SRW or dually.

FishOnOne wrote:

B.O. Plenty wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Just look at what the full time "independent" haulers tow with........RAM/CUMMINS.

Dually for sure!

Good engine in a junky truck. If you like waiting to get parts for too many recalls go for it! I had one, glad to see it go. They are popular because they are very cheap to buy compared to Ford or GM.

B.O.

Some of the safety recalls reflect some very poor quality and workmanship. And the front suspension with the poor quality weld is really sad.

I would stick with the other two with a proven reliable auto transmission and better overall quality trucks.

I recently seen a camper hauler with a ram/cummins broke down on I10 again. The poor guy was ~2 miles from Holiday World/Camper World to make his deliver. I've yet to see a Ford or Chevy broke down to date.

Also most haulers are SRW trucks too.

LOL, I wondered where you were in this thread ;) There is a lot of misinformation in this thread, let alone these posts alone.

Why don't you be more specific as to which recalls reflect poor quality workmanship short of the weld one? And I have yet to read about anyone who has confirmed their welds were bad so I think it is a very precautionary recall, as are most of them. The welds on my truck are perfect. I remember the cruise control recall that could cause fires that Ford had years ago and their short term fix was to disconnect the cruise control :R

Also I have yet to see a Ram/Cummins on the side of the road all the way through western Canada and much of the Pacific NW of the US. Can't say I haven't seen many Ford 6.0L trucks/vans dead, though (many of them at the city I work at). We have also had a couple of Torqshift transmissions go south on us as well so they aren't as bulletproof as some would like to think either.

As for them being junky, I have found things that were better on the Fords that I owned and things that are better on the Ram so I think it's a wash. I could have bought a new F-450 Lariat 6.7L 4x4 crew cab for the same money that I paid for my Ram so the comment that they are cheap to buy compared to Ford/GM is BS too!:B I can say with absolute certainty that had I bought a Ram/Cummins instead of my Ford 6.0L I would be much further ahead financially than I am now because they are not even in the same ballpark for resale value. There are a lot of used Ford 6.7L diesels in my area selling very cheap now too.

To the OP, I would highly recommend the Cummins/6 speed manual transmission combo. The Ram/Cummins is the only full size truck on the market where the 6 speed manual transmission is still available. I have had my truck for almost 2 years now and the zero launch feature of the Cummins with the manual transmission is a real treat to drive. Just put it in gear and let out the clutch; it really makes one appreciate the low end torque that the inline 6 really has. I can also let the truck go down to 20 mph in 5th gear and it easily pulls out without downshifting making city driving very easy and enjoyable. My truck handles our 16k fiver with ease and still gets 11-12 mpg doing so. The 2 stage exhaust brake in the Cummins is fantastic as well. My personal preference is a dually because our trailer has 4k lbs pin weight and the truck feels rock solid towing it.

The dealer I bought my truck from stocks several Cummins/6 speed manuals because they said they still sell very well. There's a very good reason for that :)