Help. Need 68rfe advice! Bad shifting in tow/haul!

[RSchwarzli]

So the truck had a bad lurch if you went from decent throttle to no throttle. If was almost like it gave the motor a shot of fuel then nothing. You could hear the rear diff hammer forward then back as it loaded then unloaded. Read in the tdr mag there was a flash for that. So we took it to the dealer and they did the newest flash. Problem 90% gone.

Now though, tow/haul is almost gone! When in tow/ haul it will shift like it normally woulinasmuch if tow haul was off. It seems to shift so that the rpm drops to 1400 and is so low all you feel is vibrations out of the transmission. When towing a trailer now, it bogs so bad you can't gain speed. Manually shifting helps, but the driver should not have to do that! Sometimes when doing 40 mph under not much load (say 8 psi and under) it us already in 6th running 1100 rpm! Then when you put your foot into it to start picking up speed, it does not downshift! My poor transmission!

I have put about 6k on it since the reflash and still doing the same thing. The dealer spoke with Dodge engineering about it and they gave no clue. They gave him a million things to try as they don't know.

Anyone gave any thoughts? Are the autos the kind that learn the drivers pattern? If so, it is a slow learner!

Please help!

Robert

 

[RSchwarzli]

One more thing. Also seems at times that when it shifts, it's almost like the motor gains rpm ( by ear, I have not seen it on the tach) and slips just a bit before you feel it in the next gear.

Not sure if that info helps anyone in diagnosing the issue.....

 

[daverobb]

I do a lot of travel trailer towing, about half of the 105,000 KMs has been with our 30' 8,000 LB travel trailer on the ball. I find it beneficial to manually help the transmission keep the engine in the high part of the torque curve. Whether hooked up or not, I try to keep the RPMs in the 1600 to 1900 range. I do not let it shift into 5 or 6 when in the city. While trailer towing, I give it 5th or even 4th gear when the RPM drops about 200 on a hill. Doing this keeps my transmission temperature in the 180 range.

 

[d6c]

I am going to get flamed for the following statements... . oh well, here goes. Stock motor and stock transmission in my rig and the transmission behavior when towing really doesn't perform very well for me, either. Tow/haul helps some uphill, downhill is ridiculous with it's forced downshifts. For me if I run the toggle switch and VERY carefully modulate throttle application to keep the converter locked really helps. Towing up to 24k combined is about as heavy as I go and am pretty sure leaving it in drive and hammering the throttle on uphill pulls would fry the transmission in short order. I honestly don't believe the engineers are very sharp. In the middle of shifts the converter unlocks and you need to be patient and let it lock back up before hammering down or you just get a lot of rpm's and not much go out of it.