I have a 1ton ready to roll

[truckon]

Most of the trucks I seen at my shop were dodge. The chassis and auto trans was junk and if you had a gas burner it was junk too.
The older cummins was a good motor, but adapting it to a GOOD superduty chassis seems to iffy to me. I done a few coversions on other trucks before
nothing never fit as stated by manufacturers and there was always problems.
The 7.3 has served me well so far I have 468,000 on one and 299,000 on other. Only real problem has been the clutch pilot bearing and the idiot in saxonburg pa I let rebuild mt zf6 trans. I got 368,000 out of trans with only one minor inframe repair. now with less than 100,000 since this fool built me two zf6's I have had my trans out 4 times since july. I don't like the 4500-5500 series of any of them. I had a 98 chevy HD series and it rode like a wagon. The slight increase in gvw isn't worth the money in my opinion.
I wouldn't spend 45-55,000 on a truck either if I was going to spend that much I'd go class8. You can look around and find a low milage 350 at a steal sometimes, people buy them thinking they want one it sits most of the time and then they sell it. Older fords with 7.3's seem to have the best resell value. Dodge has always been the worst on resell value, I just about gave my extended cab away to get rid of it.Personally I don't see the use in buying a new truck for hotshotting makes your cost of operating more and if you decide you don't like it you can't hardly give the truck away. If you doubt what I say and check some of the other forums most of the guys don't last eighteen months and then you have a payment to follow you for years.
Just my .02's worth.

I am going to disagree, as far as gas engines I find it hard to believe you can get anything better then a dodge 360, that is one hell of a motor.

and as to resale value, fords are a dime a dozen, just go look on ebay, they hold very little resale value. cummins on the other hand are selling with twice the mileage for the same price, you also 500-750k out of a cummins easily. dont get me wrong the 7.3 was a great motor, but a cummins will always cost you more.

[SMBdriver]

Most of the trucks I seen at my shop were dodge. The chassis and auto trans was junk and if you had a gas burner it was junk too.
The older cummins was a good motor, but adapting it to a GOOD superduty chassis seems to iffy to me. I done a few coversions on other trucks before
nothing never fit as stated by manufacturers and there was always problems.
The 7.3 has served me well so far I have 468,000 on one and 299,000 on other. Only real problem has been the clutch pilot bearing and the idiot in saxonburg pa I let rebuild mt zf6 trans. I got 368,000 out of trans with only one minor inframe repair. now with less than 100,000 since this fool built me two zf6's I have had my trans out 4 times since july. I don't like the 4500-5500 series of any of them. I had a 98 chevy HD series and it rode like a wagon. The slight increase in gvw isn't worth the money in my opinion.
I wouldn't spend 45-55,000 on a truck either if I was going to spend that much I'd go class8. You can look around and find a low milage 350 at a steal sometimes, people buy them thinking they want one it sits most of the time and then they sell it. Older fords with 7.3's seem to have the best resell value. Dodge has always been the worst on resell value, I just about gave my extended cab away to get rid of it.Personally I don't see the use in buying a new truck for hotshotting makes your cost of operating more and if you decide you don't like it you can't hardly give the truck away. If you doubt what I say and check some of the other forums most of the guys don't last eighteen months and then you have a payment to follow you for years.
Just my .02's worth.

I think it has something to do with what year you got too. I know back in 05 I tried out a Dodge pickup and the darned thing put me off Dodge for years. It rattled and just seemed junky built.

Granted, I wasn't hot shot shopping then, just looking for a truck to replace my old Ford. I drove Fords for 20 years and never had any trouble with them, but some people won't touch one and have a completely different viewpoint.

Anyway I ended up with a Ford F-250 that was a great truck, so much better built than the Dodge by comparison, and ran it until I traded it for the Dodge I have now. It sort of hurt to do that but I wanted a work truck so I bit the bullet and did it anyway.

When I was hot shot truck shopping, I noticed that the quality of the finish on the Dodge was way better than the Fords I looked at. So things do change year to year. Some things are just a crapshoot anyway but this one worked out ok for me.

