ok i am trading in the truck in my sig, and i am not sure if i should go get the new 6.7 or find a low milage used. the biggest thing i am doing is going from the hand shaker to the dogamatic. i never had an auto diesel before and worried i won't like it, but all the used ones and new ones i am seeing are auto. i am looking at an '05 3500 dually auto tommorrow only has 60k miles on it its in great shape but its an auto also so i need some help on pros and cons of an auto. i am taking all of my mods off my truck to put on the next one or sell if not compatible, but if i get that '05 everything should work out but the big if is what can i do to the auto? i need alot of guidence thanks

eric

 

Shift kit at the very least.
TC next, but have the tranny flushed very well first.
Full build would be best and, of course, most expensive.
Good thing is, the cost of the shift kit and TC can be removed from the future cost of a full build.

 

if you want a manual, i would keep looking for one. most every vehicle (car and truck) i've ever owned were sticks, and just flat out like shifting for myself. with the price of a new, or late model ctd, i'd make sure i got what i wanted.... jmho.....

 

Out of curiosity why are you switching to an auto.

 

Don't trade; sell for cash. Trades help the dealer and hurt the buyer in two ways.

1. You won't get as much for the trade as you can if you sell it yourself.

2. Trades help the dealer with his smoke and mirror BS and make it much more difficult to negotiate a fair deal.

Buy for cash or prearrange financing with a credit union or the like. Dealer financing is almost always a rip off.

If you really don't want to deal with selling the truck yourself, take it to Car Max. Just don't let the dealer have it.

My (probably controversial) $.02

 

TreeFarm is correct. I rarely ever trade vehicles. I try to sell them outright first. I buy my vehicles strait up, no smoke and mirrors. Get the price where you want it and buy it. If they can't give you a good price, go somewhere that will. Get what you want too. I searched for three months to find my 6 speed dually. Went 300 miles to pick it up. Don't regret it a bit.

 

Same here. I searched nationwide for mine. The closest I could find anything was in the Arkansas boonies. Because of the remoteness of that dealer, the pick up and transport fees were way too high. Fortunately, my dealer found the truck I ended up with a little over 100 miles away. The dealer that had it did not have his inventory on line, so I missed it on my search, but my dealer was able to find it.

It would have been a straight up cash deal, except I did take a short term loan, since DC was offering a $1,000 incentive at that time if it was financed. That got paid off immediately. I originally negotiated a cash deal, then got the dealer to knock another grand off by agreeing to the Chrysler financing loan. I ended up paying a few dollars in short term interest to get the $1,000 off. That's a deal I will make any day.

 

well i thought i would try an auto and see if there are any bennifits to it i might like if there are none then i may not have it for very long. i know selling one out right will get me more money but it seems that everytime i sell something to someone they are always calling me constantly about a new noise or questions about dumb things. i sold my harley to a guy last summer called me atleast three times a week for about two months ( he even called me one time cursing and yelling that he can't get it to start and has been cranking it over for the last 45 min. and that i sold him a piece of sh**, i asked if the choke has been on the whole time and he said yea i told him to turn it off then try to start it and it fired right up ) so i am hesitant on that. i did go to a dealer friday and he tried to give me 16.5k for my truck and that was it, i just got up and walked out

 

were would i find a good shift kit? and aren't the tc about the same price as a good clutch is

 

Don't get a 6.7! I got one, you can not do any real mods to it and have to worry about all the emissions crap, warranty problems and recalls. They should not have rolled that truck out until they had all the bugs out.

I ended up finding a 07 5.9 that was the last in the area. I am so happy about having a 5.9 again. I thought I could sell my 6.7 but the dealers are giving them away. So for now I am stuck with it.

 

x2 on what he said. dont get a 6.7. everyone has problems with them and lots have guys have sold them or traded them in to get another 5.9L. I would say the 05 you are going to look at would be a good truck. you can get it to hold mods with a converter/valve body and added clutch packs.

 

my 6.7 has 60'000miles on it and its at the dealer for the 8th time. borrowed a friends 07 5.9 dually QC because my 05 bottoms out with my 32ft double deck. his dually gets just as good mileage with out the surging i get every load because of the dpf regenerating itself(if it does, most time just plugs up). 6.7's goin up for sale and im in the market for a 5.9 if that tells ya anything

 

I hope it all gets figured out on these 6.7's. Was there lil' bugs to be worked out of the common rails when they first came out?

 

the problems with the 6.7's are unique because of the dpf, and epa mandated emissions crap. it was thought that increasing displacement would make up for power loss due to the new, restrictive emissions, but dodge has to keep coming out with ecm re-flash's to reduce fueling, to keep egt's from getting out of hand, due to the clogging of the dpf. the head diesel tech at my dealership told me that all three (dodge, ford, gmc), have lowered the advertised power output of their new dpf equipped diesels by over 10%, because of the necessary re-flashes that have decreased fueling. exhaust temps have been so high, that several 6.4 psd's have burned, when the red hot exhaust pipes ignited other components, causing a $50,000 whoops!

 

My buddy has had so much trouble with the 6.7 he is about to drive it off a cliff and want to buy my 07 5.9. I am cinsidering it since the diesel is so much higher than what the gas truck uses. My neighbor makes bio in his garage and am really considering picking up an old cummins to run on the bio diesel. You may be seing my sweet black long bed in the classifieds soon.