Here we are again at the Chicago auto show covering the Ram Brand's press conference.  The big news for our readers is a high output 6.7L Cummins engine for the 2500 and 3500 series pickups equipped with the automatic transmission.  With basically a software change they have increased the torque to 800 lb/ft (at 1,600 rpm) and it exceeds the previous models output from 1,200 to 2,800 rpm.  Horsepower is also higher from 1,200 through 2,800 rpm, although maximum horsepower remains at 350 hp at 3,000 rpm. 

After an extensive interview with Dodge and Cummins engineers I grilled them for the information I knew you our readers would want to hear about.  First as said the high output engine will be available in all 2500 and 3500 series pickups equipped with automatic transmissions.  The manual transmission will continue with the existing 350 hp and 650 lb/ft of torque.  The Chassis Cab trucks will stay at their existing ratings as well.  Amazingly they accomplished this increase in power with basically a software only change.  The only change necessary to the engine was a change in the harmonic balancer to address NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) issues.  Everything else on the engine is a carry over from the existing engine including all emissions equipment!  This is great news.

As with the existing trucks they are using torque management to reduce the power in the lower gears.  The engineeers I spoke with said they believed that full power wasn't available until 4th gear.  I got their email addresses and we will be following up on that.

Also, the 6.7L engine in the 2500 and 3500 series pickups continues to be the only engine that meeets the current emissions without using urea injection.  The chassis cab trucks will continue to use urea, however.  But in discussing this the engineers brought up a test that they did where they drove a Ford chassis cab truck and a Dodge chassis cab truck hauling identical heavy trailers on a 4,000 mile trip to Las Vegas and back.  The vehicles were driven together, filling up at the same stations, encountering the same weather conditions, etc.  The cost of fluids were added up and extrapolated out to 200,000 miles and they found that the Ram would cost $9,000 less to operate over those 200,000 miles.

In relation to the engine I asked extensively about the teething issues that were had with the 6.7L engine related to the emissions systems.  I was told that these issues have been corrected and they are seeing very minimal warranty related issues at this point.  As a matter of fact the last half year production of the 5.9L engine in 2007 had achieved Cummins highest ratings from Dodge ever when it came to customer problems.  The 6.7L engine has been meeting or exceeding those ratings since 2009. 

They related a couple of stories of specific customers which I think you would find interesting.  One was a postal delivery person and drove his truck for 8 hours a day at 6 mph from the right seat and never touched the throttle.  He simply idled the truck all day.  The call came into the STAR center and they flew Cummins engineers to the dealership to analyze the issues and were able to resolve them.  It was individual customer situations such as this that were out of the scope of what they anticipated customers doing with their trucks and them analyzing those situation and coming up with solutions that allowed them to incrementally improve the software over time. 

Another customer was a commercial hauler that purchased an '07 6.7L engine.  He put 110,000 miles on his truck in the first year and when they learned about this started talking regularly to this customer.  At 280,000 miles they had him come to Columbus and they replaced his engine so that they could extensively test and disassemble his engine to see how it was doing.  They tested his engine at CMEP and it passed all of the tests that brand new engines have to pass.  They disassembled the engine and found no issues and took pictures of the parts.  I am working on getting copies of those pictures to put in the magazine.

Now onto the other changes in the new truck.  Related to the power increase I asked about other changes that were necessary to deal with it which were minimal.  First they made a minor change to the torque converter.  The rest of the transmission is a 100% carry over.  They have added a power steering cooler and also a water to oil cooler for the transmission which mounts on the side of the block.  Also the rear differential has new rear-axle pinion, new helical gears, upgraded bearings and a heat-dissipating, finned aluminum differential cover.  Thanks to these changes they have increased the Gross Combined Weight Rating to 30,000 lbs and a segment leading 22,700 lb maximum trailer tow rating. 

I asked about the u-joint issues that I had seen customers having in the past and they stated that starting with job 1 2010 they had increased the size of the u-joints and haven't seen issues since then.  Those same u-joints are carried over into the new truck.

While I neglected to find out when you will be able to order the new truck I did find out that they will be arriving at dealers in the 2nd quarter of this year.  I will try to find out when you'll be able to place orders in a follow up email.

As to how the truck is doing in the market year over year the HD series trucks have gained 8 points of market share.  The chassis cab trucks increased their market share by 5 points.

In talking with the engineers and with Fred Diaz, President and CEO of Ram truck brand, I was impressed with the level of excitement they have and that these guys are true enthusiasts and truck guys.  One of the things we talked about was that the Ram is the only truck still available with a manual transmission.  The head engineer for the powertain at Ram that I was talking with personally owns an '01 with a manual transmission and said that he is committed to keeping the manual transmissions.  Fred Diaz was speaking with another journalist and the topic of the Ram being the only truck still available with a manual transmission and he said "yeah, isn't that great".  This journalist was trying to put it down.  These guys get us.  I think we're in good hands with these guys at the helm.

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