RAM 3500 now 800lb.ft and 30,000lb GVWR!

[Dmace]

Personally, I have never seen anyone break a frame or suspension on a 3/4 or 1-ton truck and I had a 9ft Fisher plow and 1.5 cu. yd sander on a Ram 3500 for 6 years. The strength of these frames is far greater than they need to be so I will take ride quality over an extra 500lbs of axle strength any day!

 

[Dargo]

Now your trying to compare a 21hp diesel tractor to a couple of lawnmowers? PRICELESS! :laughing:
No wonder you Phord Phans think you have the greatest thing since slice bread. Comparing apples to oranges makes them look pretty good.

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Yup! 22hp and 28hp diesel powered mowers with Kubota power plants. Both have more power than your "tractor" has! :laughing: No wonder you fail to comprehend the positive aspects of the Dodge and Cummins combination such the undeniable longevity and no issues in 10 years with mine not caused by upping the power I pointed out. You apparently cannot comprehend that information and only act like a 12 year old with his Happy Meal tractor in a tent giving everyone advice when you apparently can't even spell F O R D.

 

[Ryan03]

Personally, I have never seen anyone break a frame or suspension on a 3/4 or 1-ton truck.

I have seen it a few times in the past 8 or so years. Two 3500HD Chevrolets with plows and dump bodies, the frames cracked right behind the rear most upper control arm brackets. The third was a 05 F250 4x4 that had led a real tough life, The frame was broken on the passenger side joint where the front frame section welds to the rear section near the fire wall.

I have seen more broken suspension components on 3/4, 1ton, 2-1/2, and 5 ton trucks than I could ever comepletely recall.

IMO, all three frame cases resulted from repeated misuse and abuse. Every truck mentioned belonged to a logging contractor that I occasionaly do some equipment maintenance work for, and were mostly operated by the same crew.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I have seen it a few times in the past 8 or so years. Two 3500HD Chevrolets with plows and dump bodies, the frames cracked right behind the rear most upper control arm brackets. The third was a 05 F250 4x4 that had led a real tough life, The frame was broken on the passenger side joint where the front frame section welds to the rear section near the fire wall.

I have seen more broken suspension components on 3/4, 1ton, 2-1/2, and 5 ton trucks than I could ever comepletely recall.

IMO, all three frame cases resulted from repeated misuse and abuse. Every truck mentioned belonged to a logging contractor that I occasionaly do some equipment maintenance work for, and were mostly operated by the same crew.

I have seen a few broken frames also. Seen more bent ones right behind the cab where the bed meets. I have also seen quite a few cab mounts broken clean off. Last was on a Dodge 3/4 ton. Guy called me and asked me if I could tow him out of a field. Got it out and on my trailer and thats when we realized what had happened was the cab mount broke, cab was now riding on the frame rail, and it had ripped out the fuel line.

Jacked up the frame, welded the mounts, made up a new fuel line, and it was good to go.

Chris

 

[RobertN]

The article was in Popular Hot Rodding or Hot Rod, but it was a few years back.

They built two engines, using same brand parts from the ground up. Same brand/model/profile of cam, carb, intake, header, piston ect.

The 360 made more HP and Tq. And, they admitted they were very surprised, building the 360 had come out cheaper. I thought it was interesting, because even I, as a Mopar fan, thought building the 360 would be more expensive. I always assumed building the 350 would be cheaper, because for better or worse, they are a dime a dozen. As part of the article, they tracked the bill for each motor.

They did not dress them up; that is where the 350(or any SBC) is cheap. There's tons of chrome and billet ect for SBC's.

I would have liked to see that buildup done with a 340... I think the power differences would have been much greater.

It was an interesting article. I had the mag, but it is long gone now. I think it was 5-7 years ago.

As to the building of the 350 and 360 blocks. Which engine did they start with and how much did they change? With the stock low hp versions, the 360 had a much better cam than the 350.

 

[Dargo]

The article was in Popular Hot Rodding or Hot Rod, but it was a few years back.

