1500/2500 Mega Cab questions
Captain
Joined: Dec 2008
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From: washington
Exactly how many miles is your comfort limit? The CTD is a half million mile motor with basic maint.
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From: Central MA
This time, I think I just want to try a Hemi.
Sorry to ramble. Hope this made some resemblance of sense.
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I'm on my second month with my 06 Mega cab 1500 4x4. The lease is up on my 05 silverado 2500 CC 4x4 duramax and I just didn't feel like getting back into another lease or a new vehicle. I love the room in the mega cab and I love the looks of the truck but thats about where my desire for this truck ends.
The ride is hidieous! I never knew that a chassis on a vehicle built in this century could be this jiggly. When you hit a small size bump in the road you don't just feel the initial hit, you get a series of shudders that feels like your riding on a frame made of spring steel! I realize that this is a long truck, but I drove a Ford SD crew cab F350's dually to pick this Dodge up in North GA and the frame feels like its carved out of a solid block of steel compared to this Dodge mega cab. The Chevy was decent in this regard as well. I was thinking about this as I hadn't driven the Chevy in a couple of weeks and was taking it to the dealer tonight to drop it off for the end of its lease. The Chevy just felt more solid, no jiggles, and the interior is much tighter when you hit expansion joints and bumps.
The Dodge A/C system is a joke! I have never had a vehicle that the a/c system was this mediocre at dealing with heat. Even worse than my 04 Ford. Now I have to hunt shade to park the truck in or I might as well ride around with the windows down. This is south Georgia and we expect our cars and trucks to have a good A/C especially considering we've topped a 100 degrees every day this week. I was always chilly in the Chevy within a few minutes of driving.
Oh, and before the flaming starts about why I didn't buy another Chevrolet since I seem to like them. I didn't buy another because mine seemed to like the dealer's service department too much. Always small things, but they did add up to being an annoyance. I had 2 drivers lower leather seat covers replaced, an A/C control unit, Recirc door actuator, a pair of new batteries, an alternator, a fuel filter housing and the tailgate latch never wanted to latch without holding the handle out while closing (the dealer would lube it and it would work right for a few weeks). I just felt these were excessive troubles for a vehicle that now has 44K miles on it. And....I just wanted to try something different.
I had an 04 CC FX4 F150 before the chevy but it was black with black leather and that truck for sure was a Hot **** in south Georgia! The 04 Fords were notorius for not having enough cooling capacity for a crew cab. I know now that it really wasn't that bad compared to the Dodge! And I must say the Ford was dead reliable, never even went back to the dealer except I had them check the a/c and it was functioning as designed (meaning not very well).
My suggestion to you looking at Mega cabs is to drive one, and drive it on some different road sufaces and make sure that the ride quality is acceptable to you. If you drive a Chevrolet or a Ford on the same roads you'll see what I'm talking about. My dad lives in MI and can't wait to see how horrible those crappy roads there are going to affect my trip later this summer!
Oh, and if your in the south, think twice about that lame A/C!
My suggestion would be to strongly consider the Cummins TD. This is a whole lotta truck for a Hemi to drag around. Mine weighs 6800 lbs with me in it. It takes its toll on the hemi...it feels almost lathargic just driving unloaded. The duramax in the chevy had some power for towing, and the cummins I have driven felt even stronger! You'll appreciate the torque when towing up hills when the transmission holds the overdrive gear and doesn't stay busy shifting around trying to find enough RPM to maintain speed.
Also, be very aware that your fuel mileage will never, ever exceed 14 mpg on the highway and barely 10 mpg around town and even more likely single digits in stop and go traffic. I had convinced myself that the guys saying they were getting bad gas mileage were just driving them aggressively. Not true! You can baby this thing like your grandmother would drive it and in mixed driving I haven't gotten over 12.5 mpg. My 04 Ford towing my Saleen on a car trailer got the same mileage this Dodge gets unloaded. Figure that one out! We're talking about a combined truck,trailer and car weight of over 10,000 lbs.
I hate to flame a Dodge on a Dodge forum, but I think there are better truck choices out there than a hemi powered mega cab Dodge, and I think I'm making a pretty informed statement having OWNED other trucks and not really being brand loyal while doing it. I'll suffer through the next couple of years but I think I may find myself at a Ford dealer before too long looking at trading this thing. Anyone interested in a nice Mega Cab?
