Bought a New Ram - No Thinking Required

for me ... it's the last line in the MasterCard (TM) commercial

"I love my truck!" - Priceless!
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
Other thing is depreciation. Diesels hold their value a lot longer.
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that's my math. up here, a new 1 ton diesel will retail for 65, be negotiable to low 50's and a 4 year old one, with 70K on it, will sell for 45K. so $10k to drive a car four years newer with 70K less on the clock? seems like "new" wins in this one
 
MIFlyer said:
that's my math. up here, a new 1 ton diesel will retail for 65, be negotiable to low 50's and a 4 year old one, with 70K on it, will sell for 45K. so $10k to drive a car four years newer with 70K less on the clock? seems like "new" wins in this one
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The other thing there is the fact that you know how it's taken care of from day 1. Finding a used truck that hasn't had the crap beat out of it is really, really hard.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
The other thing there is the fact that you know how it's taken care of from day 1. Finding a used truck that hasn't had the crap beat out of it is really, really hard.
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I didn’t beat the crap out of mine, but I did blow it up. I fixed it though. :)
 
denverpilot said:
I didn’t beat the crap out of mine, but I did blow it up. I fixed it though. :)
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In your case the previous owner had set it up to fail, though. As I recall you did a lot of work to fix his stupidity. And, well, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. When you buy used, you tend to get something that's been improperly upgraded or maintained at some point and otherwise beat on.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
In your case the previous owner had set it up to fail, though. As I recall you did a lot of work to fix his stupidity. And, well, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. When you buy used, you tend to get something that's been improperly upgraded or maintained at some point and otherwise beat on.
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I know him pretty well and he didn’t know. Downside of using the wrong mechanic mostly. But yeah, mods have to be done from stock by people who know what they’re doing. Usually because they’ve done it wrong enough times that they spent a lot of money learning how not to do it.

The Internet helps the modding world immensely. One can learn from someone else’s $12,000 mistake. LOL. But it’s easy to miss the stories and make the mistakes again.

I’m not sure if mine would have been fixed right without the reference from @gkainz to a crazy C-130 driver who’s made all of the mistakes that can be made on a Cummins but also does it to his own truck and not customer’s trucks! I still haven’t gotten a ride in his triple-turbo monster. But he says I can’t do it to mine, I need a different case. I have the cracking one that should have been a class action suit against Cummins.

So he studded mine and limited the boost and said “that’s enough for what you’re doing” and he was right. :) Then I limited the boost even further by setting the alarm 5 lbs below his limit which is loud and annoying and makes me get my foot out of it. Hahaha.
 
denverpilot said:
I know him pretty well and he didn’t know. Downside of using the wrong mechanic mostly. But yeah, mods have to be done from stock by people who know what they’re doing. Usually because they’ve done it wrong enough times that they spent a lot of money learning how not to do it.

The Internet helps the modding world immensely. One can learn from someone else’s $12,000 mistake. LOL. But it’s easy to miss the stories and make the mistakes again.

I’m not sure if mine would have been fixed right without the reference from @gkainz to a crazy C-130 driver who’s made all of the mistakes that can be made on a Cummins but also does it to his own truck and not customer’s trucks! I still haven’t gotten a ride in his triple-turbo monster. But he says I can’t do it to mine, I need a different case. I have the cracking one that should have been a class action suit against Cummins.

So he studded mine and limited the boost and said “that’s enough for what you’re doing” and he was right. :) Then I limited the boost even further by setting the alarm 5 lbs below his limit which is loud and annoying and makes me get my foot out of it. Hahaha.
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Like I said, improperly modded. :)

The internet does help quite a bit. The only modification I expect to do once the warranty is up on the Ram is to remove the emissions equipment as it breaks. This will require a tune of some sort, but it'll be easy enough to find out what a good tune is with the internet.
 
Ford Raptor for sale.Lightly used, never wrecked.

"Her shaft is bent and her rear end leaks, you can fix her quick with an oily rag. Use a nail as a starter; I lost the key. Don't pay no mind to that whirrin' sound. She use a little oil, but outside a' that, she's cherry."

 
Ended up deciding to go with the front mount hitch, and I'm glad I did. Was able to find a bolt-in unit for about $130 shipped from Amazon vs. the ~$1k I would've spent on a Ranch Hand front bumper. The most I looked at the Ranch Hand bumpers, the more I didn't think the styling of them went well with the styling on my Ram. Some of it I think is the fact that it's a sport package (all blacked out) but also the Ranch Hand bumpers haven't changed design much in the past 20 years and they go better with older body style trucks.

