Who tows with a 1st gen Dodge?

I tow heavy with mine quite frequently and it does good. The brakes do suck but good trailer brakes and an exhaust brake fix that. The body and frame aren't the strongest but it works. I noticed when grossing over 20k the body panels get waves in them and I get lots of frame twist taking off. It gets way better fuel mileage towing than my friends CR and 7.3. They get 12 and under and I can average 13-16 with the same loads if I drive nice. The cab is small but I kind of like that.
 
If you want good brake, upgrade to a Chevy hydroboost setup. Same bolt pattern and the rod just needs to be shortened a bit.

I tow occasionally. The most was around 10k. I have the 18cm housing, 4200rpm spring, stock sticks, turned up pump, DennyT Stage 1 pin. EGT's were fine and I kept them cool by not lugging the engine. I used 1st gear even though I didn't need it. The truck kept a cooler (100* ish) EGT reading. My guess was from getting the turbo going without lugging the engine. I shifted around 3k-3200 rpm.
 
oldestof11 said:
If you want good brake, upgrade to a Chevy hydroboost setup. Same bolt pattern and the rod just needs to be shortened a bit.

I tow occasionally. The most was around 10k. I have the 18cm housing, 4200rpm spring, stock sticks, turned up pump, DennyT Stage 1 pin. EGT's were fine and I kept them cool by not lugging the engine. I used 1st gear even though I didn't need it. The truck kept a cooler (100* ish) EGT reading. My guess was from getting the turbo going without lugging the engine. I shifted around 3k-3200 rpm.
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I'll have to look into the hydroboost. I shift mine around 1800. It can pull it down to around 1200-1400 before it stops pulling. Mine has a weird powerband, it likes low rpm for some reason.
 
I can tow all day in that range but it is hot because the turbo isn't spooled.

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I know what you mean about the 18cm housing. I had that and +40 injectors at one time and it was slower than stock because of the egt's. I didnt have a gov spring in my old pump so 2200 was all it would do. It was the perfect setup for a meltdown. The set up I have now, stock injectors, hx35/16cm, is great.:cheer:
 
If you change to a hydro-boost setup and put on a smaller ex housing the manual trucks do very well towing. Forest doesn't like them because they don't have enough cup holders and the harsh ride chafes his sensitive skin. But then he's afraid of power too.
 
I guess i dnt see what the big deal is with 1st gen brakes while towing. Thats what trailer brakes are for isnt it. My 91 non/ic is bone stock other than the pump being max out. Only thing i dont like is when im pulling our 25+5 gn 20k with a load goin up hills on the interstate the boost will shoot past 35psi if i let it. So i slow down and keep it at 35psi max. With that being said i cant maintain 70mph i go down to about 63mph which is hard for me. It could use more power towing on flat ground as well. Im hoping a 60/68 will bump power up and help it run less boost while towing cause i would like to be able to maintain a constant 75mph.
 
I have a several first gens, and used to do a lot of towing , no gooses neck but recevier hitch.. The stock first gen brakes DO suck. Trailer brakes are a must.. Mine have been broken, and its not safe to tow with out them... I have a chevy hydroboost setup sitting on the garage floor that I want to swap in. The biggest issue is the stock calipers don't have "regular" sealed pin slides. They have metal wedges you hammer inbetween the caliper and the axle knuckle. Only way I could keep up on them was to take it apart often and keep cleaning them and greasing the wedges.. which sucked. The Rear drums can suck too mine are inboard so you had to pull the axles and seals to do the brakes. I updated to the bigger wheel cylinders and the wider pads, but brake adjustments were a regular thing.. I have been looking to swap late model pin slide calipers on the front some how.. short of making a custom 1 off knuckle / caliper mount I don't see a easy way to do that. Other option is to update to a drivers drop transfer case and then swap in some late model axles.... but then you lose the nice king pins, and get ball joints.. argh.. lol

oh my first gen is w350 srw, reg cab, dumping flat bed, 5 speed, pods, 12cm ex, gauges, straight pipe, bhaf,stock gov spring, custom pump pin, pump maxed, 3.07 gear, twin stick 205 etc... I like the 3.07s .. I would tow in 4th gear direct and it was nice..about 55mph easy.. if I have a heavy load and on a mtn I'd use the low side of the transfer case and could pull anything with 3.07 you can get up to 50 plus mph with out gov spring in low range lol the twin stick 205 is nice, easy to 2wd low for backing heavy loads, and easy to shift in and out of 4wd..mpg empty could be 19 plus, towing and snow plowing is 15 mpg
Thanks,
deo

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I got to pull a 40ft'er and save a ford at the saem time.:rockwoot: It pulled the load 70 with no sweat. Its the first time I've seen one of these old trucks hooked to such a long trailer.

