Ram owners; Ram 1500/2500 ownership question
I've been doing a bit of research about my next truck. We are looking at an older Airstream to restore for retirement travel; weighs about 7,000 loaded. The trailer will be paid for cash, so we have a...
Forum Discussion
OP, I own a 3500. I bought for just a few ticks over 40k. My truck is a diesel. With a little patience or a willing dealer, you can get well below MSRP even for a gasser version of the truck. You should really shoot for the 6.4 Hemi RAM. The front ends are much more heavy duty. However, the HD trucks are like an oxcart compared to a 1500 ride wise. But the Frame is more heavy duty and even though you tow an Airstream today, will you have it for the foreseeable future? Will you have any other hauling needs that require more payload? Is the ride in the 2500 acceptable for your purposes? Both trucks have air and coil spring options for suspension. But the 2500 has Air only on the rear axle while the 1500 has it at all 4 corners. You really need to find a bad road and test drive both vehicles over said bad road. That will be the most telling story of the worst of the worst.
Since you're going gasser, SRW 2500 and 3500 shouldn't have much difference in payload capacity. You don't have a big heavy diesel artificially eating into the arbitrary 10,000 lbs GVWR that all 2500's tend to have. So you really don't need to consider the 3500 in your case. If going diesel, then I'd push for 3500 because of the weight the diesel eats from the 10,000 lbs GVWR. Also, I tend to see the GVWR lowered for a 3500 gas powered truck. So you don't stand to gain much in the case of a gasser 2500 vs 3500. My truck weighs just around 8,000 lbs with me, the wife and a full tank of fuel in it. Gasser is roughly 600 or 800 pounds lighter than the diesel.
Edit: looked at the RAM towing guide and found something odd. For Mega Cabs, there's a big difference in payload between the 2500 and 3500. Like almost 2,000 lbs difference. But for the Crew cab trucks, there's only about a 600 or 800 lbs difference. This is for the 6.4 HEMI 4x4 short bed trucks.
Also, the 6.4 has an MDS system, so it runs on 4 cylinders are really light loads. So it tries to save fuel whenever it can and tends to do better than the base 5.7 in the HD truck.
Since you're going gasser, SRW 2500 and 3500 shouldn't have much difference in payload capacity. You don't have a big heavy diesel artificially eating into the arbitrary 10,000 lbs GVWR that all 2500's tend to have. So you really don't need to consider the 3500 in your case. If going diesel, then I'd push for 3500 because of the weight the diesel eats from the 10,000 lbs GVWR. Also, I tend to see the GVWR lowered for a 3500 gas powered truck. So you don't stand to gain much in the case of a gasser 2500 vs 3500. My truck weighs just around 8,000 lbs with me, the wife and a full tank of fuel in it. Gasser is roughly 600 or 800 pounds lighter than the diesel.
Edit: looked at the RAM towing guide and found something odd. For Mega Cabs, there's a big difference in payload between the 2500 and 3500. Like almost 2,000 lbs difference. But for the Crew cab trucks, there's only about a 600 or 800 lbs difference. This is for the 6.4 HEMI 4x4 short bed trucks.
Also, the 6.4 has an MDS system, so it runs on 4 cylinders are really light loads. So it tries to save fuel whenever it can and tends to do better than the base 5.7 in the HD truck.
