About a year ago, my beloved 2003 Ram 2500 had a fire in the dash board. After settling with the insurance, I went looking for another truck. After a few weeks, a dealer that was helping me convinced me that since I was replacing my Dodge because I was forced to, not wanted to, that I should look at a different make of truck. At the time I thought his advise made sense so I looked at Chevy's. I eventually settled on an 04 Chevy Avalanche 2500.

Here I am, almost a year later, and I am looking to trade the Avalanche in for another 03 2500 Ram.

There are 2 trucks that I am looking at, and both are 03 2500's quad cab/shortbed Hemi's. Both also have Fisher Minute Mount plows.

Is there anything that I should be looking for as far as wear? Both trucks are at seperate dealerships so I cannot expect to get an accurate answer about how long the plows have been on the trucks as opposed to buying from the previous owner. Are there any known mechanical issues that surface from carrying a plow on the front end? Or from having the plow infront of the cooling system? Also, do these trucks need added weight in the bed or is 4x4 enough to keep them moving in the snow? (Ive never added weight to a regular cab truck and never had a problem)

Ive owned Chevy's and Fords with plows before, so I am not concerned with what to look for on the plow but the only Dodge I ever plowed with is an '11 2500 Hemi with a 9'2 Boss V-plow. (I dont recremend the Boss V-plow)

Thanks for any help.

 

Besides the front end suspension components I would be concerned about the maintanance for the diffs, transfer case and transmission. If they have not serviced the vehicles maybe they will allow a sample of the fluids in the diffs and transfer case. Since some 2500s can develop the death wobble, a drive on bumpy roads might find it.

 

My 06 ram 2500 never under went extream use or hard abuse and I never could keep mopar front u joints and rear u joints intact while under warenty.

Invest in servicable u joints as the dodge stuff is 100% garbage, upper and lower ball joints should be replaced with servicable units as well and keep the drag link greased Left side under wheel hub, mine poped off in my drive way, no steering control!!!

Ford and Gm HD trucks also use non servicable parts, so In spite, I have to replace mopar parts with quality after market parts, and not look back!!

Thiers 130,000 km on my 06 2500 hemi, after warenty was up, I pretty much rebuilt the entire drive train and steering and suspension componets.