So how good is the truck?
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Joined: Feb 2006
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So how good is the truck?
OK, I know that the Cummins is a great engine, but what about the rest of the truck? I am looking at an '01 Quad Cab 6spd. 4x4 that has 154k on the clock. I know the engine will last, but what about the rest of the truck. You know, the transmission, transfer case, axles, wheel bearings, brakes, electrical and interior. I will be keeping this truck for a looooooooooong time and I need to know how well the rest of the truck will hold up. I don't do any towing and very little hauling, nothing a mini truck can't handle. I will be using it for commuting and for moderate off roading with the kids on weekends. As this will be my only vehicle, it needs to last. Can I trust the rest of the truck to treat me right? What problems should I be looking for?
Thanks in advance!
Bri.
Thanks in advance!
Bri.
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
RE: So how good is the truck?
i have an 02 quadcab 6speed tranny 4x4 with 185k on it and i havent had any major problems with it. normal filter and oil changes. when you go out off roading and get in the mud make sure that you wash the under carriage out really well. this will help prevent rust. i you know how to clean and maintain a truck it will last a looooooooooong time. ill be honest the only problem i have had is i had to replace the lift pump at 150k i believe. good luck with your truck. its like a woman, treat it right and it will treat you right
Professional
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 117
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From: 33.43.342, 84.21.602
RE: So how good is the truck?
Shane has it right, the only thing to be worried about would be the lift pump since you have a VP44 injector pump.
aside from that keep the fluids and filters clean and you'll see a million miles
aside from that keep the fluids and filters clean and you'll see a million miles
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 41
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From: Western Pennsylvania area
RE: So how good is the truck?
It might be short, but here's my history on my trucks....
I used to be a Chevy fan. The last two Chevy trucks I had were nothing but junk. Always major issues, one after the other (one was a Silverado and the other was an S-10, both bought brand new).
So, along comes the then new Ram truck with it's "big rig" styling. I'm salivating uncontrollably. Somewhere along the way, in a fit of uncontrollable urge I bought a used '95 Ram, regular cab shortbed with a ... GACK! V-6 in it (big mistake there..no full size truck should ever suffer a V-6 engine). I drove it for a year and ran the dog snot out of it. Not one problem, other than having no power. So I remedied that...I went to the local junk yard and found a wrecked '96 RAM that had a 5.9L (360) in it. I bought the motor with everything attached. Took it home and pulled the V-6 and dropped the honkin V-8 in it. It bolted right up to my little 5-speed manual tranny (I did have to buy a flywheel though). The exhaust bolted right up, everyhting fit perfectly fine (only mods I had to make was to trim the fan cowl a few inches and change out the throttle cable linkage on the throttle body). The wiring harness on the V-8 was for an automatic, so I had to do some shorting of wires to get the computer to think it was in drive, but that wasn't too hard. Had to cut off two wires for the tail harness as mine was 8 wires and the plug from the V-8 was 10 wires.
That joker ran like a scalded rabbit and I bet it was the only 1/2 ton Ram in Texas with a 5.9L and a manual tranny! LOL! I put about 150K on it with nothing more than oil changes and I think I changed the plugs once. I got better gas mileage too! Never had to fix or replace anyhting on the rest of the truck. One thing that surprised me were the disk brakes. On nearly every other vehicle I've had with disks, the rotors always warp over time. That never happened on the Ram, the brakes were as smooth and powerful at the end as they were when I bought it. Nothing ever broke on the thing, I couldn't kill it. Happy, happy, happy. I'm gonna get another Ram!!!
I traded the old beast for a 2002 QC 1500 with the 20" mag wheels and the somewhat anemic 4.7L V-8. All in all, a great truck. Very impressive ride quality, like a car almost. The only complaint was the 4.7L V-8. Certainly better than a V-6, but not up to par with the old 5.9L. Other than that, never had a single problem with the truck. Crappy gas mileage though, got about 12-13 MPG on a good day. I pulled a few trailers with it and it did quite well with that.
I traded the 2002 in on a 2004 QC 2500 4x4 Diesel and that's the truck I have now. I've had it for about a year and a half, almost 2 years now I guess. Love it, love it, love it! Not a single problem, goes like hell (especially for a truck that's nearly 7,000 pounds empty) and gets good mileage at the same time....and not to mention the power of that great Cummins diesel.
Needless to say, I'm a big time Dodge fan now and for the very long foreseeable future. I test drove a Ford F-250 Super duty when I was looking around, and it was OK, but gawd, Ford is aweful proud of those trucks, they want way too much for them (locally, a comparable F-250 super duty was running around $43K...after you haggled with them. I got my Dodge for $35K) . I didn't think it drove or rode as nice as the Ram either.
We also got rid of the wife's Lumina and got her a Pacifica all-wheel drive. Another great car/van/SUV (whatever the hell they call that thing). Fantastic road trip vehicle and all around town hauler.