The front mount hitch was easy to install. Unbolt the factory tow hooks on the front, bolt the hitch and hooks back in. Looks right and no complaints.

I passed 10k on the truck last week. No issues with it thus far. In fact the truck has been so maintenance free that it almost seems annoying that it's time for me to go do my oil and filter change on it. There's still 30% left on the oil life meter, but it's been 6 months which is the time limit on the oil change. It seems that with the programming of the truck it's the most responsive in the 40-50F range. Above that it gets hot, and below that I think the computer is programmed to prevent torque from coming in too quickly.

Things I can't do due to warranty aside (specifically changing programming or emissions equipment), the only thing I want changed on the truck is for it to default to having the exhaust brake on "auto" mode when the truck is started instead of defaulting to "off". I'm sure the computer has the capability to do that, I'm just not sure if I can convince the dealership to do it. The more I drive it, the more I like it. Even when I get in the E55, which is a nice car and I do like it, I generally find myself happy to get back in the Ram afterwards. Part of that is the lack of a manual transmission in the E55 (time to get a Viper maybe) but the Ram is every bit as comfortable as the E55 and nice to drive, albeit slower.

I was talking with @jesse the other day and pointed out that a year ago, we both had our old trucks - he had his late 90s Silverado and I had my 2003 F-350. We both had convinced ourselves we were happy with them, even though they also both had their issues and didn't do what we needed them to do well. Jesse bought my boat and I told him the Silverado would have a braking distance with the boat attached of approximately Montana (that's assuming he's going uphill) and a comfortable highway speed of 0 MPH. The F-350 needed a lot of major work and just wasn't a trustworhy vehicle. In the end, we both bought new trucks and neither of us regret the decision.
 
Changed oil on mine yesterday. It’s getting dangerously close to 150,000 miles for a 2001.

Wouldn’t want people to think I work it too hard. :) :) :)
 
denverpilot said:
Changed oil on mine yesterday. It’s getting dangerously close to 150,000 miles for a 2001.

Wouldn’t want people to think I work it too hard. :) :) :)
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At 150k on a 2001, I think you've got one of the lowest usage rates of a diesel Ram out there.

I generally figure 15-20k miles per year will end up being about average on mine.
 
Zeldman said:
"Her shaft is bent and her rear end leaks, you can fix her quick with an oily rag. Use a nail as a starter; I lost the key. Don't pay no mind to that whirrin' sound. She use a little oil, but outside a' that, she's cherry."
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Not everyday you get to see a quote from a Bill Fries / Chip Davis (aka C.W. McCall song.)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
At 150k on a 2001, I think you've got one of the lowest usage rates of a diesel Ram out there.

I generally figure 15-20k miles per year will end up being about average on mine.
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It’s actually 142. :)

I’ve been driving it a little to get my stick shift “fix”. LOL. I try not to light up the rear tires since I’m burning up four of them.

I’m normally a Valvoline guy since that’s what Cummins wants but I gave up yesterday and switched to Rotella T4 in it.

Valvoline Blue or Extreme Blue or any of their Blue lineup is getting strangely hard to find around here and I didn’t feel like buying three gallons on the Internet.

And Rotella is everywhere. Can’t walk into any auto place without tripping over the stuff. The place I went yesterday has it in 5 gallon buckets. Ha.
 
denverpilot said:
It’s actually 142. :)

I’ve been driving it a little to get my stick shift “fix”. LOL. I try not to light up the rear tires since I’m burning up four of them.

I’m normally a Valvoline guy since that’s what Cummins wants but I gave up yesterday and switched to Rotella T4 in it.

Valvoline Blue or Extreme Blue or any of their Blue lineup is getting strangely hard to find around here and I didn’t feel like buying three gallons on the Internet.

And Rotella is everywhere. Can’t walk into any auto place without tripping over the stuff. The place I went yesterday has it in 5 gallon buckets. Ha.
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I don't think the engine much cares whether it's Valvoline or Rotella.
 
My '07 is now at 111k - pretty much only used for towing the RV...
 
