Looking for a diesel

[SuperRob]

Hey guys, Heres the deal.

I'm not necessarily getting rid of the Ranger...BUT I AM buying a diesel. Looking for a 3/4 ton.

I'm looking for a truck, so that eliminates the Chevy right off the hop, the front ends are weak and I've seen too many of them destroyed due to the oil patch roads out here.

I'm tossed up between the F250 and the Ram 2500.

Here's what I DONT want...

- Anyone who hasnt put significant miles on one of these rigs.
- Anyone who will preach Blue Oval because its what they do.
- Anyone who is not open to the idea of buying a Dodge at least for conversation sake.

Heres what I DO want...

- Qualified opinions. In a peaceful presentation. I'm looking to spend what is a significant (to me) amount of money on a truck and in the past I've been able to get a lot of GOOD help here, I'm looking for that again.




I don't do any heavy towing. I do a fair amount of highway miles, and a fair amount of logging road miles. I want a diesel due to reliability (especially in the cold), good economy, power and torque from the loins of the Earth, and the fact that I can fill it at work for free. My old Ranger is still a good truck, but its just getting too tired for what I put it through. Its good for at home in the city, but its really getting run through the ringer out here in the oil patch. I need something thats reliable and pretty comfortable to ride in.

I understand one thing very well. Its damn near impossible to look yourself in the mirror and say that the PSD is as good as the Cummins. Both are good engines, but I believe the Cummins to be better at the end of the day, however I also believe the Ford to be the better overall truck. I'm looking at 2000-2003 era due to my budget. Probably spending between 15000 and 25000 CDN.

Whats your take on the situation?
All good advice and opinions appreciated. Anyone else can bugger off.

Cheers!

 

[baddis]

if interested in a dodge pm johnnyu . he has a dodge that he has had for a while. as for me i had a 94 ram 3500. the only problem i had was the transfer case went bad. and it was due to abuse/ neglect of the previous owner. i miss that truck had the cummins and a 5 speed and got right at 23-25 mpg depending on how i drove it

 

[JohnnyU]

In that price range, I would look for a 2001 Dodge 2500. They went to rear disc brakes as well as increasing the power again (still only around 250-260 or so). They don't make enough power to shred transmissions, but they will easily pull whatever you need to, plus another 10,000 lbs.

I've put over 17,000 miles on my 2004.5 over the last year with nothing but good things to say about it. I love my truck and I love driving my truck. My fuel economy is not as good as the older trucks (I get somewhere around 16 in town and about 18 empty on the highway, 2002 and older can pull closer to 20+), but the power more than makes up for that That said, I did crank mine up enough to start causing problems with the stock transmission. When I was looking for a truck, I knew I wanted a diesel. I also wanted 1-ton axles, and heavy duty frame and an industrial diesel engine. Dodge had all three of those things, so I bit the bullet and bought one.

ANY diesel truck whether it tows or not should at least have a TransGo shift kit installed. It provides fluid circulation in park, as well as increased line pressure for better holding capacity.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably buy an '01-'02 for less money in the purchase price so I could spend a little more on "goodies" for it. Stock for stock, I'll put the Cummins engine up to the task with anything else. Four of my pretty close friends all have diesel tow rigs, all four of those are Dodge/Cummins.

 

[gotmudd]

i would put my money on the dodge , a friend of mine has one that i have drove many times and i'm impressed with the power and torque, not to mention the fact me and another friend had one pass us going up hill[ we were doing all of 90mph] and we couldn't touch him. i believe he was in a '99cummins turbo with duallys, not sure if it was standard or king cab, he passed us like we were diddling ourselves

 

[thegoat4]

I haven't owned either truck, but I have worked on both. In terms of reliability, Dodge has the better engine, Ford has the better everything else, especially transmission if you go stick shift. The Ford engines really don't have much of a reliability problem as long as you stay on top of maintenence. The ford parts seem to be a little cheaper on the common stuff, and a little higher on the major stuff.

 

[Will]

Best value in trucks

Just not sexy. Been daily driving mine for 4 years and towing with them for 5 years. That 2000 should be a 430ft# motor. Mines set to about that. I get 12psi of boost and some black smoke under full load--the factory ones blow off at about 7psi I think. It's a good strong motor. No problem pulling 10,000#. With my B2 and skidsteer on the trailer together it easily accelerates up to highway speeds. Parts are cheap. I could find another good engine for less than the cost of a single injector on a Powerstroke I think.

I get 18mpg in town. When I had the body style of that Ebay truck with a lockup converter and 3.42 gears I got 25mpg at 70mph on a trip to Detroit and back. My older style truck is an air smasher over 55mph. I get 20mpg at 60mph and 18mpg at 70. My best was 23mpg but that was at 55mph.

 

[reginald fairfield]

Have you considered an older ford, the ones with the 7.3 I think they are international motors, before they started calling them powersmokes? we had a 1990 with 100,000 and it never gave us any problems, it was 2wd and that was the best riding pickup I have ever had. I loved it. It always got atleast 18 mpg too. It was the xlt lariat. If I bought another one, I would look for about a 1995 f-250 xlt 4wd. That is my reccomendation. The motors aren't greatly ballsy, but they still tow pretty good. The new cummins aren't nearly as good as the older ones, my brother is a truck mechanic and they have alot more things go wrong with them. You'll find that the truly best motors are caterpillars, but they don't make them for pickups I don't think... Not yet at least...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Have you considered an older ford, the ones with the 7.3 I think they are international motors, before they started calling them powersmokes? we had a 1990 with 100,000 and it never gave us any problems, it was 2wd and that was the best riding pickup I have ever had. I loved it.

