Neverending DPF issues - Trade in for Cummins or Hemi?

[DeltaRingo]

Hello everyone - I need your opinions!
I own a 2020 RAM 3500 Longhorn Cummins 6.7 HO with 26,000 miles, that has had chronic DPF issues since purchase. Aside from that, I really do love this truck. It's has DPF issues every 3-5,000 miles. They've replaced the whole entire emission system twice, the DPF a handful of times and the sensor 7 times. Just a few days after pulling a load down the freeway for a couple hundred miles and my DPF guage reading zero, I had gained about an eight on the guage when it began to regen. Then I got the "exhaust filter full, reduced power, see dealer" light AGAIN! When it came on the DPF guage didn't read full. About 10 miles later, it went straight to 100% full. My dealer told me he had 15 separate DPF conversations just today, telling people parts are on backorder. My dealer is at a loss and previously suggested we use the NCDS warranty dispute to try and get RAM to buy back this truck. That case was just denied, the manufacturer says the truck operates like it's supposed to. I live in a small town with no interstate nearby, at 6000 ft elevation, with long winters, which adds to all of the DPF issues. This truck is absolutely not dependable and RAM needs to read about the issues and make some changes!

My question to all of you is: I have an excavation company, so I haul heavy loads and plan on retiring and hauling a heavy camper around. I am going to trade this truck in. Would you get another Cummins, hoping the problems have been ironed out, or look into another brand? Or does anyone have any experience with the 3500 with a 6.4L V8 Heavy Duty Hemi?

 

[Billet Bee]

2020 6.7 3500 max tow 410 aisin auto level, haul a heavy fifth wheel, zero dpf problems since I bought it new, knock on wood. Not sure why your having so many issues with yours except for the fact that your never on the interstate to keep it under load long enough. I can't imagine not owning a Cummins , but with the problems you've had if I had to go through that id be jumping ship. Also, I can't suggest a hemi over a Cummins because I'm not sure what you consider a heavy load. The hohd 6.7 is meant for hauling heavy loads for a distance and not just stop and go traffic. I haul a 27,000 lb trailer for long distances, if your not driving for longer periods ( 30 minutes or more) then a diesel that regenerates is going to most always cause you problems. Some times it can regen for 45- 90 minutes depending on how packed the filter is and if you aren't running it at all for longer periods with out shutting it off then its not going to finish it's cycle and continue to compact the filter.
How heavy is your trailer?
How long is your drive and at what speed?
Is your traffic stop and go?

 

[Dean2]

For your business and the hauling you do the 6.4 is a better choice. I have the 6.4 in a 2500. Great pulling engine and it doesn't need long highway runs. The diesel has great torque but only gets a couple of miles per gallon better mileage under load so if you aren't hauling long mountain passes at highway speeds then the 6.4 would do the job just as well. Once you retire you would probably prefer the diesel. Kind of depends on how long you are going to work.

 

[DeltaRingo]

Our little town has no stop lights, so it's very much stop and go with stop signs. My house to my office is only 1 mile thru town. I have to go to the adjacent towns once or twice a week which is only 20-25 miles at 65 mph. When hauling heavy excavation equipment (dozer, backhoe, skid steer) to jobsites, it is typically within 20 minutes of town but typically has some steep hills. We do live in the high mountains of Colorado. I understand all of these things contribute to the problems, but I feel like all of these things are very common in rural America where farmers and ranchers live and work. RAM is going to push all of these people to different brands if they don't fix these issues.
I really appreciate both of your comments! It's rare to find anyone at a dealer who truly knows 3500s like the people who use them. The dealer just wants to sell another one, even if it cannot operate properly under my conditions.

 

[Dean2]

I doubt buying a new diesel will change your regen issues given how you use it. In three years you have only put 26,000 miles on your existing pickup, it is barely broken in. That low mileage also adds weight to why you are seeing regen so often.

I would be inclined to keep the diesel for retirement, as long as you have extended warranty, and buy a gas pot for the business, use it till you retire and sell it with the business. If you have the income to write off two trucks then a new diesel to write off till you retire, the one you have seems to be operating as designed but the number of parts that have needed to be replaced seems quite excessive so hard to tell if truck is also a lemon on top of the short haul issues, and a newer 6.4 to do the actual hauling might make sense too. Let us know what you decide.

 

[Scottly]

2021 3500 SRW, HO/Aisin combo. Just traded it in ( I do that every 2 years). I spent most of my time around town...No def issues. I will say this: It used 3x as much def as my 2018 2500 with 6.7 did. I put a box in this thing about every 2k miles. not sure why...But it never game me a problem.

