Go price a new truck, figure in tax and interest on the loan, and your insurance will be higher. Makes keeping yours look cheap. You could repaint it and do some upgrades and still be money ahead.

 

Keep it. You know whats wrong with it, and whats right with it. New tranny at rockauto is under 1500. New long block is under 3000. For less then 6000 you can give it a new heart. In my area, you can't buy a used truck with less then 100k miles for under 20 thousand. Honestly, the newer trucks just don't hold up against my 1994. I am going to spend that 20k restoring mine instead.

 

I'm having to face the same decision. My truck needs quite a bit of body work, and I keep going back and forth on if I want to fix it, or replace it. I know they body work will cost significantly more than the truck is worth, but it's also significantly cheaper than a new truck. However, I'll still have to deal with a crappy interior that's worn, other parts that are going to go out, etc. At the same time, I rarely drive my truck anymore, so I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of a new truck for something I only drive a few thousand miles a year. I'm also having a hard time thinking about letting mine go, just because I've had it for 14 years and I have a lot of memories with it.

For the guys that are saying they newer trucks aren't as good, no offense, but they are delusional. The 2nd Gen Ram's weren't great trucks when they were new. I know you're not going to get similar responses, just because we're on a Dodge forum, but compared to the competition then, they were poorly built and trucks have come along way in the last 15-20 years. They had lousy interiors with dash's that cracked, the lousy transmissions, heads that are prone to cracking, plenum gasket problems, the LSD's in the 1500's almost always fail prematurely, the steering is lousy, the front end parts are lousy, the door drains are poorly designed and cause premature door rust, the engines are lacking in the power department compared to the competition, but also get worse gas mileage, etc. I love my truck for the sentimental value it has, and after I dumped a ton of money into upgrades, it became decent, but they just aren't great trucks. While newer trucks also have their issues, they are vastly improved. You also pay for it though. So, you can have a $5,000 2nd Gen Ram and deal with the issues it has, or you can spend $40,000-$50,000 on something new. For some people it's well worth it. For others, it's not.

 

The second gen Ram had the most power out of the big 3. The transmissions aren't bad I have 400,000 miles on the factory one pushing 40in tires on 3.55 gears. I would like the newer technology that the newer trucks have but you can always put that in an older vehicle. That was my only reason to buy my new Power Wagon. Plus the winch and lockers lol

 

The 2nd gen 1500 rams still had a straight axle in the front while Ford and GM used ifs, that makes the Rams superior to the others of that era in my opinion.

 

I agree with you. Gas mileage isn't great even in the new trucks. But I never bought a truck for gas mileage. Plus if you bought a truck for a truck you would never see the advertised numbers because you would be towing or hauling

 

Sounds like you got 3 options...
Don't drive
Fix it
Buy a new one
_______________________

All but the first one... You still have to fix what breaks or pay someone to fix it....
My Daily driver is a 1977 Dodge D150 "WarLock" 360... But I would love to have a new one.. Just don't want to make the investment.

 

That's false. It had the least power out of the big 3.
I'll compare 2001's since that's what I have.

2001 Dodge Ram
5.2L:
- HP: 230
5.9L
- HP: 245

2001 F-150
4.6L:
- HP: 231
5.4L:
- HP: 260

2001 Chevrolet Silverado:
4.8L:
- HP: 270
5.3:
- HP: 285

Here are the sources:
https://www.nadaguides.com/Cars/2001...-SLT-4WD/Specs
https://www.nadaguides.com/Cars/2001...-XLT-4WD/Specs
https://www.nadaguides.com/Cars/2001...-Cab-4WD/Specs


As you can see, both Ford and Chevrolet use smaller motors that are more efficient resulting in more horsepower and better gas mileage.

The transmissions absolutely are bad. With the posts you've made about your truck and all of the piecing together that's been done on it, there is no way to know how many miles are on that transmission. I highly doubt you have 400k miles on it. Even if there is one out there somewhere that's managed to last that long, the majority of them don't.

 

It came out of a truck that had 120,XXX miles and was factory now has over 400,000 miles. Up until 2000 Dodge has the most HP and TQ but I do agree buy 2001 it was an old engine that they used since the 60s. But Ram can back on top in 2003 with the Hemi. Not to mention had the most towing and hauling capabilities. The 360 & 318 are work horses that won't break down if maintained. They have been since the 70s in the Power Wagons.

 

I picked another random year prior to 2000, and they still didn't have anymore power than anyone else.
https://www.cars.com/research/compar...,USA70DOT113B0

Chevrolet offered the following:
5.0L - 230HP
5.7L - 255HP

Ford offered the following:
4.6L - 220HP
5.4L - 230HP

Dodge offered the following:
5.3L - 220 HP
5.9L - 230 HP

So while, they were very comparable to the Ford motor's, they still were making less power than Chevrolet's offerings.

Dodge did make a huge improvement with the hemi motor, but again it's offered in a second generation Ram. The 3rd gen steering, dash, etc. were also significantly improved over the 2nd gen. Unfortunately we're talking about 2nd gen Rams in this case, not the 3rd gen.

As for the two rating, for 97 it was higher than Chevrolet's, but according to trailers.com the 97 F-150 with the 5.4L had a 7800lb tow rating while the 97 Ram 1500 with the 5.9L had a 7600lb tow rating. So not sure that argument holds true either. They 2nd generation Ram's just weren't very impressive trucks. Then nor now. I have sentimental attachment to mine and I've made a lot of memories with mine, while it does what I need for the most part, especially since I rarely drive it. This makes me keep fixing it instead buying something else. However, if I used it more often, I'd buy something else. If I didn't already own it, I'd definitely not buy a 2nd gen Ram. I get that this is a 2nd gen Ram forum, so most owners are going to defend what they own, but they just really aren't that great of trucks.