what causes BAD wheel hop in reverse

My son has a 2005 Dodge diesel 6 spd. He bought it new . I did alot of performance upgrades to it and the standard clutch could not handle the horse power and torque increase.. It would slip under a hard pull. I purchased a South Bend Con FE Ceramic clutch. $1500.00. wasn't cheap. It ddoes excactly what you are describing with your car. When backing up with our race trailer on a slight incline it would wheel hop unless you would rev the engine and ride the clutch.

After one season of towing with it i and racing it. he ripped the center out of the disc, I called South bend and explained this to them. They replaced the whole set up for free. There was a recall on the disc, The center was weak and couldn't take the clutch Chatter. It was more noticable in reverse because of the lower gear. I still have the same issue with the new clutch but it is built stronger and made to take that abuse. They explained the ceramic disc grabs hard and causes center of the disc to bounce against the springs .

I am only mentioning this because you said if you rev it and ride the clutch it doesn't do it.. Your problem may be in the disc weak springs from a cheaper clutch or low slip from a race clutch. South bend told me I couldn't have the best of both worlds. I still ride the clutch in reverse when backing up.

One thing though, when my son rides this clutch pulling out in third wiith the motor turned up racing it. Even though you smoke the clutch on the start it does not slip when it is engaged. Its in for almost three years now. It still does the reverse hop but we're used to it. If you let the clutch out fast with the motor reved up in a higher gear it kills the motor. The stock clutch would just go up in smoke.

Could be the disc, Just a thought? The Leaf springs are not weak on our 3500 dodge and it does what you are describing. The stock clutch did not do this, Like I said not saying this is deffinately your problem but again something to check into. Steve