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Me personally, I am keeping this early 04 305 555 5.9 as long as I can.

good luck

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Funny, you'd say that; As you can see from my sig I have an '03 305/555, and '04.5 325/600, an '06 325/610 and an '08 6.7l and out of all of them, I like the 305/555 the best.

They are ALL good trucks and way better than the brand X's and Y's diesels that I've owned or still own.

The 305/555 is the last of the no-post injection event, no catalytic converter motors. Now keeping in mind that every one of my trucks is slightly different (different drivers, tires, accessories, etc.) so direct and exact comparisons are impossible, but my feeling is that the '03 gets about 1-2 mpg better than the '04 or '06 and 2-3 bettern than the 6.7. I also didn't care for the plastic intercooler tanks they used for awhile on the 325 motors and I feel the NV5600 is a better tranny than the later G56.

I've been running a smarty CaTCHER on the '03 for the last year (c/w gauges, of course) and couldn't be happier. Minor complaints are smoke on the higher settings and you need to watch the EGT gauge when towing heavy.

http://www.madselectronics.com/

Dave

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Your reasons are exactly why I specifically bought an early 2004 305/555 HO diesel Ram.
Remember, when you list the MPG comparisons of your trucks the 04 you mention is actually an 04.5 model which has the emissions, cat converter, and extra injection event.
My early 2004 has no cats, no emission hassles, no post injection event, and better mpg than the 2004.5 and later trucks.
Personally I like the looks and feel of the steering wheel in my 2004 better than the 2003 trucks.
I have a co-worker with a similar 2005 diesel Ram as mine. My truck ALWAYS gets better mpg than his.

My truck is all stock and has 110k trouble free miles on it.
It is my daily driver and I treat it like one of my classic Mopars.(It sure cost as much!)
It runs and drives like a brand new vehicle and I love driving it.
It still has it's original batteries, transmission, and believe it or not the original ball joints are still in good shape(I do plan to rebuilt the front end this spring just to be safe). I am VERY satisified with it.

With falling prices I have been tempted to buy a newer Diesel Ram truck but after seeing first hand the trouble some are having with carbon build up issues and poor power and MPG with the newer 6.7 diesel Rams I'll just stick with my 04, plus it's paid off.
I think the 2003 and early 2004 diesel Ram are the best, most fuel efficient quadcab Ram trucks Dodge ever built.
I have done research on the various programmers available but I've resisted the urge to install one as I don't need it to be a race truck, but the thought of even better MPG has my interest. I'm just leary of tearing up a tranny or cooking a turbo.
I also intend to drive mine until the wheels fall off.