As the title suggests, considering another Ram truck.

My price range has a lot of 2004's in it, but was curious if any of the years are particularly better or worse. It would be a quad cab, 4x4, no lifts, 5.7 since I will be using it to tow my 24' Nash travel trailer

Tried to find an article, but my searches may be too generic, if you already have a good read please link me.

 

03s and early 04s have valve spring issues. But this is only a few of them so it's not a guaranteed thing. A lot of people have 03s and 04s with zero issues so it's all the luck of the draw really.

 

Hmmm, maybe I should stick with 05/06 then. Seems to be pretty much the same price wise after looking more.

 

05 is the best year in many opinions on here

 

Go with 2004+
Tuners dont work for 2003 transmissions and trust me, you'll want to get a Superchips with the Advanced Trans tuning. It's awesome! It's a fully controlled shift kit in your hands.

2004-2005 are standard mechanical relay/fuse box trucks and have no MDS.
2006-2008 have TIPMs(electronic fuse box's) and 1500 light duty models have MDS.(meaning Megacab being HD doesn't)
There is no Upside to having an electronically controlled fusebox..PERIOD.
Only benefit to having a newer truck is lower mileage but then price goes up.

 

Personally---I'd try real hard to find an 05 in the 3rd gen.
after that the canbus system came in, which has its definite advantages, but there are good one for the 05 too, like standard relays instead of solid state relays.

I totally agree with what Dog has stated!!!!!!!

 

If talking about trucks pulling up to 10 years old, condition and mileage will be way more important than supposed 'this that and the other'. I's also go for 04+ but most importantly, I'd find the one with the low miles, options, gearing, accessories and price I'm looking for before worrying too much about anything else.

 

I am just trying to be proactive to determine if any of them have big issues or easily mitigated problems. Had I done that on my 99 I would have replaced the $10 plenum gasket before the leak clogged up my catalytic converter and destroyed my heads. It was too common of a problem for it not to have been brought up had I asked sooner.

 

There's a list of the 'common issues' in the DYI threads FYI. I've had Rams since 98 and to be honest I had never heard of pretty much everything on there so like most of the stuff on forums like this, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. I for one wouldn't worry about anything other than regular maintenance on the trucks you're looking at just like on any other used truck.

 

I second (or third) that 05 is a good year. I would also try to find one with the 3.92 gears in it, some of the tow package trucks have 3.55 gears for some reason (mine included... urgh). It's the only real thing I regret not doing when I bought mine a year ago or so.