Jumping off the Diesel Bandwagon - UPDATED
Well, after two Cummins diesels that I thoroughly enjoyed, I am going to place a factory order for a RAM 2500 with the 6.4L Hemi, 4.10 gears, rear air suspension, Laramie and plenty of added options. ...
Forum Discussion
Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
My 2004 with a diesel is worth somewhere between $19,000 to $21,000 and gasser is maybe $10,000 tops. My diesel option was like $4,000 (will check later) so looks like I made a good investment.
Don
Very typical of the diesels of the late '90s and early '00s. My '03 Dodge/Cummins 305/555 HO option was 3450 bucks for the Cummins. My break even point for the Cummins option came at around 43k-45k miles. Many folks working theirs for a living report much faster return rate. With 238k miles on the truck its been one of the best dollars for a "truck" investment I've ever had which includes eight one ton DRW trucks/five 3/4 ton trucks and three 1/2 ton trucks which many I put in commercial service.
At one time gassers were the towing top dogs with LDTs. Diesels came along and slowly became top dog. Then our truck makers dropped the big block/big torque numbers gas engines and gave us the high hp small blocks with small torque numbers... 6.0 GM/5.4 Fords and the 5.7 Hemi. They weren't meant to compete with the diesel.
Now we have the 6.4 Hemi with those big block torque numbers ... finally.
IMO 350/3500 and 450/4500 fleet service trucks got a kick in the teeth when the 8.1 GM and Fords V10 were dropped. The 6.4 should be a winner for Ram trucks with the fleet service industry and especially the RV industry when a 800-850 ft lbs of torque isn't needed for the job.
