Free: Contests & Raffles.
Quote from: jackelope on January 05, 2026, 04:56:29 PMQuote from: EnglishSetter on January 05, 2026, 12:41:45 PMQuote from: Born2late on January 05, 2026, 06:39:02 AMI love my 2nd gen dodges. Yes you have to work on them but it’s that way with any truck . I buy them for the Cummins motors, they are cheap and easy to work on and dependable. My family has 6 soon to be 7 when I swap my 96 megacab to a 12valve with a 5 speed.i can rebuild a complete motor with a new head for the cost of injectors for some of the new trucks. I can do all the work myself and not have to depend on a dealer or shop .parts are readily available for the body. Yes there are problem areas that need to be upgraded or changed but once done they will last a long time. I have a 96 with1,200,000 miles I have a 98-1/2 with 550,000 miles. The 98 is a flatbed that is setup to haul firewood .i build custom tools if there is something I run into that needs fixing that doesnt have a good tool for it. We just did the pinion seal on the Dana 80 on my dads 97 , the design of the seal is such that you can’t drive it in without a custom tool so we made one and it works perfectly. Labeled and in the toolbox for if we have to do it again. I actually enjoy working on them . My buddy has a 96 I work on and he has a ford with a 7.3, he said he will never own another ford after the problems he had with that truck which where mostly caused by a combination of poor design and mechanics messing things up.i think it comes down to personal preference and some trucks drive and nothing goes wrong and some peoples trucks break down sitting in the driveway with hardly any miles.I have an '01.5 3500 dually 6 spd. It's a good truck. Had to have a head gasket done since I'm running about 35# of boost. At least you don't have to life the body to do any engine work (cough Ford). WTF thought that was acceptable?It's only got like 130k on it as it's for my camper. It rides like a truck....because it is one. But with 9k on the rear axle it's not harsh. I have Supersprings on top of the factory overloads.Common thing .... there's only a couple years and a couple jobs you have to lift the cab off to work on Ford trucks. Beyond that, a lot of techs lift them because it makes it easier to work on. We're lifting cabs off of F150's now for the same reason. It's a much smaller issue than people make it out to be.For a shop maybe. For any shade tree forget it.Then there's typing up that lift.
Quote from: EnglishSetter on January 05, 2026, 12:41:45 PMQuote from: Born2late on January 05, 2026, 06:39:02 AMI love my 2nd gen dodges. Yes you have to work on them but it’s that way with any truck . I buy them for the Cummins motors, they are cheap and easy to work on and dependable. My family has 6 soon to be 7 when I swap my 96 megacab to a 12valve with a 5 speed.i can rebuild a complete motor with a new head for the cost of injectors for some of the new trucks. I can do all the work myself and not have to depend on a dealer or shop .parts are readily available for the body. Yes there are problem areas that need to be upgraded or changed but once done they will last a long time. I have a 96 with1,200,000 miles I have a 98-1/2 with 550,000 miles. The 98 is a flatbed that is setup to haul firewood .i build custom tools if there is something I run into that needs fixing that doesnt have a good tool for it. We just did the pinion seal on the Dana 80 on my dads 97 , the design of the seal is such that you can’t drive it in without a custom tool so we made one and it works perfectly. Labeled and in the toolbox for if we have to do it again. I actually enjoy working on them . My buddy has a 96 I work on and he has a ford with a 7.3, he said he will never own another ford after the problems he had with that truck which where mostly caused by a combination of poor design and mechanics messing things up.i think it comes down to personal preference and some trucks drive and nothing goes wrong and some peoples trucks break down sitting in the driveway with hardly any miles.I have an '01.5 3500 dually 6 spd. It's a good truck. Had to have a head gasket done since I'm running about 35# of boost. At least you don't have to life the body to do any engine work (cough Ford). WTF thought that was acceptable?It's only got like 130k on it as it's for my camper. It rides like a truck....because it is one. But with 9k on the rear axle it's not harsh. I have Supersprings on top of the factory overloads.Common thing .... there's only a couple years and a couple jobs you have to lift the cab off to work on Ford trucks. Beyond that, a lot of techs lift them because it makes it easier to work on. We're lifting cabs off of F150's now for the same reason. It's a much smaller issue than people make it out to be.
