Ram 5500 or F550???

Hehehe......its up on blocks now.

Shhhhh:/::/:


Wrenching and waxing, two of my weak points in life.

Scott......is it time to fess up? New picture or archive?

That pic is last year....she's dirty right now with all the rain and mud Ive been going thru to get close to brush piles...lol....she cleans up nice though and runs slick than a frogs belly ;)
 
I googled "problems with Ram trucks" and "problems with Ford trucks" last night and read the consumer affairs web page comments from people, it's pretty scary how expensive repairs can get on new trucks AND maybe even more than that the down time you can have waiting for dealership repairs. Ten to seventeen thousand $ in a swat and days, weeks, and sometimes months in repairs.

I will look at forums on 2017 Rams and Fords and see what kind of experiences people are having when it's not slit your wrist catastrophic.

Jim that is an interesting point about savings of a diesel over gas. I'm not really after that, or resale. I intend to use this truck for the next 20 or more years and pretty much use it up. It's what combination makes the most sense and will get good tree work done.

I drove a new F650 with a chip box and gas engine and it had good power empty and not pulling anything. The F650 has a higher profile than I want but maybe I should find someone with a F550 gasser that I can ride in or drive loaded and towing.

I did do a ride along with a local to me lady that hauls loads of compost and chips from green waste recycler. She had a Ram 5500 with diesel. She said it drives about the same loaded as empt-and it felt that way to me. She had a twelve foot bed with four foot sides that she carried full.

I want this truck to tow a 5200 lb 90XP chipper most of the time for pruning jobs, sometimes a dump trailer that can go up to 17,400 lbs, and later I want to get a 90 foot Nifty Lift or tracked spider lift that I tow with it.
That's what has me hunting 7.3's.
Cummins pickups are rediculous prices. Sold my 01 several years ago, I could get more for it today than I did then!
 
I have a 06 6.0 Ford with <60k miles and have easily put $10-12k into the motor, at a guess, repressed memories, and I have an 06 5.9 Dodge with 130k miles and it has cost me $50 in repairs into the motor, it was hose. Just saying.
 
Buy an f550 with a blown motor, buy an old school bus with a cat 3208, add an aftermarket turbo, report back in 2 decades :D. Lol Btw very nice truck Scott, my 250 with the 7.3 has right around 320k and counting, but yours looks so much nicer. Salt kills em around here after awhile. I'm hunting for the older 7.3 idi for my next truck. The parts are so much cheaper and with a turbo and bigger downdraft tube are basically the same as the powerstroke. Playing with the idea of getting a salvage truck with a blown motor and then dropping one in, still trying to find out of i can get away with it...
 
3208?:\: Just put a DT466 in and be done with it. That's the only small engine on par with a B Series Cummins.
 
A previously mentioned Ford guy just bought himself a shiny new Cummins 3500 stick and is selling his fairly new Ford. No problems yet, just wants it gone before it does something bad.

For the people running theFord 6.7, isee you can buy an aftermarket fuel filter that is supposed to prevent the water in fuel system failure. Sucks you have to cya, but if it saves having to replace it out of pocket...
 
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Is that water in the fuel issue and putting on an aftermarket setup only a Ford issue? It seems I marked a youtube post or two to watch later that dealt with putting on a nice aftermarket filter block on the Rams. I will check.
 
How 'bout a Ford 650?

Something to tow the 'ole stump grinder around...
 

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Lol he uses it to pull a trailer, and with our weight laws here it seems like a complete waste of a truck. It even has a pickup truck bed on it. Another guy has one with a truck bed, but he runs a tool store and used to show up on construction jobsites with it and girls in bikinis to hand out water and tee shirts. No kidding. Political correctness is slowly stealing all the fun from the world.
 
I'd love to cruise around in that big bastard!

I just don't wanna have to pay for all the expenses...

I'm still working on my first million!
 
Lol the whole jobsite would shut down when the water girls showed up ;) same with the calenders, when i first started every supplier had nudie calenders selling tools and materials, now it's some pic of a dude with no callouses holding it, dressed like he works for a living. Wtf?
 
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