New auto vs '04 6 speed

[SOLER]

Those of you with autos, especially any of you that had a 6 speed, how do you like them? I had a 2000 auto and hated it. I know the new ones are better than my old one, but how much better? Those of you who had an auto (3rd gen only, please) and traded for a 6 speed (either teh 5600 or the G56), what are your impressions? My wife can't drive a stick, and sometimes I need her to be able to drive my truck. I tow, and am looking at driveability, durability, mileage, etc.



my 2000 wouldn't tow very well at all with the auto. It was constantly shifting out of OD, and I got 8 mpg! And it was gutless! My 01. 5 and 04 were (are) both 6 speeds, and lots of power, hardly have to shift out of OD, and mileage is okay. Well, better than 8!



Thanks.



SOLER

 

[pwr2tow]

I had a 99 with auto and 3:54's, didn't like it, didn't like towing with it. I modified the 99 and worked o. k. I got 10-11 MPG towing and 16 MPG nontowing after engine run-in.


I had a 05 NV5600 and 3:73's pulled great but hated shifting all the time, even when towing hated shifting. I got 10-11 MPG towing same camper and 18 MPG nontowing with only 15,000 miles on engine before trading.

Current truck in signature Love the auto, works great, fluid coupling is not as great as a manual transmission but not as bad as the 99 auto but not as good as the 99 after modifications. I don't miss the shifting. Towing with the auto is almost as good as the manual on the 06 which have a real tow/haul feature and OD off feature. The 05's only have tow/haul, no lockout of OD.

You can make this auto perform almost like a manual if you use the shifter for towing. It will perform like this if you have it in tow/haul and use shift lever in 2nd gear.
1, 2nd, 2nd lockup, manually shift lever to OD position, unlock to 3rd, 3rd lockup, unlock to OD (4th) lockup. With this combination it works just as well as a manual tranmsmission. The only thing laking is take off but that isn't too bad either. Remember Keep transmission in 2nd until you want higher gears, and tow/haul always on, then it performs as described above.

In tow/haul the transmission will stay locked for down shift engine braking.

You can also get engine brakeing in 2nd gear by manually shifting it to 2nd and then tap throttle to engage lockup. This works down to about 25 MPH.

Current truck has 2,000 miles on it and I get 19 MPH nontowing and 10 towing same camper.

All the MPG figures are at 65 MPH and hand calculated.

 

[jimnance]

I have a '99 with a 47RE. I was towing pretty heavy, +/- 14K at the time and I hated the slush box. I had a Transgo kit installed in the transmission and that helped a lot. I later put in a 4. 10 (4. 11?) rear end in and things were even better. The lower ratio also improved mileage up to about 60 MPH at which point it hurts just a bit.



I had an '03 with a six speed and loved it. My wife hated the clutch/shifting, but it was a pulling beast. If you don't mind shifting then the six speed is a good bet.



My '05 3500 dually has a 48RE and I have no complaints. Sometimes it hunts a bit, but once you figure out how to get it to drop into 4th lockup on the hills, no problem. Only about 15,000 miles so far, but all of it pulling 15-16K. I have no complaints and momma is fine with it except for pulling through the drive through ATM's. Too wide.

 

[CUMMINZ]

Thru ATMs

I heard the other day that couple of the big nationwide banks were planning to install extra wide ATMs for Dodge dually owners. They are marking them for DC ctds only. They know that PowerJoke & DuraDudes don't have enough clout to use an ATM card.

 

[ward564]

I have a 05' auto and have driven and towed with older auto's. So far I am pleased with my choice of the auto. I allways swore I would never get a auto dodge but my wife has to drive my truck and I wanted to be able to go to the drag strip once and a while. I think the tow/haul works great, I do wish I had the OD off button though. If your buying a auto the 06 would be best. Once you understand how the auto works (read the manual and the TDR) you can, for the most part, keep it from hunting. My truck tows only maybe 15% of the time. I do tow a good sized toy hauler (13,000lbs loaded) up and down the mountains of Arizona and I don't drop below 55mph. I have gotten 8mpg (by hand) towing but that was on the interstate at 80mph, most stuff below 10,000lbs it gets about 12-14mpg. I have 45,000 miles on mine and no signs of transmission problems yet. If I had my choice of any truck right now I would get a 06' auto.

 

[td182a]

Happy with 48RE

I had an 01 with the 6 speed. It was good except when I had to do the clutch at about 100K. We ran out of seatbelts, so we went to the auto in the 05 then to a long box auto in an 06 3500. I have pulled over 30,000 lbs gross with this truck and it handled it easily. I got used to not shifting very fast!! Because of only 4 gears in the auto, it seems to shift sharply at times, it seems as if it shifts softer when using cruise, almost as if the computer drops the engine rpms to match the new trans speed. Overall, I don't miss the 6 speed. But I really dislike the backup alarm bit!!