$oC@l CTD

Pending approval from the moderators, I have a few pictures of my buddy's boat that I towed for him. Boat full of water and fuel, modified third axle trailer, dingy, various other things to include a 500lb mast, and small things inside the boat came out to 10091lbs (he wanted to get it weighed) My truck isn't squatting much at all, looks just about level to me. Pulled it just fine and he actually commented on how much easier work my truck makes of that monster than his buddy's Ford My only complaints are in the stock tranny. I really need to get a torque convertor and valve bodies in it. It shifted pretty sloppy and my tranny temps got up to about 210 on grades and stayed decent (185 or so) on the level. Engine temps got up to about 210 as well on grades, but never over that. And the EGTs never went over 1250. Oh yeah, just a quick question. Do our trucks lack the fuse to activate the wire harnesses back there or something? Because we couldn't get the brake/turn signal lights to work to save our rear ends, but they DID work on the Tahoe my buddy's dad had...

$oC@l CTD

Here they are...

Black SunShine 04

I am impressed that is a pretty good load and it looks even bigger behind your truck! I can't help you with the trailer lighting issue mine always works fine for me. NICE PICS!!!

MTC

How was it when you were backing down that ramp to launch the boat? Did it do alright?

$oC@l CTD

Believe it or not, at that point, we had already disconnected all the electrical connections to include the brakes, so the boat was put into the water on nothing but the truck's power and brakes. It did just fine. The boat sits very high on the trailer and the ramp is a pretty gradual slope (most I have seen are much steeper than that one meaning the water gets deeper quicker) so I had to take the truck pretty far out into the water to get her launched. But do you see the dingy upside down on the trailer just forward of the boat? When the back of the boat started floating, it pushed the bow of the boat down and would have broken the dingy, so we pulled back up the ramp and unloaded the dingy then went back down to get it launched...truck even with wet tires (4 wheel drive) pulled that monster right out of there, no problem.

MTC

Yeah, that is a pretty gradual ramp, but I'd have gone REAL slow. Like you said, most are much longer and steeper. Glad it worked out !

Tree DR

Nice boat! Well I guess that truck looks ok tooo. Good thing the weight of the boat sits on the trailer axels.

Look at my avitar, decent load, didn't weight it, more in my gallery. Did got to pick up some gravel with that trailer and told them to put in 8,000lbs and they put in 8tons so with 16,000lbs of gravel and 4,000 tailer about 20,000lbs be hind me.

LVTony

Nice load. Did you use tow/haul mode?

$oC@l CTD

Yeah, tow/haul mode the whole way...the shift points are just off. I was working outside of the powerband of these motors nearly the whole haul while I was in a grade.

explodingdeer

Did you pull it with OD and how fast that looks like a pretty large boat

$oC@l CTD

Yeah, it's a big boat, entire load weighed in at 10,091, but these trucks are rated at MUCH more than that. I never got it over 60mph, I didn't click to OD off, just to Tow/Haul mode, so yes, OD was working fine. Like I said, when I was in the level or just slight grades, everything was hunky doory...it was the steeper grades that were kickin it in the rear. The most efficient RPM range on these motors is between 1600-2200RPM, and on decent grades, my truck was kicking down a gear and running at 2500+ and that is getting well outside of the most efficient RPM range. TC should have just locked up and kept me truckin because at 60mph, I am running around 1900-2000RPMs with my 4.10 gears...shouldn't have allowed me to kick down...all the tranny was doing was causing my engine to work harder than it needed to. I'm not saying the rig is bad, I'm saying that the tranny is weak when it comes to heavy towing...if there is ANY sort of bottleneck in these rigs, it lies between the back tires and the engine.

Stealth06Ram

Hey,

Did you use a WD or just draw bar?

