^ I get that you've has lots of problems with your truck, but I have to disagree with what crap you've been saying about the 2nd Gen Ram.

Before I joined this forum, I never heard of plenum leaks, death flashes, death wobbles and the like. I never even had them through 245,000 miles on my first Dodge Ram, nor did anyone I knew with 2nd Gens get them, save the transmission issues. I for one think that the 2nd Gen Ram was a true innovation for all trucks, with the big rig styling and the bulletproof engine. Have you ever looked at any of the Ram's competition from the 90's? Ugly boring boxes. As long as I've been on this forum, I might have seen a max of 5 people that have rebuilt their engine; mostly to upgrade with all sorts of goodies. I don't even want to know how that is on any other trucks' forums.

As for foreign trucks, a friend of mine had a 2000s Toyota Tundra. A car pulled out in front hom while he was going roughly 20mph; and he hit the car. His son was in the passenger seat. His son's seatbelt didn't lock, as the dashboard came out three feet right into his sons forhead, leaving him with some pretty big scars. Toyota gave him a 20,000 dollar settlement. Was that enough to pay for his totaled truck and his son's forhead? No. Needless to say, he drives a 2nd Gen Ram now.

I understand how frustrating a vehicle that breaks as often as yours did might be, but please stop bashing our Dodge Rams.

And for the record, I always admired your truck.

 

i also like yoru truck, but to say that a honda forum doesnt have the problems that a dodge forum has, is because your talking the most highly modified cars in the world, compared to a workin mans truck... i bet you drive yoru truck a whole heck of a lot harder then u drive the honda or chevy... cause they are cars... i can not speak of truly problems with these trucks... i am a recovery vehicle for the guys i go fourwheeling with so i go and follow everyone in the mud hole ( almost never get stuck unless it starts with " hold my beer and watch this sh*t!" so i break things most people dont because i burry my truck in 4 ft hole on an almost daily basis... but as for the reliablility fo these motors, OMG, im the only truck that will fire right back up at 6* in the morning... two turns and fires up... inlike the cevy you have to sit there for at lease 30 sec of cranking...

and dodge is not the only one with any kind of bad trans issues... what about chevies 700R4... yes they have there good trans in form of the turbo400 but we have ours too... just its manual... the NV4500, and the NV5600 in the CTD's. dont get me started on the alisons,,, dropped two of them in the plow trucks already...

not to mention chevies **** poor IFS systems in the 90s trucks... i dont see people puttin an IFS coversion on there dodges( unless they are baja trucks), but i see people getting dodges 44's for there chevies...

this is all to prove a point that every truck that getts driven has parts that will go badm there is no truck that will be perfect...

i love these trucks, and just mopar in general, but these trucks are great... sure they have there problems, but anything that is 10-15 years old like sherrif said, is goign to have problems...

 

As for the wreck thing that stuff can happen with any vehicle. A guy here that used to go to our church was in a really bad wreck in a 2nd gen Ram and the airbags never went off causing him to get hurt worse than he should have. I also know another guy that had a 2nd gen Ram and after being in a wreck in it told me to be very careful because if I was ever in a wreck the front end was going to crush in like a soda can as his did. Just because the Ram is big doesn't mean it's better in wrecks. That's a common misconception a lot of people seem to have.


BTW I don't bash it because I've had most of those common issues happen. I bash it because not only have I had most of the common issues so has almost everyone I've talked to. Sure I talk to someone like you that has a great one here and there but I also have talked to quite a few that have had the same exact issues I did. It's crazy Dodge couldn't have spent a few extra dollars to make something that wouldn't break. The aftermarket companies seem to be able to make parts that hold up so why can't Dodge?

 

Actually that's not true. The Honda has gotten driven a lot and I mean a lot harder than my truck. I used to pretty much baby the truck. Every once in a while spin tires or something but it really got treated way better than most trucks do. It still had those problems. So after seeing it's going to have problems no matter if I baby it or use it like a truck should be used I now use it hunting and stuff and if that means I have to go down a path or something I have been doing it. However, I still don't take it in mud holes or beat the **** out of it. I just use it like a 4wd truck is meant to be used. It still has a pretty easy life. The Honda's on the other hand have been driven a lot harder. They Chevy has been babied about like the truck and only gotten on hard every once in a while.


I agree I don't like any of the 3 American car companies. If they didn't make such pieces of **** people would actually buy them and they wouldn't have been in such financial trouble. Instead they all built pieces of junk while foreign companies like Honda and Toyota were building quality vehicles. You just can't do that and stay in business. Well, I guess you can if the government just bails you out.

I agree here. That's one thing that I think Dodge actually did right and that was have the SFA on the half tons. Shame they changed it.

Yep anything that old is going to have problems and if I had a 94 I'd think that was decent. However, I have a 01 and it was a couple years ago that I had all these issues. Not everything that age has all of those problems. Our other vehicles 2 of which are older the Chevy and one Honda sure haven't. It's not that I hate just the Dodges. I honestly think most of the vehicles from Chevy and Dodge and even several from Ford are inferior. I don't see why you'd even consider one from any of those companies as long as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, and companies like that are around unless you need a diesel which you can't get from them in a full size truck. However, most guys on here are buying 1500's not diesels or even 3/4 or 1 tons.

I think Ford is the best of the American car companies but in all honestly I think they all suck.

 

the soda can is a good analogy, these trucks can't take a very hard hit on the front end and have the driver walk away without a painful reminder of the day the ram died.

 

I hope I never have to find out. However, that's what he told me after having a wreck in his.

 

i love my ram despite all its many shortfalls i would sooner stand next to my ram on the side of the road in the pouring rain than drive a ford anything. the only thing i dont like about my dodge 5.2 is that after market parts are almost non existant and when you do find them they are expensive and you will likely go through hell getting the right part. i have found that most parts houses are mopar iliterate, and a visit to your local dodge dealership parts dept. will cost you your left arm and your first born

 

hometheaterman, maybe the reason you've had so many problems is because of the lift and tires you've installed? Bigger tires put a lot more stress on the engine, tranny, rear end, wheel bearings, steering components, etc. I know I didn't have any problems with sloppy steering or wheel bearings until I installed coil spacers, which threw the front end geometry all out of whack.

 

First off I just purchased my 99 Ram. I bought it simply because it seemed to be the best deal at the time on a used pick up truck. If it turns out to be a POS I'll dump it in heartbeat. How can any educated person throw good money after bad because of brand name loyalty? If this thing can't get me to work then I don't make money. Neither Ford or Dodge is paying me (or you) to drive their trucks so you had better believe I'd rather drive a Ford ,or anything else, than stand on the side of the road.

 

^ Welcome to DF, hope you like your new Ram.

Hate to post this again:

50mph into an SUV. Walked away just fine. Only had scratches from the airbag when it deployed. If my truck didn't damage as much as it did, it probably would have killed the lady I hit, for she wasn't wearing her seatbelt and her airbag didn't go off. Now, if I was in some sort of economy car, I probably wouldn't be alive. I think I got the best of both worlds there.