive and watch all the shifts on a hand held scanner. He can see shifts,lockup and such. Thats what I'd do is get a sharp tech with a DRB and go for a ride. Easy to do now and can see everything going on with shift and torque converter. You couldn't do that in 1980.

 

It may be hard to count in full auto mode but if you use the select shift you can keep moving it up one gear at a time pretty easily.

Regarding the workings on of a high tech car... There is some truth to that, but look at it this way.. your talking about paying a tech to work out an issue as opposed to fixing it yourself... We are going to be more and more dependent on expensive equipment to buy and maintain vehicles. There is a reason so many people prefer the carbed straight 6 jeeps over fuel injected... (And early fuel injection over the modern computer controlled f jeeps) for offroading, and its not nostalgia... You can field repair any part of those old jeeps and a new one requires an hour of shop time. Some cars you can't even replace brakes, tires without connecting them to a computer. What's that spell for the large market of car buyers driving $500-$1500 cars? How hard is it going to be to keep a 2013 on the road compared to a 1970? I know its going to effect my car buying/maintaining behavior!

 

Shifting it yourself I for sure can't feel second prime. Upshift or down. I've tried and in different conditions several times. As far as old Jeeps and such with Carbs. The Chrysler store I was in we got a lot of old Carbed. Jeeps in. Owners couldn't fix them either or for that matter other shops or they didn't want to be bothered with them. Easier to hook up a DRB and check it out then the old way of 'lets see'. We also installed the factory UPGRADE on those old CJs and Comanche's to THROTTLE BODY INJECTION so they RAN BETTER and gave less problems then old carburetor stuff that owners were tired of having issues with. Two sides to everything. Yea brakes were simpler. So? They also weren't as safe. its all relevant to what someone wants and likes. Old Sopwith camel bi planes and model Ts were nifty but their days are long gone.

 

You have the 5 spd. The 2012s actually shift into prime. The 09s-11s only shift into prime when downshifting, not sequentially like the 12s do. When it "down shifts" into prime, you can't tell the difference between it and the normal gear because upshifting skips the prime and when downshifting it skips the normal gear, except by matching RPMs to speed. So while you can't feel it, the OP would.

As far as it being about "likes", thats true in the several thousand dollar market, but do you realize how many people are in the sub 2k market? This is the market that can't take it to a shop if they want to. You and I will never be in that market... we are driving 30-50k cars here. A $100 shop bill might not be how we WANT to spend our money, but we CAN.

There are a large chunk of car buyers who CAN'T spend that money. They dont have it. This is the buying segment in the 500-$2000 cars that limp them along until they finally die from a hodgepodge of rigged fixes.

This is actually about 28% of Americans fall into this income range. 20% of American families make under 20k per year. Sure its not going to effect you and I, but this is a larger segment of auto buyers than most people give credit to.

The problem is going to be that these people won't be able to keep these cars on the roads, and those of us like you and I, while we could, will probably be driving something newer and paying a shop to take care of what we can't do ourselves including diagnostics. Even on a early 2000s car, an OBII scanner would tell you everything you need to know. I know from experience that new cars today need even more equipment, and an OBII scanner alone puts diagnostics out of reach for a lot of people. (Thank goodness for autozone?)

 

You know I had a lot a LoT of JUNK brought in. LOTS. You'd be surprised at how many folks that you don't think can afford squat fix these junk cars. They found and got money from somewhere. Leave crying and call back in a few days and say FIX IT. I had seen that for years, this ecomony or 25 years ago,. Same deal. It goes in cycles. As a SHOP we had to be more cautious of not getting stuck after fixing a crapped out vehicle. No matter how much gas costs people keep on driving. Same with keeping them on the road. They figure out a way. These NEW age vehicles are a lot less troublesome and last much loner then in 1970/80/0r 90. Much longer. That is also hurting the auto makers. They shot hemselves in the foot by doing what the public wanted. Build BETTER vehicles. They did.

 

O'k, again thanks for everyones help! Bottom line, I have the worse dealer in the worlD, but you adapt and go on from there. Dealer actually fixed the thing but for some reason wont say so!!! I don't know what the big deal is. Here's the facts as explained to me by Chrysley customer service, which is also called Star Engineering. It WILL shift in 6th when in tow/haul. I still question this but its probably true. Also they said put it in tow/haul mode, bump shifter and chose which gear I want it to use as the highest gear it will use, Great!!!! Thats what I wanted all along! BUT, it would NOT do this. I could put it in tow/haul, ers in 5th and it wold STILL shift into 6th, period. Dealer yesterday told me i could only lock it in 4th or lower. Told the manager if I lock it in 4th and want to run 75, it will be turning like 3500 to 4000. So I said if you can put a new tranny about every 10,000 miles I can afford the 7-8 miles MPG. The service mgr said fine, no problem. A real sarcastic ***. ACtually said he didnt want to hear what my problem was , just lock it in 4th and good bye!!! Called customer service and they called dealer to call me yesterday, they never did. Now heres the funny thing....hauled boat today, tranny does just perfect. I can set 5th as highest gear and it will NOT shift into 6th as it did before it would NOT before, it would go back in 6th. So, bottom line they adjusted it yesterday, won't admit it, won't call me back so I called Daytona Dodge and confirmed I was right about what it WAS doing and they would be happy to take care of it. So anyhow, I'm done with New Smyrna Dodge and will deal with Daytona Dodge. Again, I'm happy with truck and thank you, I really love this forum.