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Yah, I say go to the hydroboost setup, and keep your trailer brakes working!!!! And for gosh sakes, get a DECENT brake control... Barebones, Tekonsha Voyager.. They've been around for 20 years, they're dead simple, and work good...... Or, step up to the Prodigy if you want an automatic setup. (Doesn't actually stop any better though)..... Or, if you want a REAL brakecontrol, get a Maxbrake. They have a sensor that reads brake fluid pressure and applies your trailer brakes in relation to that... Harder you step down, harder the brakes apply.... That being said, I use a Tekonsha Voyager in all my trucks. :D

And for the non-intercooled guys, water-injection is always a cheap way to lower egt's.... And increase power.
 
That's a nice dually Logan. I'm going to look into hydroboost. I have a prodigy p3 controller and it works great... when I remember to plug it in. I take it out when I'm not towing. I cant find any pictures of my truck with a bumper pull, just big trailer. Here's my old POS trailer. I'm thinking it was an ex hotshot trailer because of the excessive wear on everything.

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It is a 93 with 140K on it. All stock pump, A518, I believe someone swapped a 3.08 rearend under it at one time cause it had been wrecked (why the bed was put on it) cause it has zero get up and go but will haul ass on the interstate. It will probably get completely rewired from front to back in the future. White truck is a 90 with a tweaked pump, 3200 spring, rotated pin (got a DennyT for it), 727 and a 3.08 rear. Neither has working rear brakes. I plan on converting both to disk brakes. Dually will get a C&C 80 from a newer truck and I will do a disk brake swap on the 90...

My 4x4 96 2500 had crap brakes until I redone them all and removed the ABS. I am converting it over to a 4500 though with adapters on the front to make the all forged 35 spline Dana 60 to a 10x7.25 lug pattern and putting a disk brake 40 spline (Branik Axles) Dana 80HD under the rear from a F-Superduty Ford...
 
my best results towing were with an hx35 and the 12cm housing, got a tidbit hot, but spooled like a dream, Upgrading to a d80 out back was a big pluss, took alot of load of the front brakes, IMO the fronts are what suck.

Upgrading to an axle with pin sliders like deo said weould make the truck 10X better to tow with.

its pathedic to go from the 89 to the 02, 4 wheel disk and he stops a heavy load faster than I do with no trailer.

they will pull anything with a 5 speed...
 
I tow with my 93. It tows great but the brakes suck. I put some bigger Chevy wheel cylinders on the back and that helped some but still not that good. You just have to make sure the trailer brakes and the truck brakes are adjusted up all the time.
 
I tow with our '93 2wd 5 speed shop truck. It has 336,000 miles on it and is completely stock down to 12 degrees timing. I've decided to leave it completely stock since modifying things is what I do and this truck has made it so long and has been so well maintained while being 100% original. It's nice to use the truck as a reference for other people- "see this is what 160 HP feels like".

I pulled the getrag out awhile back to check on the pilot bearing. Turns out the truck was one of the lucky ones that got a factory bushing. The bushing was a little worn so I bored the flywheel for a ball bearing, blew the original Sachs pressure plate and disc out and re-installed them. Just blowing the build up out made a huge difference in clutch feel. It shifts like new again.

Overall it's a great truck. It could use more power sometimes, but I have other vehicles for that.

The brakes are as good as they can be and I agree they aren't up for much weight. If I change anything it will be adding hydroboost.
 
Great thread, thanks everyone. I'm building a house in the country and bought my D250 so I could haul house-building stuff to the property. Stopping is more important than going so I will be doing some brake upgrades before I hang anything big off the back of my truck

Anyone have experience with using the 3" wide 350 shoes?
 
Rob_O said:
Anyone have experience with using the 3" wide 350 shoes?
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They work fairly good with a trailer attached but if you have to panic stop without a trailer be prepared to go sideways. It took me a few hard stops to figure out how to keep it from locking up.
 
I just changed the exhaust housing on mine to a 12 non gated. I took it out for a drive last night and it felt a lot better I am anxious to see what it will do with the trailer.
Just a little side note for you guys . When I was changing it I found my transmission rear heat exchanger tube rusted through. I read in some other threads that you couldn't find them but a buddy of mine sent me one from a 2nd gen and they are the same exact pipe.
 
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