stevj
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Just returned from a 7000-mile break-in run in my 2019 Ram 1500 Limited, and would like to share some thoughts and opinions.
The route: Home (Seattle area) > Chicago > Nashville > Shreveport > Waco > Albuquerque > San Jose > Home.
All to visit relatives and other things, and to check out how the Ram handles it. I carried tire chains, just in case.
Vehicle came with 22" wheels & tires. Too harsh and not much sidewall flex. Looking for comfortable ride so got some 18" standard Bighorn wheels and put some good tires on them for the trip.
The Ram had about 800 miles on it by then, so I replaced the factory fill break-in oil with some Pennzoil 5W-30 (more on this later) a couple days before starting the trip. Holy crap, the factory oil filter - someone turned a gorilla loose with a big @ss wrench because I fairly mangled it just trying to get it loose. Messiest oil filter change I have ever done. Ever. I put in a larger diameter filter for the trip. Filter relocation in the near future. Fabbed up a splash pan for the area between the bottom of the radiator and the bottom of the engine, to keep debris out as much as possible.
BRAKES:
This vehicle has excellent brakes. Pedal feel is a bit soft until about 1/3 down, then firms up nicely with good feel. The brake lights come on a bit late in the pedal press for my liking.
I don't brake hard if I can avoid it, nor do I "bed" them. I just take it easy and let them wear in slowly. No squeals, noises or pulsations, and the brake pads last much longer. My 2010 Tundra brake pads lasted over 100,000 miles. We'll see how the Ram pads hold up.
ETORQUE:
My Ram has STOP/START with the eTorque system. The engine is running before I can get my foot off the brake pedal, and without using the engine-mounted starter. I kept the system off most of the time but enabled it occasionally in city driving to exercise that battery behind the back seats. Pretty sure this is going to wear the serpentine out faster than if I didn't have the eTorque. We'll see.
OIL:
At no time did I allow cylinder deactivation to operate, since I don't know the mechanical processes(yet) of that "feature." I wanted all cylinders available all the time, and wanted to check oil consumption without "ECO" mode getting in the way.
The amount of oil consumed in 7000 mostly highway miles was negligible. Just the way it should be.
There is an "oil life indicator" built in to the beast, and by watching all the indications and mileage meters, there is a change of 1% for every 100 miles traveled, so I ended the 7000-mile trip with 30% oil life remaining. I was in the San Jose portion of the trip for a week with many short trips running errands and much stop-and-go traffic. Didn't see a difference. Still 1% per 100 miles.
I noticed oil temperature is 220*F or higher when the engine is at operating temperature. I don't trust 20-weight oil at that temperature, and since I figured at least 6500 miles until the next oil change, I wanted a bit more protection for this expensive engine. I went with 5W-30 for the piece of mind.
For my rationale on this, see www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/518/motor-oils
CRUISE CONTROL:
Cruise control is smooth and maintains speed very well. HOWEVER. On downhill runs was a bit too aggressive trying to maintain set speed, and I suspect the brakes were being applied by the vehicle in an effort to avoid an overspeed situation. I saw no indication on the displays that the Ram was downshifting or using torque converter lockup to slow down. The tachometer did not waver. I had no indication the brakes were being applied other than the vehicle was slowing down and I was not involved in the process. In this situation, some way to know that brakes were being applied, even if it's just a LED indicator, would be helpful.
ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL:
This is some excellent technology except in the California Bay Area, where there is no such thing as following distance and any attempt to create some is thwarted by other drivers who feel the need to fill the gap or shoot through it to get to a slightly faster lane.
Distance from the vehicle in front was maintained well. I mainly used this on the Interstate away from cities.
LANE DEPARTURE:
While testing this, it kept turning itself off after detecting the right edge of the road and pointing me back to center. Not all that helpful.
Didn't use it except to test how it works. Don't like it. Not dependable.
FUEL USAGE: I have a 33-gallon fuel tank, only because a larger tank is not available.
