It is exciting for me to bring my Ram 1500 truck to a dyno. Especially when it’s in Southern California’s most amazing city, San Diego. There is no place better to do this than JBA Speed Shop. I didn’t even have to be on the dyno to enjoy my time as I wandered the parking lot looking at the many built cars they have lining their performance and tire shop. I could easily take an hour looking over Chevelles, mustangs, broncos, challengers, and custom rides. To top it, I had to see the “finish line” where laid evidence of happy performance tire and speed shop customers’ burnouts stretching thick towards the driveway exit. When I saw this, I giggled inside and knew I was in the right place.

Soon they called me back and treated me to one of the best experiences I’ve had.  They guided me back past heavily built engines on stands, classic metal signage, and a bustling garage full of cars receiving their performance upgrades.  I was in garage heaven.

We rounded the corner. There was my RAM 1500 Rebel truck anchored and strapped down.  It looked like a workhorse ready to start pulling the heavy equipment.  We got to business, went over the safety rules, and started the truck.  

Time to get started

All the anticipation built up was ready to explode as soon as the truck revved up.  Bruce, JBA dyno genius, turned off the traction control test and started the test.  The gas pedal went down and the truck down-shifted preventing a clean test.  Arghhhhh!  This would repeat itself for the next few runs.  We couldn’t get it to stop.  We got results, just not the ones I wanted.  

Then I put on the prototype for the next test. Same thing!  We did the best we could and I left deflated thinking the test was a bust.  But I was wrong!  We made horsepower.  This was an improvement.

Getting it Right

I returned a couple of months later with a second version of the prototype and a new idea! Since the last test, I did some research on manual shifting using the gear buttons.  I found on a forum and then in the manual (probably should have started there) that setting the gear to, say, 3rd forced the truck never to go past 3rd but it will still drive like an automatic up until 3rd gear.  So I mentioned this to Bruce and he started the test in 1st, then 2nd then 3rd, then he gave it everything but it still downshifted!  Ugh!

We nailed it on the next run though!! Here’s what we found.  Use the manual gear shift to go through the gears when it’s time to go full throttle rev up to 3500 RPM then give it everything.  This produced MUCH better results with a smooth power band.  You can see the difference on the dyno charts on our Projects.  

One more thing!! Besides learning awesome stories from Bruce, especially the one about his 200 mph + run at Bonneville, he taught me the optimal dyno run would be in the gear with a ratio closer to 1.00.  So looking at the gear specs for my truck we ran the test in 6th gear and got the best results!

Steps to Getting a Good Dyno Run with a RAM 1500

So here it is to get a good dyno run on a 3rd Gen. RAM 1500 V8 Hemi. (This is assuming the dyno shop has already anchored the vehicle and everything is in place for a safe dyno test)

1. Be safe and listen to the Dyno tech.
2. Take the traction control off.
3. Press the Gear – until the Dash says 1.
4. Start the run with some gas.
5. Press Gear + to 6.
6. Gently go through the gears.
7. When you get to 6 slowly give it gas until the 3500 RPM.
8. At 3500 RPM – FLOOR IT until the rev limiter kicks in.
9. Let the truck wheels spin down to a stop.

(Technically you can set the gear at 6 from the start, but for folks like me who get so excited they skip a step, putting it into 1 helps me to be in the moment and pay attention.)

Thanks for sticking with us through this article.  If you have any questions, leave us a comment on that m the contact page and we’ll get back to you.  Stay safe! Remember racing is for the race track.