Went to the dealer for my first oil change and fuel filter change... after complaining about the high cost, it still ended up costing... $450. To be fair, they took $100 off what their normal price was. But... I can do it myself for about $150 using full synthetic (which they used) and the genuine MOPAR/Cummins filters.

Only reason I went is because it's under warranty and, well, if something goes wrong that just makes it easier to say "It's on you, not me." But at that price, I'll have to debate whether to bother or not.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Went to the dealer for my first oil change and fuel filter change... after complaining about the high cost, it still ended up costing... $450. To be fair, they took $100 off what their normal price was. But... I can do it myself for about $150 using full synthetic (which they used) and the genuine MOPAR/Cummins filters.

Only reason I went is because it's under warranty and, well, if something goes wrong that just makes it easier to say "It's on you, not me." But at that price, I'll have to debate whether to bother or not.
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Ah. Warranty protection money. (In a gravelly, breathy voice) "Nice warranty you got there. Be a shame if anything ... happened to it."
 
jsstevens said:
Ah. Warranty protection money. (In a gravelly, breathy voice) "Nice warranty you got there. Be a shame if anything ... happened to it."
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Yeah, exactly. My mom had an Infiniti G35 she bought back in... I guess it was 2003. In 2005 she was driving back to NYC from Virginia, and somewhere around Delaware the oil light came on. Drove it the remaining 200 miles home and the thing made all kinds of noises. Infiniti refused to do anything because they said I'd changed the oil filter wrong (I didn't) so it was my fault.

Miraculously, I put new oil in the thing and it actually ran fine, just some lifter ticking. Sold it, I should've kept it for myself.

But now that I'm 6 months into my 5 year/100k mile warranty on the Ram, it gives something to think about. Reality is it's a Cummins and has about a 0.0000001% chance of a problem during the warranty period. It's just expensive if it does happen.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Yeah, exactly. My mom had an Infiniti G35 she bought back in... I guess it was 2003. In 2005 she was driving back to NYC from Virginia, and somewhere around Delaware the oil light came on. Drove it the remaining 200 miles home and the thing made all kinds of noises. Infiniti refused to do anything because they said I'd changed the oil filter wrong (I didn't) so it was my fault.

Miraculously, I put new oil in the thing and it actually ran fine, just some lifter ticking. Sold it, I should've kept it for myself.

But now that I'm 6 months into my 5 year/100k mile warranty on the Ram, it gives something to think about. Reality is it's a Cummins and has about a 0.0000001% chance of a problem during the warranty period. It's just expensive if it does happen.
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It’s not the Cummins that would worry me: it’s the truck they built around it. Lots of potentially expensive electronics in new vehicles.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
But now that I'm 6 months into my 5 year/100k mile warranty on the Ram, it gives something to think about. Reality is it's a Cummins and has about a 0.0000001% chance of a problem during the warranty period. It's just expensive if it does happen.
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About a month ago, the Cummins in our fire department tanker truck ('tender' for you westerners) lunched a turbo and 3 pistons. At 12,000 miles :eek:.
 
jsstevens said:
It’s not the Cummins that would worry me: it’s the truck they built around it. Lots of potentially expensive electronics in new vehicles.
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The bumper to bumper warranty is a standard 3 year/36,000 mile. The powertrain is 5 year/100k.

I wouldn't be worried about them trying to void warranty on the computers because of me doing my own oil/filter changes. But if the engine itself grenades (or if an injector goes bad - that is more likely) then I'd expect them to blame me if I did it.

It doesn't help that I didn't buy the truck from this dealer.
 
weilke said:
About a month ago, the Cummins in our fire department tanker truck ('tender' for you westerners) lunched a turbo and 3 pistons. At 12,000 miles :eek:.
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That's definitely an anomaly, but also the other reason why I'm hesitant to do anything that might compromise the warranty.
 
denverpilot said:
It’s actually 142. :)

I’ve been driving it a little to get my stick shift “fix”. LOL. I try not to light up the rear tires since I’m burning up four of them.

I’m normally a Valvoline guy since that’s what Cummins wants but I gave up yesterday and switched to Rotella T4 in it.

Valvoline Blue or Extreme Blue or any of their Blue lineup is getting strangely hard to find around here and I didn’t feel like buying three gallons on the Internet.

