If you are going to drive it in snow,...get the off-road package with the 17" wheels. 20" wheels are not for off-rod and are very heavy.

 

i dont know about the current year models but i know that they used to have 3.55 gears in the 1500 cuz thats what my dad has in his 03.

 

hey man, i'm a 21 y/o college student as well. I have owned a 2002 Ram with the 4.7 and now i own a 2004 Ram with the Hemi...dont sell yourself short by getting the 4.7 The Hemi has vastly outperformed the 4.7 in both gas mileage and it the fun factor. also, make sure u get the 3.92 gears, the 3.55's i had in my 02 were decent, but got about 45K on the truck and ended up havin the whole rear diff replaced. Bearings, gears, everything. Granted theres alot of factors in why something fails, and yes i did the normal maintence. didnt go to through the Chrysler CAP program for 2 years for nothing lol. but yah, deffinitly get the hemi and u will be much happier.

 

hey man, i use to have a 96 ram exd. cab with the 5.9 and my hemi i have now is far faster then the 5.9 in my opinion. and yes i have the 20" on my truck and absolutly love it.

 

Well... I have a few things done to my truck... but nothing major... I am thinking it might just be the ride height and soft suspension that makes the truck feel slugish... my plan is to have someone drop me off at a dodge dealership in my truck and take a hemi for a little test run... The dealership here in town has a 1/2 mile test strip with a straight away and some turns to test their vehicles on...

 

I dont think having 20s will be that big of a deal... sure they are heavy, but this is not going to be a hardcore off road machine... at most it will need to go through 1.5 feet of snow. My little Libby has no problem with it.

I think what I am going to do is see if the dealers around here still have 06s, because I know they will be selling them for cheap just to get rid of them, and then I can get something better for the same price as what I am thinking of.