Do any of you miss your Cummins?

[SouthTexan]

I'm referring to extra cost of maintenance and repairs. I agree on the initial cost over gas and trade/resale value.

Maintenance is about the same due to high cost of the 6.4 oil and the Cummins is every 15k miles instead of 8k on the 6.4L. So you would only be doing 6 oil/fuel filter changes in the Cummins over the course of 100k miles versus 12 in the 6.4L. As far as repairs, the Cummins comes with a 100k powertrain warranty standard.

If you add up the fuel savings(12 mpg in the 6.4L versus 15.5 mpg in the Cummins according the fuelly.com) along with the money recouped in resales/trade in(generally about $6k), the difference is likely to to be less than what you paid for the 6.4L upgrade at 100k miles.

 

[theviking]

I got 15 mpg with my 6.4 once

 

[Obxram]

Maintenance is about the same due to high cost of the 6.4 oil and the Cummins is every 15k miles instead of 8k on the 6.4L. So you would only be doing 6 oil/fuel filter changes in the Cummins over the course of 100k miles versus 12 in the 6.4L. As far as repairs, the Cummins comes with a 100k powertrain warranty standard.

If you add up the fuel savings(12 mpg in the 6.4L versus 15.5 mpg in the Cummins according the fuelly.com) along with the money recouped in resales/trade in(generally about $6k), the difference is likely to to be less than what you paid for the 6.4L upgrade at 100k miles.

Unfortunately you don’t find too many people leaving their trucks stock till 100k or even keeping it to 100k. Those that do find that the emissions equipment fails or causes major headaches if kept in tact.

Now the real added cost comes in. Remove all the emissions stuff so you are sure the engine lasts. 5k with tuning,exhaust,deletes then add the tranny cause we know they last once you add power. You have essentially null and voided any residual value you had in the truck.

Buy the truck you can afford and is for your needs. Be prepared for repairs after the warranty is up in either.

 

[reek]

....I try not to get caught up in all the MPG, maintenance cost, longevity BS that these threads inevitably sink to....

and AWAAAY we go!

 

[SouthTexan]

Unfortunately you don’t find too many people leaving their trucks stock till 100k or even keeping it to 100k. Those that do find that the emissions equipment fails or causes major headaches if kept in tact.

Now the real added cost comes in. Remove all the emissions stuff so you are sure the engine lasts. 5k with tuning,exhaust,deletes then add the tranny cause we know they last once you add power. You have essentially null and voided any residual value you had in the truck.

Buy the truck you can afford and is for your needs. Be prepared for repairs after the warranty is up in either.

Actually most truck owners in the forums(like RV.net) and in real life that I talk to keep them stock during this time. Many that I know have bought an extended 100k mile warranty on top of this. While I do know people such as myself who have deleted or tuned way before this time, we are a small group compared to those who have kept it stock. However, tuning or altering warranty is a choice that either engine owner can make and they are taking it upon themselves at that point so it is moot in this debate.

I deleted at 30k miles and now it at 120k without any of thee issues you speak of. The delete already paid for itself 35k miles ago with the 2-3 mpg fuel mileage increase. Of course I deleted the right way with a reputable tuner that also tuned the trans to handle the added power and I have never gone over the 450 rwhp tune except for a few occasions. I will note that trans tuning was not so readily available at a low cost until around 2013 with EFI live. Before this, the you had to get a special controller that cost over a thousand dollars to tune your truck to handle the power that the H&S or Smarty added which most didn't and transmission failures ensued. Now it just cost $200 or even is free with some tuners so most people are able to run a 450 rwhp tune for hundreds of thousands of miles.

I don't plan on selling this truck anytime soon either and plan for at least 300k like the rest of my diesels which is around the time things like injectors and turbos need to be replaced.

 

[6.4 dude]

Buy 3, get 2 plus oil changes for $80 plus whatever filter you choose. I've being using Castrol for 100k with no issues.

