Thought this might interest all of you. Just getting ready to return a fleet of '14 Rams used up on the North Slope oil fields for the last year. Well they sat stranded during the summer, but have been run pretty much non-stop since September last year. Had 10 2500/3500 trucks and 4 5500s.
First the conditions. Couldn't be worse for a new dpf equipped diesel. Hasn't been above freezing since September. 4-6 weeks at -30 to -40 deg. Rest of the time avg -10 to -25 deg. Trucks are not used to tow or haul, just people movers basically. They never get worked hard. Max speed limit is 35mph and can only drive about 10 mi max in any direction before running out of road, so they never get up to speed for any length of time.
Have put anywhere from 800hrs to 4000hrs on the engines. 400hr oil changes.
These trucks were bone stock with no other prep work other than additional heaters on the coolant, trans pan and oil pan and battery chargers. When plugged in to a bull rail (120V power) these would keep the fluids warm enough to start easily. The Rams would start no problem, unplugged and cold, down to -30F. Never tried one colder than that, and without the charger, the batteries would just freeze anyway.
Problems experienced with ANYTHING other than emissions was virtually zero. The 4 5500 chassis cab trucks would work the rear output seal partially out of the transfer case at -35 deg or colder and drip a little atf. Pry it back in and no issue above -30 deg. Replaced 2 of them and loctited them in, solved the problem.
1 water pump and 1 steering hose.

Emissions was a whole nother story. Every truck had some sort of issue, but to be expected at these extreme low temps, constant idling, no load driving conditions and employees who don't know or care how the truck operates to minimize exhaust plugging issues.
At least 6 trucks had the def injectors go bad. Easy 10 min fix with the parts though.
Most of the trucks at one point of another had check engine lights in the extreme cold, due to the def tanks freezing and the tank heaters not thawing enough def to inject. One tank heater went out.
The trucks were generally idled at high idle, 1200rpms + and when driven on the road (usually 5 mi or less) were run in 2nd gear at 35mph to keep rpms up. Only the few trucks that worked 2 shifts had any issues with dpf filling to 100% and a manual regen with the Chrysler Witech software or driving it in laps on the available roads would do an effective regen. 1 truck had an extremely plugged dpf. Had to fake the ecm into thinking a new one was installed in order to force a regen.
The new Ram de-soot or regen is not high rpms like the other brands. It runs about 1200rpms.
While this may seem like a lot of problems, the Rams performed better than the Dmax trucks and much better than 6.7 Pstrokes.

Dmax trucks, all 2013 or newer, had issues with the plastic coolant hose and power steering hose connections/clamps. Most all leaked and were retrofitted with regular hose clamps. The Dmax was a little quicker to plug the dpf than the Ram, but not bad.
6.7 Power strokes, although better than 6.4s, which really sucked last year, have the most issues. DPFs plug up about the same as the Dmax. DEF tanks cannot be filled completely or they will split and burst, no room for expansion when the def freezes when the truck is shut off. Regens sound like they are at 3000rpms. ALL power steering O rings leak and get replaced with silicone o rings. ALL power steering lines leak and get replace with arctic rated lines and connections. Most of the trucks leaked coolant from the plastic coolant hose clamps.
Had about the same number of FOrds as Rams and half as many Dmaxes and the FOrds were in the shop 3 to 1 over the Rams.
Even the mechanics that are die hard Ford guys admit way less problems with the Rams.
This was the first year we ran Ram diesels on the Slope and they flat out worked better in these conditions.
Ram intakes also had marginally less issue with plugging with snow. In a convoy during a blizzard with 70mph gusts, every air filter on every vehicle and loader turned into a brick of ice. Dmax trucks went into reduced power. Rams did not although all showed plugged air filter messages.

I'm not saying the other 2 are cr@p and suck, but when it comes down to which brand works best in the worst possible conditions for running a modern diesel, the Ram just holds up better with less problems.

I would be confident that in any "normal" winter conditions down to -20 F, one should have zero problems with Ram emissions.

Hope this is informative.

 

Couple Pictures

 

Very nice post!

