Thinking of getting one instead of a cummins. Used of course.

Thinking late 90's+ one ton ext cab.

I would rather put the money not spent on a cummins into a house next year .

And this would be a back up vehicle since I'm trading my 1500 Hemi reg cab in for a 350Z. It would also be used on my land doing normal duty stuff, but I never want to get caught in a position again where I have a truck too small so I'll be going for at least a 3/4 ton if not 1 ton.

Would also consider ford V10's and chevy big block trucks too. Anyone one have experience with these.


Thanks

 

We towed two 5th wheels with a 1996 3500 club cab V-10/47RE before taking delivery of our current truck in August 2001. With the 3.54 rear axle, a 6% grade meant 3500 RPM in 2nd gear to hold 55 MPH, and mileage ranged from 9 MPG (10,200 lb GVWR 30' 5th wheel) to 6.5 MPG (13,500 lb GVWR 36' 5th wheel).

If you're willing to live with the gasser torque curve and fuel mileage, ours never left us stranded or failed to do the job.

Rusty

 

Bro in law has a 99 3/4 ton, I think. 180k no problems, just minor maintence, I think he a had to do a little work on the front end. He gets horibble gas mileage, but has been a good truck. he does not beleive diesels are worth the xtra $$, I will never convince him, he knows it all!

 

Well, they are probably not worth the extra cash if you are going to be using it for what I'm doing, maybe a few thousand miles a year... And if I need a back seat I will use the truck; which isn't likely since I'm single/no kids.

So, cool, never thought of this option until last week when I fell in love with the nissan 350Z. Which will make a much more fun commuter to work than a big truck.

 

i just found an 03 (last year for V10) dually 4 door near my house for sale. 37k miles and a decent price. its a fairly rare truck, not many v10's made it into the new body style

 

Honestly, I would stick with an older Cummins or simply a 5.9 V-8 gas. The V-10's are tough to work on (space under hood) and really don't hold thier value too well. The Cummins hardley depreciates in it's older years, whereas a gas-engine truck will just keep on dropping.

Most people really don't need a V-10, they likey don't even need a big V-8. Perhaps evalvuating how much you really use your truck for, and how often you will use it is more important overall. If push came to shove, you can always rent something. A 350Z is a nice car, for me, however, I'll invest in a house instead of something that's going to depreciate.

 

I special-ordered a '98 Ram V-10 new and have over 225K miles on it.

I decided to go with the 488 cubes because the F**d diesels sucked (drove two of them to pieces) and wasn't impressed with the Chevy/GMC (drove two of them as well); I was already sold on Dodge, but the '97 2WD 3500 Cummins we had was a DOG (I'll bet it's still running, though )

At the time, the 8.0L V-10 had more horsepower and torque than the Cummins, and I was tired of fixing diesels...

My '98 is 4WD, QuadCab, HD 2500 w/49RE longbed that has spent it's life as a 10K# service truck, with plenty of hard use out on the ranch in off-road conditions.

Warranty replacement of PCM at @80K miles
Replaced the in-tank fuel pump at @140K miles.
Changed the tranny fluid & filter for the first time at 175K miles
Ate batteries every 2 years until I got Optima blue-top deep-cycle marine.
Replaced still working 47RE with bulletproof 49RE at 220K miles
Replaced radiator, power-steering pump and steering gear box at 225K miles - they still worked, but I didn't want any spots on the driveway...
Replaced harmonic dampener about the same time (won't get far w/o one of
those!) Never did lose a serpentine belt - must be 'cause I had a spare!
As soon as I could, I installed Mopar stainless steel headers, high-ratio stainless steel roller rocker arms, ram-air system (shop made, of course) and dual stainless steel exhaust with Borla mufflers and no cats.

I got 11-12 mpg around town, 14 highway no problem. This was with 10K# gross and 305-16 BFGs - heavy pulling sucked me down 1-3 mpg, depending on terrain and wind conditions. To my knowledge, that truck was never passed by a diesel (though I guarantee my '05 will smoke it!) and had LOTS of power, even though it was handicapped by Dodge's stupid converter stall speed; 2200-2500 RPM when the engine developed over 400 ft-lbs. of torque from idle right through redline...

One time a F**d guy couldn't pull his 19K# Cat 'dozer out of a hole with his chipped p-stroke, so I hitched up my logging chains and sucked him out of there in 4WD-LO; lemme tell ya, it's quite a sight (& sound) to have that big gas motor roaring with all four tires smoking and tearing up the hard TX clay with 10K# crushing down!

