Howdy all,
It has been a long time since I have been on here so I hope I might get some help on making this HUGE decision about which truck to get. I am looking for a towing rig for a future toy hauler I am going to purchase in 3-4 years. So why am I worried about buying now? My current truck is having transmission issues so I need to replace it as it is my daily driver.

The 5th wheel I am looking to buy in a few years is a custom built unit made by DuneSport and will be made to haul my Jeep TJ and Harley Road Glide Ultra in. So it will be a 38-40' trailer w/3 axles and will weigh about 21-22K loaded.

So I am looking at either a:
Ram 3500 DRW
or
Ford F450

So I am trying to decide which is going to be the better choice for me as thins truck needs to last me 10-15 years I hope.
Looking at the spec's on both trucks they are 30K towing for both. Cargo capacity is real close with the Ram allowing a little more. The Ford turns 3' narrower that the Ram. The Ford has more of the bells and whistles but I am not sure I really care about that. I'm talking about the blind spot avoidance, adaptive cruise control, trailer camera and stuff like that.
The Ram has the auto leveling rear air bag suspension which is a HUGE thing for me since I am not going to be hauling with the truck right away. So the Ram will ride better with that.
I don't know enough about the new Ford 6.7 as far as how reliable it is compared to the Ram 6.7 which I have a little experiance with. I owned a 08 6.7 that I did a full delete on and it was a great engine.
My current rig is a 06 Dodge Ram 3500 Mega Cab SRW CTD but the tranny has started to slip so I really need to make a decision and buy a new truck. I've owned Dodge for the past 12 years and like them a lot but if the Ford is a better vehicle then I am willing to switch to them.

The Ram I am looking as is a 2018 3500 Laramie Crew Cab long box DRW and has a sticker $73K
The Ford is a 2017 F450 Platinum Crew Cab long box DRW and has a sticker $71K

So please if you can offer up your thoughts and experiance between the two brands and the reasons of why I should choose one over the other. I live over near Cle Elum so I have not gone to physically look or drive either truck yet. I am planning in doing that Monday or Wednesday of next week.

Thanks

 

Wow not one reply

 

Well I see a Dodge in your pics.....good man! But Im rather partial to Dodge CTD because of its reliability, and its torque numbers at a lower RPM, as opposed to the v8 diesels. Ive test driven the brand new dodge CTD dually and the ford dually diesel. The ford, I thought, has a plushier interior than the dodge. The ford, to me didn't have much of a harsh ride as did the dodge, but I tested the Dually trucks. Im not sure about the Duramax trucks. Looks like you've done your own legwork, and have come up with some good points. Also, make sure ford doesn't still have the aluminum bed. Theres pros and cons to the big-3 for sure, and performance is pretty close between them. If it were me, however, I'd stick with Dodge

BTW, thanks for your service.....

 

Well after checking both brands and then calling Doug Smith in Kellogg, ID I got a lot better price than I was going to get anywhere else. So I am picking up my new 2018 Ram 3500 DRW CC tomorrow.

 

Right on.....congrats!