i have seen many people on here talk about how hot their trucks run but i haven't seen any pictures of gauges to confirm. and you know how our temp gauge only has the 130 and 210 marks on it.

here is how hot mine gets in 10º as well as 110º weather.
since changing the 195º thermostat the other day for another 195º, it will now come up to around 200, then drop down to this temp when the thermostat opens. with the other thermostat it would come to this point and just stay there.

so how hot is this?

this was years ago when i still had stock cooling components. since then i have replaced the radiator, the heater core and the thermostat.

i believe it started running colder when i put the radiator in.


also, the bottom radiator hose stays cold for a while and just barely starts to get warm after running for about 20 miles. and it gets hard as a rock (so does the top hose). is that normal?

so can you 180º guys post a pic of your truck at operating temp if you have one?

 

my temp gauge on my 97 has 200 in the middle instead of 210.

dont have a pic but it runs right under 200

 

You know, I don't trust the Dodge Ram temp gauge. Mine has never shown above 210 (with the stock mech fan) but I still found a new failsafe stat stuck open. I could not get the stat to stick open after 45 minutes of boiling on the stove. Soon as it warms up, I think I'll change the sending unit and the gauge.

That is where my temp gauge sits when I'm moving. Sitting still with the E-fan fuse removed I can hit 210 but that's the only time.

 

In the first pic, that is where mine sits 99% of the time. On occasion depending on my driving style, it does move up to your 2nd pic, but then moves right back down again to the first pic in under 30 seconds. (hope that makes sense) My gauge has never read to the middle mark... ever.

 

mine used to go up to just a hair under 210 and just hang there, so i assume it was running 195. in that second picture it was about 105-110º outside, but it ran that hot in the winter too. i wasn't speeding in that second picture either, gotta love oklahoma.

 

mine with the 180, efan, new rad, looks like your 2nd pic, but with 200 in the middle

 

Im runnin stock T stat and everything and it runs that cool (1st pic). Half the reason I don't want to change it. I'd hate to swap stuff out like you and run hotter.

 

your sender may be bad....after i did all this it was sayin that i been runnin around 210, changed my sender and now it reads this

 

mine runs the same as your first pic also, doesn't fluctuate much either

 

Mine looks and acts just like your first pic. Runs up to almost 210, thermo opens and it drops back to down to the exact same spot.