At the end of the trip, the TRIP B readings were7077.7 miles at 18.0 MPG.
I saved (almost) all the data for every fuel purchase, and calculated 7074.5 miles at 16.22 MPG.
Funny thing was when I averaged the vehicle indicated mileage recorded per tank, I got 16.99 MPG. See the table. Indicated Average is from TRIP A, which was reset at each fill-up.
Bottom line: vehicle indicated fuel mileage was optimistic, and only rarely matched the calculated mileage.
I have the 3.92:1 differential ratio. Tested transmission gearing and how it affected indicated fuel usage. On level road with cruise control set to 65MPH, shifting to 7th didn't change MPG at all and downshifting to 6th decreased MPG by 1.
Tried again on long steady uphill run. You'd think downshifting to put the engine closer to torque peak and adding the mechanical advantage of a lower gear would be better for fuel usage, but it was not. Downshifting to 7th showed no mpg change, and 6th showed a 1mpg decrease just like the level road test. Might be Chrysler's use of MAP vs MAF. Did not carry my ScangaugeII on the trip, so I couldn't check.
UCONNECT:
I have the 12" screen. Sometimes slow to respond to input. The weather map is painfully slow to show the weather.
WTF? Where is ALTITUDE and why is it not on the main map display?
And what color-blind fool thought blue text on a black background was gonna be easy to read? Why can I not change the color of the text to suit my preferences?
Speed limit not always accurate. Ended up using my GARMIN unit on a stalk in addition to the Uconnect map display. See picture.
Only functional negative is that when the temps were into the teens overnight, the Uconnect had to warm up a bit before it remembered.
PLUGGING STUFF IN:
Two 115vac outlets, but only one 12vdc power outlet in the whole vehicle, top center on the dash. I'm gonna have to install more power outlets to feed my stuff.
OVERALL:
Not bad. Good power from the engine. Seems a bit too eager to upshift, though, but still accelerates well. And a good looking vehicle, too. Now, if I could just stop turning up the radio when I want to shift to Drive.
Steve
The route: Home (Seattle area) > Chicago > Nashville > Shreveport > Waco > Albuquerque > San Jose > Home.
All to visit relatives and other things, and to check out how the Ram handles it. I carried tire chains, just in case.
Vehicle came with 22" wheels & tires. Too harsh and not much sidewall flex. Looking for comfortable ride so got some 18" standard Bighorn wheels and put some good tires on them for the trip.
The Ram had about 800 miles on it by then, so I replaced the factory fill break-in oil with some Pennzoil 5W-30 (more on this later) a couple days before starting the trip. Holy crap, the factory oil filter - someone turned a gorilla loose with a big @ss wrench because I fairly mangled it just trying to get it loose. Messiest oil filter change I have ever done. Ever. I put in a larger diameter filter for the trip. Filter relocation in the near future. Fabbed up a splash pan for the area between the bottom of the radiator and the bottom of the engine, to keep debris out as much as possible.
BRAKES:
This vehicle has excellent brakes. Pedal feel is a bit soft until about 1/3 down, then firms up nicely with good feel. The brake lights come on a bit late in the pedal press for my liking.
I don't brake hard if I can avoid it, nor do I "bed" them. I just take it easy and let them wear in slowly. No squeals, noises or pulsations, and the brake pads last much longer. My 2010 Tundra brake pads lasted over 100,000 miles. We'll see how the Ram pads hold up.
ETORQUE:
My Ram has STOP/START with the eTorque system. The engine is running before I can get my foot off the brake pedal, and without using the engine-mounted starter. I kept the system off most of the time but enabled it occasionally in city driving to exercise that battery behind the back seats. Pretty sure this is going to wear the serpentine out faster than if I didn't have the eTorque. We'll see.
OIL:
At no time did I allow cylinder deactivation to operate, since I don't know the mechanical processes(yet) of that "feature." I wanted all cylinders available all the time, and wanted to check oil consumption without "ECO" mode getting in the way.
