1993 Dodge Cummins potential purchase

Pretty much what ^he said.
They're great trucks IMO, IF you want to fix them up with a better trans and more power. Otherwise you'll be suckin windnin the slow lane with the overloaded semis up every hill.
They're worth some money though. Being a 2wd hurts but I'd guess $7-8k if it's Cherry condition.
Question is do want a 25 year old truck or something newer? Remember that chassis and body date back to the 70s. It's really like a 40 year old truck with some factory upgrades.

I had a 90 W150, it was a reliable vehicle for years but crude compared to today's offerings. You will find the ride harsh when empty. The early Cummins was under powered but that can be helped with a 4" turbo back exhaust and a high capacity air filter. As was mentioned it will be loud, you will have no friends if you try leaving the cg at 6 a.m. Be aware that body and trim parts are getting hard to find. It is not a classic, might be worth 5 g's.

The good:

They will run forever.

They take little to almost no maintenance and still keep running.

With a fuel plate and a little tuning they can put out a lot of HP.


They just sip fuel. 23 MPG is not unheard of.


You will have a lot of new friends and enemies when you pull into a campground.




The bad:


They are louder than a 747 on takeoff. (both inside and out)

They are very crude trucks.

They only put out 160 HP which is sad, sad, sad. 20 to 30 MPH on steep mountains is the order of the day.

If you start putting power to them the tranny will be done. (The trannys can't handle the torque.)

People will want to fight you if you try to warm your truck up in a campground at 6 in the morning.


They rust really bad.


They have a cult following so people tend to pay a lot for them whether worth it or not.


After owning it for a few years you tend to ask people: "what did you say again? What?, What?.................."

Have uncle offer it to the public. If you are willing to pay the highest offer, buy it from him. Tell your cousins what you propose first. Back up the price with anything you can find.

Just sold my with over 400k on it. Had over 30 calls in 3 days. Mine ran great. Rust got it.Hard to find parts. 6000 plds would tow with easy

I had one - bought it new. I don't know about being a "classic" but with a few cheap eng mods that thing will scream off the line.
Also, if it has the bucket seat option you'll be amazed how comfortable they are. They were THE most comfortable seats I have ever had in any vehicle.
It was a good truck overall. Pulls like a train although the trans didn't have a lock up converter and would add a lot of heat to the coolings system when towing. That can be remedied with a rebuild and/or swap to a newer 48RE trans and controller.
It worked fine for the weight is was spec'd for though.

We really enjoyed that truck. Heck, I'd probably still have it if it had a big back seat for our son.