I agree with the old adage of "falling apart around the motor" for the old gen2 dodge ram 5.9's. Man, we all wanted a 12V cummins, but there was always so much do deal with to keep the truck solid.(steering boxes, cracked frames, frame supports, death wobble was invented here, and whatever else that failed pre-maturely). The newest Rams I feel are a solid truck. There will always be someone who has issues, even early on with any of them. I no doubt feel Ford is overall the strongest and most reliable is gas platform, but if I were diesel shopping, I really believe the lesser of all evils still goes to the Inline 6.7.
If a tie breaker is needed, just open the hoods and pick the one that looks simpler.

 

The 5.9's were also cheap to work on as well. Do not know if the 6.7's have caught up yet.

 

Dodge was known for building beast type trucks up through the 70's, then everything fell apart for a variety of reasons. When Iacocca took the lead, Chrysler/Dodge was literally rebuilt from the ground up- mostly all good. When MB bought it, just like what they did with MB & Porsche, the "Good Dr." who led this corporate empire drove it into the ground...........eventually all the assets were sold off and the "Good Dr." and his team run out on a rail by the Board of Directors......which leads us to the Fiat fiasco.....Fiat, rated in quality (internationally) is #33...out of 34 car companies. While the Cummings diesel is a "tank" (good stuff), the Aisin tranny has been and will continue to be borderline junk.......yes a bit better luck in the trucks but in the cars (including Nissan) just a POS IMHO....including one of their famous QA measures...they brazed (instead of welding) in the impellor fins on their torque converters.........those were known for plenty of failures. Electrical......total POS and don't forget the Jeep shifter fiasco that killed a few people while fiat/Chrysler tried to "figure it out"....and the front seat failures that killed a slew of people nationally....enough to take the engineer who was fired for insisting it be fixed who became the lead expert for wrongful injury/death litigants in numerous lawsuits.........that sunk Chrysler again....and who much of this management team still exists and those who don't, their mentored protoge's are now in leadership roles. Yeah, that gives me a lot of confort & confidence there too!

What I do know from personal experience......

My neighbor across the street had a 2003 Dodge 4x4, 4-door cab, extended bed, V10, auto, etc with the factory (dealer installed) lift kit. At 3 years of age with 45,000 miles (all in Los Angeles)...
1. The piston rings let go- engine replaced under warranty
2. Valve guides let go- heads replaced under warranty
3. Transmission failed 3 times, rebuilt 2 times by factory, 3rd time he was on his own
4. Diff gears failed- owner replaced

Then he comes to my house one day in 2006:

The front lift kit is literally falling off the truck (yup, the metal is actually tearing). Factory has issued a recall but, available parts are limited to the front right (IIRR)...no parts available for the left front

Where imminent failure is likely, dealers were authorized to conduct repairs at any qualified welding facility- in this case the dealer sent the truck to Midas muffler, where they mig welded the structural cracks (ok...stop laughing that hard now!)

Now it's at my house with the front wheels sitting like a duck! The oem lift kit was definitely made overseas- gauge (thickness) of metal was clearly sub-standard for a vehicle of this size and weight. The FACTORY replacement parts were basically stamped steel plate (about 18 gauge) which covered the entire lift kit parts that attached to the frame, Just one little issue--- besides being only 18 gauge (or about), the material was full of containments. As I took my grinder to reduce the mig welds to see conditions, the metal plate heated very irregularly showing multiple hot/cold spots within the same area. As I choose my oxy/acet torch with a large brazing tip, utilizing copper coated rod, the metal plate literally developed hot spots in the adjacent areas, where metal areas about the size of a penny "suddenly liquified", with absolutely no direct flame impingement. Within a minute it looked just like a piece of metal that had been sitting out in the elements for 30 years and had rust-like holes in it- except it was still shiny of course.

Sitting back for a minute and giving this some thought, I took some 1/2" flat bar steel and with heat, gently formed an inner and outer brace along each of the lift kit components, then welded up any suspected/visual cracks or fatigue locations.

The owner helped the whole time.....when done, he asked me what I thought....my response:

1. Don't drive this thing over 30 mph
2. I doubt if this will hold for more than 3 weeks
3. Get this thing to a dealer and trade it in

9 weeks later he knocked on my door, one of the parts was starting to fail again in another area, not one single Chrysler dealer in Los Angeles would touch the truck on a trade in (well one in Valencia offered him $500 for his truck, wheels and tires basically, the truck would be scrapped), he found a GM dealer that would give him $2k (mind you this was a new $50,000 truck 3 years prior)- and asked if I would weld it up one more time...I looked at it and said, yeah, but give the dealer a call first to see if they will just tow it- they did.

For any mfg to allow critical safety related components to be used that do not meet the most basic street demand requirements and additionally take no action on conditions that will kill occupants and place others on the roadway in immediate jeopardy is criminal!

But this is or was the corporations "value system"- let em sue and we will provide support when it's convenient!

 

Interesting about the seats mentioned in the previous post. I weighed around 180-200 during the time period of owning those dodges and the seats collapsed in both of them. Around 50K miles you could really tell the trucks were aging quickly.


Don't know about the current ones but it seemed like there was some cost engineering going on at the time, ie cheaper seat frames and cheaper bushings.


Nice looking trucks though and functional on paper.

 

One thing to consider on that, that they are not mentioning is, they probably sell fords at least 3 to 1 over the dodge. It's probably greater than that in my area. So the chances of diesel issues coming back is much greater on the ford.

 

you guys are not good therapist...LOL...I'm no longer a Ford owner...went to the other side...and bought:

2017 Big Horn Crew Cab 4x4 3500 DRW long bed with the Aisin transmission. Factory tow prep and lots of other goodies.... so far I really really like it. Can't wait to tow.

Thanks for everything...this has been a great site and I will keep in touch

 

Dang it man.....wish you luck with your new truck. You'll be back, they always come back.

 

Well congrats on a new truck. How about the pic we're due. My friend owns a diesel and tranny shop, they have yet to see an Aisin, they seem to be pretty high on them.

 

Seeing what you are pulling, it is probably the right choice if the Ford Powerstroke was more than you wanted to spend.

 

Congratulations, sir. Best of luck.

 

Here are some of the first pics

 

And the money shot...

 

The diesel is a different ball game all together......mechanically it's built!!!!!

 

If you hurry and take it back now you still might be able to get your money back.

 

You might enjoy this.
Congrats!
If I went back to a diesel, it would probably be a Cummins.