2018 Ram 3500 brake

Driving Through Water
Extreme care should be taken crossing any type of water.
Water crossings should be avoided if possible and only be
attempted when necessary, in a safe responsible manner.
You should only drive through areas which are designated
and approved. You should tread lightly and avoid damage
to the environment. You should know your vehicle’s
abilities and be able to recover it if something goes wrong.
You should never stop or shut a vehicle off when crossing
deep water unless you ingested water into the engine air
intake. If the engine stalls do not attempt to restart it.
Determine if it has ingested water first. The key to any
crossing is low and slow. You want to use first gear in 4L
(Low Range) and proceed very slowly with a constant slow
speed (3-5 mph [5–8 km/h] maximum) and light throttle.
Keep the vehicle moving; do not try to accelerate through
the crossing. After crossing any water higher than the
bottom of the axle differentials, you should inspect all of
the vehicle fluids for signs of water ingestion.
CAUTION!
Water ingestion into the axles, transmission, transfer
case, engine or vehicle interior can occur if you drive
(Continued)
CAUTION!(Continued)
too fast or through too deep of water. Water can cause
permanent damage to engine, driveline or other ve-
hicle components and your brakes will be less effec-
tive once wet and/or muddy.
• Before You Cross Any Type Of Water – As you ap-
proach any type of water you need to determine if you
can cross it safely and responsibly. If necessary, get out
and walk through the water or probe it with a stick. You
need to be sure of its depth, approach angle, current and
bottom condition. Be careful of murky or muddy waters,
check for hidden obstacles. Make sure you will not be
intruding on any wildlife and you can recover the
vehicle if necessary. The key to a safe crossing is the
water depth, current and bottom conditions. On soft
bottoms the vehicle will sink in, effectively increasing
the water level on the vehicle. Be sure to consider this
when determining the depth and the ability to safely
cross.
• Crossing Puddles, Pools, Flooded Areas Or Other
Standing Water – Puddles, pools, flooded or other
standing water areas normally contain murky or muddy
waters. These water types normally contain hidden
obstacles and make it difficult to determine an accurate
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each shift. During this process, for additional traction,
try turning your steering wheel quickly left and right no
more than a ¼ turn. If you are stuck in mud, sand, or
snow try spinning your tires during this process to clean
the debris from the tread and improve the traction. You
want to create a rocking motion with the vehicle. This
helps build vehicle momentum, which hopefully gets
you out. Remember to ease off and on the accelerator
before and after the shift. If after a few rock cycles your
vehicle is not free, stop and try another method of
recovery. Continuous rock cycling will only cause un-
necessary damage to your vehicle and the environment.
CAUTION!
Damage can occur when spinning your tires at an
excessive high speed. Do not spin your tires faster than
an indicated 30 mph (48 km/h).
• Using The Tow Hooks With A Tow Strap – Tow straps
are a quick and easy way to recover your vehicle from
minor situations if you have a secondary vehicle which
is not stuck. The tow hooks on your vehicle are designed
to take the abusive force generated during vehicle
recovery. Do not use the bumper or any other vehicle
component as an attachment point. Using tow straps requires coordination between the two drivers. Good
communication and line of sight are required for a safe
recovery. First connect the tow strap to the correct
attachment points on both vehicles. There should be a
least 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters) between the vehicles to
allow for a safe recovery. If necessary join two tow straps
together usinga1½inch hard wood dowel. This will
keep the straps from becoming knotted and is safer than
using a clevis pin if the strap breaks. Next have the tow
vehicle backup, leaving two to three feet worth of slack
in the strap. Then the tow vehicle, using light throttle,
should accelerate tightening the strap providing the
pulling force needed to free the vehicle. The vehicle
being recovered should assist in the recovery, at the time
of the snap, by slowly spinning the tires in the same
direction as the pulling vehicle. After the vehicle be-
comes free, the driver of the previously stuck vehicle
should signal they are free and should hit their brakes
stopping both vehicles. The driver of the pulling vehicle
should let off the throttle without using the brakes, once
signaled by the other driver. This sequence is important
to avoid having the recovered vehicle hit the pulling
vehicle.
