high bid

I'd say KennyD's setup is one exception to our discussion. Nice truck KD.

1SlowFormula

Why is it the exception? I have this same post out on multiple Ram/Cummins boards and most of the guys say towing with a lifted truck shouldn't be a problem, it might just ware parts out quicker and gave some examples, but most have said the truck I am looking at could do what I am looking to do, are you saying you think it cannot?

If so I would like to hear your thoughts as to why not and get the most info on the subject as possible, hopefully before I get to thinking about laying money down...

CODODGE2500MAN

Towing with a lifted truck is a lot like driving a lifted truck. It's really fun and cool till you go on a long trip or drive a stock ride height truck. (See jeep in sig. - drove it stock for a few years then lifted it and had to buy a new dd b/c of the lift) It's not that it can't be done, it's more that it wares on parts (including the driver).

Consider a few things. How frequently are you towing? Every day, might be way different than once a month. Are you towing 50 miles or 5000 miles?

If you're towing a 5ver or a goose, I'd say skip it (this is exactly the reason my truck doesn't have a lift on it). If you're towing bumper pulls, I'd say you need to decide if you are willing to slow down, add extra hitch enforcements, sway controls, etc and basically make sure your driving style conforms to towing with a lifted truck. I am willing to bet that Kenny D drives very differently than some of us crazy stock height tow trucks.... .

sloride

Take a look at any pics from Glamis, Dumont Dunes or some other off road haven and look at how many trucks are lifted and are towing, some very heavy. I have a Thuren suspension that I've had 35's and 37's on and I pull 9-10k off the bumper with no problems. It's all in how you drive it and how you take care of it. If you drive like an idiot then it won't matter if your stock or lifted, things will happen and parts will wear out.

I beat on my truck off road, tow, use it as a chase vehicle/pre runner and a daily driver with 74k miles on it and it's still going strong.

1SlowFormula

thanks,

So I tow a 28' tag enclosed car trailer that holds my drag car, I hit the tracks from Virginia to NY and out to western PA from my location just south of Philly, so tracks are less than 50 miles whereas others are over 200 miles away with mountain/hills in between here and there. I do that type of towing once sometime twice a month with just under 9K trailer weight now with my 1500, but it struggles, and will continue that with the new truck. Plus I will also have the confidence to make som longer hauls and hit some of the races I miss out on that I think are too far away for the 1500 to pull without crapping out. I am also planning on moving cross country in less than a year, and have a few cars and household goods to get over to the west coast (Portland OR area) and the plan is to take 2 maybe 3 trips with the trailer weighing over 10K (maybe as high as 12-13K for one trip if I decide to only do 2 trips). So that would be 2900 miles each way, the trailer loded going out and empty coming back, again 2 or 3 time... Once over there I will still be racing and the tracks will be further away and there are serious mountains over there compared to the east coast, so I wanted a truck that could handle it better then my 1500 Hemi. As for the hitch, I was planning on running a reinforced drop hitch and the current WD and sway control setup I already have...

CODODGE2500MAN

Sounds like you are set up. Other suggestion I would make is get an exhaust brake.... it'll help! I'm putting mine in soon. It'll help make the mountains in the west seem more like the hills of the east.....

Seeing as you have a bumper pull, I think you'll be fine. You might look at getting some air bags for the rear to level out the load (helps steering/control and the lights illuminate the road and not the sky during the night). I'd also look and make sure there is a rear sway bar....

It will ultimately come down to how you drive. If you drive like KD suggested, stop early, leave space, start slow.... you should be fine.

A lifted 2500 should be much better than a 1500..... mostly because of the C.....

Good luck with the purchase. It is a very nice looking truck. Let us know if you have any other questions...

ontheedge

I pull a 26 foot enclosed wedge-nosed bumper pull trailer behind my mega cab. Total weight of the truck and trailer ranges between 21-27k and I didn't have any problems this summer. I ordered a curt 14" drop shank for my weight distribution setup and the trailer sits perfectly level, doesn't sway at all, and I can almost see down the roof of the trailer in my rearview mirror now! Most people crap their pants when they see that hitch hanging out the back of my truck and asked if I had it custom built. Towing on the 37s actually put my rpm's around the 1800 range which seems great to me.

Kenny D

Thanks for the compliments

I think the answer to towing lifted is like some of you said yes more precuations more wear and a little more fuel. you can tow just as much lifted as not lifted just not as eficianlty but waayyyy cooler haha i did borow a buddys truck for a long haul because i needed tires and man it was real nice but i didi miss my truck

I would get a 6 speed if i had it to do over infact if i can find somone to swap i will anyone?? anyone??

CODODGE2500MAN

EXACTLY. For a towrig, get a manual..... Autos are nice in traffic (EMPTY) but they are just not as good towing, especially w/o upgrading.

nelrod

Sounds like your mind is made up about getting lifted truck. If that is what I WANTED that is exactly what I would get. Don't get too excited about one particular truck, there are ? thousands of them. If I really liked the one you are looking at, AND wanted a lifted truck, I would strike a deal. If I did not want a
lifted truck, I would keep looking, they are out there. Good luck.

