sandsailor1
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2014
- Posts
- 15
- Reaction score
- 3
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- 6.7 CTD
Not sure why this didn't show in the thread earlier.
I haven't seen anyone posting about the 2014 Ram 2500s yet, so I will begin.
First, I am new to this forum, but not new to Ram trucks or diesel, so I have some reasonable experience with the topic. I have previously had a 1998 Ram 1500 SLT and a 2001 Ram 1500 Laramie, a 2008 Ford F450 and multiple diesels at work.
So last week I traded in my 08 F450 Lariat (got tired of the repair bills) for a 2014 Ram 2500 4X4 SLT with the CTD. The new truck has several things I think are absolutely great, and some things that I have minor issues with. No truck is perfect, we just get the best truck we can afford at the time.
The good:
The MPG is great. The EVIC currently says I am at 17.2 MPG, and that is driving mostly back and forth to work, 18 miles evenly split highway and secondary road with traffic lights. I am very light on the pedal, and always have been. But coming out of the F450 with 10-12 MPG, 10 on the highway, this is great.
The acceleration is smooth, with plenty of torque, nothing that sets you back in your seat or anything, but I will get to that later. So far it shifts real smooth, although at a little low RPM for my taste, may have to go into the "manual" shift mode and see how that does.
The new coil spring rear end is awesome! Makes for a nice stable smooth ride that absorbs the roads real nice. Even with a car trailer on (standard pull, no trailer brakes) with a car on it, there was no sway in the rear end, and the integrated exhaust braking worked well, although I wish it stayed active to a lower rpm, I think it shut of at 1200 RPM, and with the RPMs staying so low anyway, it would only activate for a second or two at a time.
The bad:
The SLT package really lacks in gauges, I wish I had the spare cash at the time to get the Laramie package. But the lack of a engine temp gauge, trans temp gauge, or any of the other standard gauges other than RPM and speedo gas and DEF. Should have sprung for the Laramie, but I would have had to wait because I got the absolutely last CTD truck on the lot at the time.
The ULINK is finicky. Phone will lag a lot, and the truck phone speaker sounds muffled. When using the Bluetooth pairing, it is very noticeable when you are using any nav feature on the phone, most of the direction is lost in lag. The USB hookup sometimes recognizes my phone to get my playlist, most of the time it says USB device not recognized. I am sure if this worked well it would solve my nav lag issue.
And the last negative is the headlights, they are not bright enough at all. The brights are as bright as my F450 stock headlights on normal.
Overall, I like this truck very much, it does what I need and gets me good MPG while doing it. I don't tow heavy all that often anymore, but this will handle the occasional heavy load when I need to, while not killing me the rest of the time.
I have not had the chance to hand calculate the MPG yet and only have the EVIC to go by, but I am nearing 500 miles on the first (dealer filled) tank of gas.
Happy driving.
I haven't seen anyone posting about the 2014 Ram 2500s yet, so I will begin.
First, I am new to this forum, but not new to Ram trucks or diesel, so I have some reasonable experience with the topic. I have previously had a 1998 Ram 1500 SLT and a 2001 Ram 1500 Laramie, a 2008 Ford F450 and multiple diesels at work.
So last week I traded in my 08 F450 Lariat (got tired of the repair bills) for a 2014 Ram 2500 4X4 SLT with the CTD. The new truck has several things I think are absolutely great, and some things that I have minor issues with. No truck is perfect, we just get the best truck we can afford at the time.
The good:
The MPG is great. The EVIC currently says I am at 17.2 MPG, and that is driving mostly back and forth to work, 18 miles evenly split highway and secondary road with traffic lights. I am very light on the pedal, and always have been. But coming out of the F450 with 10-12 MPG, 10 on the highway, this is great.
The acceleration is smooth, with plenty of torque, nothing that sets you back in your seat or anything, but I will get to that later. So far it shifts real smooth, although at a little low RPM for my taste, may have to go into the "manual" shift mode and see how that does.
The new coil spring rear end is awesome! Makes for a nice stable smooth ride that absorbs the roads real nice. Even with a car trailer on (standard pull, no trailer brakes) with a car on it, there was no sway in the rear end, and the integrated exhaust braking worked well, although I wish it stayed active to a lower rpm, I think it shut of at 1200 RPM, and with the RPMs staying so low anyway, it would only activate for a second or two at a time.
The bad:
The SLT package really lacks in gauges, I wish I had the spare cash at the time to get the Laramie package. But the lack of a engine temp gauge, trans temp gauge, or any of the other standard gauges other than RPM and speedo gas and DEF. Should have sprung for the Laramie, but I would have had to wait because I got the absolutely last CTD truck on the lot at the time.
The ULINK is finicky. Phone will lag a lot, and the truck phone speaker sounds muffled. When using the Bluetooth pairing, it is very noticeable when you are using any nav feature on the phone, most of the direction is lost in lag. The USB hookup sometimes recognizes my phone to get my playlist, most of the time it says USB device not recognized. I am sure if this worked well it would solve my nav lag issue.
And the last negative is the headlights, they are not bright enough at all. The brights are as bright as my F450 stock headlights on normal.
Overall, I like this truck very much, it does what I need and gets me good MPG while doing it. I don't tow heavy all that often anymore, but this will handle the occasional heavy load when I need to, while not killing me the rest of the time.
I have not had the chance to hand calculate the MPG yet and only have the EVIC to go by, but I am nearing 500 miles on the first (dealer filled) tank of gas.
Happy driving.