And Rotella is everywhere. Can’t walk into any auto place without tripping over the stuff. The place I went yesterday has it in 5 gallon buckets. Ha.
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How's the price of the RoSmella compare to Costco's Delo?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Yeah, exactly. My mom had an Infiniti G35 she bought back in... I guess it was 2003. In 2005 she was driving back to NYC from Virginia, and somewhere around Delaware the oil light came on. Drove it the remaining 200 miles home and the thing made all kinds of noises. Infiniti refused to do anything because they said I'd changed the oil filter wrong (I didn't) so it was my fault.

Miraculously, I put new oil in the thing and it actually ran fine, just some lifter ticking. Sold it, I should've kept it for myself.

But now that I'm 6 months into my 5 year/100k mile warranty on the Ram, it gives something to think about. Reality is it's a Cummins and has about a 0.0000001% chance of a problem during the warranty period. It's just expensive if it does happen.
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sounds like there are about 3 things that go wrong, and none of them should result from a "you didn't use the right oil"
1. water pump
2. grid heater bolts
3. suspension wear parts (make sure you are doing the proper chassis lube, which they allege to do at the oil change)

neither of those receive engine lubrication. if you DIY, I would just ensure that you document it, and record that you used oil XYZ that meets spec ABC.

for $300/oil change in savings, I'd DIY. the pair of fuel filters is $87 on amazon, then get a stratopore oil filter and some oil and zinga binga, you're there.

i think they fill the DEF too, so figure in the $7 you're saving there too :)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
YMy mom had an Infiniti G35 she bought back in... I guess it was 2003. In 2005 she was driving back to NYC from Virginia, and somewhere around Delaware the oil light came on.
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I had a 2006 G35x and in conversations with the service manager, he told me "just change the oil as recommended. These engines are really sensitive to bad or old oil".

That was a nice car. Wish I still had it!

-Skip
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Went to the dealer for my first oil change and fuel filter change... after complaining about the high cost, it still ended up costing... $450.
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:hairraise::hairraise::hairraise:

And I used to change oil in the big, nasty 18 wheelers for 3 bucks an hour......outside in the gravel lot.....:frown:
 
BIL’s 2016 Ram 2500 had a few very expensive failures in the first 10-15K miles. I believe one had to do with the DEF injection system, which ruined the DPF. It was covered under warranty, but he was still pretty ****ed off about it.

He’s also mad that they can’t reprogram his TPMS sensors to a lower psi than the factory minimum. He got aftermarket wheels/tires and they max at 65psi or so (instead of 80psi), which shows low pressure warnings.

Sharp looking truck otherwise.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
SoonerAviator said:
BIL’s 2016 Ram 2500 had a few very expensive failures in the first 10-15K miles. I believe one had to do with the DEF injection system, which ruined the DPF. It was covered under warranty, but he was still pretty ****ed off about it.

He’s also mad that they can’t reprogram his TPMS sensors to a lower psi than the factory minimum. He got aftermarket wheels/tires and they max at 65psi or so (instead of 80psi), which shows low pressure warnings.

Sharp looking truck otherwise.
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The DEF/DPF is one area that I'm concerned with on the truck. So far (knock on wood) I've just put DEF in it and it's worked fine. Theoretically Dodge could try to complain that I didn't put MOPAR approved DEF in the tank, but seeing as I'm buying it at truck stops with all the other Cummins-powered trucks, I think that'd be a hard argument for them to make.

I'll decide in another 6 months, but I think I'm just going to do the next round myself and save the receipts, which the dealer said was all I technically needed to do. It ends up taking me less time to do it myself and it theoretically shouldn't harm the warranty.
 
SoonerAviator said:
BIL’s 2016 Ram 2500 had a few very expensive failures in the first 10-15K miles. I believe one had to do with the DEF injection system, which ruined the DPF. It was covered under warranty, but he was still pretty ****ed off about it.
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Does he do a lot of short trips? I live in a small town so everything is close. Several folks around here have had problems with the DPF. The local dealer that I go to church with does not recommend buying a diesel right now because of that problem.

I have rancher friends in Texas that haven't had a problem with their newer diesel. They drive considerable distances when they use their trucks, GM, Ford and Dodge. When on the ranch they change to the multi passenger 4 wheelers unless they are moving a trailer.

Short distance driving in a diesel is considered extreme heavy duty since the coolant, oil and everything else doesn't get a chance to warm up.
 
Zeldman said:
Does he do a lot of short trips? I live in a small town so everything is close. Several folks around here have had problems with the DPF. The local dealer that I go to church with does not recommend buying a diesel right now because of that problem.

