I must be one of those "jaded" ones you are talking about. After a bad motor, new front end, new tranny, and now a rear end, not to mention all the other little things I can't say I've been to happy with my dodges reliability. It is a very good looking truck and it is powerful enough (also thirsty enough) but come on, every few months its something major. I have learned alot from it as I do everything myself (including tranny) but it is getting ridiculus. I have been looking at a early 90's chevys now as the TBI trucks were simply indestructible. 307k hard towing miles on my dads fullsize blazer with original tranny, engine, rear end ect and it drives and looks like it was new and this is not an overstatement at all. But I suppose being that my dodge is worthless I will continue to drive it and fix it as I can't afford anything else.

 

For those of you who are tired of having the only Dodge in town... Move to Phoenix, it's literally Dodge City over here!

The Dodge I have now isn't quite as good as my old one that I had since new. But, I was expecting that. It's a used truck. My last truck was the best though, hands down. Damn near bullet proof. My truck now is good, just needs some work to get into the condition I like. I'm really picky.

 

Coming from a long long line of Chevy nuts in my family. I take a ton of crap about being a dodge truck owner. It all started years ago when I bought a 78 power wagon( big block) for $600. I drove that truck for years and could not kill it. Wiring was a nightmare though. From there I had a 97 dodge ram that I just sold with 234,000 original miles on motor and tranny. Recenly just bought my current truck. I will agree with some of the other guys ...Chevy trucks seem to tow much better than my current 2500 ram. I love the big bulky body style these trucks have. As soon as I get my list of mods done, this one will be my truck to drive for years to come.

 

Ive only had my 99 1500 for a couple months but i will very honest. I love the truck. I shoped for almost 3 months before buying so i new what i was getting. The Dodge is the only half ton truck in the late 90's that is a real truck. It has a solid front axle, pushrod V8, and a lever-shift transfer case, and looks that the other manufacturers r still trying to copy. If u want a truck to use as a truck or take off road, buy the dodge, if u want a cushy ride to get groceries with and dont mind almost yearly fuel pumps, rear diff problems, questionable 4x4 switches, gas tanks that fall out, and the need to pull apart almost everything under the hood to change that darn sparkplug that just came flying out of its home, then buy the GM or Ford. Oh and for the record, I have always been a Ford guy,its what i know the most about, and i bought the Dodge. That kinda says it all.

 

Amen to that!

I have always been a Ford guy and I still "like" some of their stuff, but I HATED the 4.6 and it's underpowered engines in the trucks. Heaven forbid you let the truck set up for a month or two and try to start it. You'll be lucky if you throw a lifter out of the valve cover. I used to work at a Ford dealer as a line tech and the older used cars that were on the lot would come in needing the lifters put back in under the cams.

I've had several vans with the 4.6 and 5.4 and they were all the same... underpowered and needy. They got the same gas mileage as the Ram I have now. I don't know... I kind-of got ticked off from that one guy bashing Dodges saying Fords are better and how he beat someone with a Cummins vs his 302.. You know.. whatever, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things but if you really wanted to see who was better, why don't you hook axle to axle and have a pulling contest! Bet that will be the first time you've ever see a 302 ripped out of your truck and lying in the parking lot after that Cummins is done with you.

Anyway, I love my Dodge Ram and Dodge Durango 5.9. They are awesome and have some killer power.

I've always felt that if your going to drink gas, you minus well have the looks and power to go along with it. Just my .02

 

Never was a fan of Ford. I had one, 1995 Ford F250HD. It was "ok", would not rated it a 10. Very little interior space, stock exhaust was really quite. You heard more of the PS whine. Truck only had 81k when I got rid of it and had lots of rust problems. Frame was getting bad, had no bed floor, freeze out plugs were rusted through. CEL was always on, couldn't get rid of it. Problematic.

I come from a Mopar family and have to say I love my 2nd gen Ram. Got lots of interior room, frame is not rusty and got plenty of interior room with a center console. I have alot more room under the hood to wrench. I actually have a bed floor. No CEL and the truck has a much better interior. Plenty of power to move my trailer.

