ok so this is my first post..im new to the diesel world and looking to get my first diesel pickup. I found a 1997 ram 2500 12v with a 5 speed with 197k miles. Im curious to see if this would be able to tow 10k plus? Im going into commercial fishing to help my buddy out who need a driver. Id be driving back and fourth all day, 5 days a week..putting roughly 2000 miles a week on this truck. Would it be able to handle all this while towing a large load? What kind of mpg should a be looking to get? also any suggestions on enclosed trailers that could handle 10k or more? Thanks!

 

It will pull it. If it's stock it won't pull it very well, but it will pull it. And it's easy to make a night and day difference in how stock it is without really spending anything, especially since it's not an automatic. As to that: you'll probably want to put a better clutch in it for pulling that heavy, because if it isn't slipping yet it probably will before long. Mileage is nearly impossible to guess, depends on the terrain and what you're pulling. I wouldn't expect it to be very good pulling an enclosed trailer big enough to handle five ton. It should, however, be every bit as good or better than any other truck you try to do that job with. My company has a number of 14K/GVW Carmate enclosed trailers, and we've had very good luck with them.

This is all assuming of course that the truck is in good working order and has been properly maintained. If it's been taken care of, that mileage is nothing to be concerned about and it will definitely do what you want. If you turn it up a little bit, it will do it very well.