How Does the Ram 2500 Diesel Handle My New Travel Trailer? Let's Find out! - Long-Term Update

Hello and welcome to the Truck King YouTube channel. Today, I'm doing the third installment on my long-term test of my 2019 Ram 2500 with the 6.7 liter Cummins. And if you haven't noticed it already, it's hooked up to my new fifth wheel. So we're gonna be talking about how it tows. I got 20,000 kilometers on the Odo and I'll let you know how this first year and a half has gone. So to start with, you've seen the truck before, but you haven't seen it hooked up to a fifth wheel. And the fact of the matter is, when I bought this truck in May of 2020, this was always the intention. So I got it with the factory fifth wheel package that came directly from Ram. And so this is a Ram Mopar fifth wheel, good for 20,000 pounds. So quite honestly, we're way under that weight. But the other thing that's nice is that when you get the package, you get the satellite location for the seven pin, which is right here inside the bed, keeps the wire from having a dangle over the tailgate and just keeps it all neat and tidy. So now just to give you an idea of the numbers on my fifth wheel, we're looking at a 32 feet, nine inch total length, 7,600 pounds dry weight. There's a lot of aluminum in this particular trailer and 10,000 pounds GVWR. So I'm not stressing the truck. Quite frankly, I could probably do five, 6,000 more pounds and it'd be fine. As far as pin weight goes, pin weight here is 1,495 and my payload is 2,110. So as you can see, kind of the sweet spot for everything. And really that's what I wanted because I'm planning on doing a lot of miles with this. As a matter of fact, if you guys down in Texas, keep an eye out for me cause my wife and I'll be heading down that way in March. So once again, the size of this trailer matched to the truck and Steve will draw back and show you. She's dead flat. Hi folks, I'm interrupting dad's Ram review to let you know about an exciting opportunity. If you head over to Ronin Factory, the link is down in the description and you buy a cool accessory for your truck, right now you will be entered to win this epic Ford Raptor. It's got a wide body kit, method race wheels, 40 inch tires, it looks really cool. So Ronin Factory sells all kinds of accessories. They actually sent me a couple for you guys to check out. This is a 50 caliber bottle opener. That's pretty ridiculous, but pretty cool. This is actually their most popular product. It's a bullet antenna. So you replace your antenna with a 50 caliber high firepower radio. And then this is just a little shorty antenna, something more inconspicuous than a big whip. So yeah, if you need accessories for your truck, go to Ronin Factory, buy them, use the discount code as well, that's down there in the description. You'll save money, you'll be entered to win the Raptor and Ronin Factory has teamed up with a charity, Freedom Service Dogs of America and some of the proceeds will be going to them. So this is really a win-win. Now let's get back to this Ram review. I wanna show you some of the features in the tow package. So Ram of course has these flip up mirrors. They're the only ones who do that. The other guys have got good mirrors. Some of them are electric, et cetera. But I gotta say one thing that comes from me, which is I like how tall this mirror is because I can see the roof of the trailer. The trailer is over 12 feet tall and one of the things you wanna get used to when you're hauling something that tall is always looking up because tree branches, overhanging stuff, fire escapes have a tendency to sneak up on you. So this is a good feature. I also wanna give you an update on the tires I've been testing. These are the Toyo Open Country AT3s. We put these on late last winter. I've done 14,000 kilometers since then. So you can see the tire here. It's an aggressive tread and I've said it before, I'll say it again though, they're not loud, which is really kind of nice. The only thing that I noticed that was weird last March in all the slush was they have a tendency to kind of fling a little bit of crap outside of the wheel wells. But the other thing that came up just last week, I was driving home in a torrential rain and I mean, it was coming down. And hitting these big, dark puddles on the highway, there's always that danger of hydroplaning and these tires, they don't hydroplane. They do hit it like concrete though. You get a real smash and you will get a bit of a pull, but at least you didn't get that holy jeez, we're off into the weeds feeling here. So these, I think it has a lot to do with this tread. It does displace a lot of water. Okay, time to back up this truck, throw it in reverse. Let's look at the cameras. Boom. Wow, that's nice. And you have the zoom, nice. And your tonneau cover covers most of it, but you have just enough hitch there that you can still see it. That's nice, man. Plus you notice there's a mirror on the trailer. Oh, I see that now too. And how cool is it that you can actually see the mirror in the camera? And ka-chunk, and there it is. Wow, just like that, beauty. Okay, folks, time to drive the setup. Believe it or not, dad is trusting me to drive. Actually, the truth is dad's already put in quite a few kilometers with the trailer and I haven't driven it at all whatsoever. This is my very first drive. So we're gonna get my first impression on camera for you. So this is just getting up to highway speed right now. My goodness, the powers. There's 80 kilometers an hour. That's effortless power. That's awesome. Really, really smooth to get up to speed. I mean, no doubt you feel it back there. It's probably a silly thing to say. It's almost a 10,000 pound trailer or can be, but it's not pushing me around in any scary way. It's not fishtailing at all. None of that going on. It's nice. So far, so good. I do have it in tow haul mode, but yeah, I feel good. Well, and that's it. I wanted you to really feel it from the point of view that you haven't driven this truck with anything on it like this. Now, see the weird thing is that we have driven this 2,500 with 10,000 pounds on it on the flatbed trailer and concrete. So it's not like we're dealing with the weight as much as we're dealing with the size of the trailer and today is not a windy day. So it's not like we get really put it to the test, but you should get a real good sense of how much it swings or doesn't, stays in its lane, tracks based on its size because that's what this is all about is how big the thing is. Yeah, you know, it feels totally solid. It feels like a really well-matched trailer for this truck. In fact, I think you said it off the top. It feels like you could probably go heavier. Yeah, you could go heavier. And, you know, now I'm gonna throw out the thing that some guys are already mumbling, particularly the Ford guys. Well, I could probably tow that with my half ton. Well, according to the numbers