Transmission shifting issues in higher gears

[User_3336]

I've been having issues with my 2019 ram 1500 3.6l bighorn crew cab for some time now. I took my truck to the dealership and they updated all the "new" updates and flashes and it has progressively gotten worse since. I dri e 45 minutes to work and about an hour home due to heavy traffic and construction. The transmission never seems to be in the right gear and is continuously over or under geared for the traveling speeds. I'm not sure if my truck has ever fou d 8th gear for more than 5 seconds at a time. I've got a rear end clunk, shutters, and groaning/moaning from the drive train as well but the dealership says it's fine. Something is not "fine!"

What AXLE RATIO do you have???

 

[stormcom]

I have a 2019 BH 3.6 with shift issues. I live in North Texas and cannot get it to run in 8th gear on the level Lone Prairie at 70 and 75. All my driving is highway with most trips being 50 to 75 miles. I even put a tonneau cover on it and did not help. Dealer said they get winded at 70 and get used to 6th and 7th gear. I drive with the cruise control as much as possible. I hear about TSB's but cannot find them. My vin is KN646224.

 

[User_67930]

I have a 2019 BH 3.6 with shift issues. I live in North Texas and cannot get it to run in 8th gear on the level Lone Prairie at 70 and 75. All my driving is highway with most trips being 50 to 75 miles. I even put a tonneau cover on it and did not help. Dealer said they get winded at 70 and get used to 6th and 7th gear. I drive with the cruise control as much as possible. I hear about TSB's but cannot find them. My vin is KN646224.

What rearend do you have?
My 3.6 with the 3.55s will run 80-90 in 8th all day, zero problems.

 

[Houseman from the Hammer]

I wanted to share a few issues I have been having. My previous truck was a 2014 Ram 1500 3.6 4x4 crew. My new truck is a 2019 Ram 1500 3.6 4x4 crew also. I bought the truck new with 35 miles about 3 months ago. My previous truck had around 30K miles when I bought it and 99K when I traded it. I never had a single issue in the few years I owned it.
My new truck is a different story so far. To get this moving along, I'm having issues with 5th,6th,7th and sometimes 8th. The truck does not like to down shift in any of these gears. Once it's in 6th or 7th especially I have to almost floor it to downshift any. I drive 40 miles to work each day in varying terrain. I have hills, highway and city driving. I have noticed the worst issues in the city and hills. I have a 5 mile stretch I go from 35 mph to 45 mph back to 35 mph.. My truck will easily get into 6th and 7th and sometimes 8th in this stretch. If my truck is in 7th when in the 35mph zone and I reach the 45 zone and there is no traffic and I try to accelerate it will buck, jump and not want to down shift when pressing the throttle until I really push it hard.. Then it will down shift into 4th and sometimes 3rd and take off like a wild kid on sugar. It will also do this same thing in 6th.. I'm not looking forward to this when the snow gets here. (In lower gears it will down shift with about 15-20% of throttle input.)

So my 8th gear issue is the truck bucks or bumps in 8th sometimes. I know it is hard to explain, but once I'm up to 55-65 and the truck shifts into 8th and I set the cruise control about 10 seconds later it feels like I have been bumped from someone behind me. I know that sounds odd but I have no way to explain it. It feels like the truck gets a push or a bump from behind. It's not gentle either, everyone who has rode with me asks ( wth was that!)

So I figured this was all because the truck is new and it needs miles to break in over all nothing has changes in 3200 miles. Yesterday when driving home, I have a small hill I have to go up to get to the road by my house house. I turn off a major highway to go up this hill.. ( highway speed is 60 mph, the hill is 1/8 mile 5% grade) So my truck is in 8th on the highway as normal and I start to slow down and make the turn going around 15-20 mph and my truck is still in 5th, and I get my truck straighten up to go up the hill and try to gain some speed, my truck starts to buck and shudder.. I'm going 20-25ish and I'm still in 5th!! So I apply more pedal and the bucking it gets worse.. So floor it, and finally it downshift with a loud bang (sounded like hammers smacking) and it revs wildly and goes from 1st to 2nd and then screams up the hill.

I thought I have had enough of this wild ride so I call the dealer I bought it from and "try" to schedule it to have it looked at.. I'm told it will be 2 weeks before I can drop it off !!
So now I wait to see what might be wrong with my transmission.. Oh to top this all off, this does not happen all the time.. Maybe once a week the transmission acts really crazy.. and most of the time it will still not down shift, but it does it much gentler. My 2014 never had this issue and I was hoping my new truck would not have issues.. Transmission issues are the worst ones to have. There have been other weird transmission quirks, but I'm done typing for now.

I'm currently still delving into the exact same shift issues with my 2018 1500 that I bought brand new. The issues didn't surface until 140K+. What I have discovered is that if use my gear selector and top out at 4th I can temporarily eliminate the issue until have it looked into. At least I know that I'm not causing any undue stress on the transmission. I can still do 80 mph on the highway as the revs sit at 3,200 rpm.