JOE M

I was shocked to see the 1500 Ram Diesel only has a Dash Mounted Gear Selector. I now will not concider it as a new purchase at all. I thought since I don't tow many heavy trailers anymore I would go a little smaller in power train. It would be an ok truck to plow my driveway but the gear selector would be a MAJOR PITA.

Why are all these trucks trying to be like a Bently. If we wanted upscale Aristocratic vehicles we would not buy trucks. At least I wouldn't. When I bought my Excursion the only one available with cloth and a bench seat was 3000 miles away in Oregon.

Can't a truck just be a truck anymore?

patdaly

Egads man, trucks haven't been trucks since the early 70's.....

I'm right there with you though.

.boB

I believe the new 2500 with the 8 speed auto also has a dash selector. And then you can manually control the valve body with steering wheel mounted buttons.

NE frmhnd

And it's got the 5-link rear suspension set-up like the 1500, too. Seems like they could figure out how to triangulate a 4-link and get rid of all the track bar problems they are good at having.

JOE M

I am moving toward Toyota more and more if I don't buy a 12 Ram 3500 (for a floor mounter 4wd shifter and NO TPMS). Since there is not an option with the Yota of a manual floor mounted 4wd shift lever , only a dash dial. When I plow my home I am in and out of 4wd all the time. My dial on my old Excursion and push button on the Suburban was too slow to respond and always troublesome. After 7 years and always bringing this 2005 in for one repair or another I am reluctant to buy another.

Finding the new trusty old plain jane 4wd trucks is a thing of the past. UREA, DPF, EGR and all the other crap is killing me.
I wish they would all stop trying to build a better mouse trap. I was hoping they would bring some of the models available in the mid-east, asia and third world countries.

wytesyko

Sorry guys we (Chrysler) build for the masses, I know us real TRUCK guys want manual everything so we have far less failures, but it is what it is. Chebby and Ferd havent even offered a manual trans in some time....There is a reason, the majority does not want it...I'm a truck guy but when you are third in truck sales (which is the highest profit potential) you try to be first. By the way the dash shifter isnt terrible....Please buy a RAM...

SOhappy

Yeah, the dash shifter **** looks odd but people generally like it once hey get used to it. I've even heard people who do a lot of backing really like it, compared to the shifter stalk on the column. Easier to find reverse without taking your eyes off the mirrors or something.

Of course, if y'all want a REAL truck get an ST !!

NE frmhnd

I'll stick with my VE pumps and old riceburner and 7.3 powerjokes, thank you very not much.

JOE M

I beg to differ. Anyone who plows parking lots and such are constantly going forward and reverse and would agree. Hence the reason I only want a floor shifter like whats in the STripper. Heck searching for radio stations on a vehicle with just radio mounted control leaves the arm tired. I strap my plow pad to my leg and only move my arm around very little and could do it without ever looking down from the windows. My hand rest in the column shifter and I do use all the gears and tow haul plowing my 1/4 mile driveway. I could not imagine what the dial would look like after one season? The tranny shop stated my drive train is doing great because i am using everything.

There is a reason the push button tranny went away in the 60's. People were complaining about being stuck with the products that have them already. It is ridiculous.
Chrysler need to keep this in mind that trucks are firstly utilitarian vehicles. America is getting away from utility and appeasing the Soccer Mom Grocery getter buyers. I was watching a video from So Cal and every car in the driveways were mid sized SUV's with 4wd. Why? Because there are no full size family station wagons anymore. If I didn't need a HD machine I would get a second Outback.

Cummins610

Buy a 3/4 ton or larger. All 1/2tons for the last 10 or so years have been grocery getters, regardless of brand.

NE frmhnd

I guess no one ever figured out how to feel the clicks on a column shifter, huh? Or that there are detents in it that you can feel and use to find your gear.
Navistar claimed they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars getting their Prostar perfect ergonomically. What a waste of money. Nothing was convenient in that truck. They went to rocker switches from the pretty-well-standardized toggles, which meant having to lean forward a little to reach them. Then they spaced them half as far apart as the toggles they replaced. You had to look to make sure you were getting the right one. Then the window and lock switches, were out of reach. And there was no swapping them around so that you could put the driver's window switch where your hand naturally fell on it like I did with every other truck I had ever drove for more than a week. Then there were some switches in the steering wheel, with no redundancy to the dashboard. If you had to cut the jakes, or hit the air horn,in a turn, you had to stop turning the wheel to hit the edited edited edited edited edited button!

That's where all the new truck dashboards and controls have been going for a while. Everything is a flush button, very few have much space between them, great for the soccer mom or the weekend warrior, but when you're using it day in and day out, and especially where you don't have a lot of space to mess up, the change in the controls can really cause some problems.

One thing I've never heard anyone else say anything about. Look at the Dodge hood release and brake release layout. Then compare it to Chevy and Frod. I don't know how many times I've popped the hood on a Powerjoke instead of releasing the park break, but it gets annoying, and I'm going to say Dodge has it backward because the rest have it the other way.

Danderson

I don't get the dial either. This adds more electronic circuitry and servos to an already complex system.
When I special ordered my '07 with a manual tranny and transfercase,the agent replied,"really"?

NE frmhnd

The transmission is all electronically controlled anyhow. All the dial does is eliminate the shifter linkage and remove the switching from the transmission housing. Probably saves them $3 a truck, so they can save you $6 when you buy it.

Rampage1967

The real reason chrysler discontinued the push button shifters in the 60s was government regulations. the governemnt required all automatic transmissions to have the same type of shifter & thesame order of gears. Having driven a couple of those cars, i kind of like the system.

Danderson

We had a 60 Dodge Dart and the shifter worked well.