I'll never look back to a Ford.

 

Don't forget, Cummins and Caterpillar are both optional engines for the Ford Super Duty. You can get the 6.7 cummins that is less restricted than what comes in the Dodge Heavy Duty's, they make 320 horsepower and 800 foot pounds. If I were to buy a truck for a truck, I would buy a 2004+ Ford, they tow the most, are super dependable, and are the best workhorse. There ride is pretty horrible, pretty stiff, and you feel every bump in the road, but that is what a truck feels like. I think the chevys ride the best (Not as good as the new dodges), but I still love Dodge. They are the happy median, you get the most power, a great ride, and the truck can still do work when ya need it to! I come from a Ford family, but I don't think I will be in a Ford truck for a while, because I can work out of my Dodge, clean it up, and then go cruise the town at night and have fun in it. I can't do the same with a Ford or Chevy.

 

I can appreciate that. After twenty some vehicles over those 3 decades, I've had a few that I wouldn't give you scrap value for. A charger 2.2 that I bought new and put 6 water pumps, two fan motors and temp sensor in..the first year I owned it...oh and a speedometer too!
904 transmissions...blew several. Blew a pinion bearing on a rear, killing a tranny. Brakes, bearings, rust...oh god...the floors in those old 1st gen trucks. Holy flintstone flyer!
Blew a 2.5 motor in a Shadow...warranty replacement. That motor went 150k when and was still going when I traded it.
I learned never to buy anything with a silver paint job, unless I wanted to repaint it in a couple of years.
Ah the Diplomat...had to put a new wiring harness in the dash to run the electric windows/locks. That means uner the dash and through both doors. Shoulda just set it on fire...
Lastly...'78 Dodge "Asprin" (Aspen) R/T I can't believe Mopar named a new vehicle after that turd. Based on that alone, I'd never buy it. What a POS. Me and my R/T? Yeah...me and my Rusty Turd. Maybe they thought we'd forget.
Strange, the only trouble I have with my truck (to me) is wear and tear and bad judgement. Except the heater. This is the first Mopar I ever did that in. I must admit that sucked.

 

Hahaha you're really funny... I'm gonna guess the other guy had a bone stocker that he just pulled the AFC foot out of because he liked to see it smoke. That being said a stock 7,500 pound diesel is SLOW. I had an '87 Ford F150 with a 302 and a granny gear 4 speed, I remember I used to be aweful proud to go from 40 to 55 in about a 200 yard span and now with a mildly modified CTD I get to 80 in the same stretch of road.

I loved my wife's 96 RCSB 1500 5.2 w/5spd trans... That little sucker had ***** and towed like a champ. In fact when my diesel was down I let a friend tow my pulling tractor (5700# tractor plus a 2500# trailer) twice with his 00' Chevy with a 4.8, which is supposedly 270hp and I forget the torque. All I know is that thing was a dog, it had to spin up to 4 grand and still couldn't maintain 55mph on a hill. I got tired of riding around in a Chevy, so I installed a brake controller in my wife's truck and started towing my tractor with that. Same stretch of road, 5th gear, actually accelerated to 65mph!

I guess I'm a little biased anyway... We raced Mopars on the 1/4 mile oval and pretty much dominated. So I kinda grew up that way. But I've owned a Ford F150 (as mentioned), a C20 Chevy, and now my 2500 CTD. I killed the Ford (the engine literally grenaded), the Chevy treated me pretty good, but was gutless and sagged more than my dodge with a load in the bed. So thus far the dodge has proven reliable to me and met all my needs.

BTW for those of you who do seem to have chevys that tow better than dodges. The 700R4/4L60E has a .75 OD ratio while the 46RH/E has a .69 OD ratio. It doesn't seem like much, but that makes for a noteable difference in the OD final drive (2.62 vs 2.41 final drive ratio in OD w/3.50 gears).

 

Love my Ram, will only ever buy a ram truck.


But ill take a mustang over any other muscle car, and ill take a vette over anything