Originally Posted by Hummin Cummins

I had both (purchased new) a 99 7.3 and a 2000 dodge cummins. The dodge hands down was more reliable The dodge never had a breakdown would beat the powrestroke by 2 to 3 mpg pulling. Not only that but the dodge handeled the weight way better even thow it had a lower tow rating then the ford. The body flex on the ford was scary.

My biggest complaint on the ford would be the steering it always felt so loose compared to the Dodge.
What I liked about the ford was the look and interior plus the brakes were stronger in the ford

I was a Ford guy my whole life, I decided to try a Dodge because of a few friends of mine were having good luck with them.

when you run a Ford and Dodge side by side it will make a believer out of you.

Originally Posted by zach_west

my 96 dodge was falling apart with 350k miles on it. put a flatbed on it fixed the door, guess who's still pulling strong? and my 03's body is great i'm very impressed with it. the cr sucks though. i can attest to the fact they well are pos's. it's getting a 12v in it though so i'm bout to haul rounds around ford boys.

Originally Posted by farmingsthelife

You can't compare a 7.3 to a 6.0. There should be cummins guys, duramax guys, 7.3 guys, and 6.0 guys. Second, my dad is a fleet diesel mechanic and powerstroke specialist on top of that. We constantly see beaten, battered, and abused 7.3's in the shop all the time with 3, 4, 5, hundred thou plus still goin just needing an oil change or driveline related. Yeah, you can't pull a house down, but the damned things are so reliable. And you got plenty of power there already, plus a bunch more when you bomb it. The '03 manual made 275 horses. Also you can't say they didn't put the 7.3 in a truck cause look at all the tow trucks that HAVE to be dependable running t444e's (7.3's). I'd confidently say the 400,000 mile barrier isn't even a tarp fence for the 7.3 to cross.

Originally Posted by PSDintheBACKWOODS

Awesome for you! 7.3 has a way better rep in the diesel industry than the 5.9 will ever have and its not even in production. Sitting in the barn at this moment while i type this my 5.9 is sittin not ran in 4 yrs i gave up on it . My 7.3s gettin me to work tommorow. And we have many farm tucks with cummins and we go thru em like hot cakes. DO NOT buy a cummins under 03 if u drive/pull like a maniac. dont buy a 6.0 or 6.4. If u pull ovr 30000 everyday buy a 7.3 less heartaches or if money isnt an issue a 6.7 cummins. 7.3 in my opinion is a legend in the diesel world.

Originally Posted by white93

According to my observations the early t44e's seem to be the best. We have some 95-96 190hp engines in buses at work that are going on 16k hrs and haven't had anything done to them other than the occasional oil change. The newer ones (99-03) are ok. We had an 3 210hp engines melt pistons and the rest always have overheating complaints on them, but they still run everyday. The 6.0l live up to there reputation even in buses. The 6.4 is a beast but its a little different than what ford uses, ours only have a single turbo. Believe it or not the worst engines in the fleet are cummins. The common problems they have are ip's, heads, turbo's, and the 8.3's like throwing rods. Its hard to drive a cummins powered truck to work and try to convince the other guys they are good engines.

Originally Posted by CSIPSD

Whats funny is you say the exact opposite of every Dodge guy I talk too... First complaint out of a dodge guy is loose steering... Second is the body is falling apart around the truck...

Get over it.

Year for year the Ford 7.3 is one of the best work/pulling/daily driving truck made.

Cummins is a great motor, wrapped around a tin can.