[RickG]

http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/new...rodstarts.html
It would be interesting to know how many were sold . Will their rarity make them eventually valuable classics ?

[revelation1911]

I am going to disagree, as far as gas engines I find it hard to believe you can get anything better then a dodge 360, that is one hell of a motor.

and as to resale value, fords are a dime a dozen, just go look on ebay, they hold very little resale value. cummins on the other hand are selling with twice the mileage for the same price, you also 500-750k out of a cummins easily. dont get me wrong the 7.3 was a great motor, but a cummins will always cost you more.

The problem with the 318 & 360 motor is the oil pick-up if you don't change oil religously 3000-5000 miles and use a good oil the screen will stop-up and your engine will slow starve on oil spinning bearings.
I had several old chrsler motors at my shop perfectly good except one spun bearing. One in the pile was mine and the old 518 transmission was trouble after they put a O/D unit on it.
I said I'd never make the mistake of ownig another dodge and made it anyway a friend had a 2000 durango with 135,000 so I bought it for the wife.
Well less than 500 miles and transmission gone. Had it rebuilt and it's been back three times now builder said no problem just a bad OD off button. What BS I hooked my mentor scanner up to it drove it all day and trhink it's a overheating issue either cooler or torque converter.
God will have to appear in a burning bush to me to get me to buy anything else cryhsler makes. Giving away gold bars for half price with a purchase wouldn't help. I am going to pick the durango up again today maybe it will work for awhile.

[revelation1911]

http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/new...rodstarts.html
It would be interesting to know how many were sold . Will their rarity make them eventually valuable classics ?

I thought they was dodges to start with. They came and went pretty quick. I imagine parts would be a issue? You know Brooks got rid of his duramax cause there were no injectors available ?

[G/MAN]

I have always had good service from Chrysler products other than one and that was back in the early 80's. It was a Cordoba. It almost turned me off Chrysler products.

[RickG]

I thought they was dodges to start with. They came and went pretty quick. I imagine parts would be a issue? You know Brooks got rid of his duramax cause there were no injectors available ?

Yeah , Melvin is one of my Facebook friends . He's running an old Ford 7.3 now . It really seems odd he couldn't get injectors . It seems he had a limited run engine . Pre-emission '07 ?

[revelation1911]

Yeah , Melvin is one of my Facebook friends . He's running an old Ford 7.3 now . It really seems odd he couldn't get injectors . It seems he had a limited run engine . Pre-emission '07 ?

Why don't you ever go over there anymore? Last I rememeber you was swapping disaggreements with disco. He always hated I called him a armchair quaterback. Knew everything about nothing.

[RickG]

Why don't you ever go over there anymore? Last I rememeber you was swapping disaggreements with disco. He always hated I called him a armchair quaterback. Knew everything about nothing.

There really isn't much going on over there . A lot of members got out of the business . Even Black and Blue hardly showed up .I got off the internet for a while . I was pretty busy .

[truckon]

The problem with the 318 & 360 motor is the oil pick-up if you don't change oil religously 3000-5000 miles and use a good oil the screen will stop-up and your engine will slow starve on oil spinning bearings.
I had several old chrsler motors at my shop perfectly good except one spun bearing. One in the pile was mine and the old 518 transmission was trouble after they put a O/D unit on it.
I said I'd never make the mistake of ownig another dodge and made it anyway a friend had a 2000 durango with 135,000 so I bought it for the wife.
Well less than 500 miles and transmission gone. Had it rebuilt and it's been back three times now builder said no problem just a bad OD off button. What BS I hooked my mentor scanner up to it drove it all day and trhink it's a overheating issue either cooler or torque converter.
God will have to appear in a burning bush to me to get me to buy anything else cryhsler makes. Giving away gold bars for half price with a purchase wouldn't help. I am going to pick the durango up again today maybe it will work for awhile.

I went 40k without an oil change in my 360 once

you have a point about the trannys be weak, but as long as they are rebuilt right you wont have trouble