I have rancher friends in Texas that haven't had a problem with their newer diesel. They drive considerable distances when they use their trucks, GM, Ford and Dodge. When on the ranch they change to the multi passenger 4 wheelers unless they are moving a trailer.

Short distance driving in a diesel is considered extreme heavy duty since the coolant, oil and everything else doesn't get a chance to warm up.
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That's all true, and part of why I was comfortable buying the Ram. My commute is 20 miles one way and generally I drive 50-100 miles a day. Airport is 40 miles each way. So everything gets warmed up.

The DPF requires highway driving and will get angry if you don't do enough of it.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's all true, and part of why I was comfortable buying the Ram. My commute is 20 miles one way and generally I drive 50-100 miles a day. Airport is 40 miles each way. So everything gets warmed up.

The DPF requires highway driving and will get angry if you don't do enough of it.
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I assume just doing a tractor pull series each weekend will keep everything burned out
 
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MIFlyer said:
I assume just doing a tractor pull series each weekend will keep everything burned out
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Best thing you can do for these trucks is hook up 10,000 lbs now and then and tow it halfway across the country.
 
Zeldman said:
Does he do a lot of short trips? I live in a small town so everything is close. Several folks around here have had problems with the DPF. The local dealer that I go to church with does not recommend buying a diesel right now because of that problem.

I have rancher friends in Texas that haven't had a problem with their newer diesel. They drive considerable distances when they use their trucks, GM, Ford and Dodge. When on the ranch they change to the multi passenger 4 wheelers unless they are moving a trailer.

Short distance driving in a diesel is considered extreme heavy duty since the coolant, oil and everything else doesn't get a chance to warm up.
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Hard to say how it spends most of its time, but he only lives 5 miles from his business. I'm sure it does a fair amount of short runs between taking my nieces to practice and running to/from work. I'd bet his average trip is under 20 miles each way. I think his particular issue was a failure of one of the modules which caused a subsequent issue. However, I have no doubt that he is driving a vehicle that he has no real need for. He rarely tows anything with it, much less fills the bed with enough weight for it to be utilized. My FIL owns the business and bought the truck under the business name, so it's what the BIL drives. I think a gasser would have been a better fit for his uses.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Best thing you can do for these trucks is hook up 10,000 lbs now and then and tow it halfway across the country.
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I suspect most folks don't ever even get into the boost on their ecoboost and will someday pay for that. With my V6 3.5L you really won't boost ever in normal driving unless you get into the pedal a bit on an on-ramp or something.

While towing my camper - it's always boosting - about 6 psi of boost to hold 65 mph on the flats.

I had the first problem with my '17 F150 3.5 Ecoboost. Took it in for an oil change and the dealer told me that the oil pan is leaking. The leak isn't bad enough that I have seen or smelled any oil. It's a plastic tank and the F150 forums indicate they had a bad run of them last year. A new one will be installed.

They found the issue, scheduled a time to fix it, and will give me a loaner truck during that period all without me lifting a finger or paying a dime. I can't complain really.
 
jesse said:
I suspect most folks don't ever even get into the boost on their ecoboost and will someday pay for that. With my V6 3.5L you really won't boost ever in normal driving unless you get into the pedal a bit on an on-ramp or something.

While towing my camper - it's always boosting.
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I was referring specifically to the Cummins powered trucks, but it would be interesting to see whether the Ecoboost is happier with routine higher power like the Cummins or not. Generally gasoline powered engines wear out faster from it, but the Ecoboost V6 is different in that regard.

Maybe by running yours hard you'll have the best longevity of all.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I was referring specifically to the Cummins powered trucks, but it would be interesting to see whether the Ecoboost is happier with routine higher power like the Cummins or not. Generally gasoline powered engines wear out faster from it, but the Ecoboost V6 is different in that regard.

Maybe by running yours hard you'll have the best longevity of all.
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Same thing applies really. Lots of short-trips and lack of turbo usage in an ecoboost results in excessive carbon buildup, which has created some failures. Additionally the oil not warming up causes some other problems. The people that work their ecoboost have not had the carbon issues.

The carbon issues may not apply to my Ecoboost at all..Several tweaks on the Gen2 Ecoboost to address it. It was more of a Gen1 issue. However I suspect that making it do some work will do it good.
 
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