Every diesel put in a 3/4 to 1 ton truck is made by International from the 1980's 6.9 up to the current 6.4.

I would avoid a 7.3 truck with an automatic, but otherwise it would be my truck of choice with a manual. The 6.0 has several issues unless you get a late one (07's being the best) the 6.4 while it is a good engine is lacking in the milage dept until it gets good and broken in. When the 6.0's came out they came with the torqueshift automatic, which is significantly stronger than the one the 7.3's had.

I haven't driven one but that is what my brother (certified Ford Tech) has commented about from them coming into the shop. I pick his brains whenever I run into him about what interesting has come in lately and we are both truck fans.

My dream truck would be a Ford with a Cummins and an Allison transmission though.

 

[thegoat4]

You'll find that the truly best motors are caterpillars, but they don't make them for pickups I don't think... Not yet at least...

Oh, Cat might have been the best, but that went away with the newest generation of engines. In fact, they're probably going to be staring down the barrel of a class-action lawsuit soon. They kind of retroactively declared an expensive part that fails all the time a "service item" and therefore not covered by warranty. It's like if Ford osld you a brand new car and sent you a letter a few months later telling you that the catalytic converters need to be replaced every 20k and won't be warranty.

I can't speak for other makes, but as far as Peterbilts go, they were 20:1 cat vs. cummins in new trucks up until three months ago. One of our guys was at the factory in Denton two weeks back and there were no cat engines at all on the assembly floor. All of our new inventory has been Cummins for the last three months, and a couple of cat trucks we sold got returned under the lemon law recently. We swapped in cummins engines and returned them.

Also, for what it's worth, cat's small truck engines, the C7s, use a fuel injection system developed by Navistar and found in the PSD. Exactly the same actuator pump internals and injectors.

I'd take a Duramax over a cat nowadays.

 

[Roadkill]

You can have my 350 if you want it. I'll even remove the plow if you don't need it.

 

[JohnnyU]

Also, for what it's worth, cat's small truck engines, the C7s, use a fuel injection system developed by Navistar and found in the PSD. Exactly the same actuator pump internals and injectors.

You've got it backwards, HEUI was originally developed by Caterpillar.

 

[reginald fairfield]

Oh, Cat might have been the best, but that went away with the newest generation of engines. In fact, they're probably going to be staring down the barrel of a class-action lawsuit soon. They kind of retroactively declared an expensive part that fails all the time a "service item" and therefore not covered by warranty. It's like if Ford osld you a brand new car and sent you a letter a few months later telling you that the catalytic converters need to be replaced every 20k and won't be warranty.

I can't speak for other makes, but as far as Peterbilts go, they were 20:1 cat vs. cummins in new trucks up until three months ago. One of our guys was at the factory in Denton two weeks back and there were no cat engines at all on the assembly floor. All of our new inventory has been Cummins for the last three months, and a couple of cat trucks we sold got returned under the lemon law recently. We swapped in cummins engines and returned them.

Also, for what it's worth, cat's small truck engines, the C7s, use a fuel injection system developed by Navistar and found in the PSD. Exactly the same actuator pump internals and injectors.

I'd take a Duramax over a cat nowadays.

Yeah, they are a lot like the new cummins, but the ones that are the best are the 359(or 379?) can't remember which, but they seem to be the most reliable...

 

[Hahnsb2]

You've got it backwards, HEUI was originally developed by Caterpillar.

I personally think HEUI is a complicated clusterfuck of an injection system.

 

[mhuggler]

I personally think HEUI is a complicated clusterfuck of an injection system.

I wouldn't say complicated, just crappy. I just replaced a C7 injector about 5 minutes ago and it takes me all of about 15 minutes to do it including flashing the trim file.(the same laptop I use to diagnose engines has wireless internet) As far as the diesel selection is concerned, it's the Cummins hands down. I've had them ALL apart for rebuilds and repair and I've been a genuine diesel junky since I was a zygote. The Cummins is built to last and overall, cannot be beat. As far as the midrange class diesels go, I would put Cummins over Cat even. I do like the super dooper truck itself, but the power stroke is just a power joke to a diesel mechanic.

 

[pickup]

I haven't owned either truck, but I have worked on both. In terms of reliability, Dodge has the better engine, Ford has the better everything else, especially transmission if you go stick shift. The Ford engines really don't have much of a reliability problem as long as you stay on top of maintenence. The ford parts seem to be a little cheaper on the common stuff, and a little higher on the major stuff.

X2 I have owned 4 Dodges (1 with 680,000 miles! motor untouched except pump and inj) others with all over 250,000. Also 2001 F250 @ 165,000.
All have steering issues, and their share of electrical problems. Cummins seems to be the better engine (I havent seen 500,000 on a PS yet)
Also, aftermarket power adds are more avail. for the Dodge.
As for a Daily Driver...try them both and pick the one that tickles your thing. I dont think either is a bad choice, all boils down to personal pref.