Opinions on Dodge Diesel's

[John Anderson]

Originally Posted by soutthpaw

thanks for the replies, I did suggest she get a manual tranny but sitting it LA traffic and towing can get rather tiring with a manual tranny. so looks like it will have to be an automatic...
did they change trannys at the 04.5' model year mark? it will be used almost exclusively for pulling horse trailers, getting hay etc too

The ones I work on and am around alot are pretty stout. My father has an 04.5 with an auto. It has about 210k on it and has the original stock transmission in it. He has a oil field construction business and the truck is used for plowing, towing, and lots of off road use. I have been really impressed by the truck so far.

[cleatus12r]

I owned a 2nd gen. Cummins. It was a 94 with a 5 speed. It was a pulling machine as long as you kept the RPM below about 1800. The early 24V trucks had a similar RPM threshold. The problem associated with the mechanical ones (as well as the first 24V ones up to '02) was that it was hard for a truck to have "multiple personalities" and be easily changeable from a tame commuter into a pulling monster. Besides, those trucks literally fell apart around the engine. The automatic transmissions were made of fine crystal, and the interior smelled like urine.

The advent of the common rail brought with it a much better Dodge truck (that actually came with bushings on each end of the track bar), better transmission strength, and a more versatile RPM range in which to run. They're quieter too....if you're into that sort of thing. Listening to an early 24V all day long gets really old. I don't have a problem with noisy diesels but those were over the top.

[Desert Racer]

My brother had a 2003 Dodge cummins with 170K miles. Of them 100K miles it was chipped witha smarty and predator ran like a rapped ape! I say anything after the 04.5 mark as stock they come with more power and torque. Also my pops has a '06 megacab and boy it is like a hotel for the night out camping! I say if she can swing a '06 or newer get the megacab she will not be disappointed. As for as the 6.7's go do the egr and dpf deletes mileage goes up! Wether doing or not and it is 6speed big plus IMO. Can't go wrong with a dodge as long as you treat them right, just like any other truck.

[cleatus12r]

The mega cab would be the cat's meow.......

If it came in a long box.

[Desert Racer]

Only crappy thing is that 5' bed, but man the interior sure makes up for it!

[soutthpaw]

she is actually looking for something a bit shorter so prob an extracab version... not sure how 2 feet makes a difference but hey I'm not driving it.

[cleatus12r]

If she's looking at a "quad cab", then she should be prepared for complaints from the back seat. UGH.