I'm a dodge guy but i wanted to know the problems prone to each truck, so i can pick the least problematic, and truck i can have more fun in without dumping my paycheck into it any help? so 96 dodge cummins 3500 5.9L or 06 f250 6.0L powerstroke?

 

Well, the problem with the F250 is obviously that it's a Ford.
The problem with the Cummins is that it's old.

The Dodge will probably have lots of BS things that need to be done, but there's loads of free HP to be made just screwing around with it.
The Ford MAY not nickle and dime you as much... today... but it's not brand new either and performance is going to cost. I can't stand Ford trucks, can't get comfortable in them. We have twenty in our fleet from 1996-2013, and I hate every last one of them. Five minutes in the cab and I want to shoot myself in the back with painkillers. If this isn't a problem for you, that clearly levels the playing field as I see it significantly.
Ultimately, which one will be cheaper comes down to condition and luck. Without looking at them personally, it's hard to say.

 

the only issue i see with the ford is its a 6.0 which means (unless its been corrected already) you will have head stud issue, egr valve issues and cam position sensor issues. the first to are expensive the cam sensor is fairly cheap but its a real bitch to get at. my buddies 06 has gone threw 4 of them in 2 years.
i have a 1996 ext. cab long bed and i love it. really need to know more about both. the only issues i had with mine was the slosh box automatic.

 

buy them both then take the motor out of the dodge and dump it into the ford and your g00d!.. haha id go with the cummins all day 6.0 are junk i wouldnt buy one! i wish i could start a new automobile company i would build a truck with a cummins motor ford body and a Gm ride!!

 

the egr has already been fixed on the ford and i dont know if its had hed stud problems yet, sadly the truck in an automatic tranny, i have gotten the ford thoh it was more convienient would have preffered the dodge thoh both trucks had about the same miles but being on the coast the dodges frame is probly alot worse off
so hopefully the guy before me took care of most of the fords problems.
thank yall

 

good luck with the 6.0 my buddy went through 3 trannys from blumenthas in okc.ok and all the bad luck with the egr and studs his hydrolocked. fixed all that while i was trying to talk him into dropping a cummins in it, talked to him about a 2 months ago he was wishing he had done the swap. the injectors were crapping out again in less the 50k. needless to say he dont have it a yr after all the work started. super nice truck but the 6.0 engine is scrap iron. imo hope you have better luck though

 

We have one 6.0 in our fleet. What a POS. It has less miles than any of our other Fords, and has easily had the most problems. I think it's finally up to about 80K now, bone stock, and it's been through two turbos, at least one set of injectors, a computer, it's been a nightmare. Every time we turn around it's shitting the bed again. Our 7.3's are turds, but they don't really give us problems. Most of them have well over 200K on them. We have two 6.7's, which haven't really given us any trouble yet but don't seem to be all they were cracked up to be. The 5.4's are easily the best in our bunch, with just a tune and DPF delete they're Supertruck.
All of them have cost us more in every way than my old 98 Ram and it's little Cummins though

 

no smog on the dodge and it will last 3 times as long as that 6.0

 

You think it's possible that your fleet trucks have the cheapest seats possible in them?

I can sit in my bench seat in my F150 for four hours straight and almost fall asleep driving....

 

Some of them do have cheap bench seats, but some of them have full power leather buckets. I don't like any of them, pretty much equally, and it's not just the seats.