wassup . I'm in the market for a new used truck. The one i like the best so far is a 2005 dodge quad cab 2500 with the cummins and auto trans. I'm probably gonna get rocks thrown at me, but I've been a chevy man all my 29 years, but i really like this Ram. Just curious on some real mopar fans thoughts on this truck. Any goods bads, and uglies would be greatly appreciated. By the way it has 38,000 miles on it and they are asking $22,000 for it.

 

Excellent truck. There arent any real major concerns. If your looking to up the power, then the transmission will need to be taken care of and upgraded. If you get a big programmer like a Smarty, and hit 40psi regularly, or if you go with an aftermarket turbo, the intercooler will need to be changed out. 05s have plastic end tanks and will blow apart with higher levels of boost...

Other than that, should be a trouble free truck. The 05s have the upgraded in tank lift pump (most do anyway) which shouldnt be a problem. Ive been at or over 500hp for over a year on my stock lift pump with no issues. I say get it, and enjoy the hell out of it. You wont regret it. Good luck...

 

thanks alot for the info. What kinda price range are we looking at for the tranny upgrade. Not that I'm gonna need more power, but you apperently know with 500hp , POWER is addicting. I havent bought the truck and am already looking at the programmers, the edge juice kinda caught my eye

 

2005 is one of the best years for a the CTD's. Least problems and best mileage of the common rail trucks.

Only problem on the '05's is that Dodge didn't have the OD off feature on the tranny, it's kind of annoying if you tow in town.

It does have the Tow / Haul mode, but you still can't lock out of OD, it jsut modifies the shift pattern.

Otherwise, at 38K........that thing is barely broken in.

The ONLY real thing you "might" want to upgrade on it, if you are leaving it mostly stock, is the torque converter and the valve body. You'll be much happier with the tranny performance with a good TC that actually operates in the engines power band and a VB that tightens up the shift points.

Unless you plan on racing it, doing sled pulls or going over 450hp, that's all you need to upgrade. No internals are necessary.

 

Yep, like said above, if your going to be mostly stock, all you need is a converter and valvebody. The converter runs ~$900-$1300, and a valvebody is ~$400...

If you think youll be bumping the power quit a bit, you might as well upgrade the internals at the same time. Build the trans for any future mods you think you might do down the road. Its cheaper to do it right once than it is to progressively upgrade down the line...

I went with the full billet knowing full well my plans. Im fixing to order a rather large turbo, dual pumps, and huge sticks here in a month or two...Ill be EASILY in the 7/800 range after I get the tuning done

 

I just wanna thank everyone for all the helpful info. I will hopefully be a proud new owner in a week. Ill update with future mods. And probably be asking for a whole lot more info.