Hey guys,

I've always heard that the dodge trucks with the cummins are the best for towing, 20mpg without a trailer. My wife and I might be getting a travel trailer and it's going to weigh somewhere around 8000lbs so I need a truck (or maybe a suburban, but better gas mileage would be great).

I had a few questions I was hoping I could get help with. We want to buy whatever we get cash, so I'd like to keep price under 8k. I have two kids which makes the 4 door a requirement. And I have back problems so I would like it to be fairly comfortable (I heard one year the base model seats were like sitting on wood benches they were so uncomfortable.)

1. What year and configuration do I look at? I'd like automatic but read that some of them had problems with the auto transmissions. I can drive a stick but wife can't and she would like that because she prefers I do all the driving.

2. Our thinking was make this my new daily driver (sell my trailblazer) and tow vehicle, good idea or are they better just for towing not great for around town? (its only 2 miles to my office)

3. If I'm only putting say 6000-10000 miles a year on it what am I looking at for maintenance cost wise.

Thanks

Red

 

I drive a 99 Dodge Ram 2500 ext cab 4x4. I have a family of 4, kids are 4 and 6...I pull a 12k 5th wheel. I get about 17 mpg in town with some mods, 35" tires...I could probably get better mileage but I love to hear the turbo whistle...

In summary, it sounds like we have similar situations, and my truck suits our family perfectly.

 

How long have you had it and has it had any major maintainence issues?

 

I've had it for about 3 years. No major problems. The previous owner had the transmission repaired, 5th gear had a tendency to go out, and he replaced the fuel pump. You could read for days on the infamous vp44 fuel pump. Some say that the lift pump that takes the fuel out of the tanks usually goes causing the >$2k fuel pump to go. All will agree that you should install a fuel pressure guage so that you know if the fuel pressure falls too low and you can shut down and repair the problem before it takes out your fuel pump.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2