The ride is hidieous! I never knew that a chassis on a vehicle built in this century could be this jiggly. When you hit a small size bump in the road you don't just feel the initial hit, you get a series of shudders that feels like your riding on a frame made of spring steel! I realize that this is a long truck, but I drove a Ford SD crew cab F350's dually to pick this Dodge up in North GA and the frame feels like its carved out of a solid block of steel compared to this Dodge mega cab. The Chevy was decent in this regard as well. I was thinking about this as I hadn't driven the Chevy in a couple of weeks and was taking it to the dealer tonight to drop it off for the end of its lease. The Chevy just felt more solid, no jiggles, and the interior is much tighter when you hit expansion joints and bumps.
The Dodge A/C system is a joke! I have never had a vehicle that the a/c system was this mediocre at dealing with heat. Even worse than my 04 Ford. Now I have to hunt shade to park the truck in or I might as well ride around with the windows down. This is south Georgia and we expect our cars and trucks to have a good A/C especially considering we've topped a 100 degrees every day this week. I was always chilly in the Chevy within a few minutes of driving.
Oh, and before the flaming starts about why I didn't buy another Chevrolet since I seem to like them. I didn't buy another because mine seemed to like the dealer's service department too much. Always small things, but they did add up to being an annoyance. I had 2 drivers lower leather seat covers replaced, an A/C control unit, Recirc door actuator, a pair of new batteries, an alternator, a fuel filter housing and the tailgate latch never wanted to latch without holding the handle out while closing (the dealer would lube it and it would work right for a few weeks). I just felt these were excessive troubles for a vehicle that now has 44K miles on it. And....I just wanted to try something different.
I had an 04 CC FX4 F150 before the chevy but it was black with black leather and that truck for sure was a Hot **** in south Georgia! The 04 Fords were notorius for not having enough cooling capacity for a crew cab. I know now that it really wasn't that bad compared to the Dodge! And I must say the Ford was dead reliable, never even went back to the dealer except I had them check the a/c and it was functioning as designed (meaning not very well).
My suggestion to you looking at Mega cabs is to drive one, and drive it on some different road sufaces and make sure that the ride quality is acceptable to you. If you drive a Chevrolet or a Ford on the same roads you'll see what I'm talking about. My dad lives in MI and can't wait to see how horrible those crappy roads there are going to affect my trip later this summer!
Oh, and if your in the south, think twice about that lame A/C!
My suggestion would be to strongly consider the Cummins TD. This is a whole lotta truck for a Hemi to drag around. Mine weighs 6800 lbs with me in it. It takes its toll on the hemi...it feels almost lathargic just driving unloaded. The duramax in the chevy had some power for towing, and the cummins I have driven felt even stronger! You'll appreciate the torque when towing up hills when the transmission holds the overdrive gear and doesn't stay busy shifting around trying to find enough RPM to maintain speed.
Also, be very aware that your fuel mileage will never, ever exceed 14 mpg on the highway and barely 10 mpg around town and even more likely single digits in stop and go traffic. I had convinced myself that the guys saying they were getting bad gas mileage were just driving them aggressively. Not true! You can baby this thing like your grandmother would drive it and in mixed driving I haven't gotten over 12.5 mpg. My 04 Ford towing my Saleen on a car trailer got the same mileage this Dodge gets unloaded. Figure that one out! We're talking about a combined truck,trailer and car weight of over 10,000 lbs.
I hate to flame a Dodge on a Dodge forum, but I think there are better truck choices out there than a hemi powered mega cab Dodge, and I think I'm making a pretty informed statement having OWNED other trucks and not really being brand loyal while doing it. I'll suffer through the next couple of years but I think I may find myself at a Ford dealer before too long looking at trading this thing. Anyone interested in a nice Mega Cab?
Last edited by swgachuck; Jun 24, 2009 at 04:47 AM.
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I will definitely agree that it would be rare for you to see over 12.5 mpgs in the 1500 Mega Cab. I have not seen it yet on my 4X2 with 3.73s. Previous to this truck I had a 2007 Chevy Silverado NBS with the 4.8 V8, 3.23 gears, and I never seemed to get much better than 15 mpg mixed.
I don't seem to have the shuttering problem, but then again I am only at 6200 miles. I also don't have the AC problem and I am located in Southeastern Louisiana which reached over 100 yesterday with humiditly and the AC did take time to cool, but the same as all vehicles in the heat. I have read many places that the 2006 Mega Cab had a problem with adequate AC, however I believe it was corrected in the 2007 and newer models. My truck is a 2007 with a build date of 4/07. Maybe it was corrected by then. I could not ask for a better truck, but as with all do a thorough test drive and if purchasing used get an independent shop to look over it. Understand that it is a heavy truck and I would not recommend pulling more than about 7500 lbs with it. I believe with 3.73s the truck is only rated at about 8000 lbs.
