Squashed at 200K? How much do you weigh? I'm baffled that my original seat hasn't even begun to break down. Granted, I only weight like, 170 with boots and all, but still. I had to skin the seats at a quarter million miles to install heater elements, and the foam was perfect, looked like it was just cut out of a block. Cutting through all the little metal rings that held the covers on sucked, and I was a little worried that they wouldn't stay fitted to the seats anymore and would start to slide around or come apart, but it's literally impossible to tell 100K later that anything was messed with. Well, except that flipping a switch makes them hot now...

 

LOL.. not all is bad, they did some thing right ... will give them credit for what they did right ..

 

I weigh 140 soaking wet.. dont' know what the previous owner weighed though. I had some seats from my parts Rx7 and put them in... they're fantastic seats, especially for a skinny guy like me... hold you in the seat a lot better with much better lumbar support. I think the previous owner may have done a lot of short trips, so he was always getting in and out of it?

 

Yeah I love the seats .. Mine are like full powered units .. SLT ? guess thats like fords XLT Lariat ? ..

Its got it all I will say that , Now just to get it all working , CC not working, A/C Not working - holes in lines from the Core support that rubbed through , Its all small stuff, like they swapped the 180 out and stuffed a 215 in , the didnt swap out the CC stuff so now i have to go in sech of the stuff .. its all worth it to me, keep my ford cause its 4x4, and the dodge for pullin the 4 letter F word home when it breaks down ..LOL

 

A/C failing due to poor design causing holes to be rubbed through hard lines by sheet metal doesn't strike me as "small stuff". Neither does failing 4wd because of CAD, dashboards caving in on themselves for no reason at all, sub-standard paint peeling away prematurely, exposing the poor quality body panels underneath and causing the truck to melt like a sugar cube after only a decade.

Going back to the point of the thread, this is exactly my argument: Nobody's trying to make you hate your trucks and love another brand. I couldn't care less what you think of them because the sentiment is irrelevant to me. The OP asked about quality and was wrongly told that Chrysler built these trucks better than Ford built theirs.

So, OP, the fact of the matter is that second gen Dodge trucks, with very few exception, have a metric sh** ton of issues that are a pain in the *** at best, downright dangerous at worst and Chrysler still refuses to make it right. If you're considering an old 12 valve Cummins truck, you'd do much better to find a 1st gen or an F250HD swap. These aren't without their issues, but they're definitely of a better quality, have fewer issues despite being older and are easier to work on, if only because of design. Who in Hell wants to have to lift the cab or move the engine to properly access what's underneath the #6 valve cover or remove 30 bolts to get a fender off?

 

I love to stir the pot and all but I have been a mechanic for a long time and work on these trucks every-day. The only thing good about the 94-98 dodge trucks is that beautiful p-pumped 12 valve, other then that they have terrible front end problems, junk trans and rot out and fall apart worse then any truck I have ever seen (except for late 70's early 80's chevies and new dodge trucks) everyone wouldnt want to swap a cummins into there ford because the dodge they found it in was better. Yes I am a ford guy and I would take an 80's through 97 ford anything over a dodge. By the way I have a cummins in my ford! Oh one more thing I know the 7.3 has it's issues but I have seen way more of these trucks with over 200-300,000 on them then any other truck.

 

I too have an 87 F250 .. been thinking about Fummins swap too ... but dang this dodge turns so easy, and its comfy to my rear end ... I Would LOVE for the cummins to be in my Ford .. but.. I do like the style of the Dodge too ... its oppinion based about the looks thing .. but my f250 also has its wiring issues, as well .. .. but , could be worse i suppose ..

 

Yeah, you could drive a '94-'01 Dodge with a gas engine.

 

Oh hell, you couldn't pay me to drive one of those.

 

No, I fix enough 360's , and 4.7's with windows freshly installed to know better there... Not to forget about that Frost plugs that seem to Rot out of the heads and blocks ... and then there's that DAMN HEMI !!!! really 16 spark plugs to make it run right ?? BB 426 or just GO HOME !!!

I would rather have my 77 Chyenne 20 rust bucket back .. even with the cracked frame @ steering box ..