The GECCO
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 01:29 PM
So, you may or may not know that I've had a 2005 3/4 ton Dodge diesel for several years. Bought it in January of 06, it was a fleet return with just under 9,000 miles on it. I've loved it since day one.
Recently I noticed a slight vibration at highway speeds, but attributed it to the gnarly winter tires I had on it (thanks, Black Knight!). When I switched to my summer wheels/tires the other day the vibration remained so I took a look and found the rear u-joint on the rear driveshaft was going out. I bought a pair and replaced them. When I went to make a note in my records for the truck it dawned on me that this was the first thing on the truck that has actually failed/worn out. It now has just over 147,000 miles on it, and a fair amount of that has been towing various size trailers, including my 18,000 pound 5th wheel. Everything I've had to do to it so far has just been regular fluid/filter maintenance, brake pads, etc. The last oil analysis indicated nothing abnormal and I recently had to add the first quart of oil between changes - I change it about every 15,000 miles, running a 2 micron bypass filter.
It drives great, smooth, quiet, never been stuck in the snow and gets better than 20mpg on the highway. It's been rear ended twice, once by a pickup and once by a car. The pickup was moderately damaged and the car lost a radiator and was undrivable. Neither resulted in even a scratch to my truck (they both hit the towing hitch), the only ding in the bumper is from when I backed it into the John Deere at HPR (oops :shock:)
I'm not saying that Dodge is the best and all else suck or anything like that, just saying that this one has certainly treated me right and I plan to buy another when the time comes. Just thought I'd share my experience.
Recently I noticed a slight vibration at highway speeds, but attributed it to the gnarly winter tires I had on it (thanks, Black Knight!). When I switched to my summer wheels/tires the other day the vibration remained so I took a look and found the rear u-joint on the rear driveshaft was going out. I bought a pair and replaced them. When I went to make a note in my records for the truck it dawned on me that this was the first thing on the truck that has actually failed/worn out. It now has just over 147,000 miles on it, and a fair amount of that has been towing various size trailers, including my 18,000 pound 5th wheel. Everything I've had to do to it so far has just been regular fluid/filter maintenance, brake pads, etc. The last oil analysis indicated nothing abnormal and I recently had to add the first quart of oil between changes - I change it about every 15,000 miles, running a 2 micron bypass filter.
It drives great, smooth, quiet, never been stuck in the snow and gets better than 20mpg on the highway. It's been rear ended twice, once by a pickup and once by a car. The pickup was moderately damaged and the car lost a radiator and was undrivable. Neither resulted in even a scratch to my truck (they both hit the towing hitch), the only ding in the bumper is from when I backed it into the John Deere at HPR (oops :shock:)
I'm not saying that Dodge is the best and all else suck or anything like that, just saying that this one has certainly treated me right and I plan to buy another when the time comes. Just thought I'd share my experience.