Test drove a Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Today

[Dmace]

I had a '96 Dodge with a 12v Cummins for 9 years prior to getting the '06 F350. I spent far, far more getting it to run really strong and it ate transmissions for breakfast trying to pull the same loads. It killed a Goerend transmission, Sun Coast tranny and 2 ATS trannies before I got rid of it. You want to talk about expensive! Still, with all the modifications, the best the truck would run in the 1/4 was just over 15 seconds and it weighed just over 7200 pounds.

With about a tenth of the modifications to the engine and with a completely stock transmission, I've towed the same with the '06 F350 all across the country. It also ran the 1/4 in 14.2 seconds when it weighed in at 8100 pounds! I really liked the Cummins and the really low RPM torque it had, but the 6.0 PSD in a much heavier truck is considerably faster and has cost me far, far less to keep going. I completely expect the 12v Cummins I had to still be running fine at 400, 500k miles. It will take several more transmissions to get it that far, but the engine will go that far. I know for a fact the Ford 6.0 PSD won't cost me any more money for at least another 120k miles. It's still under warranty until 200k miles. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not the type to ever drive a pickup or car over 200,000 miles. So, in my case, the 6.0 PSD is more powerful, gets better fuel economy (remember, the 5.9 Cummins had some serious mods) and will last me as long as I need it.

Are you seriously comparing a 2006 Ford diesel to a 10 YEAR OLDER truck? Wow, no kidding it has a better transmission and is faster with better gas mileage. I bet a 2006 RAM diesel would walk all over a 96 Ford Powerstroke as well as get better gas mileage and DESTROY it in any power competition. Take a 5.9l Cummins in a comparable 2006 RAM and it will be a much closer competition with the RAM most likely coming out ahead and without recalls, major repairs and warranty work.

 

[Egon]

Few weeks ago I was talking to a friend out west in Alberta. He works in the oil fields out in the producing well area. That is a place where a lot of P/U's are used by the operators and contractors. Anyway we started talking about trucks and it would seem that the Chev and Dodge have a lot of front end repairs. The Fords come limping in with transmission problems. The Dodges appear to be the most popular truck out there at the moment.

My paint shedding old 96 3/4 with the 12 valves keeps limping along on the first auto transmission. Most of it's life it's been pulling a 20 ft. low boy bumper hitch trailer while carrying a camper in the box. Its made a few trips across Canada with a gross weight of just under 25,000 pounds while getting 14 MPG. It don't go fast like the new ones and back in it's day it got passed all the time on the flats. Come hill time it always caught up and went to the front of the pack.

Haven't a clue what it would do in the 1/4 mile and really don't care!:laughing:

Unhook the trailer and take off the camper and its good for 22 to 26 MPG on the highway.:thumbsup:

 

[Dargo]

Are you seriously comparing a 2006 Ford diesel to a 10 YEAR OLDER truck? Wow, no kidding it has a better transmission and is faster with better gas mileage. I bet a 2006 RAM diesel would walk all over a 96 Ford Powerstroke as well as get better gas mileage and DESTROY it in any power competition. Take a 5.9l Cummins in a comparable 2006 RAM and it will be a much closer competition with the RAM most likely coming out ahead and without recalls, major repairs and warranty work.

Yeah, but my 10 year older truck was on some serious steroids. It wasn't even in the same ballpark as being stock, if you now what I mean. Like I said, I really liked the truck. I don't blame Dodge for the transmission issues. I created those. Still, as I stated earlier, at about 10 years (or so) and 200k, I upgrade to something newer. After being Dodge for that long (and GM before that), I thought I'd go Ford this go around. Besides, that ought to tell you how much I liked the Dodge. I had a '99 PSD Ford and never got it going the way I wanted. The engine never pulled like I wanted, I had to keep replacing some cam sensor, and it ate transmissions with a stock engine.

