Howdy all.
Just picked up a new-to-me 2500 a couple of weeks ago, and I've got to say that so far I love this truck. It's only got the 5.7 and not the 6.4, but I don't feel like I'm short on power, and I don't tow huge amounts of weight (a 3500lb boat and a 20hp compact tractor are the heaviest loads I have right now) so I figure the 5.7 should be plenty. I've always been a Dodge/Ram guy anyway, so I was happy to trade my '16 F150 in on this rig instead. However, one thing that I miss about the F150 was that I could opt to have the dashboard display the gear that I was in permanently, rather than having to manually select it every time I started the truck. Is there a way that I can set this truck to constantly display the gear that it's in, without having to push the "-" button on the gearshift every time I fire it up? Or am I SOL?

Pics of the fleet for attention:
My 1969 D100:


My 1984 W150:


And lastly the new addition, the 2015 Ram 2500:

 

I'm not sure I'm following. You want to know which specific gear the transmission is in versus just knowing it's in Drive? When you press the '-' button on the selector, you're setting the maximum gear that the transmission will shift to, so that's not usually the best thing to do unless you are towing or need to compression slow the truck. If your 2500 has the 8-speed transmission, it should do a pretty good job of picking the right gear when towing the loads you listed so you shouldn't find yourself needing to force a downshift manually. I understand it's a feature you got used to with the F-150, I'm just not sure where it would beneficial.

As for your question though, there is not a way to have the truck automatically display which particular drive gear the transmission is in. If you haven't read the owner's manual yet on the manual gear selection buttons, there are a couple of tricks. If you press and hold the '-' button for more than 1 second I think it is, it will downshift the transmission to the lowest safe gear for the vehicle speed. Similarly, if you press and hold the '+' button while in the manual shift mode (such as after pressing '-') it will jump back to full automatic mode rather than having to step through each of the remaining gears to get to full auto.

-Rod

 

Correct. I live in hill country, so it's handy to be able to keep an eye on what gear the truck is in when I'm towing, and it's something of a nuisance to have to set the display every time I get into the truck, especially since (as you mentioned) you can inadvertently set the maximum gear to too low of a gear.
I read the owner's manual the night that I got the truck (color photos in a manual are a new one on me, haha!) but didn't see a way of permanently setting the display so I thought I'd ask in case I was missing something.
Oh well. I'll learn to live with it again, I suppose.

 

I opened the PDF of my owner's manual and assuming you have the Premium Driver Info Display (DID) cluster, then these are the only options available (tranny gear isn't one of them).

 

I do have that display, and if you look closely at the 'gear selector status' (#5) you'll see that right next to the 'D' there's a 1 (current gear) and a 3 (maximum allowed gear) that is controlled by the +/- button on your shifter. There just isn't an arrow pointing to it specifically in this PDF.
My question pertained to wether you could get that display on the dash constantly, instead of having to bring it back up by tapping the '-' button on the shifter every time you started the truck. Unfortunately, consensus so far is that you can't.

 

I understand what you're asking. That is the answer that I gave you: the ONLY OPTIONS that are available/customizable are the ones on this page. The transmission indicator (in ERS mode) is only on/available WHILE IN ERS mode. The presence of the gear indication is the vehicle's way of letting you know that A: ERS is active B: the highest available gear you which to use and C: the actual gear the truck is in.

No way to make ERS permanent upon start - this is an automatic transmission that expects to work automatically.

 

Right. We've covered that. Nice to know we're going in circles with such enthusiasm.
Having read the manual, I understand the function of the ERS. I'm also familiar with how an automatic transmission works. However, how it functions has nothing to do with wanting to have a display of what gear it's in on the dashboard. I like being able to keep track of what the truck is doing, especially if I'm towing. It's a personal preference (probably from so many years driving stick) that my Ford offered that this truck unfortunately does not (unless I want to activate it every time I turn the key), and I was merely hopeful for a way around that.

 

Wow. I realize your new here, but I was trying to answer your question fully. I guess I should have answered ONLY the questions you asked.


NO - you cannot configure the truck to constantly display the gear. YES - you are SOL

 

Shrug. Nothing personal. As mentioned above (in the post before your first one), I already read the manual, so posting that 'looking in the manual shows you this' wasn't a helpful response. I'm not new to automotive forums, and "RTFM" is a common "what a dope" response when somebody asks a question, rather than providing an actual helpful answer. And since all you provided was that 'tranny gear isn't an option for the DID' you really didn't address the question I had asked, since I wasn't questioning whether I could add it to the DIC, merely get it to display permanently next to the gear selection indicator.

And if it makes you feel better about dealing with a 'newbie', I've been a member of DodgeForum for a couple of years now, but I've been hanging out mostly in the 1st gen section where things move a bit slower (because they're simpler trucks to work on, and there are so few of them left to tinker on), so my post count is on the low side.