I used to be a Chevy fan. The last two Chevy trucks I had were nothing but junk. Always major issues, one after the other (one was a Silverado and the other was an S-10, both bought brand new).
So, along comes the then new Ram truck with it's "big rig" styling. I'm salivating uncontrollably. Somewhere along the way, in a fit of uncontrollable urge I bought a used '95 Ram, regular cab shortbed with a ... GACK! V-6 in it (big mistake there..no full size truck should ever suffer a V-6 engine). I drove it for a year and ran the dog snot out of it. Not one problem, other than having no power. So I remedied that...I went to the local junk yard and found a wrecked '96 RAM that had a 5.9L (360) in it. I bought the motor with everything attached. Took it home and pulled the V-6 and dropped the honkin V-8 in it. It bolted right up to my little 5-speed manual tranny (I did have to buy a flywheel though). The exhaust bolted right up, everyhting fit perfectly fine (only mods I had to make was to trim the fan cowl a few inches and change out the throttle cable linkage on the throttle body). The wiring harness on the V-8 was for an automatic, so I had to do some shorting of wires to get the computer to think it was in drive, but that wasn't too hard. Had to cut off two wires for the tail harness as mine was 8 wires and the plug from the V-8 was 10 wires.
That joker ran like a scalded rabbit and I bet it was the only 1/2 ton Ram in Texas with a 5.9L and a manual tranny! LOL! I put about 150K on it with nothing more than oil changes and I think I changed the plugs once. I got better gas mileage too! Never had to fix or replace anyhting on the rest of the truck. One thing that surprised me were the disk brakes. On nearly every other vehicle I've had with disks, the rotors always warp over time. That never happened on the Ram, the brakes were as smooth and powerful at the end as they were when I bought it. Nothing ever broke on the thing, I couldn't kill it. Happy, happy, happy. I'm gonna get another Ram!!!
I traded the old beast for a 2002 QC 1500 with the 20" mag wheels and the somewhat anemic 4.7L V-8. All in all, a great truck. Very impressive ride quality, like a car almost. The only complaint was the 4.7L V-8. Certainly better than a V-6, but not up to par with the old 5.9L. Other than that, never had a single problem with the truck. Crappy gas mileage though, got about 12-13 MPG on a good day. I pulled a few trailers with it and it did quite well with that.
I traded the 2002 in on a 2004 QC 2500 4x4 Diesel and that's the truck I have now. I've had it for about a year and a half, almost 2 years now I guess. Love it, love it, love it! Not a single problem, goes like hell (especially for a truck that's nearly 7,000 pounds empty) and gets good mileage at the same time....and not to mention the power of that great Cummins diesel.
Needless to say, I'm a big time Dodge fan now and for the very long foreseeable future. I test drove a Ford F-250 Super duty when I was looking around, and it was OK, but gawd, Ford is aweful proud of those trucks, they want way too much for them (locally, a comparable F-250 super duty was running around $43K...after you haggled with them. I got my Dodge for $35K) . I didn't think it drove or rode as nice as the Ram either.
We also got rid of the wife's Lumina and got her a Pacifica all-wheel drive. Another great car/van/SUV (whatever the hell they call that thing). Fantastic road trip vehicle and all around town hauler.
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 21
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From:
RE: So how good is the truck?
ORIGINAL: 4XRam
It might be short, but here's my history on my trucks....
I used to be a Chevy fan. The last two Chevy trucks I had were nothing but junk. Always major issues, one after the other (one was a Silverado and the other was an S-10, both bought brand new).
So, along comes the then new Ram truck with it's "big rig" styling. I'm salivating uncontrollably. Somewhere along the way, in a fit of uncontrollable urge I bought a used '95 Ram, regular cab shortbed with a ... GACK! V-6 in it (big mistake there..no full size truck should ever suffer a V-6 engine). I drove it for a year and ran the dog snot out of it. Not one problem, other than having no power. So I remedied that...I went to the local junk yard and found a wrecked '96 RAM that had a 5.9L (360) in it. I bought the motor with everything attached. Took it home and pulled the V-6 and dropped the honkin V-8 in it. It bolted right up to my little 5-speed manual tranny (I did have to buy a flywheel though). The exhaust bolted right up, everyhting fit perfectly fine (only mods I had to make was to trim the fan cowl a few inches and change out the throttle cable linkage on the throttle body). The wiring harness on the V-8 was for an automatic, so I had to do some shorting of wires to get the computer to think it was in drive, but that wasn't too hard. Had to cut off two wires for the tail harness as mine was 8 wires and the plug from the V-8 was 10 wires.
That joker ran like a scalded rabbit and I bet it was the only 1/2 ton Ram in Texas with a 5.9L and a manual tranny! LOL! I put about 150K on it with nothing more than oil changes and I think I changed the plugs once. I got better gas mileage too! Never had to fix or replace anyhting on the rest of the truck. One thing that surprised me were the disk brakes. On nearly every other vehicle I've had with disks, the rotors always warp over time. That never happened on the Ram, the brakes were as smooth and powerful at the end as they were when I bought it. Nothing ever broke on the thing, I couldn't kill it. Happy, happy, happy. I'm gonna get another Ram!!!
