2015 2500 Tradesman towing

[ToddGeisler]

Traded my old 2003 2500 5.9l HO Cummins on the new 2015 Tradesman the week of Thanksgiving 2014. Been very happy with the truck, even more so when I hitch up the car trailer which is right at 10k lbs.

I just can't get over how much better the new truck pulls. Even small hills the old truck would be full throttle to try and maintain speed and quite often I would lose 5 to 10 mph till I got to the top. I felt as though as I was abusing the truck running it so hard but thankfully in the 156k miles I owned it, the 48RE trans held up just fine.

The 2015 is a whole different story. Hills that caused the old truck problems now are no issue, in fact I can gain speed and don't have to go anywhere near full throttle. It almost makes me wonder if my old truck didn't have some sort of injector issue or something that it was down on power, it's just that big of a difference.

Also, the 2015 tow haul mode and exhaust brake work quite well together and reduce the stress, wear and tear on both the truck and trailer brakes.

I was worried the new truck would not do as well with fuel mileage, but so far it's near identical to the old truck. I usually get 16 to 17 mpg around town and 11 mpg towing. I haven't had the opportunity to do any long haul mileage with the 2015 yet, but the old truck would usually get 20 to 21 mph highway.

Well, just wanted to share this, now if we could come up with a real world fix for the root of the issue of the dead pedal.

 

[Mingoglia]

That's a good looking combo. I too can't get over how well the new truck compares to my 2001, though I haven't towed on any long trips yet, with big hills.... Looks like you keep that trailer nice and cool with those two A/C units for a relatively small trailer.

 

[AH64ID]

Gearing and power!!

You have up to 44% more power in the rpms where you use it to tow.

 

[ToddGeisler]

Gearing and power!!

You have up to 44% more power in the rpms where you use it to tow.

The old truck had 3.73 gears, new one only 3.42's, so the old one should have pulled better, plus it had shorter tires further increasing the gear ratio.

Power, yes I agree. 305hp to 370 hp doesn't sound like a huge gain to me, but from 555 ft/lbs to 800 surely is.

Either way there's no denying how well the new trucks pull. Sure it may not be real snappy from a dead stop, but it makes up for it everywhere else.

 

[AH64ID]

The gearing of the 68RFE makes up for the difference in 3.42 to 3.73.

 

[ToddGeisler]

The gearing of the 68RFE makes up for the difference in 3.42 to 3.73.

You may have a point there. I've not seen the gear ratios to compare the 48RE to the 68RFE.