all vehicles have problems... most of them can be delt with. dodge trucks however are very popular so the support for them is tremendous. you can get a well built tranny for a replacement when the time comes that will last a long time.

your best bet is preventive maint. and do the things others do to keep their tranny's running like new... regular maint & tranny coolers.

I had my 360 heads off 2x and both times the bottome end ( cylinders ) looked in awesome shape. I ran mobil 1 15w-50 in it since I owned it, swapped out every 3-5k miles and never had a bottom end issue.

the 2 things you should know are the timing chains are junk and the plenum (bottom of the intake) leaks. felpro gaskets have been proven to go a long way compared to the stock mopar one....

 

Have some fun and go to www.msn.com and research used automobiles. Compare Ford and Chevrolet reliability to Dodge, and you'll see that Ford and Chevy have their fair share of transmission issues. Actually, they have MORE. Then, start looking into issues with the engines. That was part of the deciding factor when I bought my Ram even though I'm doing a preventative teardown on it now. Ford's transmissions through the 1990's were much worse, because they're controlled by a separate brain that likes to **** itself every now and then at a cost of over $500, IIRC.

 

i got my 99 ram laramie xlt 6 months ago with 140 thousand miles on it. the guy i got it from took extremely good care of it and it had a brand new trans battery alt and aftermarket exhaust on it, the trans was still under warranty from the trans shop when he sold it to me. i paid 6,400 for it and its the best truck ive ever owned. way better than ford or chevys. only think i did was put on brakes rancho shocks and tuned her up. runs like a charm and ive put about 13,000 on it since ive had it. will be posting pics soon as i can.

 

My Ram has the 3.9 V-6 and has 208,000 miles I bought it with 103,000
It does not burn much oil it will usually be on add at time to change.
I never thought it would go this far but they are highway miles I drive 100 miles each day. Also just to mention I have only changed air filter twice in 100,000 miles. I don't ever intend to change it unless it gets so cloged it starts killing power. That air filter box in my opinon is the worst design I have ever seen. [sm=headbang.gif]

 

i heard those 3.9's last just as long as the 5.2 and 5.9 guess dodge just makes good motors

 

I notice it has towing mirrors on it. What did they pull? That will tell alot of its been beat up, especially the drivetrain

 

The pics I posted has towing mirrors on it? I thought they looked unfamiliar, are they stock or AM?

 

They look aftermarket. I don't think they put the extending ones on 2nd gens from the factory