I traded the old beast for a 2002 QC 1500 with the 20" mag wheels and the somewhat anemic 4.7L V-8. All in all, a great truck. Very impressive ride quality, like a car almost. The only complaint was the 4.7L V-8. Certainly better than a V-6, but not up to par with the old 5.9L. Other than that, never had a single problem with the truck. Crappy gas mileage though, got about 12-13 MPG on a good day. I pulled a few trailers with it and it did quite well with that.
I traded the 2002 in on a 2004 QC 2500 4x4 Diesel and that's the truck I have now. I've had it for about a year and a half, almost 2 years now I guess. Love it, love it, love it! Not a single problem, goes like hell (especially for a truck that's nearly 7,000 pounds empty) and gets good mileage at the same time....and not to mention the power of that great Cummins diesel.
Needless to say, I'm a big time Dodge fan now and for the very long foreseeable future. I test drove a Ford F-250 Super duty when I was looking around, and it was OK, but gawd, Ford is aweful proud of those trucks, they want way too much for them (locally, a comparable F-250 super duty was running around $43K...after you haggled with them. I got my Dodge for $35K) . I didn't think it drove or rode as nice as the Ram either.
We also got rid of the wife's Lumina and got her a Pacifica all-wheel drive. Another great car/van/SUV (whatever the hell they call that thing). Fantastic road trip vehicle and all around town hauler.
It might be short, but here's my history on my trucks....
I used to be a Chevy fan. The last two Chevy trucks I had were nothing but junk. Always major issues, one after the other (one was a Silverado and the other was an S-10, both bought brand new).
So, along comes the then new Ram truck with it's "big rig" styling. I'm salivating uncontrollably. Somewhere along the way, in a fit of uncontrollable urge I bought a used '95 Ram, regular cab shortbed with a ... GACK! V-6 in it (big mistake there..no full size truck should ever suffer a V-6 engine). I drove it for a year and ran the dog snot out of it. Not one problem, other than having no power. So I remedied that...I went to the local junk yard and found a wrecked '96 RAM that had a 5.9L (360) in it. I bought the motor with everything attached. Took it home and pulled the V-6 and dropped the honkin V-8 in it. It bolted right up to my little 5-speed manual tranny (I did have to buy a flywheel though). The exhaust bolted right up, everyhting fit perfectly fine (only mods I had to make was to trim the fan cowl a few inches and change out the throttle cable linkage on the throttle body). The wiring harness on the V-8 was for an automatic, so I had to do some shorting of wires to get the computer to think it was in drive, but that wasn't too hard. Had to cut off two wires for the tail harness as mine was 8 wires and the plug from the V-8 was 10 wires.
That joker ran like a scalded rabbit and I bet it was the only 1/2 ton Ram in Texas with a 5.9L and a manual tranny! LOL! I put about 150K on it with nothing more than oil changes and I think I changed the plugs once. I got better gas mileage too! Never had to fix or replace anyhting on the rest of the truck. One thing that surprised me were the disk brakes. On nearly every other vehicle I've had with disks, the rotors always warp over time. That never happened on the Ram, the brakes were as smooth and powerful at the end as they were when I bought it. Nothing ever broke on the thing, I couldn't kill it. Happy, happy, happy. I'm gonna get another Ram!!!
I traded the old beast for a 2002 QC 1500 with the 20" mag wheels and the somewhat anemic 4.7L V-8. All in all, a great truck. Very impressive ride quality, like a car almost. The only complaint was the 4.7L V-8. Certainly better than a V-6, but not up to par with the old 5.9L. Other than that, never had a single problem with the truck. Crappy gas mileage though, got about 12-13 MPG on a good day. I pulled a few trailers with it and it did quite well with that.
I traded the 2002 in on a 2004 QC 2500 4x4 Diesel and that's the truck I have now. I've had it for about a year and a half, almost 2 years now I guess. Love it, love it, love it! Not a single problem, goes like hell (especially for a truck that's nearly 7,000 pounds empty) and gets good mileage at the same time....and not to mention the power of that great Cummins diesel.
Needless to say, I'm a big time Dodge fan now and for the very long foreseeable future. I test drove a Ford F-250 Super duty when I was looking around, and it was OK, but gawd, Ford is aweful proud of those trucks, they want way too much for them (locally, a comparable F-250 super duty was running around $43K...after you haggled with them. I got my Dodge for $35K) . I didn't think it drove or rode as nice as the Ram either.
We also got rid of the wife's Lumina and got her a Pacifica all-wheel drive. Another great car/van/SUV (whatever the hell they call that thing). Fantastic road trip vehicle and all around town hauler.