Thx for all the responses and advice. I'm not a newbe to diesels just to dodge. I'm leaning toward the smarty jr. I will replace the fuel filter and maybe take it in and have everything checked out. It's still under the factory warrenty. My toy hauler is about 10' tall and 8' wide. It has a huge wind drag. We learned with the d-maxxes that it was easyer to overheat a truck with a lighter trailer that has a large drag compared to a heavier trailer with out the drag.

 

Fill out your sig, so we all can know what the truck is equiped with. I didn't see where you said it's an auto, or manual trans. If it's an auto,did you have the TQ/converter locked up? If you didn't then you were probably wasting 50 hp on trans heat, & going nowhere fast.

 

Auto...He said in a prior post on page one he was using Tow/Haul.

 

Two things, one, do the fuel and air filters. Mine was getting sluggish even unloaded and was making injector knock noises. Fuel filter fixed it right up.

Second, if its an auto trans at 50 MPH you're right on the edge of dropping or have dropped out of 3rd gear torque converter lock. That's not good on hills as trans temps will rise rapidly. At the RPMs you're quoting you may well have unlocked the torque converter.

At a minimum get a pyrometer and a transmission temp gauge (if automatic). I pulled a 10K box trailer over the I-5 Grapevine to SoCal and it would do 60-65 each way. (I weighed it on the way south, 17+K truck and trailer). However, on the way south I had to slow for traffic and once the converter unlocked in third it was a hell of a dance between trans temp and EGT to get the speed back up to where it would lock again. The alternative was to drop down to second and go 45-50. 35 inch tires and a 3.73 rear end don't help either.

I also installed a double deep transmission pan for fluid capacity, and a BD valve body that improved the shifting immensely.

 

Okey this is where I will show my ignorance about dodges. How do you know when the converter is locked up. Sorry to ask a silly question but this how I will learn. On my d-maxx my edge /att would tell me when my converter was locked.

 

On the 06 in Tow/Haul mode the torque converter will lock at about 28 to 30 mph in 3rd. If you get an Edge with Attitude you can also set it to tell you when it is locked.

If you are a really tough grade you can drop the trans to 2nd and with it in Tow/Haul it will lock at about 20 mph in 2nd.

 

http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/doi...gv3/1006989539

Probably just not gearing down enough to keep the RPMs up, would be my guess.

 

Thats what I'd guess also.

There is a huge difference in how my trucks pulls based on how many rpm I'm running.

Chugging along at 1700 and its not very impressive. Kick it up to 2100-2200 and its a totally different beast.

 

There is a REASON 4.10 gears are a option also.

 

When the converter is locked, the truck feels like there is a direct connection between the motor and trans.

If you were to let up on the throttle with the converter unlocked the rpm's will drop and you will slow down. Converter locked will result in no rpm change.

Basically the trans is in fact locked to the speed and rpm's of the motor.

Do you have larger tires by chance? If so there is one of the 3 contributors. Wind resistance, tire resistance and maybe fuel resistance (fuel filter plugged).

 

Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my first post.

It's not frontal area (doesn't hardly matter under 60mph).
It's probably not filters or gearing, or anything like that either.

You need to wind that baby up and let it sing! Anticipate the hills, and don't be afraid to let 'er kick down and run at 2800-3100 rpms. These engines like it there. At 50 mph you're in a big hole in the power curve if you let it drop below 2000 rpms. You gotta' be boosting.

Anyway, try staying in the turbo next time you tow, so your truck doesn't feel so anemic.

 

SOhappy - maybe the SO likes to sing at 3000 but my HO likes a little more sedate rpm of 2100. Pulls real strong right there.

 

Yeah 2200 seems to be the sweet spot for me.. Anything above 1900 is what I need to pull most hills...

 

Hmmmm

I would calculate 220 pounds of force exerted by a 64 flat square foot trailer at 30 mph, and 880 pounds at 60 mph.

That 880 pounds would require about 400 horsepower to pull it at 60 mph. Of course none of us has 64 flat square feet of area, but we can get close.

So yes, 60 is speed enough to exert a huge load on your truck. Like I said, hold your hand out the window and feel what it takes.

I flew pretty slick airplanes that had 200 horsepower and couldn't exceed 160 knots. And the total flat frontal area was 2 square feet.

For all you that are now doubting me, hook a parachute to your truck and you'll see what pulling the wind is like.

 

I agree.. as I said in my post earlier at 55 mph my 18' TT (4K ) takes about 8-9 psi of boost (on a strech of road by my house).. I had a 7 yard dump with 4 yards of rock, about a 14-16K load.. .It only took 3psi under the same conditions.. 4x the weight 1/3 the load..