Towing with Ram 1500...are the rearends really this weak?

[iqraceworks]

I have around 144,000 miles on my 2004 Hemi Ram 1500 Quad Cab. My family and I decided to take a road trip with our 20ft camper from Springfield Missouri to Pensacola Florida for a week....about 1600 miles round trip.

The trip was going great, until the rear-end started making some horrible noises on the way home....we are actually stuck in Memphis right now waiting for the shop to put a complete used rearend in my truck. After they got the diff cover off they showed me the gears.....the ring and pinion are trashed! I actually changed the fluid in the diff before we left on our trip and everything looked great inside of it.

Are the OEM gears on the 9.25 rearends that Dodge puts in the Ram 1500's so weak that they can't stand up to regular towing? Our camper only weights around 4000lbs fully loaded. I was hoping that it was just a pinion bearing making the horrible noise.....didn't expect to see a chipped and chewed up set of ring and pinion gears.

....so now me family and I are stuck in a hotel room for a few days waiting for a new/used rearend to get swapped into my truck.....$2500. Sucks!

[gentilebrian]

No way a 4,000 trailer is pushing the limits of your truck. Just bad luck.

If it makes you feel better I had rear end problems in my 2013 F150 after 10k miles.

[scrubjaysnest]

Almost 146000 on ours no problems, we tow 6k to 20k miles per year. Had a problem like you describe with a chevy once; it was the wrong gear lube that I put in. Book said synthetic when the vin number indicated regular 80/90 weight with a fish oil additive for the limited slip.

[snickwit]

Originally Posted by gentilebrian

No way a 4,000 trailer is pushing the limits of your truck. Just bad luck.

If it makes you feel better I had rear end problems in my 2013 F150 after 10k miles.

Was the rear end truck specific issue or due to towing? I'm considering putting drive shaft coupling on our 2005 Ford F150 that's automatic RWD to tow with our Thor Ace 29.4