The amount of oil consumed in 7000 mostly highway miles was negligible. Just the way it should be.
There is an "oil life indicator" built in to the beast, and by watching all the indications and mileage meters, there is a change of 1% for every 100 miles traveled, so I ended the 7000-mile trip with 30% oil life remaining. I was in the San Jose portion of the trip for a week with many short trips running errands and much stop-and-go traffic. Didn't see a difference. Still 1% per 100 miles.
I noticed oil temperature is 220*F or higher when the engine is at operating temperature. I don't trust 20-weight oil at that temperature, and since I figured at least 6500 miles until the next oil change, I wanted a bit more protection for this expensive engine. I went with 5W-30 for the piece of mind.
For my rationale on this, see www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/518/motor-oils
CRUISE CONTROL:
Cruise control is smooth and maintains speed very well. HOWEVER. On downhill runs was a bit too aggressive trying to maintain set speed, and I suspect the brakes were being applied by the vehicle in an effort to avoid an overspeed situation. I saw no indication on the displays that the Ram was downshifting or using torque converter lockup to slow down. The tachometer did not waver. I had no indication the brakes were being applied other than the vehicle was slowing down and I was not involved in the process. In this situation, some way to know that brakes were being applied, even if it's just a LED indicator, would be helpful.
ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL:
This is some excellent technology except in the California Bay Area, where there is no such thing as following distance and any attempt to create some is thwarted by other drivers who feel the need to fill the gap or shoot through it to get to a slightly faster lane.
Distance from the vehicle in front was maintained well. I mainly used this on the Interstate away from cities.
LANE DEPARTURE:
While testing this, it kept turning itself off after detecting the right edge of the road and pointing me back to center. Not all that helpful.
Didn't use it except to test how it works. Don't like it. Not dependable.
FUEL USAGE: I have a 33-gallon fuel tank, only because a larger tank is not available.
At the end of the trip, the TRIP B readings were7077.7 miles at 18.0 MPG.
I saved (almost) all the data for every fuel purchase, and calculated 7074.5 miles at 16.22 MPG.
Funny thing was when I averaged the vehicle indicated mileage recorded per tank, I got 16.99 MPG. See the table. Indicated Average is from TRIP A, which was reset at each fill-up.
Bottom line: vehicle indicated fuel mileage was optimistic, and only rarely matched the calculated mileage.
I have the 3.92:1 differential ratio. Tested transmission gearing and how it affected indicated fuel usage. On level road with cruise control set to 65MPH, shifting to 7th didn't change MPG at all and downshifting to 6th decreased MPG by 1.
Tried again on long steady uphill run. You'd think downshifting to put the engine closer to torque peak and adding the mechanical advantage of a lower gear would be better for fuel usage, but it was not. Downshifting to 7th showed no mpg change, and 6th showed a 1mpg decrease just like the level road test. Might be Chrysler's use of MAP vs MAF. Did not carry my ScangaugeII on the trip, so I couldn't check.
UCONNECT:
I have the 12" screen. Sometimes slow to respond to input. The weather map is painfully slow to show the weather.
WTF? Where is ALTITUDE and why is it not on the main map display?
And what color-blind fool thought blue text on a black background was gonna be easy to read? Why can I not change the color of the text to suit my preferences?
Speed limit not always accurate. Ended up using my GARMIN unit on a stalk in addition to the Uconnect map display. See picture.
Only functional negative is that when the temps were into the teens overnight, the Uconnect had to warm up a bit before it remembered.
PLUGGING STUFF IN:
Two 115vac outlets, but only one 12vdc power outlet in the whole vehicle, top center on the dash. I'm gonna have to install more power outlets to feed my stuff.
OVERALL:
Not bad. Good power from the engine. Seems a bit too eager to upshift, though, but still accelerates well. And a good looking vehicle, too. Now, if I could just stop turning up the radio when I want to shift to Drive.
Steve
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