am on my way back to michigan after dropping three horse carriages off. just pulling an empty trailer now (2200 lbs) . with any minor uphill grade this truck shifts out of overdrive.
have talked to folks on the roqad with the same truck who are pulling 5th wheel travel trailers who say they are going up the same hills and never shift out of overdrive. what is wrong with this thing?
also when it shifts down, if i have much pulling to do to finish the grade the temp gage goes up and the truck acts like i am shutting the truck off and on (engine continues to run)

 

It sounds like your tranny is slipping. The torque conveter must be slippin, hit the overdrive button to keep from slipping. Try to get it home and get it fixed quick, won't last much longer.

 

actually seems to be shifting fine, acts more like engine is lacking the power it needs to hold speed

 

Every truck is different.
You could have identical trucks, down to the last part, built side by side and they would pull the hill differently.

That said.

First thing I noticed is you have 3.55 gears.
Not the best thing for towing.

I'd have the transmission serviced, soon.
Bands adjusted, pressures checked, fluid changed, filter changed.

If you've been doing a lot of towing, you most likely have been slipping for a while, just not enough for you to notice, but enough to start wearing down the tranny fluid and internal parts.


phox

 

Have you checked the fuel pressure?

I would look into that as well.

Keep an open mind when troubleshooting, it usually will lead you to the culprit with less cash out of your pocket in the end.

Good Luck


Jason

 

at the present time mine is at the dealer in hastings. they called me this afternoon and said they had ordered and would put on tues. a fuel pump , lift pump, turbo, injector pump under warrenty. hopefully this will remedy the problem(s)

 

holy cow, if all those parts have gone bad its no wonder you where complaining abought no power. Its a wonder it ran at all.

 

Sounds like a good dealer too.

 

fuel pump and lift pump . been with this dealer thru 3 (this is my fourth) truck and have had them all "overserviced" by this dealer. trannys serviced 10,000 mile intervals oil changes 3,000 miles , get a leak fix it , brake pads before they wore out ect. take em dougnets and mcdonalds sauage biscuits every time i go in . presto! i need help there is no arguments.

 

Sounds like you already bought all the parts along time ago.... they are just now getting around to installing them.

 

When you get all the new parts in you won't believe all the power that the truck will have. That is alot of problems all at once, how could you stand driving it? It must have been like driving a 4 banger . Good luck
dave

 

actually it drove good as long as i was not towing with it. it is my first diesel and i was not sure what they were supposed to do. just talked with a lot of Rammers on the road about theirs and deducted from them that mine was not up to snuff