I've owned a lot of pickup trucks including Ford (T444 Navistar), Chevy (6.5 turbo diesel), Dodge 1 ton Diesel, and two Dodge Cummins 2500s. All the dodge/Cummins have had manual transmissions. The two I still have are a 2001 2500 QC 6 spd with HO Cummins, 4.10 axle (which is at college with the youngest daughter), and a 1999 3500 QC with the Cummins, 5 spd, and 3.55 axle.

The 3500 gets 19.6 mpg unloaded, day in and day out. Pulling the 3 horse sooner gooseneck horse trailer loaded it gets around 15 mpg. I also have a 10,400 lb GVW flat bed rear pull trailer for hauling my toys (Ford 2600, JD 770, Toyota 2FG20 fork lift, IHI G70EX excavator). The forklift takes the trailer up to 10,300 lbs. With the fork lift as cargo, the truck will effortlessly climb the 14 FWY grade out of Santa Clarita to the Escondido summit in Acton (elevation 3258 feet) at 60 mph in 4th gear with the cruise control set and not have any problem when its 105F outside.

Someone may, someday, put a better, longer lasting, more reliable, more fuel efficient engine in a mass produced Pickup Truck than the 5.9 liter Cummins, but near as I can tell they haven't done it yet. I've personally seen 4 of them that were over half a million miles with only a valve job at 350K. That engine is simply amazing. It will last longer than you can stand to look at the truck, and then some.

The rest of the truck is about equivalent in quality to the Chevy or Ford. They are all at best only mediocre in quality - but then they are competing with each other so one would probably expect that. The Cummins engine stands out from the Duramax and PowerStroke.

It is also probably significant that I've had 3 of the Dodges, but only one of either the Chevy or Ford. I've also owned a Ford F350 Crew Cab Dually with a 460 gas engine in it. Very nice truck, pull about any load you could hook to it, but the milage was really awful - worse than that even.

Did I mention I think the Dodge Cummins with manual transmission is an awsome toy towing machine?

Fitch

Reply

Quote Reply

Digg It

Del.icio.us