1SlowFormula

Well, that is part of the problem, there are NOT thousands of trucks out there that met the criteria I was looking for, maybe only a handfull, and most of the ones I finds are modified in some way, and some places try and hide that fact, I hate those, and some are lifted. The trucks that showed signs of mods that were removed or covered up dropped from my list quickly, as I didn't want to inherit a mess. As for the lifted truck, I have always liked that look, and would probably do that in the future anyhow (after researching it), but when finding already lifted trucks I had to make sure it would do what I wanted to get the truck for. Hell my current 1500 4X4 isn't lifted, but is leveled and has bigger (33", all that I could comfotably fit) AT tires, the only reason it isn't lifted is because I could not justify the cost of the lift kits on the IFS trucks, they are just too expensive...

The criteria I have for a truck isn't too bad, but makes them harder to find something. What I want is an 04.5-07 5.9 CTD, 6 speed manual, Quad or Mega cab, 4X4, and it needs to have at least a power drivers seat (my wife is just over 5' tall and needs it). I would prefer the short bed (because we already have accessories for that with out 1500), but would get a long if I found one that was top on the list with other things, and looking for color preferences in this order mineral gray/graphite, blue (either shade), then into maroon, green, black as fall back colors, and I'm not too interested in the wood trim interior look. Then add that I am looking for one with less than 70K miles and a price of less than 35K (my max budget, hoping for less) and within a 500 mile radius of Philly because I don't have a lot of free time and would need to drive my trade there, then drive the new truck back so I want to keep it under something I could do in a weekend (max of about 10 hours each way) if I needed to. In my searching I wasn't finding too many choices. I found a few (1 in CT that was sold by the time I contacted the dealer, 2 in VA the lifted gray truck is one of them and the other is a red long bed 3500 lamamie and they are both at the same dealer, 1 in OH not tops on my list of options, and a few in KY that were a little further than I wanted to drive and not tops on my list either), but nothing that struck me as this one does, it matches all my requirements, is already lifted and they are fully disclosing the mods done to it and even got me in touch with the truck accesory shop that did most of the work on it so I could get their take on it.

So yeah my mind is pretty much made up, but I was on the fence for a while until I knew if I was going to be able to tow with a lifted truck, so I do appreciate the feedback I got on here and other forums...

*** EDIT ***
That being said, nothing says I will get this truck, I still have to look it over before slapping down the cash, plus you never know if it will still be there by the time I go to look at it, but I did let the salesman know I was planning on being in by the end of the week to look at it so hopefully he lets me know if it is sold before then...

nelrod

OK, I see your conundrum. Well, I really like the look of the gun metal gray too. Sounds like you have a certain criteria and are sticking to it. I don't blame you at all. You'll find what you need. Post up some pics of whichever you get. The gray one will look awesome after detailed. Good Luck.

1SlowFormula

Oh my god am I exhausted, I left yesterday afternoon to run to VA to look at this truck. I got there just before 6, looked at both 5.9 6spds they had there and really liked the gray one, but **** was it tall. I test drove both but the gray one just felt better all around, I then started picking it apart making a list of things wrong with it to do a pros/cons list and also to be able to fully explain what I see over the phone to my wife. We both decided to go with the gray truck, I finished the paperwork after 8:30 (they close @ 8) and spent about an hour moving things from my old truck to the new one including my westin tube steps and a bunch of other things (brake controller, EZ-Pass, and all the misc. junk hidden in all the little cubbies). I took a few wrong turns in VA and didn't get back home until about 2:30 this morning and the alare was still set for 6:30 so we can get up for work.

But the good news is I am no longer a gas guy and now own a DIESEL truck...

nelrod - Your right it does look great detailed, aside from my dirty step bars on it, lol. But, I also found some flaws that didn't show up in the pics the dealership sent me, including a few dents and dings around the truck (nothing too crazy, just normal wear and tear) and one big thing I will want to get fixed, where it looks like they hit something with the front of the truck. The front bumper has a decent dent and is wrinkled a little, but I checked the frame and all that and it looks good and the carfax was clean, so I am going to say what you see is what you get as they never really got it fixed (or it would have been reported to carfax)...

nelrod

SlowF- It looks like an 07? I'm partial, but I think it would look good, (and also give you some gravel and mud protection) with some bushwhacker black pocket flares. CONGRATULATIONS. You will love the awesome torque of the Cummins. I am excited myself, cause I am about to go tow my tractor on my flatbed goose-neck, and I just wish I was going up some steeeep mountains to work the truck out good. Later I will pull the 7 ton backhoe, can't wait for that either. I love to tow stuff, guess being a high-tech redneck from Alabama never leaves you. Good Luck, Post up some pics after you get it all gussied up.

Twelver

Not from personal experience, but from reading various sources I'm curious about 5" lift blocks on the rear leaves. That's a lot of leverage from axle to spring with big power & lots of weight. Are the springs stout enough to avoid axle wrap, or is this not a concern for this configuration?