A different truck is in the near future

[bullseye]

Yesterday the Dodge 1500 we have had its last payment. While I would like to have a few months with no truck payment, in the next few months I am going to look for a replacement.

I am leaning towards a Dodge 2500 or 3500 Cummins diesel. I would probably double my gas mileage with the camper on and hauling the boat from the 1500 gas I presently have.

Now would probably be a good time to buy one as there are a lot of people that don't need the towing power getting rid of them.

Even with the higher diesel prices the math says I would save money with a diesel.

[bullseye]

Well after the last payment I was without a truck payment.....for about a week. The transmission on the 1500 gave me grief with a torque converter going out. I now have a truck payment again. We picked up the new truck on Friday. 2008 Dodge Ram 2500, 4WD, with a Cummins Turbo 6.7 diesel engine.

[jimiowa]

The Dodge powered by Cummings seems to be a good truck.
I have two friends and my sister and Brother-in-law are all using them to pull 5th wheel trailers to Arizona every year.
Have yet to hear of any of them having a problem with them.

;D Only thing I hate is their retired and I'm not!

[jimiowa]

I drove a VW Rabbit diesel for many years and loved it.
I'll offer a couple tips you probably already know.
Being in the north one has to be careful of fuel jelling in cold weather.
When I worked in the truck stop I learned that the tankers fuel is blended based on the temp on any given day.
So I always bought my fuel from the busiest truck stop in the area, to assure they did not have fuel sitting in the tanks drawing moisture for long. I always added Power Serv to my tank. Never had a tank jell and the only time I had an injector plug was in the summer when I had not added Power Serv.
Put the power serv in and it cleared up in about 10 miles.

[bullseye]

Jim, thanks for the tip. I love the truck so far. The power is just amazing. Unlike the gas engine in the old truck that used RPMs for power, this one just has the additional torque and doesn't develop the power from RPMs. There is a hill close to home that we frequently drive. With the old truck, in tow/haul mode, cruise set at 60 MPH the RPMs would be about 2600. About 1/4 way up the hill the transmission would down shift and get to 3000-3200 RPMs and stay until near the top of the hill before it shifted up. Same hill with the diesel was very different. 60 MPH, cruise engaged going up the hill started around 1500 RPMs. I expected it to downshift as the old truck did.....it didn't. I heard the turbo kick and the engine sound deepened but to my surprise the RPMS DROPPED to 1400 the rest of the way up the hill. That is some kind of power. With a new engine I am already getting close to 50% better fuel mileage than with the old truck. Taking into account current gas and diesel prices I am saving money even with our diesel prices 60 cents more per gallon than gas. With the old truck it was 32.7 cents per mile. With the diesel this is presently 24 cents per mile.

On the down side, kind of, it costs me more to fill up the 34 gallon tank on this truck than it did the 25 gallon tank on the old one.

[jimiowa]

Glad to hear that your pleased with your truck.
Got a letter from my sister yesterday, they pulled a 34 ft 5th wheel to Arizona and won't be back to spring.
The Dodge just plays with it!
Jo & Sharon (friends) also go to the same and their Dodge pulls their trailer with ease as well. Joe is a retired Electrician from Maytag and works part time for the forestry service out there.

[jmarriott]

You might look into a computer tuner/programer for that new truck.

my cousin has one for his dura-max and He can change that program from dragstrip like results to the finest towing package to a fuel-saver mode in seconds.

[klsm54]

Nov 7, 2008 20:11:05 GMT -5 jmarriott said:

You might look into a computer tuner/programer for that new truck.

my cousin has one for his dura-max and He can change that program from dragstrip like results to the finest towing package to a fuel-saver mode in seconds.

I saw them put one of those in a diesel pickup, I think it was a Ford, on Horsepower TV, maybe a year ago. They were impressed. It did what it claimed, horsepower gains and the MPG increases. They figured it would pay for itself in short order.

I'm not sure of the brand....Superchips maybe...

At the price of diesel fuel, I'd jump at one if I was driving a diesel pick-up.

[jimiowa]

My Brother had a Chevy(Jerry is a diehard Chevy man) Deisel and he put a chip in it. It did make a remarkable difference. He had also opened the exhaust to 3" tubes if I remember correctly. But since he basically used it as a car(never pulled a trailer or heavy loads) he took out the chip.
He has since traded it off and has a Colorado instead.
Though He is also looking for another Jeep Rubicon, since he says it was the most fun vehicle he has owned.

[bounce]

I keep hearing, never buy a used Dodge unless you want allso to buy a new transmision. That is allways the universal wisdom on Dodges around hear. A long with just, stay away from that one it's a Dodge!!

[klsm54]

Nov 10, 2008 9:58:39 GMT -5 bounce said:

I keep hearing, never buy a used Dodge unless you want allso to buy a new transmision. That is allways the universal wisdom on Dodges around hear. A long with just, stay away from that one it's a Dodge!!

We had a Dodge Hummin' Cummins at work, with an automatic, and it had tranny troubles from pretty early on. Conventional wisdom, at that time, was that the TorqueFlite tranny couldn't take the high torque of the Cummins.

GM made a smart move when they went to the Allison automatic in their diesel pickups. Don't know if Dodge has replaced their TorqueFlites with something beefier or not.

We had an older Dodge with a Cummins and a 4 speed manual tranny. As I recall we put a clutch in it at 80-90,000 miles, no shame as it plowed a lot of snow, but the stick transmission held up well.