Hemi growl question and gearing!

[Johnny Blaze]

I could go that route but really don’t want to.Rot already set in on both wheel wells I don’t really want to start dumping money into a vehicle that I have not started putting miles on replacing the whole bed then painting it if there is rot on the wheel wells there is rot probably about to surface in other spots I could not see yet.The downfalls on rolling the dice on a salt belt state vehicle I would not want to go down that road!

 

[caulk04]

TLDR;

Get a clean truck with the 8spd and don't sweat the 3.21's if that's what it has.

 

[PoMansRam]

I don't know what your price range is, but if you're buying something in the People's Republic of NY that is 6+ years old, check it over really well for rust. Mash and release the parking brake a few times to see if it holds/releases and then crawl underneath to check for P-brake cable sag. If it's sagging, the p-brake hardware is seized and a dealer fix for this is like $1400 these days. It's a very common issue for rust belt Ram 1500s, but you can mitigate it. Lots of threads on this site on it. You've got a nice clean shot of the p-brake cable in your 3rd picture above for reference.

I know you say you want the hemi growl, but you say you're not towing or hauling anything. Have you driven a pentastar powered Ram 1500 w/ the 8spd? They're awesome too. I owned a 2017 quad cab 4x4 with the pentastar V6. The only reason I still don't have it is I wanted to upgrade to a crew cab and I couldn't find a used CC w/ the V6 at the time and got a deal on my 2019 classic hemi 4x4 @ $26K w/ 15K miles on it back in 2020. I get it though. You might be one of those 'V6 ain't a real truck' guys. The reason I brought up the V6 is you might find a better deal on a 2013+ V6, quad cab, 4x4 model.

 

[Johnny Blaze]

The pics of the vehicle I posted is is NC driven it’s whole life in Texas so I don’t think I’ll have the rust issues I would up here.I actually just took a bighorn for a test run up here it was surprisingly clean for a ny vehicle anyway I know everyone says the 8 speed is light years better it probably Is after driving the 6 speed I would have to get used to the 8 it’s a lot more shifty the 6 speed had that immediate jump in first gear probably because of the 3.92 gearing the 8 speed took an extra second to kick in but when it did you felt lt like mentioned it’s just a lot more shifty I would have to get used to it!

 

[PoMansRam]

My brain hurts. I'm out. Best of luck to you. LOL

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Not against the 6 just like the growl and power of the 5.7!Thanks all going to get the ball rolling with getting an inspector down there most likely Tuesday I’ll keep you guys posted!

 

[Wild one]

The pics of the vehicle I posted is is NC driven it’s whole life in Texas so I don’t think I’ll have the rust issues I would up here.I actually just took a bighorn for a test run up here it was surprisingly clean for a ny vehicle anyway I know everyone says the 8 speed is light years better it probably Is after driving the 6 speed I would have to get used to the 8 it’s a lot more shifty the 6 speed had that immediate jump in first gear probably because of the 3.92 gearing the 8 speed took an extra second to kick in but when it did you felt lt like mentioned it’s just a lot more shifty I would have to get used to it!

If the 6 speed felt jumpier in 1st then the 8 speed,it might have been tuned

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Could be I did not think of that!So straight up 8 with 3.21’s should have felt jumpier than a 6 with 3.92’s no tune!

Here I was looking for a 6 speed with 3.92’s because I liked the feel of it but could be it had that feel because of a tune good to know!

I’m learning more everyday from you guys

Thanks

 

[Socalramfan]

Rust, cancer alike are a big NO.

There's too much real estate on a Ram to just be in one spot. It will show up again later, and that would be a *****.

For a while there was a trend to send vehicles that got flooded in the hurricanes from Florida / Louisiana to other places of the country, thinking that the rust so won’t actually show for a year…. and sure enough it did, not to mention the electrical gremlins that evolved.

All depends upon what you ok with.

 

[Bigskyroadglide]

I have a 16 Laramie, 5.7/ 3.21. It's my road trip truck.

I swapped out the chrome bumpers and mirrors for a sport front end, color matched rear bumper and color matched mirrors. It looks exactly like a sport except for the sport hood, which is the last piece of the make over.

I sold my chrome mirrors and bumpers so my all in cost was less than a grand including paint.

If you have to have a sport. Conversation of a big horn is less than one day with the right prep work, and purchase of the parts ahead of time.

PS the hemi growl is present with 3.21s