I am thinking about getting a dodge if I get into Coastal Carolina and selling my jeep soo I can haul my stuff and what not. Back to the rumor...I've heard that the older 1500's come with the same tranny as the Dakota and they tend to go bad after X miles because they cannot handle this type of load. Anyways is this true or false??????

 

From what I've seen the earlier 2nd gen Rams ('94-'96 & some '97s) were more likely to have front end and transmission problems.

 

my 94 ram has went through 2 tranys first one went out as i got off the interstate stoped at the end of the off ramp and went to go and nothing was dead would rev up but to move at all then a few years later next one went each one was like 2400 bucks so was not good at all.
and the front end would creak wene you would turn so replaced all the ball joints and that fixed that problem so i would not buy any older rams too many problems with them.

 

i have a 96 ram. automatic with a v6. its at 170000KM right now and the tranny has never been touched. never even changed the fluid. still shifts great. my front end is a little loose, but nothing i cant live with.

 

So 98 and up is my best bet basically....how many miles should I look for....I'm only gunna have about 6 g's to spend.

 

You'll probably going to find most truck from the '98 era are going to have 85,000 to 100,000 on them. But you should be able to find a short bed reg cab with a 5.2 in the $6,000 range.

 

I have a 99 4x4 quad cab with 70k that I got for 9g about a year ago. I think if you look around you can find something good for a decent price or maybe a trade for your jeep. What kind of jeep do you have?

Steve

 

97 TJ with a good amount of parts in it....

 

i have a 95 1500 5.2L 5spd manual. it currently has 255000 miles on the original engine/tranny combo and i coudnt be happier. at 250000 it moved me and all my stuff from minneapolis to laramie wyoming without a complaint, doing more than 85mph most of the way.

it is coming into some front end issues, but with that many miles i couldnt expect it to be perfect.

basically, i would buy this setup again in a heartbeat, that is, if i didnt like my cummins so much

 

Is it a 6 or 4 ? Any pics? Seems like if it is good shape it should be a good swap for a truck in good shape.

Steve