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  #1  
Old 04-11-2002, 12:43 AM
bc01cls bc01cls is offline
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Angry "I Need more Power Scotty....." 2002 QC

Towed our new travel trailer home today; 3,800 lbs with my 02 RAM QC 4.7 3:55. Well they may rate it to tow 7,000 lbs., but it won't be going very fast!! So, what's the best way to gain around 30 hp?? I see cold air intakes with K & N that claim 15 hp, along with Gibson exhaust set ups and performance chips. Any suggestions? After seeing my tach & gear selection on hills I think I'd rather keep the 3:55's than switch to 3:92's. Plus we only vacation twice a year for a week each time and I like the "gas economy" the rest of the year. Any help will be much appreciated.
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  #2  
Old 04-11-2002, 09:16 AM
gthomas gthomas is offline
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Its going to get worse! If you are like the rest of us that tow a trailer, you'll add 500 to 1000lbs of "stuff" in addition to the dry weight. Tow with the minimum of water (each gallon adds 8lbs). Even after you get a little more hp 30-50hp), when you go up hill, you'll still slow down, and learn like I did to relax and enjoy the ride. I bitch about my V10's pulling power, I guess you can never have enough power!

The upgrades that you suggested for yourself seem to me to be in line with what needs to be done. I know I'm going to catch some flack for my next comment, but, I've recommended them to quite a few folks and no one has ever returned it during the 90 money back period. Sooooooooo here goes; if it will work in your truck, buy a tornado. Take it back before 90 days is up and get your money back if you don't notice a difference, its that simple.
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  #3  
Old 04-11-2002, 11:31 AM
bc01cls bc01cls is offline
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Default gthomas......thanks!

I see you live in my old "stomping grounds" which are full of hills! Well, true enough about the weight "increase" from all the junk we'll pack. I'll try the Tornado and the cold air intake first. Trailer weighs 3800#, which I'm told, is not a lot compared to most. Makes me want to get a lighter one already, but this was too good a deal to pass up..............so more power.
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  #4  
Old 04-11-2002, 12:39 PM
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To date, I haven't found much out there for the '02 4.7L. I put on a Flowmaster muffler w/stock 2 1/2" pipe and it seems to help (haven't towed this way yet). I've heard Volant has an air intake system out for it and K&N is suppose to have filters/systems out around the end of this month. The stock intake looks pretty clean on this one so I will try the drop-in filter first. The combination should allow it breath and perform better.

All this got me looking at my '02 owner's manual and playing with numbers
It shows an 11,500lb GCWR for the QC, 4x4, 4.7L, Auto, 3:55, SB that I have. Passengers, full tank of gas, in my case a tool box w/chains, Hi-lift jack, small air compressor, fishing gear, lubes, etc....and tools, can hit the 1000lbs mentioned above with ease. Add dirt bike(s), riding gear, extra gas and I'm pushing the 1450lbs payload
Subtract from the 11,500, Truck @ 5200lbs, trailer @ 2500lbs, lets say 1000lbs load, 300lbs - dirt bike and gear, and I'm close to 80% of the MAX vehicle rating. The max trailer weight shows 6,150lbs, but anything in the truck comes out of that too.

I had the stock truck loaded (w/o bike) as listed last fall. There is a steep grade (7%?) out of town, approx 2 miles long. The truck purred along in second up to a smooth 4000rpm (console read 5-6mpg) at the posted 65 mph with "some" room to spare. FYI: w/300 miles of dirt and off/on 4x4 I averaged 13.5 mpg on that trip.
Don't know what rpm you're running but this engine likes to (and built to) run at least 1000 rpm higher than the 318/360's.
My previous 3.9L V6 Dak 4x4, 5spd loaded the same way, same trailer, after performance mods could also run up to 4000rpm in 3rd on the same hill, but I was working it working much harder and maxed out at 65.

It's a heavy truck and the 4.7L is no monster power machine, but it does ok when you get use to how it likes to run
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  #5  
Old 04-11-2002, 01:28 PM
gthomas gthomas is offline
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bc01cls,

Your deal sounds like ours, we weren't really ready to buy and the salesman kept bugging us, so we low balled them by $8000 and they said OK if I put in my own hitch. At that price I couldn't turn it down. And, I'm really happy we bought it then, we spent 9 weeks in it last year.

I'll bet all my fishing gear pushes 200lb when I'm loaded up with all my tackle for two weeks. Can't leave anything or I'll need it! Then, camera gear, hiking stuff, kayak, etc... its never ending.

GT
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  #6  
Old 04-11-2002, 03:41 PM
Doug Wilson Doug Wilson is offline
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Here's a twist:

If you really are only going to tow a couple of times a year, why don't you buy a complete, short geared center section? Cost is about $750, with a limited slip - maybe $200 cheaper without it. It takes about an hour to swap them in and out at each end of your trip, and you don't have to screw around with your engine at all.

