transmission shudder in reverse while towing; factory rep calls it "fluid bending"

[Joseph Donnelly]

It won't help you, but the 2013 3500s brought back the front axle disconnect (as part of the Ram recipe to improve fuel mileage as much as possible). We are investigating whether it can be switched off to get 2WD low like we used to do with a vacuum switch in the second gen trucks. The extra gearing would help. I can get the same "pulsing" from low engine rpm in 2WD with a stick sometimes.

 

[transe]

Sag2 is correct. This doesn't indicate any impending failure, or cause for concern. It is NORMAL to get torque pulsations in the output from the converter under stall (or near stall) conditions ("stall" meaning when the converter output speed [trans input speed] is zero). Some converter designs give more pulsations than others. So it is annoying but does not harm anything.

 

[cerberusiam]

So long as the truck is under the powertrain warranty, any such failure of a transmission component would be a warranty item... yes/or no? I just want to feel better that some transmission catastrophe is eminent and will occur when I'm in the boonies in the desert southwest.

It should be a warranty item. That is little consolation in the boonies though.

I don't know that you CAN feel good about it, about all you can do is accept it and make sure you have good towing insurance. The problems with the LR clutch packs are too common to ignore and the fact it just started doing it on a relatively light trailer is another concern. About all you can do is try different gearing and situations to see if it is repeatable and monitor the frequency of happening. If it is an infrequent event and only happens in a very narrow set of parameters it may just be fine.

It may just be an anomaly as suggested, or, you may go out one morning and have 3 gears with no lockup.

 

[PC12Driver]

Any chance you could provide some links to support your problematic Low-Reverse clutch pack claim? On a stock truck specifically, since that's what we're talking about here. I'm looking and I just can't find them. If they're "too common to ignore", I'd think there would be something out in the internet world, on any one of the Dodge/Cummins forums.