I'm new to the whole diesel pickup game and am torn between these two trucks. My friend is selling an '06 Ford F250 Lariat Crew cab long bed 4x4 turbo diesel (not sure of engine size). It's in great shape and has only 40k miles on it. I love the way it looks but it's an auto tranny and I really want a manual. Also, I've read plenty about the ford 6.0's not being as good/reliable as the cummins. My local Dodge dealer recently got on an '06 Ram 2500 with the Cummins diesel and a manual tranny. It's a quad cab 6 1/2 ft bed 4 x 4 SLT Big Horn and has 66k miles on it. The ford is going for $28k and the dodge $27k, so the price is basically the same but the Ford has leather seats and all the bells and whistles plus the long bed, which is nice. The Dodge not so much. Also the dodge has some chipped paint on the hood and in the wheel wells and a few other spots. I don't care so much about how pretty it looks or whether it has leather seats or not, but I also don't want to pay more for something than it's worth (at least as compared to my friend's truck). I'm leaning towards the Dodge but wanted to hear some opinions from you guys first. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Oh and I'm not planning on doing anything crazy with it. It won't even be a daily driver, i just want a solid pickup for those times when I need ... a solid pickup.

 

cummins is way more reliable than a powerstroke...the 06 fords have the 6.0, ive heard alot of bad things bout them, but heard of alot of ppl swear by them...my dad had an 05 f350 and i had an 04.5 3500 dodge with cummins, id pull circles around him, and got better mileage than he did...no emissions on the 5.9 cummins, ford started puttin the emission controls on the 6.0s..he had to have egr replaced on his. he sold it with 65k on itto one of his buddies that was pulllin a dirt track car, and the turbo went out at 72k..its all preference, but im stickin with the cummins...oh yea, pop the hood on both and look at them, see which u had rather work on ...anyway im sure some of these other guys will chime in, thats just my .02 worth

 

i dont like short beds. i dont know about you but i use my bed a lot. it gets packed frequently. ya stick is much better but a cummins is in no way better than a powerstroke or more reliable. if you take care of your truck and maintain your truck you will be fine with either. cummins has had there share of problems and so have the powerstroke 6.0's but the 6.0 is hit or miss but it seems more for the guys that beat on them.

 

Go with the Dodge and you will be happy. The 6.0L powerstroke is a decent engine once you do a egr delete, bulletproof diesels oil cooler, black onyx headgaskets, and arp headstuds. But they are expensive to work on and the injectors are extremely expensive. With the Dodge get a good clutch becasue the factory ones are terrible because they have a dual mass flywheel. And with a Dodge you need to get a good lift pump like a airdog to supply the injection system. The injectors are expensive for these trucks as well but they are easy to make power with if you decide to go crazy with it.

 

see they're both expensive. they're diesels. if ya want cheap go buy an F150. oh and ya gotta consider the whole truck. its not just the engine we're talking about here. Dodge has horrible front ends.

 

How is a cummins not better than a powerstroke ecspecially a 6.0L these were the worst deisels international has built for ford. And the 7.3 are good but they are damn expensive to modify. The only powerstroke that is really good and tough are the 6.4Ls aftewr you spend about 1200 bucks to do a egr and dpf delete.

And how has cummins had there share of problems?

And the third gen front ends are better than the 2nd gens, but the G56 trans in that 06 dodge will go to hell and back with a good clutch

 

and i also said it was preference and my .02 worth...but think about it, u always see the ford and chevy guys gettin a cummins and droppin it in the ford and chevy...now i dont know about you, but i have never seen anybody take one of the other 2 and drop in a dodge but im not here to have a damn arguement about a truck....the guy asked for input and he got mine... if i had a powerstroke, itd be a 7.3

 

eh maybe a 6.0 but not a 7.3 or 6.4. and whoa whoa whoa lets sit down in the chair and crack open a beer and reminisce about the kdp. how many years did it take them to realize that maybe they should fix that? add that one up and it looks pretty bad especially when its something that can turn the engine into a paperweight

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and then didn't they have that set of there blocks that cracked really bad? then wasn't there a pump they had that was crap? i dont remember about which that one was

 

One thing outta 18 years of service! I dont think is to bad and its not a expensive fix just takes alittle time. But hands down cummins track record for reliabilty is better.

Hmm 53 blocks only 1 percent of the 53 blocks break so when they do you here about them. And you must be talking about vp 44 injection pumps wow you can fix that with a lift pump and common sense

 

its not just one thing and they all have there problems. with some 6.0's are hit or miss so you can't really say it was horrible. some love them some hate them. in my opinion you're good either way. powerstroke or cummins. ford or dodge on the other hand........i love my fords. my dad bought a brand new dodge in 02 and it was a lemon. got another one same thing. i'll never own a dodge