Quote from: Born2late on January 05, 2026, 06:39:02 AMI love my 2nd gen dodges. Yes you have to work on them but it’s that way with any truck . I buy them for the Cummins motors, they are cheap and easy to work on and dependable. My family has 6 soon to be 7 when I swap my 96 megacab to a 12valve with a 5 speed.i can rebuild a complete motor with a new head for the cost of injectors for some of the new trucks. I can do all the work myself and not have to depend on a dealer or shop .parts are readily available for the body. Yes there are problem areas that need to be upgraded or changed but once done they will last a long time. I have a 96 with1,200,000 miles I have a 98-1/2 with 550,000 miles. The 98 is a flatbed that is setup to haul firewood .i build custom tools if there is something I run into that needs fixing that doesnt have a good tool for it. We just did the pinion seal on the Dana 80 on my dads 97 , the design of the seal is such that you can’t drive it in without a custom tool so we made one and it works perfectly. Labeled and in the toolbox for if we have to do it again. I actually enjoy working on them . My buddy has a 96 I work on and he has a ford with a 7.3, he said he will never own another ford after the problems he had with that truck which where mostly caused by a combination of poor design and mechanics messing things up.i think it comes down to personal preference and some trucks drive and nothing goes wrong and some peoples trucks break down sitting in the driveway with hardly any miles.I have an '01.5 3500 dually 6 spd. It's a good truck. Had to have a head gasket done since I'm running about 35# of boost. At least you don't have to life the body to do any engine work (cough Ford). WTF thought that was acceptable?It's only got like 130k on it as it's for my camper. It rides like a truck....because it is one. But with 9k on the rear axle it's not harsh. I have Supersprings on top of the factory overloads.
I love my 2nd gen dodges. Yes you have to work on them but it’s that way with any truck . I buy them for the Cummins motors, they are cheap and easy to work on and dependable. My family has 6 soon to be 7 when I swap my 96 megacab to a 12valve with a 5 speed.i can rebuild a complete motor with a new head for the cost of injectors for some of the new trucks. I can do all the work myself and not have to depend on a dealer or shop .parts are readily available for the body. Yes there are problem areas that need to be upgraded or changed but once done they will last a long time. I have a 96 with1,200,000 miles I have a 98-1/2 with 550,000 miles. The 98 is a flatbed that is setup to haul firewood .i build custom tools if there is something I run into that needs fixing that doesnt have a good tool for it. We just did the pinion seal on the Dana 80 on my dads 97 , the design of the seal is such that you can’t drive it in without a custom tool so we made one and it works perfectly. Labeled and in the toolbox for if we have to do it again. I actually enjoy working on them . My buddy has a 96 I work on and he has a ford with a 7.3, he said he will never own another ford after the problems he had with that truck which where mostly caused by a combination of poor design and mechanics messing things up.i think it comes down to personal preference and some trucks drive and nothing goes wrong and some peoples trucks break down sitting in the driveway with hardly any miles.
Ram would be the last truck I'd ever buy, most guys I know that have them, love'em but they are always having issues. My cousin spent over 90k on a new one with everything they could put on it, that was about 2 years ago. Has had nothing but issues with that stupid def system, left him in limp mode elk hunting in arizona the first year he had it. It seems like most brands now days have issues with that def crap, I'm a GMC guy and it's hard to beat the ride and those diesel trucks, but even they have some issues, either the cp4 injectors or the new 10 speed tranny, just can't win. They really need to remake the 2006 gmc dura max, no def, best truck made IMHO.
I bought a new ram because I didn't have powerstroke money....I had an 06 5.9 manual before my new ram. My 3rd Gen was reliable as heck, but that darn front end was gonna bankrupt me, and did all my own work. Maybe that was the problem!
My buddy, long a Cummins fan ('91, '01 & '06) just bought a new P-stroke with EVERYTHING. Seems to love the truck so far, but we'll see what he says down the road.