that Ford puts out, you might very well be able to, but I'm telling you, it ain't gonna tow like what this 2,500 frame will tow. Another great feature I like for towing here in the 2,500, you have this gear limiter button right here on the steering wheel. So it's easy to get to. And you grab that minus button and it starts to downshift right away, which is exactly what you want. And you want it to be right there at your hand. You don't have to reach around for it. You don't have to shift into some manual mode. It's right there. Grab the gear you want and away you go. And it's always nice too that it's not just about shifting into the gear you want. It's a lockout. So if you want a lockout sixth, fifth, fourth, for whatever reason, and keep it in that low gear, you can do that. And the main reason for that is long downgrade. Sure. So you're gonna mention the exhaust brake, which we have. And of all the exhaust brakes, I think the Rams is probably the most aggressive, in my opinion, which again is a good thing. Cause really, what is that all about between the gearing and the exhaust brake? Saving your brakes. You don't have to ride your brakes down the long hills, which is just not good anytime. And the other cool thing about the Ram, of course, is that it has the auto setting. It's the only HG to have that. And when it's full on, the exhaust brake is gonna try to slow you down. When it's on auto, the exhaust brake is gonna try to maintain your speed. So if you're on that hill and you lift off the brake at 80K, it's gonna try to hold you at 80K using the exhaust brake. But I think that's that he's been basically just putting it on, right? Cause when you pick your foot off the brake, you wanna feel it slowing you down. That's kind of the point. Yeah, up until now. I mean, I'm gonna keep playing with it the more miles I do, but for the time being and for me, it's just like, I wanna stay off the brakes as much as possible. So what about fuel mileage? We do have numbers for your truck that we've done in the past empty. So I can kind of show you that. But what have you been getting with the trailer? Cause when you picked it up, I think you logged a few miles. I did. So I did a couple of hundred kilometers and give or take 20, 20 liters per hundred. And Steve can throw up what the MPG equivalent is here. And yeah, that's, you wanna tow, you gotta pay. So we've both driven now dad. And a big takeaway is it feels great. Honestly, it feels like such a nice matchup and that is praising the truck, no doubt about it. But it's also knowing your numbers and looking into things before you buy, because there's no doubt that, a story we've heard a million times is, well, I have this little truck and I bought this massive trailer and now all of a sudden I don't have enough truck anymore. And that's not what dad did. He looked at it and he bought a trailer. That's not pushing the capabilities of the truck. It's right in the middle. And that's probably where you want it because what this provides is a stress free drive. And that's the most important thing. Yeah, you know what? That is so important and we can't stress that enough because everybody's always concerned about horsepower. Will it pull the trailer? Yeah, it'll pull the trailer. But trust me, if you've got to travel any distance and you're white knuckling it the whole time because the whole rig is moving, shaking, wanting to head for the ditch, you're gonna hate it and you'll sell it. And your wife will be over there screaming at you. So it is always, always better to have more truck than trailer. And that's really just knowing your numbers, knowing your numbers and sticking to it. So, and of course, then you can say, I'm a genius. Look at what a great truck I bought. Well, any truck that is not overmatched is gonna work really well for you. So it's win-win. So let me show you some of the things that I've done to the truck since I got it. The first stop was WeatherTech because this big horn came with just the very rudimentary carpeted floor mats, which of course are good for nothing. So I went to WeatherTech. I got these units. These are fitted. That's the nice thing I like about their stuff is you tell them what truck you got and this stuff fits perfectly because they designed it that way. Now, the other thing that we got, there's a fellow by the name of John Yak out in Lethbridge, Alberta. He emailed me and said, listen, Howard, I see you got this big truck and I know your wife's really short. I make these things called giddy-ups. Well, it's pretty obvious what it is. It's just an add-on strap to your existing handles. And you know what? I like it. But honestly, for my wife who really has to stretch to reach this before she gets up on the step, she loves them. I got three of them, one on either side, one in the back for my 90-year-old mother. And you know what? If you're looking for them, giddy-ups, they're out of Alberta. Just Google them. It's a nice product. So what else have I done? At the back of the truck, the first thing I did was get a tonneau cover. Now, I went to Mopar and I got their soft cover. And I'll be honest, the main reason is because I can get that one on and off by myself. I looked at the hard covers. I mean, they're nice, but they're damn heavy. So the other thing I measured when I got this one is that I can fold it and I don't have to take it off when I'm putting the fifth wheel on. So it can stay in place. Back here, I'm always having problem with the groceries getting away from me. So I just went out and got a cargo bar. So I just moved this a little bit forward and then anything I got sitting here doesn't end up at the front of the box. But the big deal, and this is what I've complained about and will continue to complain about, is that Ram just does not have a good way to get into this bed. So I went to the aftermarket. Yay, the internet. And I found this ladder. So I attach this to the tailgate and even a fat old man can get up here just like this. And the big thing too is they had some other ones that were really nice, but they really were, you attach them to the tailgate and you couldn't get them out of the way. So whereas this one is off to the side, so if I'm loading something, I can get it out of the way without having to like pins or nuts and bolts and so, and that's it. Quite honestly, that's everything I've done so far, but I'm only 20,000 kilometers in and I hope this truck is gonna last a long, long time. So I'm gonna keep coming back and letting you guys know what's happening. And by the way, I haven't even mentioned it, but it hasn't had a hiccup. It runs the way it's supposed to. Everything about it is fine. So, so far so good, very happy with it. So guys, that's it for this one. Please, before you leave, go below, hit like, hit subscribe. And hey, why don't you become a member of our channel and then come back soon when I'm sure Steve will have something to say. See ya.