So I guess what I'm saying is: if you want a V-10, I say go for it!

 

Ditto on mine. I had a 97 2500. Great trrcuk. Dealers HATE them though, even 10 years ago, mine looked at me like I had 3 heads when I wanted one.

Two areas to watch:

1. Coolant use - mine drank alot, but could never figure where it went. At 42,000 miles, the dealer replaced the radiator. Only after I traded it, did I find out that through the (I think) 98 model year, some had porous heads.

2. Spark plug wires - I forget which ones, but they are crossed from the factory, cause premature cylinder failure (fairly rare).

Overall, a great engine, with almost no aftermarket support, and dealers HATE to work on.

Uh....no. I had a 360 in my 96 1500, shortbox, reg cab 4x4. I got 10 miles to the gallon. Can't imagine what the mileage would be in a 2500, considering I got 9 mpg in the V10. The 360 has to work MUCH harder in the 2500 than the V10, and will get the same or WORSE mileage, with way less hp/torque. T

 

Now here is my main concern, cost of maintenance. Are parts out of sight in cost?

What draws me to them is the fact that they are super cheap for such a versitile powerful truck. I think right now they are fully depreciated. I can drop 6K cash on a truck with less than 50K miles and get use out of her for 10+ years. I doubt I'll put more than 3K a year on it so I could afford the gas, otherwise I'd get a used diesel to justifly the increase in gas cost.

Now if it were a daily I would definately get a CTD, but at 24 I'm just not rich enough to buy a $35K plus truck that I will use on my land, ie getting F'd up doing work.

I'll probably make sure I get a 2wd too incase I ever get to drinking at one of my hoedowns out there I won't be tempted to take it off-roading .

Thanks for the advice.

 

just remember, gas is for cooking and diesel is for fueling trucks. lol.




oh BTW. 350z is a nice car but you really need to stay on top of the alignment. they eat up front tires bad.

 

Interesting that you mention the alignment issue on 350Z's, a friend at my work (in a different position than me....) is on his second 350 Z already (!). This time a convertable, and he's mentioned that the rough Illinois roads really knock around the suspension on them. Lots and lots of fun to drive, but a major $$$ to keep one up. At least they have a stronger reputation than the Mazda RX-8, which is a fantastic looking car but the rotary really just isn't panning out too well.

 

Yeah, I know they eat tires but you can pick up 18 inch stock sized tires for cheaper than what my 20's cost. It seems that most folks are changing them out every 20-25K, except the factory tires which wear out quickly.

And some of them have an oil consumption issue which it seems the dealers are willing to fix. Then it is just oil changes with 5 qts of Mobil 1.

But I'll probably lease one since I plan on only having it for 3 years, plus I can rag it out. And you can buy 1000 miles for $100 which is cheaper than cost of ownership. Or I'll pick up a slightly used 06 on ebay for a nice discount from new.

Beautiful car and fun to drive, will just have to get used to the weird little back window.

 

Wow!
My '98 had more horsepower AND torque from idle through redline than that year's mighty cummins, and got up to 14 mpg highway - down to 10 mpg pulling heavy. 225K miles and still running strong!

Oh yeah: the V-10 option was $900 and the cummins option was $5000...
selecting the V-10 got me a HD 2500 (8800# GVW) with all of the heavy-duty diesel goodies: power-steering fluid cooler, auxilliary tranny fluid cooler, HD battery, 136 amp alternator, diesel radiator, 9.5" frame, overload springs, skid plate, rear stabilizer bar, Dana 70 & Dana 80, etc.

 

Well, you probably won't have to buy too many parts, but if you do - they are readily available from auto parts stores at reasonable prices as well as the expensive dealers.

I'd definitely try to get a 4WD - even if used rarely, they are worth their weight in gold when you really need one...

The blue book on my '98 (see description a few posts up) is over $15K with over 225K miles on the odometer. I don't plan on ever parting with it, either!

 

Let me tell you this i have a buddy who has two a 96 and a 01 and he has used the living you know whta out them and they are tired but still strong as heck. We use them both for pulling 10k-13k worth of campers horse trailer and horses and pack gear going elk hunting and what not and they held up grate but they can pass every thing but a gass station. That being said the 96s first day on the job involed all four chained and a freshly rained on freshly plowed filled just for the heck of it see what she would do by buddy could tear up a bowling ball with his teeth LOL