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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.

Ricky
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 01:37 PM
I'd buy another Dodge if it had a Cummins in it. I had a 95 With a Cummins for 6 whole weeks until it was totaled at the fault of another driver. Awesome truck.

OUTLAWD
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 01:41 PM
they are built to last...not sure if they got it sorted, but the earlier models had front suspension and steering component issuesdue to the added weight of the diesel...

when I get a proper tow rig, it will most certainly be a dodge :up:

Ricky
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 01:44 PM
they are built to last...not sure if they got it sorted, but the earlier models had front suspension and steering component issuesdue to the added weight of the diesel...

when I get a proper tow rig, it will most certainly be a dodge :up:

Yup, I had that issue. It was a huge problem if you hit a large enough bump on one side of the front suspension at high speeds. It would basically reverberate and the suspension couldn't stop the back and forth motion of the front. It was really bad. I didn't have the same issue on the 96 1500 I had after that.

NUTZ
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 01:56 PM
Dodge trucks are great! The only major problem I have had with my 2000 is electrical issues. Mechanically it's been great, I upgraded the control arms and steering to Thuren Fabrication and have never looked back.

UglyDogRacing
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 02:15 PM
I have the identical truck as Gecco, same year, model, color, except mine is a long bed. Although I haven't been as fortunate with mine, I'm still glad I have it and plant to keep it. At 70k miles the rear engine main seal was leaking and I had it replaced under warranty. Just before the 100k the turbo was making alot of noise and the power was down. That was replaced under warranty along with the timing cover which was leaking oil. The steering box had been leaking power steering fluid for the past 2-3 years and in the past year the play in it got really bad. I replaced that about 6 months ago. The front wheel bearings were bad so I jut did both front hubs along with both front axel u-joints which were chewed up. I'm at 128k miles now.

The GECCO
Fri Mar 25th, 2011, 02:31 PM
they are built to last...not sure if they got it sorted, but the earlier models had front suspension and steering component issuesdue to the added weight of the diesel...

when I get a proper tow rig, it will most certainly be a dodge :up:

Yeah, that was called the "death wobble" on the diesel forums. They got it sorted out around the 2002 model or thereabouts.