I have a 1995 1 ton Dodge dually with the Cummins, with the auto trans,
and the higher rear end ratio.
For starters, I'd recommend that she get the 4.10 axle ratio. Mine is a
daily use truck, and I've had 4.10 before, and it's sort of draggy
around town.
I have certainly run into a problem towing on hills of any steepness,
like 1000 ft climb per 2 miles or so. The truck can only go about 45
mph, in second gear. The governor is keeping the rpms down to 2400 or
so. It hauls like a bat out of hell on any other terrain. I was
hauling a 4 horse aluminum gooseneck Sundowner with dressing room, that
is 4800 unladen, with two horses and a bunch of gear. IOW, not a very
heavy load.
The trailer is borrowed. Called the dealer from whom I plan to purchase
a gn in January, and he said the only solution is to change out the rear
end (NOT an option) and/or go with a transmission gear splitter system
from Gear Systems.
Terry hauls trailers all over the place, and he gets 65 mph performance
on hills with the latter. The downside is that it's 3K. When he
switched to a manual trans, he didn't have the hill problem any more.
It was certainly disconcerting to find out about the Dodge's performance
like that. Anyone have other ideas?
Agree with you on 4WD.
Lynne