New tight truck not broke in yet?
Mine doesn't bother me that way and holds gears better than any gm i've driven in last 10 years. Toyota tundra, older tacoma's and this ram pentastar i have are the best set up i've seen so far.
To answer your question yes there are two buttons on my steering wheel for manual gear selection, a negative symbol and a positive symbol, for downshift or upshift. Just tap the negative symbol and it will drop into 7 and tap it again will drop into 6...it will hold there, it is now in manual mode. You can gear right down till engine is screaming if you like...just tap it back up to 8 and the display will show you've left manual mode and back into full auto.
I use it in 4wd for downshifting when things really slippery in town for engine braking to slow the truck down on icy hills etc.
I think those buttons were set up for exactly what you want though...to hold a gear while towing or hills/wind etc. on highway. Dodge maybe missed an opportunity to do paddle shifters or make the buttons bigger for that holy shizzo gearing down you want in extreme icy conditions while in 4wd. I would recommend paddle shifters if any engineers are listening.
The only other thing i would recommend if they happen to be listening is a 'city mode' for parking. As a daily driver you quickly learn that backing in is the only way to park and having to manually hit the button to fold my mirrors in is convenient enough i guess but a lot of us daily drive our half tons in city duty and we have figured out backing in is the only way to fly. When truck hits park those mirrors should fold when you have it on city mode imo.
I'm nitpicking as someone who uses this truck as a daily family vehicle.
Hope that helps man.
I may have told you that my truck holds 130 km/h no problem without down shifting on moderate winds/hills at 2000 rpm in 8th gear.
If you were going slower you would maybe not see enough power as the rpm too low? So you can pick the gear you want no problem with just the tap of a button on the steering wheel. Now you see why maybe i recommend not going with the 3:21 axle?
(too many gears for that combo, and ideal efficiency and power might actually be a 3:73 with this motor/combo for those who drive closer to the speed limits?...they don't offer anything higher than 3:55 tho)