The true King of 3/4 tons...

[Lhemi]

I am kind of sad to say my 2012 Punisher R/T will soon have a new home. The wife and I have decided to buy a Filth wheel travel trailer and my R/T just doesn't have the axels to do the pulling.
I've test drove the GMC Denalli and the Ford Super Duty, the Super Duty was hands down the winner of those two. I get employee pricing on both of those. But since my wife works for a local dealership they will find me a great deal on a used Ram with a couple hundred miles on it.
My question is, how is the Ram 3500? Out of Ford and Ram in the work horse grade with all the comforts of how, plus the ability to use it as a daily driver with out selling a kidnee to pay for fuel.
Also gas or Diesel. I'm thinking Diesel.
Thanks in advance for the advise.

 

[ms8091]

I can't speak to the 3500, but hands down, go with the diesel. You will never be let down. I miss mine.


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[Burla]

The transmission is the weak point, other then that the Cummins cannot be beat. If you go with the manual transmission in my opinion you have the king of all trucks with the Cummins. I might be chased out of the building, but I don't feel that way if the choice has to be auto tranny. Brother in law ate 3 Cummins auto tranny's for lunch in his business in a very short period of time with a 2500, traded it in for a Cummins dually with a manual transmission and at last check lasted about a decade with no issues but he did of course need a clutch or two in that period. My brother uses his truck in a hard scaping business harder then you will use it for towing the 5th around. From towing tractors to huge machines and anything inbetween, he beats that truck. The bottom line is when you are towing, the transmission makes the truck, and Chevy has the Allision. On a side note, the transmissions have gotten better, and he did not try and upgrade his transmission at all.

I wonder if anyone has tried to fit an Allison on a Cummins, now that would be some chit right there if it could somehow be done.

 

[WhiteExpress]

I wonder if anyone has tried to fit an Allison on a Cummins, now that would be some chit right there if it could somehow be done.

Yup. Many people, when the destroke a 6.0 Put in an Cummins and a Allison into a F350.

OP: I don't know if you work on your own vehicles or not. I suggest you open the hood on the 2 trucks and look around.

I was really impressed with the 6.7 Scorpion F-250 I drove.
But after I opened that hood, I slowly backed away. Holy ****!

The Cummins is a more... cleanly engineered package.

 

[Stangshcky12]

The 68re auto that's in new cummins is leaps and bounds better then the 48re that was probably in the truck burla was referencing. Like the 48re, the 68re doesn't like much more power over stock (+100 horsepower over stock and up).

My buddy has a 2013 Laramie with a 6 speed manual, it's simply awesome

 

[Burla]

I hope your right, that would be awesome because I Hate Chevy with a capital H. I still would opt for a manual if I was towing a 5th wheel.


I can only attest up to the 2010 Ram, and after that I have no information on the transmission. Up to my year and based on other experiences with them, I am not a fan of the transmissions. In fact, they just blow donkey balls. I am not talking what I've read, but what I've experienced. I hope they fixed the issues, and frankly a little tiffed it took so long, lol. I would much rather have the latest tranny in my 10.

 

[Tuffguy707]

the transmissions are no longer a weak point in the Rams, in any of them. the 68rfe is a good strong transmission. if that is your worry go with a 3500 srw with the aisin as it is as strong if not stronger than the (imo) overrated allison.

 

[charonblk07]

In the last 2 years I've run both a '12 3500 Ram and now I've got my '13 F350 SuperDuty. When it comes to pulling power it was the Cummins that won when pulling the 32' rescue trailer, downside to it was the mileage wasn't great, but at least it didn't have urea injection. That's my biggest beef with the new Ford 6.7L, the urea injection is an absolute nightmare. As an absolute work truck the F350 is better IMHO, the down side to it is that you can't do ANY work to it yourself. It was a nightmare just installing my 2500W power inverter, air compressor, and scene lighting packages. After talking to the dealership, anytime they have to work on the engine, they lift the cab off... everytime.

 

[loveracing1988]

Yup. Many people, when the destroke a 6.0 Put in an Cummins and a Allison into a F350.

OP: I don't know if you work on your own vehicles or not. I suggest you open the hood on the 2 trucks and look around.

I was really impressed with the 6.7 Scorpion F-250 I drove.
But after I opened that hood, I slowly backed away. Holy ****!

The Cummins is a more... cleanly engineered package.

The funny thing is I worked at the dealer when that truck came out with that engine. The engineer was bragging how it was going to be leaps and bounds ahead of the 6.4 in terms of being easy to work on.

 

[Power247]

I can't speak for the Ford's because honestly... I don't like look of the Fords.

The 68re transmissions in the 4th Gen Rams are holding up much better the ones in the 3rd Gens and are significantly better than the 48re from years back. The new Aisin transmissions are beasts and I believe they come standard 3500's now, at least that what is in all the 3500s at my local dealership.

Stangshcky makes a great point about the affect of adding extra HP. If you are planning a performance build then getting one with a 68re (provided you stay with Ram) might be a better choice since the upgrade parts are more easily available than for the Aisin.

 

[Exhausted]

I don't have 1st hand experience but all of my hot shot drivers drive ram 3500 trucks and tow 40' goose neck trailers that haul up to 20000 lbs of cargo
That's their truck of choice FWIW

 

[smiley]

I don't think you can beat a Cummins with the Aisin it is the best most capable out there. I think you can now get the Aisin in 2500 for 2014 but I have not checked lately. Ford has tried so many diesels and all have had issues the Cummins is tried and true and if you use it as a work truck it will not have turbo issues due to build up.


$miley

 

[Lhemi]

It's just going to be my daily drive to work, 40miles round trip and then pull the goose neck when we go on vacation.
Thanks for all the information!