New for me 2500 diesel - Tips ?

[N7HJ]

Morning group, Getting a 1999 (bought Aug 2000) Ram 2500 Laramie SLT 2WD Diesel with auto trans today [8D]. Im trading in a Ford Ranger so Im growing up finally (never had a BIG truck). My Dodge Caravan Sport has been fantastic so I went dodge for my grown up truck. SOOO, with that, hints tips etc on operation, maintenance and FUN let me know. BTW this thing only has 40k, 1 owner who never really took it anywhere. It looks BRAND NEW. Has Power everythign (Including seats) .... Looking forward to driving it .... today is going to be a long day Oh and Ill post pic's and spec's when I get it EDIT for right model

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[KilrB]

Be very picky about your oil. Most oil off the shelf is not sutable for turbo's. Because of the high pressure that the oil runs threw a turbo, non-turbo rated oil can foam and you may loose pressure. I use Shell Rotella 15-45 summer and Shell rotella 5-45 Synthetic in the winter. You can get both at wal-mart. Change your fuel filter atleast once a year. Buy diesel from only places that sell alot of it and never fuel up at a station that is recieving deisel as it churns up the crap on the bottom and will plug your fuel filter. With every re-fueling I add Power Service plus. Its an additive that adds to the lubricating agents off the fuel which will help your high pressure fuel pump last longer. This is especially important in the winter when you run a blended fuel with No 1 Deisel. Also read your manual and follow it. I see people all the time come roaring up to a stop and then simply turn the engine off. The turbo spins at something like 10-20K RPM. When you just turn it off the turbo is still spinning(even faster if you just got off the excellerator) So lets do the math. Alot of Heat + No Oil Pressure + turbo still spinning = Premature wear! Also a proper cool down of the turbo by running your engine at an idle before shut down is smart to help pull the heat off the turbo(remember that premature wear thing we just talked about )

I have a 92 Dodge W240 4x4 w/ cummins turbo deisel. The First year it was intercooled. I love this truck its been very good to me and pulls like a bulldozer compared to any gasser. Most people who major have troubles with there deisels neglect the things I have listed above and have there turbo bearings burn out or wear out there high pressure fuel pump prematurely from neglect.

[N7HJ]

Thanks, I use Rotella Syn in my Gold wing. WIll be nice to know.

Also, I found I misunderstood, its actually a Laramie 2500 ... but its a heavy duty and has 4000#
payload and 14000 tow capacity ... So its got almost the same as a 1 ton. They Payload and towing is what I wanted for a TT or 5Wheel later.

Its a great truck

[KilrB]

I think you'll be very happy with it. In reality, even the people i've seen who beat the crap outta there cummins and neglect every aspect of matinence still have 300,000 miles on it, and those are towing miles!

[N7HJ]

Well for couple 3 years its just going to tow a Coleman Sante Fe Pop up. 1600# dry and 3000 max gw, So I dont think the Truck is going to work too hard to pull it [}

[rb185afm]

Check out this site for everything you ever need to know about the Cummings Diesel.

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/

[badblackram]

Talk to they guys at www.dieseldynamics.com they are very helpful with upgrades for the cummins.