2022 Ram 3500 - Towing Disappointment Justified?

[tahoepg]

Hi all,

New to the forum, and new to Ram. We have a 39' Keystone Montana 5th Wheel which has a "shipping weight" of 13,000lbs and have hooked up with a B&W Companion 5th Wheel Hitch. We recently upgraded to the Ram 3500 (Laramie, quad cab, 4x4, dually, long bed) and were expecting effortless performance as compared to a late model Ford F350 SuperDuty that it was replacing. We live in mountainous terrain and while I can't quibble with off the line acceleration, handling, or otherwise straight line performance, we are completely underwhelmed going uphill and/or passing power. We've been towing in "Tow/Haul" mode and upon approaching hills/mountains, we find that it typically will not downshift, it'll hold approximately 26psi of boost, but we'll slowly begin to decelerate, even if I "floor it". This happened as recently as yesterday. Granted, we were at 6500' outside Mammoth Lakes, CA, but even on flatter terrain, closer to sea level, I have little confidence passing semi trucks well under the speed limit if given a 1 - 2 mile passing lane.

Is this normal? Is the power disparity between this and the High Output model that significantly different?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tchur1]

I have the HO and have not had this issue, when I put my foot to the floor when towing it goes, sometimes it'll take a second to downshift but once it does it accelerates no problem. Have you tried locking out 6th gear when towing? or even 5th depending on the speeds youre traveling.

For context I tow around 10k pretty frequently and live in Lake Tahoe so at elevation and over passes frequently.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I have an SO and no issue passing you can always hit the - to drop a gear and get more passing power

 

[elephantrider]

my mediocre output pulls the 38' bp rv like a dream. it weighs close to 10k loaded.

something doesn't sound right.

 

[Ctate]

Do you have an HO? How many miles you got on it? I'm on my 3rd brand new ram and after having my 15 HO, I was convinced the truck derateded for a certain mile brake in when it was new. Felt like the truck pulled much better once I hit around 10k miles. My 21, I payed close attention to how it pulled. I have a 45ft toy hauler that weights about 20k loaded that we pull around the colorado, Utah, and Wyoming mountains. First tow was at 400 miles and I was not impressed with how the truck pulled up Loveland pass compared to my 15, especially with more tq, power and 3.73s. I was only about to do around 47 mph while my 15, I was able to do 53-54. I towed the same pass around 10k miles and was able to do 58-59mph pulling the same hill. Every time I tow, the truck feels more powerful so ram must do something to keep Temps or power lower during the first several thousand miles. I absolutely love the truck and has met my expectations.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Do you have an HO? How many miles you got on it? I'm on my 3rd brand new ram and after having my 15 HO, I was convinced the truck derateded for a certain mile brake in when it was new. Felt like the truck pulled much better once I hit around 10k miles. My 21, I payed close attention to how it pulled. I have a 45ft toy hauler that weights about 20k loaded that we pull around the colorado, Utah, and Wyoming mountains. First tow was at 400 miles and I was not impressed with how the truck pulled up Loveland pass compared to my 15, especially with more tq, power and 3.73s. I was only about to do around 47 mph while my 15, I was able to do 53-54. I towed the same pass around 10k miles and was able to do 58-59mph pulling the same hill. Every time I tow, the truck feels more powerful so ram must do something to keep Temps or power lower during the first several thousand miles. I absolutely love the truck and has met my expectations.

He is an SO if you read his post but you are right there is a 6k mile detune on these trucks my 19 had a huge difference in power right at 10k km (6000 miles) it was like flipping a switch i noticed the difference easily then i did some digging and found i was right

 

[Cseybert]

My 2022 HO 3500 DRW pulls a 15000# trailer and skid steer here in the Texas Hill Country. No problems passing I have never had to go to the floor with it yet.

 

[Xflight29]

I tow 15K Mobil Kitchen and have the 2020 HO and have no issues pulling up a 7% grade. You can always down shift and hold it with the manual shift button on your column shifter.

 

[Ctate]

Double post

 

[Ctate]

He is an SO if you read his post but you are right there is a 6k mile detune on these trucks my 19 had a huge difference in power right at 10k km (6000 miles) it was like flipping a switch i noticed the difference easily then i did some digging and found i was right

Yeah, It was crazy how much power the truck had after around that point. Id like to see if the trucks tfl tested up the mountain had over 6k miles. I'm guessing they did.