 

[vitola1971]

I would say it just happens, I ran diesels since the 90's. I had a hand full of sprinter vans and none of them every gave me trouble except the 2010 which from brand new was missfiring, sputtering etc from new. In 5 years it never got repaired, at least every 3,000km I yanked egr valve to clean. I came up with a theory though, I think if the engine was running rich you would never know it with the DPF, the oxygen sensors act as combustion analyzers but if theres a defect in any of these sensors it could be running rich (high soot) and the onboard diagnostics only using these sensors would never know it. On a combustion analyzer we need to have it calabrated, these vehicles and their sensors aren't and dealers don't analyze the exhaust pre DPF. I would suggest if you could get the pre dpf oxygen sensor removed and have a diesel shop analyze the combustion it may point to an issue. Myself, if at the time there was a tune for the 2010 Sprinter I would have just deleted the egr and lived happily.

 

[stevenP]

Yikes, I hate seeing stories like this. I have three CTD powered RAMs so far and other than the every other day recalls, they have not left me stranded. I dont drive my truck that often either, but again havent had any DPF problems so far. I had a 8 year old 3500 that was mainly used to tow my RV, and it only had 21K miles, and no CELs ever. You obviously have something defective.

 

[chri5k]

Find a road with some big ruts / bumps. I have heard hitting those can make all the emissions stuff fall off.

 

[mtnrider]

You have a lemon, could get a gas lemon if you switch to a hemi it happens. For you needs I'd be in a diesel, just lemon law this one and get another or try to work something out with Ram

 

[crash68]

I have to go to the adjacent towns once or twice a week which is only 20-25 miles at 65 mph. When hauling heavy excavation equipment (dozer, backhoe, skid steer) to jobsites, it is typically within 20 minutes of town but typically has some steep hills.

My EcoDiesel barely gets to operating temperature with those kind o trips. A DPF won't start to regen until the engine is mostly up to temp. A typical regen cycle takes 10 miles on the freeway once the DPF gets over 1000°F .
How the vehicle is being used definitely doesn't help the situation of the DPF

 

[Billet Bee]

Our little town has no stop lights, so it's very much stop and go with stop signs. My house to my office is only 1 mile thru town. I have to go to the adjacent towns once or twice a week which is only 20-25 miles at 65 mph. When hauling heavy excavation equipment (dozer, backhoe, skid steer) to jobsites, it is typically within 20 minutes of town but typically has some steep hills. We do live in the high mountains of Colorado. I understand all of these things contribute to the problems, but I feel like all of these things are very common in rural America where farmers and ranchers live and work. RAM is going to push all of these people to different brands if they don't fix these issues.
I really appreciate both of your comments! It's rare to find anyone at a dealer who truly knows 3500s like the people who use them. The dealer just wants to sell another one, even if it cannot operate properly under my conditions.

How much weight does your average trailer with equipment weigh?

 

[tjfdesmo]

They are all prone to the possibility of emissions problems. I have to say, though, one of my friends has a 2020 L5P Duramax, and he idles that thing an unbelievable amount, like hours on end, and has had zero issues. It defies logic.

 

[vitola1971]

Yikes, I hate seeing stories like this. I have three CTD powered RAMs so far and other than the every other day recalls, they have not left me stranded. I dont drive my truck that often either, but again havent had any DPF problems so far. I had a 8 year old 3500 that was mainly used to tow my RV, and it only had 21K miles, and no CELs ever. You obviously have something defective.

I forgot about US lemon laws, we really dont have that in Canada. I think without the emmisions equipment on his truck the problem would likely be obvious. I feel bad really, when I went through this it was awful. The sprinter was missfiring all the time, was afraid to turn left at a light for fear it would stall and the engine light almost never came on as was missfiring and stalling all over the place. At the very end the DPF was changed just at the end of warranty but I dont think the dpf was the problem rather a symptom of pore combustion.

Happens everywhere, one guy in China my wife followed spent a lot of money buying an Iveco daily 4x4 RV (lots of remote camping available there) brand new. This pore guy, every trip that thing was failing.

 

[2020PW]

I had one issue with the CTD, expire/contaminated def fluid. Other than that, we shifted manual on a steep climb daily holding the RPM’s at 2k and the exhaust temp will keep it clean. Use the exhaust brake with every drive. Dealer said run it hard and you won’t have any issues.

It was used for short drives and long idles, in the winter DPF was always a concern but never had an issue. Short drives as in 5 miles one way to take the kids to school, long idle waiting to pick them up. Use a block heater or garage and you won’t notice the warm up time.