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After Driving Off-Road
Off-road operation puts more stress on your vehicle than
does most on-road driving. After going off-road, it is
always a good idea to check for damage. That way you can
get any problems taken care of right away and have your
vehicle ready when you need it.
•Completely inspect the underbody of your vehicle.
Check tires, body structure, steering, suspension, and
exhaust system for damage.
• Inspect the radiator for mud and debris and clean as
required.
• Check threaded fasteners for looseness, particularly on
the chassis, drivetrain components, steering, and sus-
pension. Retighten them, if required, and torque to the
values specified in the Service Manual.
• Check for accumulations of plants or brush. These things
could be a fire hazard. They might hide damage to fuel
lines, brake hoses, axle pinion seals, and propeller shafts.
• After extended operation in mud, sand, water, or similar
dirty conditions, have the radiator, fan, brake rotors,
wheels, brake linings, and axle yokes inspected and
cleaned as soon as possible.
WARNING!
Abrasive material in any part of the brakes may cause
excessive wear or unpredictable braking. You might
not have full braking power when you need it to
prevent a collision. If you have been operating your
vehicle in dirty conditions, get your brakes checked
and cleaned as necessary.
• If you experience unusual vibration after driving in
mud, slush or similar conditions, check the wheels for
impacted material. Impacted material can cause a wheel
imbalance and freeing the wheels of it will correct the
situation.
LIMITED-SLIP DIFFERENTIAL
The limited-slip differential provides additional traction on
snow, ice, mud, sand and gravel, particularly when there is
a difference between the traction characteristics of the
surface under the right and left rear wheels. During normal
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driving and cornering, the limited-slip unit performs simi-
larly to a conventional differential. On slippery surfaces,
however, the differential delivers more of the driving effort
to the rear wheel having the better traction.
The limited-slip differential is especially helpful during
slippery driving conditions. With both rear wheels on a
slippery surface, a slight application of the accelerator will
supply maximum traction. When starting with only one
rear wheel on an excessively slippery surface, slight mo-
mentary application of the parking brake may be necessary
to gain maximum traction.
WARNING!
On vehicles equipped with a limited-slip differential
never run the engine with one rear wheel off the
ground since the vehicle may drive through the rear
wheel remaining on the ground. You could lose control
of the vehicle.
Care should be taken to avoid sudden accelerations when
both rear wheels are on a slippery surface. This could cause
both rear wheels to spin, and allow the vehicle to slide
sideways on the crowned surface of a road or in a turn.
WINCH USAGE — POWER WAGON ONLY (IF
EQUIPPED)
Things To Know Before Using Your Winch
General Winch Information
Your vehicle is equipped with an electric vehicle recovery
winch. This winch uses the electrical power from the
vehicle charging system to power a motor that winds wire
rope into the winch drum via planetary gear reduction. By
nature, a winch is capable of generating very high forces
and should be used with care. Do not operate the winch
without reading and understanding the complete winch
owner’s manual.
Tensioning The Wire Rope
The winch rope must be properly tensioned before use.
Follow the instructions below to tension the rope:
1. Un-spool the wire rope leaving five wraps of rope on the winch drum.
2. Attach the hook to a suitable anchor point.
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1.Motor: The winch motor is powered by the vehicle
charging system and features a thermal protection
switch that automatically stops motor function in the
power-in direction if the motor gets too hot.
2. Remote Socket: The remote socket allows the remote
control to be attached to the control pack to allow the
winch to function.
3. Winch Drum With Integral Brake: The winch drum
allows the wire rope to be stored on the winch and
transmits force to the wire rope. The winch is equipped
with an integral brake that will stop rotation of the
winch drum if the winch motor is stopped.
4. 3-Stage Planetary Gear Set: Provides balance between
speed and pulling power.
5. Wire Rope: The wire rope allows the winch to be
connected to an anchor to provide a pulling force.
6. Clutch Lever: The clutch lever allows the winch drum to
be disconnected from the winch motor to allow the wire
rope to be pulled from the winch by hand. 7.
