This past weekend I was completing a big road trip that went from Phoenix,AZ to Atlanta,Ga to Syracuse,NY and back to Phoenix. I was driving my 99 Dakota R/T pickup with 55,000 miles on it. While passing thru "absolutely nowhere, nothing but dirt and scrub brush" New Mexico. The truck lost power on the Interstate. In the blink of an eye I went from cruising along at 75 mph to limping down the shoulder, trying hard to stay above 10mph. I exited the freeway for another deserted side road to nowhere. Not a house or building to be seen. I quickly became aware of that sick, nauseous feeling one gets in the pit of their stomach when you know "this ain't good" After I got over the what the hell am I going to do now questions to myself I began trying to diagnose the problem. The truck would idle but as soon as you gave it some gas it would stumble and cough. There was also a rattling sound coming from the catalytic converter. I have never run into this problem with any car I have owned, but figured something must have gone wrong internally. Fortunately I did have a few tools with me. I took out a chisel and big pipe wrench (didn't have a hammer) and began to puncture a hole in the cat. After a few choice profanities and some blood loss I had made a 3 inch gash in the front of the converter. Praying that this would solve the the problem I climbed back into the car and started it up. Blocking the giant header leak sound from my mind, I crossed my fingers and reved the engine without any power loss or backfires. I was back in business heading west again, only losing an hour or so. So now I need a new cat. I see Magnaflow sells a direct replacement unit for about $125.00. Has anyone used this pipe or any other brand they would recommend? Also do you think my muffler my be full of pieces of the cat? Any feedback would be appreciated.