Look at the 6.8 or 7.3 gasser from Ford, they are pretty impressive.

 

[2Tallguy]

Hello everyone - I need your opinions!
I own a 2020 RAM 3500 Longhorn Cummins 6.7 HO with 26,000 miles, that has had chronic DPF issues since purchase. Aside from that, I really do love this truck. It's has DPF issues every 3-5,000 miles. They've replaced the whole entire emission system twice, the DPF a handful of times and the sensor 7 times. Just a few days after pulling a load down the freeway for a couple hundred miles and my DPF guage reading zero, I had gained about an eight on the guage when it began to regen. Then I got the "exhaust filter full, reduced power, see dealer" light AGAIN! When it came on the DPF guage didn't read full. About 10 miles later, it went straight to 100% full. My dealer told me he had 15 separate DPF conversations just today, telling people parts are on backorder. My dealer is at a loss and previously suggested we use the NCDS warranty dispute to try and get RAM to buy back this truck. That case was just denied, the manufacturer says the truck operates like it's supposed to. I live in a small town with no interstate nearby, at 6000 ft elevation, with long winters, which adds to all of the DPF issues. This truck is absolutely not dependable and RAM needs to read about the issues and make some changes!

My question to all of you is: I have an excavation company, so I haul heavy loads and plan on retiring and hauling a heavy camper around. I am going to trade this truck in. Would you get another Cummins, hoping the problems have been ironed out, or look into another brand? Or does anyone have any experience with the 3500 with a 6.4L V8 Heavy Duty Hemi?

To be painfully honest I'd get a Ford Powerstroke. My neighbors have had flawless luck with theirs and they are in construction. A friend works for a drilling company and he maintains 3 6.7's. In 100K he's never seen a CL or had any problems. The Duramax's are another story. Constantly plagued with sensor issues. His boss chucked them. I have the last of the 5.9 Cummins without the junk. I wouldn't have a newer one.

 

[Robeffy]

Hello everyone - I need your opinions!
I own a 2020 RAM 3500 Longhorn Cummins 6.7 HO with 26,000 miles, that has had chronic DPF issues since purchase. Aside from that, I really do love this truck. It's has DPF issues every 3-5,000 miles. They've replaced the whole entire emission system twice, the DPF a handful of times and the sensor 7 times. Just a few days after pulling a load down the freeway for a couple hundred miles and my DPF guage reading zero, I had gained about an eight on the guage when it began to regen. Then I got the "exhaust filter full, reduced power, see dealer" light AGAIN! When it came on the DPF guage didn't read full. About 10 miles later, it went straight to 100% full. My dealer told me he had 15 separate DPF conversations just today, telling people parts are on backorder. My dealer is at a loss and previously suggested we use the NCDS warranty dispute to try and get RAM to buy back this truck. That case was just denied, the manufacturer says the truck operates like it's supposed to. I live in a small town with no interstate nearby, at 6000 ft elevation, with long winters, which adds to all of the DPF issues. This truck is absolutely not dependable and RAM needs to read about the issues and make some changes!

My question to all of you is: I have an excavation company, so I haul heavy loads and plan on retiring and hauling a heavy camper around. I am going to trade this truck in. Would you get another Cummins, hoping the problems have been ironed out, or look into another brand? Or does anyone have any experience with the 3500 with a 6.4L V8 Heavy Duty Hemi?

My friend has a Ford with their diesel. He did not see the message on the dash that told him to service the dpf, and it plugged. Cost him many thousands to fix, and supposedly he had a few minutes to notice the message and do the "right thing". Not sure what the "right thing is" or if he understood. As far as I am concerned, no more diesel with DPF or DEF, its an abortion, should never have put into production. The same friend has a BlueTec Mercedes, the diesel in that also screwed up.

 

[Escondido Steve]

Possibly talk to the dealership or Chrysler customer retention about lemon law and a possible buy back. I had a different problem with a transmission and once I said something about lemon law it got fix in no time. Good luck

 

[Danny Phillips]

My 2015 CTD 2500 has never had a DPF problem. I have about 35 miles until 30,000 miles

 

[Gr8bawana]

My 2015 CTD 2500 has never had a DPF problem. I have about 35 miles until 30,000 miles

My 2017 has 74k = miles on it now and I have never had a DEF or DPF or any other problem at all and I use cheapo walmart DEF.
I do use it to tow our 7500lb TT or or 14k 5th wheel several times a year so there may be something to be said about working them hard.