2018 Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn

[1967 Mustang]

Greetings all. I bought a new Ram in 2002, sold it a year later for more than I paid for it and have owned all kinds of things since.

There is a 2018 Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn, 4x4 crew cab with the 3.0 diesel with 37,000 miles on the clock for sale locally. Asking price is 43k.

I know nothing about this engine.

What I am looking for is rock solid reliability to tow a 7-8,000# travel trailer anywhere in North America.

Will this 3.0 diesel fit the bill or should I look for a gasser. I don't need a 3/4T and nice used 3/4T's are few and far between. I'm interested in this particular truck because it is in mint condition, well equipped and low mileage.

Your feedback is appreciated.

 

[jws123]

Stay far far away from 3.0 ecodiesel they are nothing but money pits if you want a diesel get a cummins. The ecodiesels are not worth much later in life I see them blown up/broken with issues online all the time for sale or hear horror stories of massive repair bills. Find a truck witha 5.7 or 2500 6.4 hemi if you go for a gasser.

 

[crash68]

Be forewarned as by evidence of the prior post and more to come this forum has a huge Hemi bias, not to mention a bunch of whiners over the shift knob instead of a column shifter.
There's lots of EcoDiesels that log lots of miles. On another forum there's a lengthy list of EcoDs that topped over 100K miles and go up and over 400K miles.
There is a bit of a dark cloud over the engine for the early model year builds but the what's odd is the usual description of "never drove the engine hard or towed" seemed to be how the truck was treated before it failed.
The Hemi definitely won't come close to the EcoDiesel in fuel economy or how it pulls a trailer, I've had over 8K behind mine on several occasions. I traveled 500 miles of which 250 of those were towing a 28' trailer (approx 8K lbs) on 26 gallons of fuel. Hemi can pass lots of things just not gas stations..lol
If you like the fun pedal of a Hemi then the EcoD platform probably isn't for you.

 

[1967 Mustang]

Fuel economy while towing is either bad or worse than bad. Our motorhome with a 6.1 gasser gets 6-6.5 mpg. The last 5000 mile roundtrip at an average of $4 a gallon was unpleasant, but owning an RV is pay to play.

 

[1967 Mustang]

This truck has not sold, looked at it again this afternoon.

It is in mint condition and fits the bill for what we are looking for.

I am still unsure about the 3.0 diesel. so am still mulling the purchase over.

 

[Cummins diesel]

I have had two different trucks with the 3.0 eco-diesel and both of the trucks had over 100,000 miles on. Current truck has 122,000 and counting.2016 Ram 1500. Had to do the crankshaft position sensor on both of them but otherwise they have been good trucks. I only run synthetic oil though. I’m not trying to tell you what to do just telling you what my experience was.