Remote Control: The remote control provides the inter-
face between the winch operator and the winch. The
remote control provides the ability to power the winch
in, out, and stop the winch. To operate the winch, the
toggle switch is pressed down to power the winch in
and up to power the winch out. The winch will stop if
the switch is left in the neutral (center) position.
CAUTION!
If not installed, the hook strap must be placed on the
hook.
Fairlead: The fairlead acts as a guide for the wire rope and
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6. Secure to the anchor point. Once you have establishedyour anchor point, secure the tree-trunk protector or
choker-chain around the object.
CAUTION!
Always be certain the anchor you select will withstand
the load. NOTE: How to choose an anchor point:
A secure anchor
is critical to winching operations. An anchor must be
strong enough to hold while winching. Natural anchors
include trees, stumps and rocks. Hook the cable as low as
possible. If no natural anchors are available when recover-
ing another vehicle, your vehicle becomes the anchor point.
In this case, be sure to put the transmission in NEUTRAL,
apply the hand brake and block its wheels to prevent your
vehicle from moving. Ideally, you’ll want an anchor point
that will enable you to pull straight in the direction the
vehicle will move. This allows the wire rope to wind tightly
and evenly onto the spooling drum. An anchor point as far
away as possible will provide the winch with its greatest
pulling power.
Tree Trunk Protector
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14. Begin winching. With the winching vehicles engine onand light tension already on the wire rope, begin
winching slowly and steadily. Be sure that the wire
rope is winding evenly and tightly around the spooling
drum. For additional assistance, the winched vehicle
can be slowly driven while being pulled by the winch.
Continue pulling until the vehicle is on stable ground.
If you are able to drive the vehicle, the winching
operation is complete. NOTE:
•Avoid overheating the winch motor. For extended
winching, stop at reasonable intervals to allow the
winch motor to cool down.
• What to look for under load:
The wire rope must
always spool onto the drum as indicated by the drum
rotation decal on the winch. As you power-in, make sure
the wire rope winds evenly and tightly on the drum. This
prevents the outer wire wraps from drawing into the
inner wraps, binding and damaging the wire rope. Avoid
shock loads by using the control switch intermittently to
take up wire rope slack. Shock loads can momentarily far
exceed the winch and wire rope ratings. During side pulls
the wire rope tends to stack up at one end of the drum.
This stack can become large enough to cause serious
damage to the winch. So, line up pulls as straight ahead
as possible and stop winching if the wire rope comes close
to the tie rods or mounting plate. To fix an uneven stack,
spool out that section of the rope and reposition it to the
opposite end of the drum, which will free up space for
continued winching.
15. Secure vehicle. Once recovery of the vehicle is com-
plete, be sure to secure the vehicle’s brakes and shift
the transmission to PARK. Release tension in the wire
rope.Using The Remote Control
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•If the button is continually pushed, the set speed will
continue to decrease until the button is released, then the
new set speed will be established.
Metric Speed (km/h)
• Pushing the SET (-) button once will result in a 1 km/h
decrease in set speed. Each subsequent tap of the button
results in a decrease of 1 km/h.
• If the button is continually pushed, the set speed will
continue to decrease until the button is released, then the
new set speed will be established.
To Accelerate For Passing
Press the accelerator as you would normally. When the
pedal is released, the vehicle will return to the set speed.
Using Speed Control On Hills
The transmission may downshift on hills to maintain the
vehicle set speed.
NOTE: The Speed Control system maintains speed up and
down hills. A slight speed change on moderate hills is
normal.
On steep hills, a greater speed loss or gain may occur so it
may be preferable to drive without Speed Control.
WARNING!
Speed Control can be dangerous where the system
cannot maintain a constant speed. Your vehicle could
go too fast for the conditions, and you could lose
control and have an accident. Do not use Speed Control
in heavy traffic or on roads that are winding, icy,
snow-covered or slippery.
To Resume Speed
To resume a previously set speed, push the RES (+) button
and release. Resume can be used at any speed above
20 mph (32 km/h).
To Deactivate
A soft tap on the brake pedal, pushing the CANCEL
button, or normal brake pressure while slowing the vehicle
will deactivate the Speed Control without erasing the set
speed from memory.
Pushing the ON/OFF button or turning the ignition switch
OFF erases the set speed from memory.
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