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Ram 4500/5500 crawler hauler
- Thread starter Mad Max
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- crawler hauler hauler ram
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
I don't get why people want to do this over a regular pickup and car trailer.
I drive a 2019 F550 every day and it's a shitty highway truck. 70 mph and it's screaming at like 2500rpm. Eats tires for breakfast and gets 7mpg on a good day.
You could pull that jeep with a newer 1/2t truck on a car trailer, get double the fuel mileage, double the comfort, tires that last 80k miles instead of 18k miles and still have a realistic vehicle to use for other things.
Or go 3/4t if you wish.
Really though, just drive the jeep?
I drive a 2019 F550 every day and it's a shitty highway truck. 70 mph and it's screaming at like 2500rpm. Eats tires for breakfast and gets 7mpg on a good day.
You could pull that jeep with a newer 1/2t truck on a car trailer, get double the fuel mileage, double the comfort, tires that last 80k miles instead of 18k miles and still have a realistic vehicle to use for other things.
Or go 3/4t if you wish.
Really though, just drive the jeep?
CarterKraft
Red Skull Member
The last thing I want on my day off is a MDT...
But I am not choosing this adventure so it's not for me to talk anyone out of it.
If this CV/Silverado 5500-6500 didn't have this insane vibration it would make awesome pickup. 3.73 gears, 6.6 Duramax and 6 speed Allison, it's a solid platform and I've ran it 98k miles of 8 hour minimum run time with nothing but maintenance.
This thing will run 80+ no problem, were governed at 75mph.
But I am not choosing this adventure so it's not for me to talk anyone out of it.
If this CV/Silverado 5500-6500 didn't have this insane vibration it would make awesome pickup. 3.73 gears, 6.6 Duramax and 6 speed Allison, it's a solid platform and I've ran it 98k miles of 8 hour minimum run time with nothing but maintenance.
This thing will run 80+ no problem, were governed at 75mph.
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
3.73s in a class 5 is very strange. I have not driven our company gm 5500s, but over all I'm not a fan vs the fords. Mostly because of a bunch of priopritory stuff on them.
My F550 is 4.88s
and honestly I wouldn't change it, but it's also normally hitting the scales at ~35k lbs.Wombat Ranger
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I don't get why several are recommending the Fords over the Dodge if this is how they run.
My '09 4500 G56 Dodge weighs 11k "empty", gets 15mpg empty, 9mpg grossing 40k, has 340k miles on original engine with no signs of wear, pushes a 9.5' V-plow like nobody's business, and the current tires are looking like they'll make 50k+. It does need another gear on the top and the bottom if I were to get my wish, but the fact is, it gets it done every time. I have a brownie I'd like to put in it.
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
I don't get why several are recommending the Fords over the Dodge if this is how they run.
My '09 4500 G56 Dodge weighs 11k "empty", gets 15mpg empty, 9mpg grossing 40k, has 340k miles on original engine with no signs of wear, pushes a 9.5' V-plow like nobody's business, and the current tires are looking like they'll make 50k+. It does need another gear on the top and the bottom if I were to get my wish, but the fact is, it gets it done every time. I have a brownie I'd like to put in it.
Probably because ford guys don't just lie about mileage
JD Mark
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It's nice to not have to screw with a trailer.
None of my 550's or 5500's had the screaming problem. Although I screamed at the 6.0s on a regular basis. Or that low mileage.
Tire life is not great in the 19.5, I'll grant you that.
James
jeepin4x4james
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Can’t find any better pics on my phone right now…. This was my set years ago. 2000 F450 with dovetail added behind flatbed. V10 5spd 2wheel drive 4.88’s. If it were a diesel and/or 4wd I probably would’ve kept it. It did surprisingly well pulling two rigs. Ride wasn't bad. Mileage not great—- 9-10 empty, 6ish loaded. The split between 3rd & 4th was my biggest gripe, had to slow way down before catching 3rd and letting it scream pulling hills.
I’m currently debating a similar setup for my jku and family of 5 with a bumper pull rv. We make it work with an arctic fox 990 and flatbed now, but it’s tight. We’ve looked at a few f550 and f600 chassis motorhomes that are really nice, the price is a little
though.
I’m currently debating a similar setup for my jku and family of 5 with a bumper pull rv. We make it work with an arctic fox 990 and flatbed now, but it’s tight. We’ve looked at a few f550 and f600 chassis motorhomes that are really nice, the price is a little
though.DMG
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You will wear out a 1/2 ton faster and your tires won't get 80k miles. My rollback will probably get singles anyway, after I fix the drivetrain carnage. But I can put a truck on it and tow a camper, that is nice.