If your rig is a 4X4, you can disconnect your fron drive shaft when you go on your trip.

What do you think??
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  #7  
Old 04-11-2002, 05:15 PM
Dr. Righteous Dr. Righteous is offline
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Default Building a 360 with trailer towing in mind

When I bought my '85 318 Ramcharger it take too long (about 5 seconds) to realize that the thing would be worthless as a trailer towing vehicle unless everything was down hill both ways. A 360 was the obvious choice so when the worn out 318 started "a knock'in" I salvaged a 360 from between the fenders of a '70s land yatch and built it.
Went with hypereutectic Federal Mongul pistons at 8.6:1 CR and a MP "performance RV" cam # P4452759. Chasing a bad vacuum leak right now but I am dying to get this thing on the road and see what kind of improvement I have made!

BTW, wouldn't have bought a 318 truck but it was in excellent shape otherwise. Had to test drive a lot of absolute worn out junk to find one is good shape.
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  #8  
Old 04-12-2002, 12:03 PM
Jims451 Jims451 is offline
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I also found that my '83 RamCharger really is not the best two rig. The Short 105" Wheel base is shorter than the Coronet I was towing.

Bought a 2002 Ram QC 4x4 in October and I'm selling the RC. We have the 4.7L, Auto, 3.92:1 gear version of the new 2002 Ram. The performance and towing is not too bad with the 3.92:1 gears, but the truck does suck down gas.
The Cummings turbo desiel would make a better tow rig, but it is not offered in the New Ram 1500 QC (yet.)
I think the 4.7L engine in the truck would have more power and fuel mialage with some decent headers and maybe a new exhaust system? The stock exhaust manifolds look pretty restrictive.

The guys with the 4.7L in the Dakota tell me replacing the stock intake filter and ducting with one of the tube inlets helps power?
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  #9  
Old 04-12-2002, 12:32 PM
bc01cls bc01cls is offline
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Default To RW and all

You're right about the rpm thing since I came out of a 10 yr stint in a 318 Dakota..........the 4.7 does like the 4 grand area although it seemed more like a Honda than a Ram. I'm amazed at your rig's overall mileage, especially given that you are a 4 X 4. Encouraging. I guess the trailer will help make up for the uphill "gas suck" by pushing me downhill and getting me 30+ mpg to help my overall. I'll see.............the short ride home only got me 10mpg compared to my average (3,600 mi on trk.) of 15.5-16 per tank. I'll start with K&N and then check out exhaust systems. Doug, too lazy to swap out the diff twice a year. Jims451--the engine is stuck soooo far back I'd bet headers would really help. I'll check with Mopar to see how the new Jeep got an extra 20hp, but headers back would be a nice albeit expensive option. GT is right.."It's never ending."
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  #10  
Old 04-12-2002, 01:40 PM
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bc01cls

My mpg wasn't as bad as I excepted on that trip. We took (4) extra 5gal gas cans with us, not knowing how it would do (& used them). Most of that area is mtn dirt road, 75 miles paved at 60-65mph, elevation averaged about 5500-6000' but varied from 2700' to 8700'. Found that it works really well in 4x4.
(The dakota mentioned, got 15.33mpg with a couple hundred less dirt miles on it's last trip w/trlr.)

With 5000miles, my overall average mpg is only 12.64, mostly town during winter. Current city tank reads 12.1mpg, up from the usual 11.0-11.7. I'm expecting to average around 14 overall once it's broke in and gets the air filter/intake.
My best so-far was in Feb on a mtn hiway trip (part of the same mentioned road), unloaded and got 17.21mpg over the 200+ miles. That was even with a couple of 80-85mgh passes.
On the interstate at 75mph, 2200-2900rpm it gets about 14.5mpg
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  #11  
Old 04-12-2002, 02:35 PM
Jims451 Jims451 is offline
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bc01cls, With the 3.91:1 gears the truck usually get about 14.2 MPG Combined city/highway driving (way lower than the window sticker estimates of 14 city/17 Highway - should be no way.)

Anyhow, when I towed my 1968 Dodge 3/4 ton truck on a 20-foot trailer (had to be close to #5,000 to #6,000?) the truck had no problems towing it, even with the trailer brakes disconnected (The trailer belonged to a friend, and I did not have the trailer brake installed yet.) The gas mialage did not drop too badly, we managed to still get just over 13 MPG driving from Pueblo, Colorado to the North part of Denver, CO (near the airport.) We maintained 75 MPH with out any problems, except when going up Monument hill, where we never went below 65 MPH.

