First diesel owner from Idaho/Washington border!

[Clubber Lang]

Howdy from God's country on the Idaho/Washington border! This is my first diesel vehicle in 40+ years of buying vehicles and probably around my 50th vehicle. I've owned plenty of Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth/Ram vehicles over the years. My other vehicle is a 2024 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport S 4xe that I bought last November. It has already been built for exploring the Idaho mountains and the deserts of Arizona and Utah.



This is my 5th Dodge/Ram pickup. The previous ones were a `67, `74, `79, and 2014. All were 4x4 and lifted. That being said, I am by no means a Dodge fanboy. I started out as a Ford guy in high school, then bought a `65 GTO and learned that all makes had their strengths and weaknesses. I've owned a Barracuda, Coronet, Fury, and Duster. I am loyal to no brand, but have enough personal history to know what is best.

But I am here to learn about how to transform my new Ram 2500 into a vehicle that is capable of performing the tasks and duties that I need it to perform. I'm pretty much done after 3 months of ownership, but still have some minor mods and tweaks to do in order to fine tune it.

When I brought it home...



Today...

 

[Clubber Lang]

Forgot about my `87 Ramcharger and `65 Dart GT in my count of Mopar cars and trucks...

 

[Papa Red]

Welcome to the forum.

Red

 

[turkeybird56]

Howdy from God's country on the Idaho/Washington border! This is my first diesel vehicle in 40+ years of buying vehicles and probably around my 50th vehicle. I've owned plenty of Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth/Ram vehicles over the years. My other vehicle is a 2024 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport S 4xe that I bought last November. It has already been built for exploring the Idaho mountains and the deserts of Arizona and Utah.

View attachment 570163

This is my 5th Dodge/Ram pickup. The previous ones were a `67, `74, `79, and 2014. All were 4x4 and lifted. That being said, I am by no means a Dodge fanboy. I started out as a Ford guy in high school, then bought a `65 GTO and learned that all makes had their strengths and weaknesses. I've owned a Barracuda, Coronet, Fury, and Duster. I am loyal to no brand, but have enough personal history to know what is best.

But I am here to learn about how to transform my new Ram 2500 into a vehicle that is capable of performing the tasks and duties that I need it to perform. I'm pretty much done after 3 months of ownership, but still have some minor mods and tweaks to do in order to fine tune it.

When I brought it home...

View attachment 570164

Today...

View attachment 570165

Welcome nice looking ride. Wat trim Tradesman?

Biggest upgrade may be headlights if You do not have OEM LED. Interior lights if not LED.

Back up lights changed if incandescent or add extra rear fixtures or maybe light strip.

Reason say Tradesman not see fog lights.

But definitely nice ride. Truck 2025?

Biggest things maintenance and Regens. U need to run dat beast highway speeds for like an hour ish at least once a week due to Regens.

 

[Harley Harrold]

 

[Clubber Lang]

Welcome nice looking ride. Wat trim Tradesman?

Biggest upgrade may be headlights if You do not have OEM LED. Interior lights if not LED.

Back up lights changed if incandescent or add extra rear fixtures or maybe light strip.

Reason say Tradesman not see fog lights.

But definitely nice ride. Truck 2025?

Biggest things maintenance and Regens. U need to run dat beast highway speeds for like an hour ish at least once a week due to Regens.

It's a Tradesman with some extra packages. I have all of the cameras, blind spot monitoring, exhaust brake, and trailer brake controller.

It's a 2024, which is why I got it for $18k under MSRP.

I work a swing shift and the headlights were the first thing to be upgraded. I installed LasFit low and high beams and the difference is amazing!

I commute 15 miles one way to work at about 60+mph. I have not experienced any regens in 1200 miles and just re-filled the DEF tank with 2.5 gallons of the Peak Blue DEF.

I changed my Jeep's oil for the first time at 1200 miles to get the break-in oil out and to get good oil in it for the winter and a 3600-mile road trip. I plan on doing the Ram oil change myself and have already bought a Fleetgard filter and the filter plug. I just need to get the fuel filters ordered and the oil. I did a bunch of research and am pretty sure I'm going with 5w-40 Shell Rotella T6.

 

[turkeybird56]

You have used 2.5 gallons of DEF in 1200 miles? Hmmmmm. Maybe because new. I think that is excessive. BUT the only Diesel I have owned was the ED, SO SOMEONE who is running a Big Diesel needs to chime in.

YUP< get the proper filters and either Fleet or OEM seems to be the answer on the big Cummins, from what I have read for years. As far as oil, again yer research dictate. The friggin ED's took a special oil with certain additives, I am not sure on the Cummins but have read lots of folks use Shell Rotella or Chevron Delco, again your research will tell you what to use.

REGENS: Have no clue on the big Diesels, again somebody that has a Big Diesel needs to CHIME IN. I would think it should have done an active regen by now, BUT THAT is MY opinion only. Would bet it has done passive regens, but all that not in my wheelhouse. I had a BlueDriver scanner system I used in my ED so I knew when it was in a REGEN cycle. I personally had to take an hour a week on a 70-75 mph run to get the ED to REGEN due to it being more of a GG than worked. But the Gen II ED's had EGR and other issues and when CARB came out and they flashed the ECU's, it had to go. (just my experience)

Great on the lights, my 19 are OEM LED, so no issue. Have you thought about adding some type of lightbar in the rear and/or some other type of modification ref Backup Lights. I find on my OEM lighting on my 19, the backup lights just suck.

NE WAY, great ride you got there and definitely know how to turn a wrench. Good Luck on yer ride and all yer endeavors.

ALL of the above IMHO ONLY !!!

 

[Ritchie_Rich]

1200mi with 2.5gal DEF is about right. It’s a 5gal tank so ~2400mi per tank. The later model Cummins has different programming than the earlier 6.7s so it uses a bit more DEF.

 

[NotSoFast]

DEF usage seems about right. There are three different types of regen cycles. The most common one is the passive regen, and this happens in the background. But your DPF gauge will show it, otherwise you might not notice it. The active regen cycle will advise you to run it continuously at highway speeds until it is complete. Even when using the gear limiter to keep the rpms over 2000, this can still take up to an hour.

Either regen cycle works by injecting fuel into the cylinder during the exhaust stroke. That turns the exhaust system into a torch to burn of the soot that gets adsorbed onto the filter.

If that fails to clean the DPF the truck will derate its power and demand servicing. The dealer (or someone with alphaOBD can initiate a stationary regen, where the trucks sits still at a high idle and blows lots of diesel fuel through the exhaust. Sometimes it will get run twice. Replacing the DPF will set you back at least $3k, so take care of it.