CarterKraft
Red Skull Member
Someone else had a thread on this exact setup.we want the truck-bed hauler because we also want to pull a camper, and we're not doing a triple. Again, this is the ultimate plan -
this is the ultimate plan -
Maybe wasn't a 450+/4500+ though.
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
Maybe if using it full time hauling. I assume like most of us, this is a hand full of times a year. If doing it more often, then ya, go 3/4t.
We got 90k miles out of our last set of tires, lots of towing.
I'll give you pulling a camper, I just don't see people actually doing that as much as they say, plus it gets expensive.
As often as most people will really do that. Rent a trailer when you get there.
Mad Max
Imagineer
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...we just sold our cherry 07 megacab 3500 5.9 Cummins 6-speed because my left knee is giving out, so we're going to get a truck either way, and a 5500 isn't much more than a 3500 etc, and I'd much rather not have to also haul around a flatbed if I don't 'need' to, and I don't need to. We've got three kids - oldest is 6, youngest is 3, and I'm 55 - we're gonna get out and play with the least amount of logistics while also being able to go wheeling solo, so, 5500 crewcab crawler hauler it is.
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Wombat Ranger
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Want to see the hand calc'd logbook?Probably because ford guys don't just lie about mileage
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
What's all done to the truck? Just find it hard to believe when my buddies stock 2010 2500 couldn't break 11 mpg.
Lots of people lie about thier Cummings mpg online
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
If you want to get it, go ahead. But your argument of not hooking to a trailer for a hand full of trips a year is weak.
But go ahead and ignore the advice of people who spend every day in trucks like these
If I'm buying a single use truck, I'd rather just go motor home, or at least go bigger on the crawler hauler.
Mad Max
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Family of 5...plus Jeep...plus camper - the math isn't hard. My original query wasn't about pulling a flatbed trailer with a Jeep on it - I've been doing that for decades. I'm not ignoring anything - I'm getting as much info as I can before pulling triggers.
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YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
Like I said, go ahead and do it, it's your money.
Wombat Ranger
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What's all done to the truck? Just find it hard to believe when my buddies stock 2010 2500 couldn't break 11 mpg.
Lots of people lie about thier Cummings mpg online
Stock, delete tune, Steed Speed manifold, g56 with 50wt in it rebuilt by me last winter, 4.10's, stock tires, Knapheide gooseneck service body loaded out with tools for the general needs of my custom residential construction company, and some basic tools for repair for the equipment I haul for said line of work. Weighs 10,700-11k depending on whether I had that extra donut for breakfast.
It's a work truck. I work it every day. It gets 15mpg empty on highway trips. Bobtailing around between jobs usually 13mpg avg. I just hauled an empty gooseneck out to S, Indiana, loaded a Deere 450B backhoe and hauled it back home last spring, for a friend. 40k gcw. Here is a copied and pasted post detailing that trip.
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Last Monday my father in law and I left for a 4100 mile round trip to S. Indiana, to bring back a couple machines that belong to our friend. He scheduled freight 3 times last year, and each time it fell through. So we offered to help him out. We rolled in late Tuesday night, loaded Wednesday, left early Thursday, and got home 2am Saturday. We did not speed, we just did not stop very long or very often.
Dad has the '11 4500 with Aisin. He is towing our 30' PJ hydraulic tilt trailer with an IH TD8E with 6-way on it. He would have been at around 36k GCW I believe. The '09 4500 G56 is mine. Hooked to my 28' Kaufman loaded with a John Deere 450B which has 5 hours on a thorough inside and out restoration, a backhoe attachment, and a 4-1 loader bucket. Plus a very heavy pin-on fork attachment. 40k GCW.
I don't have Dad's fuel economy numbers, he seemed to do a hair better on the way out, but interestingly I did better on the way back.
Trip out empty - 12.598mpg
Trip back loaded - 8.242mpg
Total trip average - 10.0826mpg
This trip commenced less than 200 miles after I'd rebuilt the G56 in mine, as well as completing a slew of other long overdue maintenance. I was quite pleased with the truck's performance. As always, I still wish for a couple more gears, one on top and one on the bottom, but as always, the truck got the job done without them. I did have an issue pop up when we were about halfway home, the fuel gauge just quit on me. Dropped down and showed almost no fuel, which is quite alarming 150 miles or so after a 50 gallon fillup, in the middle of the night 950 miles from home. We pulled into the next fuel station, no sign of leakage, so we just kept on rolling. Our fuel consumption was so close that I just let him dictate our stops. No troubles. Something I'll need to fix though.
