the owners manuals says YOU MUST tow before 6000 miles in order to properly break the motor in.

any feedback on this as to how far/how long/how much weight?

i don't have anything to tow (yet) so I will have to borrow a trailer, but all my buddies (enclosed trailers) will require me to buy an electric brake controller (if i put a car in it to tow to get enough weight).

what brand of e-brake should i buy, if I will only use it a few times.
(edit - i meant elec brake, not exhaust brake - was thinking like a gas guy - oops )

we live in GA, prolly put kid's Eclipse on a open trailer and tow it to NC to see Grandma, if I can bum an open trailer,

6 inch drop hitch, is that the consensus for a 4x4?

 

First, do you have an automatic or a 6spd? Cummins does not recommend an e-brake on the automatic and it'll void your warranty....If your not going to tow, what do you need an e-brake for?

You'll find plenty of different thoughts regarding "breaking in" the engine on this forum, just do a search....it's personal preference.

Enjoy the new ride....

 

dodge recomends no towing for the first 500 miles. then after that they dont specify cummins says that if you dont tow heavy it can take up to 20,000 mile to fully break in. they also say if you put a heavy traler on or load that the engine can be broken it before 6000 mile. I dont recall reading any thing that said it will not break in properly the way u explain, but i could be wrong ill reread my manual...

 

It does say that you should put it under load before 6000mi to get peak efficiency out of your engine. It does not really clearly say that you couldn't do it after 6000mi. However I talked to a service rep at Cummins, and he said there were a lot of people who don't tow, so they dyno their trucks (at Cummins) after a thousand or so miles. ( I have heard it may have something to do with glazing the cylinder walls, etc.)

 

find a nice big hill you'll be fine

 

After a few miles of running around (5K or so), I would change the oil and work that engine AS HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.

I never really had occasion to tow until we moved from GA to WY. I had already installed EZ and DD2s.

I ended up pulling about 6K up the hills of TN on I-75 and such. When I found a nice big hill, I would BURY the pedal and peg my pyro (well, not quite peg, more like 1250 egt).

After that tow (almost 2k miles), the truck ran better than ever.

I would say that the heaviest load you can find would be a great way to go.

 

Cool. It looks like my timing will be perfect. My truck should come in sometime in March and then May 1st, I will be towing my 30' 5er on an over 2000 mile journey. Looks like mine will be getting broke in real well.