 

[Raspy]

Dargo,

If you rate the trucks quality, or value or performance by it's quarter mile times you definitely have no standing to complain about the transmissions. Blowing all those trannies does not demonstrate the inherent Dodge weakness. It demonstrates how strong the Cummins is to put up with incredible abuse when used as a toy and thrashed for all it's worth.

When you say Ford had trouble simply because the techs didn't know how to work on them it does not solve the problem that they were the biggest warrantee disaster in Fords history. Maybe they don't have qualified techs but that's not the whole story and, either way, the truck is still down while they try to sort it out. Ford sued Navistar to try to recoup some of the costs and Navistar claimed it was Fords problem for re-programming them incorrectly and trying to get too much power from that design.

Ford stopped paying Navistar for the engines and Navistar cut off production in retaliation. It became a lawsuit and a court order was issued to Navistar to keep producing the engines. The whole thing was such a disaster both financially and in terms of reputation, that Ford had to pull out all the stops and develop a new engine, in house, and get it into the truck ASAP.

The new Scorpion engine might be a winner, but only time will tell, and the customers are the ones that are doing the testing. Just as they did for the 6.0 and the 6.4.

When you drive by a Ford dealer and see cabs sitting around and you find out that a lot of work requires the removal of the cab and that the trucks are not very reliable and you see a new design every few years to fix the old design and you buy a truck engine that was manufactured under court order as a stop gap until another new design can be put into production, etc., etc., it begins to look like a bad risk to me.

I've been through my Ford phase and it took a new injection pump, two new heads, three water pumps and a new tranny to barely get to 100,000 miles. I have two friends with them. One is suing Ford for extended times in the shop and innability to fix the truck and the other is afraid to go anywhere because the tranny is always failing and the truck keeps going into limp mode.

But other than that, all is well. :laughing:

I know lot of people like them and some have had good luck with them. They used to make the best trucks on the road. But for my money, I want to try and avoid being a victim of their marketing strategy and that kind of "quality".

I knew when I got my Dodge that it had a possibly weak tranny and after 200,000 miles it is ready for a Goerand or some other one. I've only programmed my Cummins up 90 HP over stock and I can slip the tranny at will. But the point is the Cummins still runs better than new and probably will for the next 200,000 miles, it never needs oil at the 10,000 mile change interval and I get 20 MPG on my trips. No matter what goes wrong I will be able to reach in and fix it.

 

[magicheater]

Dargo,
If you rate the trucks quality, or value or performance by it's quarter mile times you definitely have no standing to complain about the transmissions. Blowing all those trannies does not demonstrate the inherent Dodge weakness. It demonstrates how strong the Cummins is to put up with incredible abuse when used as a toy and thrashed for all it's worth.
I read about all the problems before I bought mine and after I did, used w/15000 miles I put a 2qt larger pan on the tranny and change the fluid regularly. So far so good.
I knew when I got my Dodge that it had a possibly weak tranny and after 200,000 miles it is ready for a Goerand or some other one. I've only programmed my Cummins up 90 HP over stock and I can slip the tranny at will. But the point is the Cummins still runs better than new and probably will for the next 200,000 miles, it never needs oil at the 10,000 mile change interval and I get 20 MPG on my trips. No matter what goes wrong I will be able to reach in and fix it.

I have the H.O. 325 H.P. and run a Bully Dog Programmer but don't up the H.P., only run in the tow economy mode. I can already pull one brick house, why do I have to be able to pull two?!!! Only other thing I would suggest is put on a Raptor fuel pump made by pure flow. After going through 2 stock fuel pumps in 90,000 miles I should have done that the first time. Great product and a very easy do it yourself kit, everything fits!

 

[Dargo]

Dargo,

If you rate the trucks quality, or value or performance by it's quarter mile times you definitely have no standing to complain about the transmissions.

Clearly you haven't read my posts and have some misguided thought that I didn't like my Dodge. I wouldn't have kept it 9 years if I didn't. I simply liked the ride, drive, interior space and quality and pulling power of my current Ford. I don't know about you, but I rate a pickup for me personally and how it will suit my particular needs. Nothing personal, but I'm not going to spend a single dollar to buy a truck that suits your needs and not mine.