 

[Alexpaul09]

I bought a 6.4 after owning several diesels. I personally love the 6.4 and don't really see the need for a diesel for what I do. I pull a job trailer 7500lbs around and haul lumber and tools in it. I make a lot of short trips but do put on 17,000+ miles a year. But as far as cost effective it's all what you like. Trucks are expensive to buy to work on to maintain. Plus gas trucks are lasting longer than ever before, it's nothing to see a gasser at the lumber yard with 230k miles on it. I'm going to keep running my 6.4 that has 107k miles on it until it's all rusted out lol

 

[6.7CumminsDrvr]

I miss my CTD.........but i didn't get a 6.4 Hemi, got a 5.7 in a 1500. The 1500 is a great truck but my 2010 CTD was tuned/deleted and was a BEAST! Picked up 3 mpg across the board after deletes, should have kept her.

 

[SouthTexan]

Buy 3, get 2 plus oil changes for $80 plus whatever filter you choose. I've being using Castrol for 100k with no issues.

View attachment 130572

Wow, that is some expensive oil. My oil change at the dealer is $80($65 with the coupon that is always on their website) and about $45 filter and all if I choose to do it myself. If I do everything myself(fuel and oil) then it costs me about $135 every 15k miles. Normally I let the dealer do the oil and I do the fuel filter since it is very easy and only takes about 10 minute so it comes out to about $155 every 15k.

 

[OCBray]

Just out of curiosity, what year and model was your last diesel and at what mileage what it at when you got rid of it?

VW dirty diesel. 3.0. 135k on the clock. Between the dealer and VW customer (DONT) care we gave up after spending 4k just to keep it on the road. Again it may have just been a bad egg. It was our first diesel. The wife refused to drive it. It was a few years ago when stations started having car diesel pumps. A lot of the nozzles would not even fit in the filler neck. So re fueling on a trip was limited to stations we knew would be fit.

Great torque and we were getting 40 plus MPG a lot of the time. That was before the dealer had it for 2 weeks and fixed it. After that MPG dropped to lo 30's, frequent regins, and the DEF would only last 5k miles before the warning light came on.

I know it was not even close to what the Cummins can deliver. We just could not take another chance.

 

[River19]

Didn't have a CTD but a built 7.3L with confirmed 325 to the wheels (which is fairly solid on stock internals)......I miss a very few things about that 2001 truck vs. 6.4L.

I don't tow heavy......5000-7500lbs......6.4L putting on only ~6,000 miles per year mostly towing the horse trailer .

Mileage is as I expected.....11-15mpg with 35" tires (adjusted).

We did inexplicably get 17.x mpg over like 3400 miles with 4 adults and 4 mountain bikes on a hitch rack back in 2016 on a trip to NC......plenty of hills in there......we were all stunned.

I didn't/don't need a CTD or any Diesel at this point so I don't even think about it. I like the simplicity of the 6.4L, not that it is simple just a step below modern Diesel complexity.

So far the 6.4L has been a peach, once a year to the dealer for oil change and whatever recalls etc. it needs. Spends more time with a laptop hooked up to it than a wrench.

If I were towing heavier or at altitude I would be looking harder at a diesel again.

 

[SouthTexan]

VW dirty diesel. 3.0. 135k on the clock. Between the dealer and VW customer (DONT) care we gave up after spending 4k just to keep it on the road. Again it may have just been a bad egg. It was our first diesel. The wife refused to drive it. It was a few years ago when stations started having car diesel pumps. A lot of the nozzles would not even fit in the filler neck. So re fueling on a trip was limited to stations we knew would be fit.

Great torque and we were getting 40 plus MPG a lot of the time. That was before the dealer had it for 2 weeks and fixed it. After that MPG dropped to lo 30's, frequent regins, and the DEF would only last 5k miles before the warning light came on.

I know it was not even close to what the Cummins can deliver. We just could not take another chance.

Are you seriously comparing a chain driven, CP4 pumped, piezo injector, European V6 diesel to a gear driven, CP3 pumped, solenoid injector, inline 6 Cummins?

This is why I usually ask when people say they have all these horror stories because 99 times out of 100 it wasn't a Cummins. Not all diesels are the same just as not all gas engines are the same. That is like someone saying all variable displacement gas engines are horrible because the last one they had was a Cadillac V8-6-4.

