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The beast built for towing
I have a 2000 3500 Ram with a Cummings Diesel and a five speed. The payload is nearly 4000 lbs. I made a trip last week to Ont. and loaded in nearly that weight. The truck ran near 17 mpg. I bought the dually to pull the 5th wheel as the stability made a big difference on the highway. The truck has the camper and trailer package on it. It is equiped for 5th wheel and goose neck.
With have had up to 6000 lbs on the equipment trailer and really do not notice the weight. On a trip from TN we blew a tire on the trailer and did not notice it until we saw the sparks from the rim. With the compact tractor loaded we barely notice the difference.
As with any trailering proper load distribution is important. With less weight unloading of the rear wheels can be a problem, especially when going down hill.
With this truck I can load up to 1200lb on the truck and not worry about the truck taking the weight.
I have the 5 speed to allow the truck to use compression braking. Heavy loads are difficult to control with brakes alone.
After 40,000 miles I would say I am impressed with the engine and running gear. The truck has not been to the dealer with any problem and there have been no recalls.
In comparison with my last truck a 97 Ford I would say that it has a few more squeaks and rattles than the Ford but has had few real problems. I a number of recalls and had to roll under the Ford truck and replace the outer axel seal when it was just out of waranty. The seal was missing the spring ring and began leaking. An expensive repair for a 2 dollar part if, I did not do it myself.
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The beast built for towing
I have a 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 with 360 and tow package. Does real good for a half ton truck.
I also have a 1974 Dodge D200 Club Cab with 440/727 Dana 60 4.10 with the GVW of 9000lbs due to the camper springs on the rear. One heavy duty old truck. 7.5 mpg no matter what you do! 
Looking for an old Dodge Power Wagon WDX flat fender.
Todd
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The beast built for towing
You fellas will think I'm a wuss with all this talk about 1/2 ton and bigger trucks, but I own a 2001 Dodge Dakota 4-door. 4.7L V-8, Auto, 4x4, 2.55 gears. I don't have alot of heavy equipment to haul around, but it pulls my little B7500 with FEL just fine. The most I have ever towed was about 4500 - 5000lbs of 5/8" x 4' x 12' drywall on a 16' tandem lowboy. I think the trailer weighs around 1500lbs, and has a gvw of 8600lbs. Total trailer weight on that trip was around 6000 lbs. Electric brakes are a must of course. It squatted the rear end a bit, but the truck handled the load better than I had expected. Had no trouble keeping the truck running 60-65 mph on the interstate through mildly hilly terrain in NW PA.
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The beast built for towing
I just wanted to say that I can attest to the towing ability of those big dodge trucks with the 6 cyl cummins in them. Two summers ago I was completely redoing the landscaping around my home, and I needed a Dozer. Well, it just so happens that my dad owns a "little" Dresser Bulldozer. I asked If I could borrow it, and of course he said yes, except that my brother and I would have to go pick it up at the jobsite. I figured we'd go out to my dad's and pick up the Western Star Dump Truck and go get it... nope... My brother showed up in his new dodge dually and a 25,000 gross goosneck. I thought for sure we'd go to jail or wreck or something, but we made the 10 or so miles from the job to my house without incident. The dozer weighs in around 18,000 and the trailer around 4500... We loaded the dozer towards the front of the trailer until the overload (helper) springs just started to touch. Just before you get to my house, there is a fair sized hill about 3/4 mile long that we turned up from a dead stop at the bottom... we topped the hill at 40 mph... not too shabby. Of course I wouldn't recommend to anyone that they should so grossly overload thier truck just to see what it can do... tow ratings are there to keep people safe.
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The beast built for towing
Thats not an uncommon thing for a 1ton work truck to do. The new ones are supposed to be good to 23000lbs. I have heard of people pulling 30000lbs with the right trailer setup. Its just amazing what they can do now.
Todd
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The beast built for towing
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
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