Hi Gemini, My name is Pat nice to meet you. Now you know someone who has had bad luck with a Cummins powered Dodge. The Cummins works very well indeed, always has, both before and after I changed the injector pump and injectors and put the 4 inch exhaust on it and changed the intake manifold with exhaust gas recirculating ports for one without (breathes better.) Mine is a '97, the last of the original 12 valve engines before they went computer and 24 valves. My problems are with the Dodge part of the equation and one of the many aftermarket equipment suppliers, not the wonderful B-5.9 Cummins.
Actually, often but not always, I tend to go for more complex solutions and Egon is more of a minimalist for whom less is more (more better, that is.) He makes specious claims of poverty being the motivation for simplicity while those of us who know him better, in fact, know better. He is the Henry David Thoreau of things mechanical. If I needed to work out a simple and cost effective alternative to a "standard" engineering solution, Egon would be one of the early picks for staffing my team.
Now about my '97 Dodge... It is the first non-Ford truck I ever owned. I liked it immensely but it breaks. The Cummins twisted off the input shaft to the tranny. The passenger roll up window leaks air noisily above about 60-65 MPH, especially if you have the fan pushing air into the cab. The sliding back glass whistles with air leaks at any fan setting above the slowest. The radio volume control got less and less effective and basically quit. The original battery had a temp sensor so they could regulate charge by temp and volts not just volts for a faster better charge. It leaked acic which ate the vacuum line to the cruise control. I think acid went into the cruise thingy. Anyway they replaced the battery and painted the inner fender where there was acid damage but didn't neutralize the acid that got between the inner and outer fender layers and had to take it apart again and repaint. The turbo died the first year with les than 10k miles. the Truck always pulled to the left every once in a while, sometimes hardly noticeably and sometimes you made an unexpected lane change. The dealer had no clue and wouldn't try to fix it for fear of failure and my envoking the lemon law. I wouldn't be at all interested in losing that truck as I had serously and expensively customized it but that was tthere story. I shopped for a dealer not so timid and they replaced a left front.brake caliper. I coiuld go on and on andn on but youi get the idea.
The truck has lots of faults. The dealers have more. I really do like the truck but am getting gun shy about it breaking. Last week I bought a F-250 crew cab diesel so I can choose when and for what particular tasks to use the Dodge. Among other mods it has a nice Stahl Grand Challenger service body, extra 220AH batts and is set up to carry our large Lance brand camper.
The new 3/4 ton Ford will do almost as much work carying or pulling as the 1 ton Dodge. 11K vs 10K load. The Ford is seriously quieter and gets better mileage although I don't know how it will do towing. The Dodge is happy on regular diesel or ultra low sulfur. The Ford must have ultra low sulfur (less than 15PPM) or you can void the warranty.
Pat