They built two engines, using same brand parts from the ground up. Same brand/model/profile of cam, carb, intake, header, piston ect.

The 360 made more HP and Tq. And, they admitted they were very surprised, building the 360 had come out cheaper. I thought it was interesting, because even I, as a Mopar fan, thought building the 360 would be more expensive. I always assumed building the 350 would be cheaper, because for better or worse, they are a dime a dozen. As part of the article, they tracked the bill for each motor.

They did not dress them up; that is where the 350(or any SBC) is cheap. There's tons of chrome and billet ect for SBC's.

I would have liked to see that buildup done with a 340... I think the power differences would have been much greater.

It was an interesting article. I had the mag, but it is long gone now. I think it was 5-7 years ago.

As you know, contrary to what one fella here thinks, I too am sort of partial to Dodges. One of the reasons I waited to specifically get the 5.9 in that Durango was because of my grandfather. He bought a new Dodge truck way back when they first had the 360ci engines in them and tried to take it back to the dealer after a week. He said he had already put almost a 1000 miles on the truck, figuring it would run faster when broken in, but the fastest it would run was just over 50 mph.

After some investigation by the dealer it was discovered that my grandfather also had purchased his very first "automatic" transmission vehicle. For a whole week, and almost 1000 miles, he held that thing to the floor with the shifter in low gear! He was a bit embarrassed, but said he'd go ahead and keep the truck after they showed him how it ran with it in drive.

He kept that truck for about 15 years and it never had a single engine problem. Worse yet, he freaking NEVER changed the oil in it either!!! He misunderstood something in the salesman's pitch when buying his very first brand new vehicle and thought he never had to change the oil. He only had to add 3 or 4 quarts to it in about 175k miles. Can you imagine?!

I figure if the 360 Dodge would survive that punishment, I wanted one. The mechanics/techs called them "no tech" engines while they called the 'soon to come' 4.7 liter engine that replaced them 'high tech' engines. I preferred the tried and true 'no tech'.

 

[RobertN]

Going from memory, but they rebuilt the motors. I meant rebuilt heads, ie valve job, not aftermarket. Like Joe Blow, rebuilding the motor in his Camaro, Chevelle, Challenger, or Roadrunner in his garage.

The point of the original article, was that you could build a smallblock Mopar, for less $$$ and have more power than a comparable smallblock Chevy. To the surprise of the magazine staff, who thought it would be the opposite.

You didn't mention heads, but if they used any aftermarket parts that were available to both engines, that might only leave the block and crank as stock items. To me, that would kind of kill the validity of the comparison. After all, there wasn't much Mopar or Chevy left in either engine.

 

[RobertN]

It was 5 or so years ago. I don't remember the article word for word. It was just interesting. As a Mopar fan I found it interesting.

The 340 was the more aggressive of the LA motors. The 360 is nothing but an outgrowth of the 273 an 318(modern, not the old poly motor).

See, now the story is changing. Building an engine and a rebuilt engine are two different things. Now I really have to question the cam situation. As I said, the stock cam in the 360 is much better than the 350, and as I recall, both valves are larger too. Along with the extra cubes, it's no wonder the 360 would have more hp and torque. The 360 was a more aggressive version of the LA engines. The 350 Chevy is nothing more than an outgrowth of the other small blocks. Its cam is the same as the 1957 283 engine. As to costs, that might simply be a case of who supplies the parts. I rest my case.

 

[Builder]

The article did say that price ($22,780 including destination) was for a short bed 2wd and right now 4wd is about a $4k option but a 4x4 short bed for under $25k would still be a bargain. I swear 2wd reg cab trucks are made in another world because they seem to be the toughest trucks to kill.

You would never need a truck like that, Dmace. Remember, most all the hard work & farming is done in the midwest. :laughing:

 

[Dmace]

You would never need a truck like that, Dmace. Remember, most all the hard work & farming is done in the midwest. :laughing:

True, contractors don't work hard. Although I can't say much, I'm just the engineer in the white hard hat walking around the site while 4 guys holding shovels watch one guy digging a hole with a backhoe.