Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives towing with a Hemi

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There should be a distinction here between "can do it" and "should do it". Yeah, I've done stupid stuff in the past, including pulling a heavy tandem axle trailer with with a skid loader behind a Nissan Hardbody pickup, guessing about 11k lbs. Scared myself sh1tless trying to stop it, and won't do that again.......... [/quote]

Did you get it to stop? Or just slow down enough so you could bail out? [/quote]

Kinda blew through a 4 way stop with the front wheels locked up and the seat cover wadded up my butt. Glad there was no traffic...........

I tried to pull my 4K # boat/trailer single axle on my ATV once. It was a poor decision moving straight forward, it was even dumber trying to turn, and not having the hookup to lock out the surge brakes made backing up impossible. I'm glad there weren't many witnesses.

I recall more than a few loads behind old 70’s era full size station wagons that some today would declare you need a turbo diesel DRW set up for. Doubt they were pulling mountain passes at 70mph, lol, but they seemed to get over some N GA hills alright. Getting down the other side I bet was scary though!

Wasn’t that long ago a 460 or 7.3 diesel couldn’t touch the HP and torque of today’s gassers. A 1990 F350 with a 460 couldn’t break 400ft lbs of torque.

I used diesels for years towing heavy loads for work, they worked great. Now I have a Chevy 6.0 gasser and tow my 20' boat with a cabover camper and going over the hills humming along at 4000rpm and doin the speed limit works great for me.

I love the sound of the 6.0 when it is in it's power band and it is as smooth as can be.... just gotta drive em.... wind em up

For the cost of a new set of diesel injectors I can replace my whole motor....

my 09 gas chevy 1/2 ton is rated at 11500 towing. I had 8000 lbs on my 1100 lbs trailer I built it pulled it fine but did not stop it very good. had 12000 lbs on same trailer with a f 550 with a 8 x 12 flat bed with welder / tools hole nother ball game .it aint the motor it is the truck

How's the engine braking in these new pickups with 6 and 8 spd trannies compared to a manual? I haven't driven one in the mountains.

I can only speak to the 6 speed/6.7 cummins, but the exhaust break is awesome. It takes some getting used to, but it works great.

My 2016 Ram 2500 with the 6.4 hemi pulls great with 3.73 gears.

I haven't tried mine with real heavy loads,but it works fine w only towing horse trailer

No experience with engine brakes on pickups, but I think they are just exhaust brakes.
If so, they help a fair bit.
Nowhere near like a Jacobs, though. A true engine retarder is able to match horsepower
in modern engines. 460hp going up the hill, 460hp holding you back going down the hill.

Not sure if you are referring to a diesel or gas? as others have said the diesel brake is very effective. My 2009 Chevy gasser has a 6 sp auto with a tow mode and that thing really downshifts hard,
Only so much a gas engine can do for braking with the relatively low compression and all. Overall I would say it is very effective.

Pretty damn good. I towed a travel trailer back from Utah a few weeks ago and I went over like 3 passes hovering around 10,000ft on the way back and man it’s so nice just to let the brake do all the work.

Sorry I wasn't more clear. The OP topic was Hemi and I was talking about that. I know what it does with a diesel. I was wondering what the new transmissions do for braking compared to the older 4 speed trannies or a manual (which isn't available any more)

All of the new automatic transmissions have a simple manual mode that work with a +/- button on the shifter. They're every bit as "manual" as a manual, save that they won't downshift if it'll over-rev the engine. They shift faster and more smoothly than even the most practiced driver of a true manual. The only thing missing is the 3rd pedal and it's ability to keep a fair number of folks out of the driver's seat.

And how far. Pulling it 50-100 miles round trip compared to 500+ miles round trip makes all the difference in the world!

Just a heads up warning when towing heavy with gas or diesel with automatic transmission on long, slow, steep back country mountain roads or trails. At 5 to 10 mph, the tranny will be in first gear torque convertor mode (not in lockup) and the continous normal torque convertor slippage can overheat the tranny fluid quickly. On very slow speed pulls on gravel or dirt roads, I would use 4wd low range to let the tranny shift up to second gear convertor lockup mode and it would run much cooler. Later traded Dodge 3500 6.7l diesel/automatic for same truck with 6 speed manual transmission, that problem solved.