I am considering purchasing a Dodge truck, and I need opinions.....

Here is what I am looking at:

2001 Ram 1500 4X4
5.9 L Automatic
Quad Cab
ST Package
50,125 Miles

Are there any pitfalls for this particular year truck? IE.....is the 5.9L engine dependable? Will it have the power to pull a 5000# load with relative ease (flat terrain) and will the tranny hold up?

Are there any common problems with the 4wd components?

Whay kind of MPG can I expect? I am used to about 11 city - 16 HWY..........

Also, the truck has a winch, hydraulic, coming off the power steering pump. It has a cooler for the fluid also.....Anybody ever deal with a winch of this type? I am not sure of the make.......

All opinions are greatly appreciated!

 

swlaram4x4.....i am no expert on here but what from i am hearing on here i think over all you will be pleased! I have a 2000 off-road and i love it.....i think you will be pretty close to that milage that you are used tooand the 5.9's are excellent in my opinion! Now on the tranny question i think you are going to here some different stories...not on the weight but if you will have trannyproblems or not!!!! I think IF you are going to have tranny problems it wouldnt be anything different if it was on another vehicle type or this one i have heard of stories of chevy's and ford's going out at 40000 and 50000 miles and didnt pull a damn thing.....so in my opinion i think it is a 50-50 chance anymore on something going wrong with any of the big three tranny's....they just dont hold up with the overdrives in them. Also the four wheel drive components are very good. Now that is my opinion on the dodges but i think you might get a more expertise opinion from some of these guys cause they are really good and know what they are talking about.....but i love my dodge and would not trade it for anything!!!!!!! just my opinion

 

Thanks Wildwolf!

I purchased a 2004 Quad Cab 2wd with the 4.7 2 months ago, and I am not real impressed with the towing capabilities......

Also, my 99 Z71 leaves a lot to be desired as well....So I sold the Z and am now looking for an older truck with more CC's......


I don't care what they claim about these new engines, they just don't pull like the older body styles!

 

Back to top!

 

Common problems on the 4x4's are the plenum gasket blowing which would cause pinging & poor performance. The tracbar goes out too soon... some as early as 40k miles. the tranny's pretty much suck.

for all of these there are some good fixes...

http://www.apsprecision.com/ for the plenum fix and a bullet proof tranny

http://www.solidsteel.ca/news.htm for the tracbar fix. it uses a 2003 tracbar that doesn't have the ball joint on the end so it'll hold up alot better.

As far as towing goes... get the biggest tranny cooler you can get on there and it will help alot. For power upgrades, there are tons of things you can do if you choose to, but keep in mind the towing side of things... you'll want mods that will not loose low end torque. If you get to the TB upgrade, still get the 52mm TB, it's worth every penny.

hope this helps