This go around it is Ford. I'm perfectly content with it and can still sell it for more than I paid for it over 2 years ago. Based on that fact, not everyone thinks Ford trucks suck. I've probably had more GM, namely Chevrolet, pickups than any other brand and it took several really, really bad trucks in a row to move me away from Chevy. Now that it's Government Motors and I was robbed of enough stock money to buy a brand new Government Motors loaded up 4X4 crew cab Dribblemax with leather and all, I'll likely never go back to GM again. But, that's an entirely different issue. First their quality went into the tank then they stole my money. I don't take that lightly.

When I've had this Ford my prescribed time, I'll almost definitely look at Dodge again and then make my decision between the Dodge and Ford. But, with the low miles and newness of my pickup, that won't come anytime soon. At least that way I won't be buying any first year or two of any drivetrain. Enjoy your Dodge. I think they are one heck of a truck.

 

[Raspy]

magic,

I guess the blue type in the middle of the quote is addressed to me.

I changed my lift pump at 68,000 miles to a Walbro pump and I carry a spare with me all the time. Stock pumps that were mounted on the filter canister were junk.

I have a Smarty that I program with. It replaced the Bully Dog I used at first. The main thing I orginally wanted was the ability to advance the timing and adjust the pinion factor. However, the extra power, and the way it comes on, are really nice. Now, the Cummins just feels more alive and responsive. I actually gets better mileage with the Smarty than it did stock because of the timing. And my choice of a Smarty was also because it only uses duration and not pressure. I hate the idea of any more rail pressure.

All this is just for my driving pleasure. I have no intention of racing, sled pulling, dyno runs or doing brake torque smoking burnouts. I tow and run through the mountains regularly.

This is my second CTD. the first was a '93 with an automatic. The Dodge 48RE tranny in my '04 is just barely able to hold stock power. I determined that a 30 HP increase was all it took to overpower the torque converter lockup clutch. When I opened it up and had a look it was clear that Dodge did not build these trannies up to where they could hold the Cummins, they built them as weak as they could get away with and still hold stock power. Stock and that's all. This is evidenced by the weak lockup clutch, the weak input shaft and clutch assemby and the thin intermediate band, to name a few things. After '04 they also added a roller thrust bearing to make the tranny work well with the exhaust brake.

If the power is increased you can still get by but you must tow at higher RPM under heavy load when locked. Somewhere in the 2200-2500 range to take the low speed torque off the TC clutch. Also, when passing in OD lockup the stock clutch is very weak, so I have to roll into it and get the revs up. I replaced the TC with an improved one, changed the valve body, installed a heavy duty intermediate band and put on a Hytec pan but did not go to the triple disc lockup clutch. I also installed a mystery switch to lock the converter any time I want. This is a nice little trick for the mountains.

Bottom line is, I'm at 200,000 miles and planning on getting a new built tranny one of these days. My first choice, if I can get the right controller, would be an Aisin 6 speed automatic from a Dodge Chassis Cab. Dream on.

 

[Willl]

Magic, maybe I missed it, what year Dodge ?

 

[magicheater]

Magic, maybe I missed it, what year Dodge ?

04.5 Willl.

 

[mjncad]

mjn,

I'm expecting to see the tilt cab, or tilt front end from the windshield forward, as the next big innovation in pickup design. Someone will debut it and the rest will have to follow. Except maybe Dodge with it's in-line Cummins and excellent service accessibility.

The biggest deterrent to a tilt hood will probably be controlling hood vibration so customers don't gripe, especially if its made of fiberglass or other plastic material. How many times have you passed a plastic hood Pete, KW, Mack, Freightliner, Volvo, etc and seeing the hoods vibrating and shaking? I know I've seen plenty do that. Just the nature of the material.

The other downside of a tilt hood is the extra space needed to open it inside a garage; but I still would like to have a tilt hood and a 10' long bed.