Ok, so yesterday I towed ~11K gooseneck for work. I always tow with my diablo predator on "tow" and yesterday was the first time ive towed anything over 8K since ive got my predator and I had to go through the PA/WV mountains. Well, the first hill I pulled which was the biggest/longest/steepest one of the run, I got a run for it ~75ish and started up the grade, once the RPMs started dropping, around 2K, I noticed a sort of chattering/shuddering in the drivetrain somewhere. I couldnt pin point it, but it seemed to be the clutch, I could be wrong though...anyways, if I let off the throttle a little, the shudder went away, when I downshifted to 5th, it went away. It only seemed to do it when I tried accelerating hard or if my RPM's dropped below 2K, anything above it felt ok.

Like I said 8k was the heaviest I towed since I got the predator, until yesterday. Is that my clutch slipping? It didnt feel like it was slipping cause my RPM's were staying with my speed.

Any ideas?? Hope I didnt ruin my truck...

 

I noticed the same thing with my new truck this weekend, I-77 up Fancy Gap and various hills in VA. Same symptoms as you. I figure it is the drive line. I had the same noise on my 2002 6 speed at low speeds, low RPMs and high torque.

On the new truck it is so quite that maybe the noise was always there before at highway speeds and I just could not hear it over the engine.

Bobby

 

Mine doesnt do this but there are several posts about driveline shudder. Im guessing thats the prob.

 

im just wondering if its something I should be worried about...if it will cause any damage, and what exactly is causing the shudder?

 

If it driveline shudder its caused by apoor design on DC's part the carrier bearing is said to be too high some guys have bought and installed spacers to lowere the carrier bearing worked for some and not for others. My 06 F250 4door LB had horrible shudder pulling heavy loads from a standstill. It shook the whole truck violently. Never gave me any trouble but it cant be healthy on the carrier bearing, Hope this helps.

 

Cool, thanks for the input! Well, maybe im oldschool but im not about paying $45K just to put another $500 or so in it to fix a problem that was a result of their ****-poor design. Soooo....i'll run it until my carrier bearing shatters into a million pieces all over Rte 40 in, then DC can come pick up my truck and trailer and pay to get it towed and fixed.

 

Your signature says you have a short box, which means you have no carrier bearing.

Seems like DC managed to create shudder problems on short boxes as well as the long wheel base trucks. How's that for progress. Guess it's easier to make them all do it rather than making the LWB guys special.

 

No doubt, from what I read, seems like DC could F-up a 1 car funeral...

 

i have no shudder on mine.