Thanks for the "Real World" review

 

No problem. I kinda got into it, being a Dodge guy and all. Only up here for the last 2 winters and heading back to the real world again.
Seemed strange to me that Dodge had zero foothold up here where there is probably 10,000 diesel pickups in a 100 mile long area. Everyone was holding on to the 6.0 fords as the holy grail of trucks with the advent of 2008 emissions, lol. Oil companies were/are even going to gassers which is a mortal sin in oil production facilities because it makes the trucks flammable. GM had/ has some trucks in a vast majority Ford market. I can only surmise Dodge never got in on it because they didn't have a real crew cab until 06.
BP started running some Rams 2 years ago and from what I see I had the first Rams on the Conoco side of the field. AND they spanked the competition!
Just got mine on the road sort of 45mph on and off for 90 mi, lol, today, for the first, and last time. Convoyed a bunch of trucks back to Deadhorse and we are done w the project and leaving the Slope.
Very surprised, after 3-4 mpg avg with idling, brand new engines never broke in right, never worked hard, my truck with about 1000 hrs and 3000 mi showed 17.8 mpg in 4wd after the "road trip". The 90mi drive barely budged the needle on the gauge.
I love my 07 but it's gonna suck turning in that red Mega Cab!

 

It's good to hear from someone that is having the same problems operating in almost the same conditions my son is. Few people realize the difficulties of being out in the cold and how the emission system just doesn't work even with the addition of DEF. My son's company has now switched to an all RAM fleet but they are gas trucks, his is the only diesel truck left and it's in the shop right now so he's been driving a gas truck the last couple weeks and hates it.

 

Busboy, in my experience if the trucks were actually working hard they would not have had as many issues. Other than def injectors and a couple NOX sensors they were pretty much flawless as long as they didn't idle 24/7.
On the up side they are better than the competition.
I can't imagine pulling the loads you speak about with a gasser unless it's on ice roads, then it really doesn't matter.

 

The gas trucks are only pulling 14,000lb cargo trailers not fully loaded either, the heavy stuff is usually pulled by my son's diesel truck, they also kept a dually diesel around but that has gone with the downturn. Like you say the biggest problem is 24/7 idle time but when setting up a new camp or tearing one down there is nowhere else to go but your truck, last time it was in for a DPF cleaning he had a 50/50 split in drive/idle hours on his 2013 diesel, it's either on the hiway or idling in winter.

 

Great report!

 

Busboy yeah our trucks were like 70-90% idle hours.
I had access to a dealer Witech diagnostic tool that I requested as part of the rental agreement and was able to manually de soot or regen the ones that were getting plugged up. No clue on long term durability of cleaning of the dpf as we only put 1000-3000 hrs on them.
While they were not without issues, I'd challenge anyone to have less issues with the other 2 diesels side by side, same conditions. It's just a fact that these need to run and run hard.
Of course I could only control 100% how my truck was operated and I had no issues except for one def injector and the required re flashes that all the trucks needed. Drove mine prolly 70% without the engine light on!
Ram does need to show % plugged for the dpf. Waiting til 100% to tell the driver it's plugged is stupid.

 

That MPG is very impressive all things considered.

 

I don't know if the overhead mileage was correct, but I just went back and checked the return sheet for my truck and 9 gallons was added to fill it after I turned it in.
I filled up the previous day, which isn't typically 100% full since we used high flow pumps/nozzles designed for filling heavy equipment. Try to watch the gauge on the dash and stop at "Full" rather than auto shut off on the nozzle which always created an environmental spill! lol
So afternoon running around the job, back to camp, probably some idling then a 90mi drive. I'd guess the computer mileage was close.

Back in a lower 48 company truck. F250 6.2 gasser. Gas hog, no ballz unless you floor it. Drops to 3rd to accelerate up hill. Wish I coulda kept the Ram!

 

why do they remove the center caps & run the tattle tales on the lug nuts?

good read, thanks!

 

I dunno. Not a safety requirement. Bout the only thing that wasn't! Lol
They are the only company I've seen do that.