My biggest complaint, besides gas mialage, is that the transmission likes to down shift easely when you are not even into the throttle very much?
Does your truck do this, or maybe my throttle position sensor needs adjustment?

The reason I mentioned the headers, is when I was chenging the oil, I looked at the manifolds and they look really narrow and are basically just log type manifolds. They just don't look efficent? The rest of the exhaust system looks to have decent sized tubing and smooth bends and the muffler actually sounds decent but I have no idea how restrictive it actually is?

Kennie Bell sells a Supercharger kit, headers, and computer upgrade for the 2002 Rams 4.7L engine, but it is pretty expensive, I think $4,000+?
I think it adds 90+ HP and alot of torque.

Currently my truck is still stock other than some cosmetic additions, and it has over 14,000 miles on it. Only problem was the rear passenger side door lock would stick (not unlock) this winter when it was really cold. The dealer just replaced the lock, but it has been too warm to know if it is actually fixed?
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  #12  
Old 04-12-2002, 04:46 PM
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Jims451


You may have just answered something I wondered about for a while.

Mine downshifts pretty easy in places I don't expect it, like light throttle coming out of some curves, but especially on the interstate at 75-80mph on cruise control.
With 5-10mph headwinds or going up small rolling hills/slight inclines (and I mean small & slight) the truck will shift out of OD, raising the rpm from 2200 (17-19mpg on console) to 2900 rpm (10-11 mpg). I've drove this road for a long time and understand it shifting in some areas, don't feel this one should be shifting near as much as it does. I "assumed" the 3:92 gears would have cured this but maybe not. The muffler change helped it some, so "maybe" with the "hopefully soon to be out" K&N I'll get just slight enough power increase to correct the problem.

Oh....Had the door lock problem too. Went out a couple of the well below freezing morning and couldn't unlock the driver door. Heated the key up and stuck it in for a minute then she opened right up. It's only happened twice, but it was real annoying since it was snowing hard at the time. Sprayed WD40 in the locks and hasn't happend again (so far)
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  #13  
Old 04-12-2002, 05:44 PM
gthomas gthomas is offline
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I'm glad I didn't get a small block, if I don't drive like the usual butt head here in SoCal and relax at the speed limit, I can always get over 12mpg. I towed my 10,000 lb trailer from Southern California to Yellowstone National Park (no head winds the whole way) at over 10mpg for the whole trip. I go there twice a year and when I hit head winds the milage drops into the 7's.

In the higher altitudes in ID, MT, WY I seem to average around 14mpg. I usually get between 14 - 17mpg while in Yellowstone Park, mainly because the speed limit is 45.

I think the 5 speed is a little easier on gas than the automatic, but, I could be wrong. And 4th gear in the mountains may help the mileage. I still haven't figured out the logic behind my truck getting better mileage in higher altitude.

I also bought 3.55's and wish I got the 4.10's!

You didn't say if you put larger/taller tires on your truck. I went to 2 sizes larger and I can really tell when I towing my 5th wheel trailer. If you did go to larger tires, maybe you can run the "shorter" ones when you are going on vacation.

GT
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  #14  
Old 04-12-2002, 07:21 PM
Jims451 Jims451 is offline
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I did not even know the locks might freeze up using the key, I have keyless entry So the electric latch is all I know of that was stuck?

I hope the aftermarket comes out with one of those computer programmers for the truck where we can re-set the transmission shift points. It seems the transmission will not let you put any real load on the engine? It seems like when the engine senses it has a load, it just down shifts?
It's really annoying if you ever have to drive into really strong head winds. I just turned OD off when this happened (really high headwinds) and let the truck get 13 MPG on the highway.

What options did you guys get on your 2002 Ram QC?

This one was pretty well loaded with options.
It's the light Almond color, SLT, 4x4, has the chrome rims with the larger WOL tires (not the 20" rims), trailer towing package, 3.92:1 gears, limited slip differential, 4-wheel ABS, sliding rear window, fog lights, AM/FM/CD Infinity speakers (but not the steering wheel radio controls.) I think it has some other stuff, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
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Old 04-13-2002, 12:57 AM
Doug Wilson Doug Wilson is offline
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Would you like to know what I got on my 2002 Subaru Legacy GT. It's quite a list , and ever so nice a new vehicle.
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  #16  
Old 04-13-2002, 11:44 PM
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OPTIONS:
Just the "Standard " SLT, silver w/sliding rear window and tow package.
Bought it off the dealer lot. Had I ordered it I would have added fog lights and 3:92 gearing, alloy wheels (not the 20's - they ride to rough, not as good off road and it's hard enough to find 17" tires, let alone 20's).
May be getting the rear wheel well liner soon to keep the mud & curd out
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