My Suburban is going down hill FAST. My nephew works at Carmax and I have had him on the lookout for a nice but fair priced crew cab for some time. They have a 03 3/4 ton heavy duty dodge crew cab with 5 spd man. trans with the options I was looking for. Price is about what I want to spend. Does anyone have one of these and about what MPG do they get? What do I need to check on it?

There is a Dodge Ram forum out there.
(I'm sure they're not as cool as we are but...)

I wish I bought one (actually I wish my Ford had a Cummins.) They can get over 23mpg highway if you drive it like you want good mpg. The 5 speed is the only way to go, autos suck.

QUOTE (Porcharu @ Mar 24 2006, 06:32 PM)

I wish I bought one (actually I wish my Ford had a Cummins.) They can get over 23mpg highway if you drive it like you want good mpg. The 5 speed is the only way to go, autos suck.

I have a co-worker that has one (his is dually)....be careful, his wife spun it while going around a slow corner in the rain ...lot's of torque

maybe I'm a wuss, but that is a darn big truck to have with a stick shift (I use to drive commercial trucks for a while, I do know how to shift )

QUOTE (Porcharu @ Mar 24 2006, 06:32 PM)

(actually I wish my Ford had a Cummins.)

ask and you shall recieve

Ford truck with a Dodge Cummins motor, conversion company

A friend on mine has one and the 5-speed is the best thing for 'em. The engine's torque eats automatics.

my uncle is on his 2nd or third dodge w/ cummins....

first one nuked too many torque converters.... this one is a 5 speed.


i drove it. way fuuuuunnn. GOBS of torque......

They had some brake and front end issues on the early ones, sweet truck, saw one at the drag races that ran low 12's

they make a steel billit torqueconverter for them

The stick is the best option for it.

I have a 2000 Dakota with a 4.7 and NV3500 transmission (the Cummins would have the 4500). Great trucks and the drivetrains are TOUGH.

I'd say go for it.

Tom

Go for it, There is a reason why over the road trucks have inline 6 cylinder motors. I have 2 of them a 95 with a 12 valve and 221k and counting and never a problem and the other is 2001 24 valve with 120k both have all the torque you need to pull down a house and still get 20 miles per gal. The cummins motor has been around since the early 80's in the 5.9 litre and is virtually unchanged with the exception of engine management. This motor is also classified as a meduim to heavy duty not light to meduim like the other brands. If you want some more info check out turbodieselregister.com, and yes they are as crazy as this site

My friend has a 2004 Dodge with a Cummins +auto trans

13mpg around town, 9-11mpg while towing our 43 foot trailer, maybe 16 on the highway if your conservative.

Here in the Northeast diesel costs about 15 cents a gallon more than high test.

FWIW my 2003 F250 w/6.0 powerstroke diesel gets 22mpg highway, and14-15mpg towing my 26' trailer

I went looking at the other sites for a little while. Not as much bad on these as Chevy has. I have always been a GM guy and said I would never own a MOPAR I just may have to eat my words I do know I am done with buying GM for a bit.

Great topic. The planets must be in line cause I just met a guy today with a Ram that does performance mods to Cummins.

He told me that what most guys consider the best to mod would be the 98 crew cab with the 12 valve motor and mechanical injection pump.

The whole reason I stopped and talked to him was the fact that his truck had two huge stacks sticking straight up behind the cab! He converted his 12 valve motor over to twin turbos that run in line with Methanol Injection. It was awesome looking! I can't remember the torque quote, but he did say it was putting 500hp to the ground. This guy knew his stuff.

He did say to stay away from blocks that had 53 stamped on them. These blocks were cast in Argentina and were prone to crack.
Here's the info on his card he gave me... www.thedieselbunch.com
and his email is info@thedieselbunch.com

His name is Rick Harvey. I hope this helps, if anything it confirmed what I already knew about the Cummins and the power potential.

Do Not Ever look at any sites for these trucks. You will think that if you even drive without an EGT gauge you will kill the engine. These people are nuts and have buckets of money. 20K for and engine - no problem - another 5K for a trans - no problem.
My favorite is this one - I was towing 30K and the stupid rear end blew up. Tow rating is about 12K on these trucks, but these clowns always have to do more. They might be worse than ricers in this aspect.
This truck will tow your 914 like it's not even there. Hell the truck towing the 914 might be quicker than the 914 be itself - mine was.