I have a 99' F250 7.3 that has 125,000 miles and had 0 problems. I am looking at a mega cab and Cummings to pull a 7K 5th wheel. Everyone says that I will love the Cummings and hate the truck. Is the auto tranny that bad? Is the mileage that bad? Is the length of the bed a problem with a 5th wheel? I know the 6.0 Ford is a problem also. This is going to be a close call.

IW

 

First things first....
Its Cummins, not Cummings.

But anyway...The new (since mid '03) 48RE Trans has been fantastic.
I have a lot of customers that pull gooseneck horse trailers with the shortbed, and it works well for them.
Fuel mileage on the MegaCabs have been rough. There is a lot of weight there. But not sure how great the mileage is on an F250 CrewCab either.

 

Go for the Cummins it's much better then the Ford 6.0[>:] or the Chevy [:'(]Dura Maxi pad. I feel the Cummins is the best diesel on the road today and that is why I own one. As for MPG it's all in how you drive it.

 

I dont know what theyre talking about, youll love the truck. The interior quality is great, and there is so much room. One negative thing I have to say about the auto tranny is that its a 4 speed, when it could use 6.

 

If you have been a long term Ford guy, going to to a Dodge will have some minor teathing issues, The base XLT has features that the base SLT dose not have and the SLT has features the XLT dosent have. Ford in 08 will be building a 6.4 Navstar engine and has a ugly new redesign, ( sorry don't have links ) The 6.0 dosent have a great rep, But my dad's 06 F-350 quad cab dully really hauls with the 6.0

I'm of the opion after a lot of year of owning Fords ( F-150 ) is that thier quality has gone to the turds, The cummons is a stright six, where as Ford is a V/8, in the long run a stright six is going to be more dependable.

I konw nothing of D. engines, But depending on what you want to tow, Short box trucks just suck, period, the mega cab dosent have a 8 ft box, which would be ok for bumper towing, but for a 5th whl and 1500,00 + of trailer, the 8 ft box is worth it.

If your 7.3 is doing fine, load up the mileage, your hardly broke in, if you want to go brand new, it's best to drive all the brands, I have all good words for my dodge 2500 ( 5.7 ) and Ford could not give me a truck and pay me to drive it..

 

The 03 and up 2500 are nice trucks and with simple bolt on's can get gobs of power. A Cummis diesel hold the speed record for a truck. Honestly though, I prefer the Power Strokes. I came within an inch of getting a 1999 Power Stroke crew cab long bed about a week ago but they would not come above 13500 for my truck which nixed the deal. The Dodge Diesels did not compare when it came to ride quality when I was shopping but it depends on the trim of the truck you look at. The engine in a 7.3 will not produce as much power as the Cummins but the truck itself is better made IMO. I guess you can't have both. I had a 97 F250HD extended cab 4WD and loved the truck although this particular truck would beat the living snot out of me unless I kept about 1000lbs of sackcrete in the back. With a Backhoe on a triple tandem trailer hooked up with a pintle hook, it was the sweetest riding truck and towed fantastically. Bad thing is it got 12 mpg empty. Good thing is it got 11-12 mpg loaded. It was a fuel hog. With that being said, my buddies 03 Dodge 2500 with a Quadzilla programmer will smoke the tires all day long and still pull a 16' trailer at 80 mph effortsly. I just think it's not a comfortable.

I'm reading on RV forums that people are liking the 6.0 in the Ford for towing but this is also the same forum that said the 4.7 in the Dodge was more than enough power to pull a 26' camper too so I take their advice lightly.