I don't seem to have the shuttering problem, but then again I am only at 6200 miles. I also don't have the AC problem and I am located in Southeastern Louisiana which reached over 100 yesterday with humiditly and the AC did take time to cool, but the same as all vehicles in the heat. I have read many places that the 2006 Mega Cab had a problem with adequate AC, however I believe it was corrected in the 2007 and newer models. My truck is a 2007 with a build date of 4/07. Maybe it was corrected by then. I could not ask for a better truck, but as with all do a thorough test drive and if purchasing used get an independent shop to look over it. Understand that it is a heavy truck and I would not recommend pulling more than about 7500 lbs with it. I believe with 3.73s the truck is only rated at about 8000 lbs.
Last edited by shbiv; Jun 24, 2009 at 08:30 AM.
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I think the ride issue I'm experiencing could be the fact that mine is a 4x4 with a solid front axle. The 2WD's have an independent front suspension and they do tend to ride better. I may try updating the shocks with something adjustable to see if I can improve it any.
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The CAI and Muffler were installed prior to towing last summer and the programmer I bought after towing. At this point they have helped by increasing gas mileage by about 2MPG over stock when not towing. As for towing I would assume the same thing but had nothing to compare to last summer and this summer will have the programmer over last year. I will let you know how it changed with the programmer.
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Joined: May 2009
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Some good info on this thread, thanks.
My family also owns a 2007 Hemi Megacab so I'll share our experiences.
It is a pretty rough ride- but I haven't had any jiggles or loose feeling to it. The back end feels like it skips a bit sometimes. Airing down the tires some helps alot when not loaded. It rides on E tires plus solid axles so it does get rough. I've been told by other owners that are only towing light (7000 or less) without much bed load that they went to oversized D series tires and it really helped them comfort-wise.
The AC hasn't been an issue for us in Idaho. It's not Georgia hot, but it's 94 today.
It's been very reliable and it hasn't had issues towing 7% grades with a 25 foot trailer.
I've had better luck with mileage than some of you have had. I have no idea why- 68ish on the freeway (65 zone) unloaded and I typically am running right around 17. Our all around is 13ish. Towing I don't even look because I don't want to know lol. I don't tow often enough to justify the extra cost of the diesel (4 or 5 trips a year).
If you have a family that requires the room, its great.
My family also owns a 2007 Hemi Megacab so I'll share our experiences.
It is a pretty rough ride- but I haven't had any jiggles or loose feeling to it. The back end feels like it skips a bit sometimes. Airing down the tires some helps alot when not loaded. It rides on E tires plus solid axles so it does get rough. I've been told by other owners that are only towing light (7000 or less) without much bed load that they went to oversized D series tires and it really helped them comfort-wise.
The AC hasn't been an issue for us in Idaho. It's not Georgia hot, but it's 94 today.
It's been very reliable and it hasn't had issues towing 7% grades with a 25 foot trailer.
I've had better luck with mileage than some of you have had. I have no idea why- 68ish on the freeway (65 zone) unloaded and I typically am running right around 17. Our all around is 13ish. Towing I don't even look because I don't want to know lol. I don't tow often enough to justify the extra cost of the diesel (4 or 5 trips a year).
If you have a family that requires the room, its great.
Professional
Joined: May 2005
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From: Wyoming
Finally someone else that gets the same milage as me! I average 17-18 highway only and 10-13 in town. Mixed (mostly city) is still around the 13 point.
I just had the recirc door fail, they put in the new design ac box (mines '06) and besides fixing the no air issues, it's actually more air than before it broke, very good at cooling down the 95+ weather in the wyoming desert.
I also just put a set of airlift loadlifter 5000 airbags on the back. It's a night and day difference. It used to be bouncy as hell on anything not perfectly flat, now the rear is almost undetectable going over bumps. The front still sucks but it's a thousand percent better. Only $200 from Amazon and I've found 15psi to be the smoothest unladen ride. I'm trying to find bags for the front now but having no luck. I can also go to 2" in lift at the rear when I air them to 65psi!
I just had the recirc door fail, they put in the new design ac box (mines '06) and besides fixing the no air issues, it's actually more air than before it broke, very good at cooling down the 95+ weather in the wyoming desert.
I also just put a set of airlift loadlifter 5000 airbags on the back. It's a night and day difference. It used to be bouncy as hell on anything not perfectly flat, now the rear is almost undetectable going over bumps. The front still sucks but it's a thousand percent better. Only $200 from Amazon and I've found 15psi to be the smoothest unladen ride. I'm trying to find bags for the front now but having no luck. I can also go to 2" in lift at the rear when I air them to 65psi!