 

[Davejat]

Had a $5,200.00 repair bill on my diesel DEF system 54,000 miles Ram 3500 will not get another diesel!

 

[SouthTexan]

Had a $5,200.00 repair bill on my diesel DEF system 54,000 miles Ram 3500 will not get another diesel!

Why wasn't it covered under the 8 year/80k mile emissions warranty since the SCR is a catalyst?

 

[Davejat]

I have been fighting with Dodge but they keep telling me the warranties are up. It is an emmissions issue and should be covered.

 

[CMV157]

I have owned both a 6.7 Cummins and a 6.4 Hemi within the last 6 months. It's a shame these conversations mirror politics at times. One has to be good, the other bad. A winner and a loser. Right and wrong. These are both great platforms for an HD truck. I tow frequently, but usually 10000 pounds or less. There are times I would rather have the diesel, and there are times I would rather have the 6.4. For what I do, I could honestly go either way. I have the 6.4 now because of initial cost, and better road manners. The cost of ownership can be drastically different between people. I wouldn't say one's significantly better. That $9,000 up front though, imagine if you invested that at 6% a year? Or kept that much in your savings account? Or saved the extra $100 a month on a loan? It's a very personal decision, one to the next. What's right for one person, may not be the best for another. There is no generic one-size-fits-all answer as much as we would like there to be.

 

[SouthTexan]

I have owned both a 6.7 Cummins and a 6.4 Hemi within the last 6 months. It's a shame these conversations mirror politics at times. One has to be good, the other bad. A winner and a loser. Right and wrong. These are both great platforms for an HD truck. I tow frequently, but usually 10000 pounds or less. There are times I would rather have the diesel, and there are times I would rather have the 6.4. For what I do, I could honestly go either way. I have the 6.4 now because of initial cost, and better road manners. The cost of ownership can be drastically different between people. I wouldn't say one's significantly better. That $9,000 up front though, imagine if you invested that at 6% a year? Or kept that much in your savings account? Or saved the extra $100 a month on a loan? It's a very personal decision, one to the next. What's right for one person, may not be the best for another. There is no generic one-size-fits-all answer as much as we would like there to be.

I don't know how the others feel, but this is not about good and bad. Both are good and are for different purposes. I see no problem with someone saying that their driving habits(such as short trips) would not be good for a diesel or that they just plain don't want a diesel. This is why I do not comment on these things when they are stated as reasons for not owning one.

I do , however, see a problem with someone stating false info in order to justify their purchase especially when they are going off of emotion and have never bothered to do the math.

Ram HD Diesel
Up charge from a 6.4L: $8,700.00
Fuel used for 50k at 15.5 mpg: 3,226 gallons x $3.25 winter fuel = $10,484.50
Fuel used for 50k at 15.5 mpg: 3,226 gallons x $3.00 summer fuel = $9,678.00
DEF usage over 100k: 129 gallons x $2.80 = $361.20
Total = $29,223.70
Deduct 75% of diesel up charge($6,500.00) at resale at 100k = $22,723.70
*Note that most get between 65-85% of the up charge back on resale so 75% is in the middle

Ram HD Gas
Fuel used for 100k at 12 mpg: 8,333 gallons x $2.75 regular unleaded = $22,915.75
-OR-
Fuel used for 100k at 12 mpg: 8,333 gallons x $2.90 super unleaded(recommended) = $24,165.70


Also, most people purchase vehicles via a loan so they cannot exactly put money that they don't have in any type of savings to gain more money AND if you did have enough money to pay for a $50k+ vehicle cash then it would still be better to pay for it with a loan that you could get for less than 4% interest and put that money into an investment. Either way, it is best to pay for it via a loan if you can get a decent rate.

Doing the math on a 4% loan(which is high IMO) on a 2500 SLT 6.4L worth $43,585 versus the same truck with a Cummins $8700 higher at $53,285 is an additional $1,050 over the course of the loan. However, if you have great credit and can get a 2% interest rate, then it is only a $516 difference over 60 months. Everyone is different here and some may still be able to get a 0% interest if they choose to go with Mopar financing. Then there are others, like me, that were able to get over $14k off MSRP so then there is that as well.

