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Towing review

Piggywutz

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May 7, 2019
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This weekend I got my first real chance to do some towing with my new Ram. I’m a collector and restorer of old Cub Cadet garden tractors and I took some of my fleet to a large tractor show.

My trailer is a 7x16 v-nose. Weighs 2200 dry. Has brakes on both axles. I had it loaded with close to 4000 worth of tractors and attachments. So pulling roughly 6200 total.

The truck is a Laramie sport. 5.7 non etorque. 3.92 gears. Only suspension mod is Timbrens on the rear.

The trip was pretty short. 120 miles round trip. The terrain is what makes it interesting. I’m In the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania. We travel up and down 7% + grades here. Also roads here in PA are not smooth. We are constantly ranked as some of the worst roads in the nation and it is true. Steep grades and rough pavement will keep you on your toes.

The truck performed as expected. Plenty of power. With tow/haul on, the truck was quick to accelerate with the load behind it. The brakes on the truck are great. Good stopping power and no pedal fade. Rear end sag was mitigated by the Timbrens. I have had them on my past trucks and am a fan of them for payload and towing. Going up some of the grades at 3500-4000rpm gave me about 45 mph. Probably could have squeezed more out of it, but I did not want to. No sense trying to fly up these mountains when you have to just gear it down and hold it back going down the other side. My fuel economy for the trip was 9.0mpg. Going up some the grades the real time monitor would dip down to 2.0mpg. Unloaded and away from the mountains I am averaging 17.5 mpg. Easy to see how much of hit these grades are to fuel economy.

I came out of a 2015 Silverado before this Ram. The Ram has more power and better brakes than the Chevy. I am pleased with its performance. That being said, I think the tow ratings for all 1/2 ton trucks are currently out of control. Would I tow 10k with this truck. No. Would I tow over 10k even though it’s within the trucks rating? Absolutely not. Not where I live. I would feel comfortable up to about 8k. I do not want something twice as heavy as the truck behind me. When the physics of steep downhill grade take over, the pucker factor would be extreme.

Now maybe if I lived on the flatlands of the Midwest I’d feel different about what the truck can handle. Flat ground and smooth roads make a huge difference. If any of you guys are towing around the mountains of the northeast I hope this review was helpful. Here are some pics of the truck hitched 5D2D339D-98A5-451A-A899-A4F55D208FA6.jpeg 421B8FFF-B8C0-45DA-BE4C-ECC58A722E0B.jpeg 2023C0D2-CC96-4A9E-B457-C72A3C427453.jpeg up and loaded.
 

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