I guess I was confused by his post. Sounded to me like he didn't have an HO because he said "between this and a high output." I'm not the smartest

 

[Brutal_HO]

He is an SO if you read his post but you are right there is a 6k mile detune on these trucks my 19 had a huge difference in power right at 10k km (6000 miles) it was like flipping a switch i noticed the difference easily then i did some digging and found i was right

Really? Detune until 6K? Never heard of it.

You don't think it's cylinder finishing that it has more power (and probably better mileage)?

 

[tchur1]

Really? Detune until 6K? Never heard of it.

You don't think it's cylinder finishing that it has more power (and probably better mileage)?

i just ticked over 6k miles and have noticed a nice bump in MPGs. Probably 15% or so. Haven’t had to tow anything super strenuous yet but still yanks the 10k boat around like it’s not there.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Really? Detune until 6K? Never heard of it.

You don't think it's cylinder finishing that it has more power (and probably better mileage)?

Believe it or not it is kind of stated in the manual under break in

Read the Note. Its not direct but it is there

 

[Blythkd1]

I'm not getting anything about a detune in the notes from the owner's manual but I hope you all are right. Seems like several owners have mentioned a noticeable difference after a few thousand miles.

I'm ready for it. I've been a bit underwhelmed myself. 360/800 (C/C numbers) should pull a load just fine. Mine pulls ok but it hasn't performed like I expected on hills. But at 5600 miles I certainly wasn't ready to complain yet. I get a chuckle out of all the guys that complain when their truck doesn't even have 1000 miles on it yet. I figured if I'm still disappointed at 20k miles, then I might start saying something. Hopefully I'm about to feel that power boost soon.

 

[KevinLK]

My googling turned up no references to anything like that. I would think that if the programming changed after 6k miles, it would be well documented. Maybe a dyno run before and after?

 

[RVTRKN]

New Cummins engines are tight, even though Cummins claim no break-in period, I've always ignored that and broke in every Cummins engines I've owned. 04.5 5.9 CTD, 07 C&C 6.7 and now my 2019 HO 6.7. OP, you will notice a difference after your first 5K miles. My 2019 is leaps and bounds better than my 07 C&C 6.7 with the G56 manual, but the 07 C&C version CTD was only at 305/600 HP/TQ. My HO pulls grades at 19K GCW without much effort, that includes the Grape Vine, Cajon Pass and Chiriaco Grade out of Indio Ca. Not to mention 2K miles on the 40 starting out at Lake Havasu and ending in Nashville TN (Franklin KY, just north of Nashville).

 

[Ctate]

Maybe detune is the wrong word but the truck was definitely not putting the power out like I though when I first got it and now pulling Loveland pass, pulling the same trailer I'm about 10 mph quicker up the hill. So ram has something going on with the ecu to limit power, I don't know what. I was so disappointed when I first towed especially after being so excited, I told my wife I would be looking at a Ford. But the truck has woken up now. I have15k milesat this point. This is compared to my 15 ram 3500 HO.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I'm not getting anything about a detune in the notes from the owner's manual but I hope you all are right. Seems like several owners have mentioned a noticeable difference after a few thousand miles.

I'm ready for it. I've been a bit underwhelmed myself. 360/800 (C/C numbers) should pull a load just fine. Mine pulls ok but it hasn't performed like I expected on hills. But at 5600 miles I certainly wasn't ready to complain yet. I get a chuckle out of all the guys that complain when their truck doesn't even have 1000 miles on it yet. I figured if I'm still disappointed at 20k miles, then I might start saying something. Hopefully I'm about to feel that power boost soon.

“Reduced fuel economy and power may be seen at this time”. They set it in the computer to drop the power as i read it and its clearly a thing if everyone notices the power difference.

 

[tahoepg]

Interesting feedback across the board. I suppose I’ll give it more time, but just wonder if anyone has directly compared SO to HO and if there is an objective difference, all things equal.

 

[tahoepg]

Do you have an HO? How many miles you got on it? I'm on my 3rd brand new ram and after having my 15 HO, I was convinced the truck derateded for a certain mile brake in when it was new. Felt like the truck pulled much better once I hit around 10k miles. My 21, I payed close attention to how it pulled. I have a 45ft toy hauler that weights about 20k loaded that we pull around the colorado, Utah, and Wyoming mountains. First tow was at 400 miles and I was not impressed with how the truck pulled up Loveland pass compared to my 15, especially with more tq, power and 3.73s. I was only about to do around 47 mph while my 15, I was able to do 53-54. I towed the same pass around 10k miles and was able to do 58-59mph pulling the same hill. Every time I tow, the truck feels more powerful so ram must do something to keep Temps or power lower during the first several thousand miles. I absolutely love the truck and has met my expectations.

Is your new truck HO?