 

[CMV157]

I don't know how the others feel, but this is not about good and bad. Both are good and are for different purposes. I see no problem with someone saying that their driving habits(such as short trips) would not be good for a diesel or that they just plain don't want a diesel. This is why I do not comment on these things when they are stated as reasons for not owning one.

I do , however, see a problem with someone stating false info in order to justify their purchase especially when they are going off of emotion and have never bothered to do the math.

Ram HD Diesel
Up charge from a 6.4L: $8,700.00
Fuel used for 50k at 15.5 mpg: 3,226 gallons x $3.25 winter fuel = $10,484.50
Fuel used for 50k at 15.5 mpg: 3,226 gallons x $3.00 summer fuel = $9,678.00
DEF usage over 100k: 129 gallons x $2.80 = $361.20
Total = $29,223.70
Deduct 75% of diesel up charge($6,500.00) at resale at 100k = $22,723.70
*Note that most get between 65-85% of the up charge back on resale so 75% is in the middle

Ram HD Gas
Fuel used for 100k at 12 mpg: 8,333 gallons x $2.75 regular unleaded = $22,915.75
-OR-
Fuel used for 100k at 12 mpg: 8,333 gallons x $2.90 super unleaded(recommended) = $24,165.70


Also, most people purchase vehicles via a loan so they cannot exactly put money that they don't have in any type of savings to gain more money AND if you did have enough money to pay for a $50k+ vehicle cash then it would still be better to pay for it with a loan that you could get for less than 4% interest and put that money into an investment. Either way, it is best to pay for it via a loan if you can get a decent rate.

Doing the math on a 4% loan(which is high IMO) on a 2500 SLT 6.4L worth $43,585 versus the same truck with a Cummins $8700 higher at $53,285 is an additional $1,050 over the course of the loan. However, if you have great credit and can get a 4% interest rate, then it is only a $516 difference over 60 months. Everyone is different here and some may still be able to get a 0% interest if they choose to go with Mopar financing. Then there are others, like me, that were able to get over $14k off MSRP so then there is that as well.

Good info. I'd also throw in the crankcase filter, egr cleanings, amd faster wear on tires ball joints etc from the shear weight of the Cummins. In the end, as I stated above. There isn't a huge difference in cost over time like some think. Also depends on what you do with the initial upcharge. Even if one doesn't have the cash, if you put 8700 into a mutual fund over 72 months, what's that worth after 10 years? If someone did that over the last 10 yeas they would have aahuge chunk of cash plain and simple. Interesting thought many dont factor in. Also, did the 6.7 update oil change intervals? Mine recommended changes earlier than the hemi. A case of oil every 6 -8 months is a factor too. If that has changed then maybe it's more of a wash.

 

[CMV157]

Good info. I'd also throw in the crankcase filter, egr cleanings, an extra battery in 10 years, and faster wear on tires ball joints etc from the shear weight of the Cummins. In the end, as I stated above. There isn't a huge difference in cost over time like some think. Also depends on what you do with the initial upcharge. Even if one doesn't have the cash, if you put 8700 into a mutual fund over 72 months, what's that worth after 10 years? If someone did that over the last 10 years they would have a huge chunk of cash plain and simple. Interesting thought many dont factor in. Also, did the 6.7 update oil change intervals? Mine recommended changes earlier than the hemi. A case of oil every 6 -8 months is a factor too. If that has changed then maybe it's more of a wash.

Almost forgot about fuel filters... Gotta factor that in. I looked on oil changes. The Cummins can go more miles but needs to be changed every 6 months regardless. 8000 miles for the hemi. I'll bet for many oil changes will cost more on the diesel.

 

[Firebird]

I miss my CTD.........but i didn't get a 6.4 Hemi, got a 5.7 in a 1500. The 1500 is a great truck but my 2010 CTD was tuned/deleted and was a BEAST! Picked up 3 mpg across the board after deletes, should have kept her.

The one Cummins truck I wish I had not sold was my 2007 with a 5.9