My future star operator approves
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The truck just works. I still have seen no evidence that automatics have surpassed manual transmissions out in the real world.
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
If you actually want to talk wieghts, I think you may end up over wieght on the rear axle if you use a common 12' bed.
Truck will probably end up around 11k empty on the conservative side.
So say 6k on the front 5k on the rear. Load your JK up and now your 11.5k on the rear since the rear axle is basically centered under your jeep.
This is all no big deal for that truck, but the problem will be when you hook a trailer to that long over hang it will be leveraging wieght off the front on top of adding wieght.
Maybe it will work just fine, hard to say with out actually doing it. But there is a reason most crawler haulers are bigger than 550/5500s.
06h3 550 is a 16' bed which makes all the difference in the world being able to actually use that front axle capacity.
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
So we're talking apples to oranges then?
You have a deleted/modified truck with 4.10s running down the open highway and I'm talking about an emissions intact truck with a large enclosed box and 4.88s running up and down hills all day.
As far as auto vs manual, the new autos are very good, if ram can ever figure out the tuning on the aisin it would be killer. But its shifting is horrible in my experience.
Wombat Ranger
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4.88/auto is going to net the same RPM as my 4.10/g56. I turn 2400 appx at 70mph. I live in The northern rockies, my trucks see a hill or two. EDIT I just saw your location. We are not far from eachother.
I did not see where the OP specified anything about his intended gear ratio or level of epa compliance. Nor do I see how any of that relates to tire wear lol.
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
Fair point, but Not quite, still ~200rpm off assuming you still run 225s.
My point is that people often expect just a 2500 with more wieght capacity, and in some ways they are, but in other ways they aren't.
Id be surprised if you can get a 5500 with 4.10s, but hopefully I'm wrong for ops sake.
I'd bet his milage is closer to 7 than 15 though
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
Internet says 4.10s are available also.
For your use, I would stay away from 4.88s and probably go with 4.10s, 4.44s may not be terrible, but probably not much benefit to the wieght youre talking.
Wombat Ranger
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Correct no 4.10 in a 5500, even with g56 (I could be wrong of course). Dad's Aisin 4.44 turns significantly less rpm on top compared to mine.
Yes they are completely different trucks than a pickup. I don't drive mine unless I actually need it. I "run around" in a little '07 single cab Hemi g56 pickup, wife has a'14 6.4 CCLB, that's a nice ride too. Since my '07 needs work I have been borrowing that '14 a lot.
Yes they are completely different trucks than a pickup. I don't drive mine unless I actually need it. I "run around" in a little '07 single cab Hemi g56 pickup, wife has a'14 6.4 CCLB, that's a nice ride too. Since my '07 needs work I have been borrowing that '14 a lot.
CarterKraft
Red Skull Member
Maybe not helpful
YotaAtieToo
Thick skull
Ha, typical gm throwing some code at all timesMaybe not helpful
The other day I drove our 15 dmax. I call the mechanic and said "hey I think something is wrong with the 15 because the cel is off?"
Like I said I wouldn't want any different ratio for my work truck, lots of hills, and stop and go at 35k, 4:1 1st and 4.88s are where it's at. My 16 F350 had the same engine and trans, but 3.73s and I wouldn't want any different ratio for that either being more of a highway trip rig.
Also curious what you guys run for tires. Trying to find a balance between highway wear and some sort of amount of traction with 19.5s is tough. My work truck has a set of highway ribs for summer (which didn't even wear that great, and fairly aggressive toyos for winter. They are loud and wear like swampers though.
Our other 550s run toyo m920s which are basically an at, but still wear like ass compared to an at on a pickup. We've tried a few off brand at type tires with poor results.
Every company I've worked for has always had issues with 19 fives wearing like crap unless you just go straight highway ribs and don't go off road
Wombat Ranger
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Hankook DH07's stick like glue in the ice/snow. I have read all the stories of everyone's issues wirth 19'5s over the years, I have had such a good experience with the Hankooks that I am nervous to try anything else. I do want to step up in size though, we scored 4 almost new M608z's in 254/70r19.5 for cheap at a yard sale this year, keeping eyes out for another pair to make a set.