Stealth

Grey Wolf

$oC@l CTD,

Your right there are no fuses, they go through the TIPM. Bad idea, you need to go to Dodge to get the TIPM reset

$oC@l CTD

You gotta be kidding me! My wife bought me the little Ram adapter to put in my receiver that connects to the 4 prong and worked fine...now it doesn't work, so the problem WASN'T in my buddy's brake light setup, it IS in my truck...that's garbage. Is there no fix for this? I do NOT want to take a trip to the Dodge dealer to have them reset this POS every time it decides to trip...and what is a guy supposed to do when he is making a 2000 mile trip and all of a sudden his brake lights, turn lights and BRAKES don't work anymore? I am going to assume that this thing tripping WILL affect the ability to utilize the brakes on the trailer regardless of whether or not you have a brake controller, correct?

I guess this problem didn't arise (that I know of anyway, I don't make it a point to do a periodic check of the Ram emblem to see if it is lighting up when I hit the brake pedal as I don't see that I should NEED to) until I put the brake controller on it...that is when I noticed that I don't have any juice back there. However, the brake controller is getting all the readings that it should be, according to the manual.

$oC@l CTD

Geez, you gotta love Dodge's customer service Here is a basic rundown of the conversation that I just had with them in regards to my lights, etc not working on either of my 7 or 4 pin harnesses:

Me: Hi, I have a question in regards to my 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 CTD. For some reason, I'm not getting power through to the 7 OR 4 pin harness. Is this a common occurance, or is there just something that I am missing?
Service Rep: No sir, this is something that I have never heard before. Did it ever work in the first place, from the time you drove it off the lot?

Me: Yes. My wife bought me a Ram emblem brake actuated receiver adapter and it worked fine...although I am not accustomed to walk back there while somebody holds my brake pedal for me to do a check every other time that I get into the vehicle...I don't think that is something that I should have to do, do you?
Service Rep: Well, to be honest...yes sir, you SHOULD have somebody hold your brake pedal every time before you get into your truck to make sure that your harnesses are working properly.

Me: That is HIGHLY illogical! Who does that!?! I have a BRAND new vehicle...just turned over 11K on the odometer and you're telling me that I should already be on the lookout for electrical failure on a DAILY basis!? That is asinine!
Service Rep: You are the first customer that I am hearing from that DOESN'T do this before every time they get into their vehicle.

Me: Anyway...I have a Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller. It is BRAND new and I just installed it about a week ago. It has power going to it properly in accordance with their owner's manual. So why is it that IT is functioning properly, but the 7 and 4 pin harnesses in the back are not? I have been hearing from some people that this has been on ongoing issue with these vehicles and I would like to get this fixed.
Service Rep: You installed a brake controller into your truck yourself?

Me: Yes. It's very simple. Plug and play, that's it...why do you ask?
Service Rep: Just letting you know sir, if you schedule a visit with us to have this problem looked at, it will NOT be covered under your vehicle's warranty and any issues you have should be taken up with the firm you purchased your brake controller from.

Me: WHAT!?! There is an adapter under my dash SPECIFICALLY MADE to receive a brake controller and my truck came with the adapter to fit it in the dash...what did you expect I was going to do with these things? I think that I am getting close to needing to speak with one of your managers, because you sir, don't know what in the WORLD you are talking about.
Service Rep: We don't have one here today, he already stepped out.

Me: Well, I am going to disconnect the brake controller, if the harnesses work, then I will credit the brake controller as being faulty, however, if it does NOT fix the problem...I will be down there with the quickness to have you all fix YOUR newest problem as my installing a brake controller of all things will NOT void my warranty and your ignorance in claiming so will be fed to you about the exact time I get back from this upcoming underway. Also, I just wanted to voice my concern about how quickly you people (DC ANYBODY) is to jump at just TRYING to void a customer's MUCH deserved warranty (extended warranty no doubt).

I have been reading on here about people having similar issues, but over a brake controller is just absurd...I can't believe this crap. I'm sorry for the long post fellas. By the way, I disconnected the brake controller and checked any fuses associated with the trailer or brakes...still nothing, so I am going to assume that since the brake controller was FINE, that it is something internal.