Ok ladies & gent's, I currently have a car, I'm finishing up, looking to sell it and buy a Cummins. I'm in the range of 03-07 becuase of the availability, price, and i love the look. I'm wodnering what types of issues I should be aware of prior to purchasing, and what year('s) are better than others. I currently own a VW, and I absolutely do not want to buy another headache of a vehicle. Once purchased my plans are fairly simple, Bully Dog Triple GT Tuner, Exhaust, Intake, leveling kit, and beefier tires. I have been looking around on here for the past hour or so, and I've seen talks of the Automatic Transmissions going bad, and the crank sensors. I will be looking to purchase an A/T apposed to a manual. From what Bully Dog says, The 610 Cummins goes to over 900 ft./lb tq with simply there Triple GT programmer, so I'm assuming after an exhaust and intake setup it will be nearing 1,000 ft./lb tq. So, I'm wondering if in fact the transmission will fail, and what should I be looking at when I contact dealers and private sellers about purchasing a truck. I'm sorry for the speel of words here, I just want to completely fidn out everything. My last question is the different packages. I only want a quad cab, btu I'd love having a sun roof or moon roof whatever they're called. And which package comes factory with one of these. Thank you all in advanced, and once again sorry for all the words!

 

Well I just bought my 06 2500 qc laramie.. it has leather power sliding rear window.. sunroof.. and if remember correctly they started the sunroof option at 2006. It took me awhile to find er.. and from my researching I've read that the dodge trannys are good up to 450 hp. But torque is the major thing... There's some mods you can do to the Tranny to beef it up I'm sure more of the more well expierenced cummins guys can be more informationable bout the issues

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Also idk where your from... But the laramie took me bout 2 months to find one..

 

Thanks for the info on the laraime package man, how much did that cost you...if you don't mind me asking of course. And I live in Maryland, but don't really mind traveling for the right truck.

 

I got mine for 19. In really good condition.. I've seen em were they retailed for dam near 27k.. it runs like a charm with 115k. Just a marked title.. there some in town but the go from 20-27k in fargo nd. when i had my banker do the loan info he looked up nada book and it retailed for 27k

 

That's an amazing deal, hpefuklly I'll be able to find one for myself. But thanks again for the package info, I'll start narrowing down my search for the laramie!

 

Ya I was lucky to find it for 19 cause of the oil fields out here diesel trucks are at top dollar.. and the guys from the oil fields don't have a problem paying for em. Like one o the dealers had a 2005 slt 5.9cummins for 31k and it was gone within a week. But happy hunting! N good luck!

 

Hi,

Just my 2c, I love my 2003 3500 CTD. The 2003-2004 have much better pistons and tend to have less trouble with the injectors going bad, which is a super expensive issue to have. If you can find a 2003-2004, I would go with one of those. Btw the engine changes actually came in 2004.5, so you have to check the valve cover if it says 305hp its a 2004 if it says 325hp its a 2004.5

Hope this helps.

God bless...
Mark

 

I, too, am looking for a good 5.9L CTD-equipped Ram. Consequently, I did a search and came across this thread.

Mark (m_mcgranahan): Would you please elaborate on what you've written about the "newer" 5.9L CTDs. In other words, you seem to be indicating that the internals of the 5.9L became less reliable after the 2004 model year (2004.5 - 2007). Would you please write more about this?

I've got my eye on a 2004.5 CTD Ram, specifically, so I'm very interested in what anyone has to share about them.

Thanks for your time