I have owned many rides over the years, and the 89 is quite unto it's own,
There are a few things that i really like about the dodge,
We all here dig the Cummins power plant, so that aside,,,
The way i can get tailgaters to change lanes with a soot clowd!
It changes speed, not accelerates
Sometimes i see other drivers looking at it like it is a 56 vette, I dont know why
I can work on it easially, a simple truck gets maintenance,
A ride that it takes 4 hours to do maintenance, is not mantained well.
Well those are my favorite things
What are yours?
Peter.

 

I definitely like the simplicity of the motor. I was trying to help my buddy put a chip on an 05 the other day. The number of wires and connectors was over my head! I told him Id rather adjust the pump on my truck any day, which is not only easier, but free!

Though I wish we had more parts for our truck available, I like building my own parts (such as crossover tubes and intake systems) and seeing all the different designs everyone does.

 

The seats - 1st gen buckets are great. The truck is easy to work on, none of the systems is too complex. The power isn't bad either.

 

My personal fav...

Driving a light truck that sounds like SEMI! Amazing to watch the jaywalkers downtown scatter like roaches in the light when the turbo spools up and the sound from the stack hits their ears!

 

-Dodge designed it with the KISS method, very easy to work on and maintain
-The amount of free power you can unleash with the VE
-Having some seriously beefy drivetrain (dana 70 rear, NP205, dana 60 front)
-I've had a lot of people ask me, "so that's a 1980-what?", my response "It's a 93' and its got power everything "
-The looks of disapproval from all the yuppies in their SUVs and minivans
-I notice people behind me stay back a ways, its nice
-The way it sounds like a big rig, I've had several people at my school tell me that they look for a semi when its only my truck rolling up
-Having 339,000kms on it and it starts better than some newer vehicles
-Tunnels+4" straight pipe=

 

There is a poem I have somewhere called "The Dodge or the Wife", I don't remember all of it but the line I do recall goes something like this
"Life should be sweet,
and that's a big factor.
But life is much sweeter
when you drive a big truck that sounds like a tractor."
Don't ask me who wrote it but if I find it I'll post the whole thing.

 

My truck:

Simplicity and dependability---it's gotta get pretty devastating to get me behind a wrecker.

Paid for and nearly out of the tax-books---$7 property tax instead of $1300.

Economy-car mileage in a 9800 pound truck.

It will take eighteen BIG Charolais cows up Russell Creek Hill like a walk in the park.

Long range capabilities---I can fuel up in Limon,CO and come to the house, without setting my feet on the ground, and have fuel left to run around here for a couple weeks.

When I want it to, it will earn my living and I can eat steak every night while doing so.

Ice cold A/C, good warm heat, big plush seats, and a comfortable bed right behind me at all times.

Lights that will melt the road ahead.

Up good and high, great visibility contributing to much better safety, rather than sitting with my tail on the ground in some little weiner-mobile, looking up at the frame-bolts of some big milk-truck, and not able to see fifty foot ahead.

I could go on all night.

Wife's truck:

Everything said about my truck, plus:

The firewall drops straight down BEHIND the last valve-cover, not the third one back, like later trucks of any make.

Enough room for another engine on each side of the engine that is already in there.

Worlds of un-used flat sheet-metal territory, under the hood, for easily mounting various goodies, without crowding things together.

She has owned Corsicas, Accords, Cherokees, Grand Cherokees, LeMans, Centurys, Bronco IIs, and a host of others that I can't remember, and her Dodge/Cummins gets much better fuel mileage than any of her previous vehicles, is way more versatile, is more comfortable than anything else she has ever owned, she is much better protected, she can see so much better, it will pull goosenecks, fifth-wheels, and tag-a-longs, etc., etc.; and, I have never had to snake it home with a log-chain--- I can't say that about any of the other vehicles she has had.

 

I think it was written by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, or possibly Rudyard Kipling.

I had to memorize it in World Lit. II; but, I don't recall any of the lines.

 

I think that it really sums it up that my buddy that has a second gen (that will leave my truck like it is standing still) prefers my truck just because "it fells like a real truck." The p-pump is nice, but when it comes with that silly coil spring integrated bearing exucuse for a Dana 60, who can argue with the first gen (plus he was ****** when I said I was going to adjust my valve and I said i didn't need his crazy tool to get to the back two cylinders). In 1994, Dodge went pretty with this truck. I don't do pretty.

 

Like the old Will Rogers quote about real estate being the best investment:

"They ain't makin' any more of it."

 

My favorite things about my 93 Dodge,

These were the last of the "trucks" produced, features I think define truck include a solid front axle with manual locking hubs, king pins (not ball joints) and serviceable wheel bearings, NP 205 all gear transfer case with a hand operated shifter, leaf springs at all 4 corners and wing windows.

And of course a mechanical injected Cummins turbo diesel.

X

 

"the last real pickups that work for a living" is what i told my brother just yesterday before leaving his farm and driving a couple hundred mile trip home with gooseneck in tow with some light farm equipment on board. just wish they would have made a factory crew cab of this era.

 

1: It's paid for
2: It's paid for
3: It's paid for

...did I mention I don't like payments?

 

1: It was FREE
2: cheap to licence & insure
3: dead nuts simple to repair
4: just runs
5: sounds like a semi
6: classic truck styling
7: minivan fuel economy out of a 3/4 ton 4 X 4

 

Just something little but I love my vent windows. Real trucks and cars have them.