phal

I flew into Oklahoma City Wednesday and bought a CTD Ram, 2001 QC LB Auto 2WD 102000 miles . I immediately hit the road home (Indy Area straight thru 14 hr drive.).
The vehicle rode/drove nearly perfect. Nice Smooth nearly non noticeable shifts (I hope that is a good thing) Exactly 20 MPG over 700 miles. I have yet to see anything black come from the tailpipe. Brakes feel great, front end drives straight, no slop.

I have a broken towing mirror, just bought a new one on ebay for $95 dollars. For all interested, a single towing mirror from the dealer was $235. For $245 you can buy a retrofit kit and get both mirrors, makes a lot of sense huh?
The sunglass storage door on the upper console is broken, $25 from the dealer. Parts guy said his broke so often, he quit fixing it.

I have only two issues I do not how to fix:

The cruise control - When cold and the cruise is on it feels like the engine has a random miss. It doesn't matter if it is going up a hill or on a flat surface and it is so quick it can barely be felt. It is actually a deceleration, as if the unit is turned off and back on very quickly. Eventually the cruise shuts off and you have to turn it back on and set the speed again. When the vehicle warmed up the problem went away, but in between cold and warm it shutdown 4 or 5 times.

The window has a wobble/noise when raising. Sounds like maybe a bad track? Is there a common problem with the power windows that anyone knows about?

Another issue that does not compute:
I was told at 2000 rpm's I should be running about 70 mph. My speedo says 75. The tires on the truck were just replaced with the same size which show up on the build sheet. Build sheet shows 3.55 rear end.

The vehicle was an absolute pleasure to drive. When on a good road it was like being in a big old caddy or something, extremely driveable and comfortable.

Driving on a bad road was another matter. Regular bumps set up a kind of resonance thing where every bump just made it worse. I imagine that some weight in the back would change all of that. What can I put back there and leave for some ballast, any ideas?

Thanks to everyone who had a hand in educating me on how to buy a truck. The knowledge you shared helped me make the correct decisions.

Pics follow (hopefully)...gary

TxDiesel007

Shes a beauty!!

Identical to my friend Mr. D's old truck! he has an 05 now same everything cept its 3500 and maroon.. Welcome to DTR! put her on the sig and best of luck! hope she treats u right..

Tx

Lrdchaos

you have 3.55 gears if your running 2k at 75 mph. I have a 4x4 and that is what I run at 76.....if you had the 4.10s you would run about 70 at 2k. that is why you achieved the mpg that you did.

96_12V

phal,

Humm, not sure about that cruise sitaution, I have heard that there is a pickup tube somewhere in there that can get dirty which will affect the sensativity (negatively) of the unit. On the 12V units there was a recall on the cruise and throttle cables and it's brackets and the cruise had worked noticeably better since. May want to have you dealer check it for recalls.

My power windows wobble just a bit when being raised, I need to replace the outer weatherstripping on the lower edge (which on pre-1998 models tends to curl up and deform). But there has never been enough wobble to cause concern.

Finally - wow!! What a truck!! That is a clean, sharp, sweet rig, and I really like your fender trim - works very well with a silver truck! Sweet ride, enjoy! You will have plenty of envious neighbors asking you if they can borrow it soon!

12vordie

That's a new one on me. Must be because of the newer model, I have 3.55's and run 70 at 2 grand.

phal

Yes, but it doesn't help my mileage. Or maybe it does and I just do not know about it..
gary

phal

Yea, over my DB...gm

Rare1

You said, "Driving on a bad road was another matter. Regular bumps set up a kind of resonance thing where every bump just made it worse. I imagine that some weight in the back would change all of that. What can I put back there and leave for some ballast, any ideas?"

I carry 6 bags of tube sand (420 lbs over the axle) whenever my camper is not installed. Helps a lot to smoothe out the ride. But, I think your major problem here is worn out shocks.

Nice truck, good choice. You will have far fewer problems with this 2WD versus the more popular (macho factor?) 4x4.

With the auto trans, be sure to NOT lug the engine in lockup when pulling a big load. I.e., try to stay above 1700-1800 when needing to make power to accelerate or climb a hill. The tranny does not produce enough line pressure at low RPMs to prevent slipping (shudder will be felt) the lockup. In other words, the engine can produce more power at 1500 than the trans can hold. Slipping the lockup will lead to other problems, and you will need an ATS, GB, DTT, etc like most of us.

plow

im running 60mph at 2k. my tach and speedo tracks the same seems like there in sinc with each other.

phal

I noticed a squeak up front and bad shocks were the first thing I thought of. I will try to figure this out.
The most I will be hauling is a Very big Knaack toolbox, I am figuring 1500 - 2000 lbs. Am I overloading here?

Thanks...gary

Flashdancr

Congrats on your new truck and welcome to the site.

Now you can be obsessed with your CTD like the rest of us!

phal

The wife came out the door and stood there looking at me shaking her head. We have been together 11 years and it is the first time she has seen me wax a vehicle myself.
She tells me I am cheating with the truck.....gary

HappyGA

For the squeak, push your shift lever up a lil. Not into neutral, but just up a lil so as to make it tight. i have a squeak, and that is what makes it stop. The squeak comes from the pivot point of the tranny linkage.

Flashdancr

Just buy her one too!