New Trucks

[Mr Pachu]

If you bought a new truck, do you break it in like they suggest by putting approximately 1,000 miles on it before towing the Monty or do you just hook up and go?

[mlh]

You should put some miles on it before you work it real hard. It's not just the engine, but also the transmission and especially the rear end. All of that nearly or over 400 HP hast to go through 2 gears in the rear end. Did you ever feel the rear end after a hard pull?
Oh enjoy your new ride.
Lynwood

[offroad71]

When got my 2016 Chevy 2500hd the book stated 500 mi's NO towing and 500 mi's towing under 50 mph. The service advisor said anything over 1000 mi's would be fine to tow. Breaking in the motor is one issue, also breaking in the trans and trans axle is the other.

[TLightning]

I did what they recommend.

[JABURKHOLDER]

Do the recommended break in. Might present a warranty issue later. Not saying a dealer will dig into that, but you never know.

[jimcol]

Had to buy a new truck in Az. in 09 when the old one was stolen. Also had to leave for home in 3 days. Was concerned about the break in. Was visiting with a guy in the RV park. He was a mechanic for a logging company in Washington. He said they use the same 6.7 Cummins in yarders to haul logs up the mountain. First thing they do after installing a new engine in a yarder is start it. Second thing they do is start hauling logs up the mountain. His advice to me was to run it like I stole it. With 109K on that same truck no adverse effect yet!

[Beau2010]

I'm with jimcol on this one. We had to buy a new truck while towing the fiver. Truck had 14 miles on it when we hooked up. The book says that engine and drive train must be worked to properly break-in. Ram CTD 3500. Can't speak to Ford and GM but Ram just needs to be worked.

[kozzy]

I also have a ram 3500, didn't do anything special to break in at all, when I needed to tow I hooked up and went. I have had diesel mechanics always tell me to run the engine like its gonna be run....and diesels like to work. As long as you have quality synthetic fluid in the tranny, axle, and transfer case, which most do right from the factory now, should be good to go..

[The Bone]

Most of the brake in is because of the rear end. The motors these days are so good that there isn't any more break in for the engine. It used to be that you took the vehicles in for a oil change after the first 3,000 miles no they don't have to do that.

[TLightning]

The break in is for the entire drive train, not the engine.

[DQDick]

Our Dodge dealer told us to just take it down and get the trailer and tow it away. That was 80,000 miles ago. So far so good.

[Recumbent]

As I remember, with multiple trucks, always drove it home and over to family and friends to show them just how much money we had just spend and no longer had in savings, then hooked up and towed hundreds of miles. Enjoy,

[warsw]

I usually like to put 2K miles on a TV and change the motor and rear end oil before I actually use it for towing. On the truck I have now, a 2016 Ram 2500 CTD I didn't have time before it was vacation time. I only had 500 miles on it before we left on a 1K mile trip. I was towing a light trailer (8K lbs) and I tried to take it easy as I could but it is really hard to do that in the mountains. I really don't know if it made any difference but everything looked good when I finally did the first oil change at 2K miles. I now have almost 16K miles on the truck and so far all is good.

[lundwc16]

Just bought a new truck less than a year ago. Like many on this site, I am old enough to say that the truck was a little more than double what our first house cost. I followed what Ford recommended.
John

[Bad Moon]

When I bought my 2007.5 Duramax, had less than 500 miles on it when we left for a family reunion, pulling 9000# of Nash trailer. First hill was Siskiyou Summit on I-5. That was 125,000 miles ago, and zero problems since then.

[WaltBennett]

Originally Posted by JABURKHOLDER

Do the recommended break in. Might present a warranty issue later. Not saying a dealer will dig into that, but you never know.

Until about ten years back, no one could tell what you did. Now there's more than one computer in all vehicles and at least one of them stores what you've been doing. A dealer can certainly find out what you did for that first 1k miles.

[2007dura]

I have worked for a axle manufacturer for 9 years. Have been over everything from forging, machining, heat treat, grinding and assembly of carriers. I have never heard of breaking in the axle. We make for Volvo, Freightliner, etc. How many of these trucks do you think are going to wait 1000 miles before towing? Have saw car/truck axles made, same process.

[mlh]

Axles don't need to be broke in it's the gears. Everybody has an option. The best course might be to do what the manufacturer says. It's just that simple.
Lynwood

[RonD]

Originally Posted by Mr Pachu

If you bought a new truck, do you break it in like they suggest by putting approximately 1,000 miles on it before towing the Monty or do you just hook up and go?

That information is in the owners manual

[2007dura]

Originally Posted by mlh

Axles don't need to be broke in it's the gears. Everybody has an option. The best course might be to do what the manufacturer says. It's just that simple.
Lynwood

We made the complete assembly. I did the ring and pinions all the way to dropping in the carrier. What is there to break in? The contact patch is set, they have been lapped to match and they have been heat treated to the correct hardness. We required no break in and I think we gave a 500k miles warranty.