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Can you recommend a tow vehicle


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Hey just saw an advertisement for the new 2014 Dodge Ram 1500 6 cylinder diesel. Looks like it will be the perfect tow vehicle and not as pricey as the Ram2500. Good torque and towing capacity. Diesel ads about $4,000 to the basic Ram price tag. But like I've said before if your gonna tow the way to do it is with a diesel. Haven't seen anything on fuel mileage for this yet, but I know when I towed a full size pickup truck behind my son's 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 we got 24 miles empty going up on our trip and 17 miles per gallon back towing on the Interstate. Don't know if this is a Cummings or the Fiat answer since they own part of Chrysler now. Also don't know about the transmission as Dodge has always had weak transmissions. I'm gonna check this one out further.

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I just got back from a 9-day jaunt from the frozen north down to the chilly state of Florida. I took a '26 car to a buddy's place to have him redo the wood in the body.

The truck did 11.8-12.4 mpg towing at 70-75mph. I had to use the cruise control most of the time because i'd just not notice that the speed was creeping up over 80mph. What a great tow vehicle.

Even loaded with the flat front trailer, pushing a strong 20mph+ headwind through Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Georgia, the truck never came out of 2nd overdrive [6 speed 68RFE Dodge Trans]. The only time it would drop into 5th was when I used the right foot hard enough to get around someone or get out of someone's way.

The truck's rpm at 70 is about 1700rpm, in 5th it is about 2100.

Mike L. I'll look and see what I can find about the new 1500's engine and trans.. The later dodge automatics behind the Cummins engines are pretty good. Prior to '03 they were NOT up to the job.. I upgraded over 60 earlier transmissions in Dodge pickup trucks to make them reliable tow vehicles. The 47RH, 47RE transmissions were when stock [unmodified] just not reliable behind the torque at low rpm from the Diesel engine.

With upgrades, they were very reliable.

Greg L

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  • 7 months later...

I pull a 22ft Dovetail with a '05 Chevrolet 3/4 ton Van. The 6.o liter has the b$lls and the 4 wheel discs stops it when and if an emergency situation arrises. The van has room to sleep and carry extra stuff that is secured in a locked area. I never thought about a van until my neighbor sold me his 130k mile van for $200.00. Its not pretty but its a towing machine. I'd buy another 3/4 ton Chevy/GMC 6.0 van in a second.

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