Thanks for the tip on steam cleaning. I think I'd rather do that myself in my garage having a cigar and a drink than sitting in the waiting room at Chrysler.
And yeah, I'm torn on Chrysler, I want to love the truck but all I can muster is like. I just went through an $1100 dollar heater core replacement on my wife's '13 Wrangler. Chrysler is notorious for leaving larger amounts than normal of casting sand in their engines. It builds up in the far end of the heater core and eventually turns to sludge. This manifests itself as having heat on one side of the vehicle only, in the Wrangler it was the passenger side...the drivers side was so cold it was like the AC was running. My wife does love her Wrangler but is so pissed about it she refuses to ever buy another Chrysler (FCA) product.
I am a life long Blue Oval guy and have only been buying Chryslers since about 2013. At this point when my RAM dies I'll probably go back to Ford.
The trick to stuff like this is how the manufacturer handles it. My buddy isn't sour because it's a faint memory at this point and he's back to enjoying his otherwise trouble-free truck. The longer the issue lingers for you and you can't get past it with a satisfactory resolution, you'll unfortunately be driven back to another brand.
I've had a 94, 96, 2004, 2005.5, 2010, 2013 and this 2017. All have been Cummins except this current one. All have been near perfect and the value that RAM has over Chevy and Ford keeps me. I would never argue one is better over the other but the fact that I can get a comparable truck for 80 - 90% of the cost keeps me. Plus -- I like the looks of the RAM better.
This is ALL subjective though and I would never suggest someone should agree with me...
Good luck getting this resolved so you can go back to enjoying your truck as soon as possible.
-Guzzler