This is the God's honest truth, some of us find out the hard way. I like my Hemi Ram now, and the only diesel truck I will ever own going forward is a first gen, at least they are harder to kill...

I love diesels, and I love my diesels. I've had 6 over the years. I had the first 89 in this zone, an 06, two Duramaxes (or is it Durami?)(meh) and a TDI VW, but my '92 is awesome. Yeah it's loud, smelly, dirty, rough riding and it smokes but I wouldn't want it any other way. And yes I do all my own work.

I have an 01 24v and I never worked on a diesel in my life before I bought it. It's way easier to work on with way more the gas counter parts. If you can work on a gas engine, you can work on a diesel. Feel like a broken record on these kind of posts... ya you use more oil, but change it less than half as often. I put in 100hp injectors and an edge comp box, gained a ton of power and increased the fuel economy. Lets see a gasser do that! My truck is like driving a 4wd muscle car I can haul anything with and drive in the snow/mud. I have a 95 360 ram and an 04 hemi ram... so can;t say I wouldn't switch back, but I would never buy a gas ram for doing lots of towing.

I had a 99 24v with 250k miles on it. I bought it with higher mileage and the previous owner had already went through the pain of the transmissions that go out at 180k and the lift pump and injector pump that went out on him. Was a nice driving truck, however I never got the fuel mileage that some BSers claim. I do miss having a strong tow rig with the 8 foot box, however the truck felt like was on the verge of needing a lot more repairs so I sold it while the going was good.

Later a 97 12v truck fell into my lap for cheap. I had just shy of 290k miles on it. Everything was worn out and was going to take at least 5k in parts to get it roadworthy. Engine started having problems, I was worried it could be the injection pump so I got rid of it before putting a dime into it.

Nicest truck I drove was my buddy's 01 2500 with the v10 and stick shift. Thing drove wonderfully. 12mpg but at least no diesel-cost repairs to have to worry about. FWIW, I work at a heavy duty truck/trailer repair division of a transport fleet. Nobody drives a diesel as their daily driver except the boss who's always having problems with his.

180K before the trans had problems? Just how long do you think those things are going to last? The gasser versions weren't any better but I don't see anyone slamming them.

Those transmissions are just as crappy in the gassers. I wouldn't buy one with an automatic. However I was just trying to point out that if someone buys one around that mileage, if the last guy didn't do the trans, he will be very soon.

I am prepared for the maintenance. I knew that going in. I tried to buy the cleanest truck that I could and that had many updates/repairs. I needed more than a 5.7 and didn't want to buy a new truck with the 6.4. The money I save on registration, financing, and taxes hopefully fund the updates on the used one. I won't be putting to many miles on it yearly.
Thanks for the advice.

Hopefully I won't learn the hard way.

Funny the auto equipped trucks get the higher output engines. I might also point out that there are a ton of upgrades for this transmission. Practically every diesel drag racer uses this trans.

While the Allison has the bullet proof reputation they aren't perfect either, especially the earlier versions of the 1000 had some C3 clutch lubrication problems. I've owned two trucks with the Allison and while they were trouble free I hate the fact that they have a set shift schedule no matter what. They don't deviate at all. They shift into whatever gear at a certain speed and that's it. No matter if you are accelerating or decelerating.

The Ford trans has it's own issues too so just ragging on the 47/48RE is really pointless. I don't know of anyone except rhinodart that has had that many problems with it. He's also broken the stick transmissions too so I tend to think it's him and not the product. Just my 2 cents. YMMV.

A friend that runs a tranny shop and he says the 48re's are way better than the newer 6 speeds. He said the case/housing break frequently on the 6 speeds. FWIW

Well in my defense I did haul heavy, usually a 44' or 53' enclosed going from coast to coast and quite a few of the problems were in the mountains on I-40 or around Arizona.

I always wondered to myself what the rear end gearing was in the trucks that had trans problems you drove?

Because not enough gear is going to stress the trans more than if it had a deeper gear.

The 99 dually had 3.55's with the NV4500, the 04 single wheel had 4.10's with the 48RE, the 05 dually had 3.55's with the 48RE, the 07 dually had 4.10's with the G56.

Been a diesel mechanic since 1985.

Have never owned a diesel powered pickup, could have ordered one in 1993 when I bought my first 3500 truck to tow with. Did not want the noise, smell and expense of a DD diesel pickup. Mainly did not want to hear a diesel when I went racing because I heard them all day long at work. Plus 8500 bucks extra just for the diesel engine at the time bought me a bunch of race car parts. So I had to buy a chevy, dodge did not have BB gas engine no more.

So I had to switch from dodge to chevy in 1993 and got my first 4 wheel 2 wheel drive 3500 454 auto 411, it towed like a couch for 125K miles with no trouble. No major repairs at all, just maintenance.

Then bought another new 3500 dually 454 in 99 that I DD everyday for 13 years. It held up great too until the 13th year. Then the rear end broke. I fixed it and traded it in for a ford truck in late 2013.

Both of my chevys towed heavy trailers and neither had trans or front end issues. I put brakes on it a few times but that was it as far as suspension goes.

WOW is all I can say about the expense some of you have had with your diesel pickup trucks.

Buddy of mine walks into my work maintenance shop and I am replacing 2 of the injectors in a old ford powerstroke. Precedes to complain about injectors he had to put in his ram pickup. I can't remember how much he said but it was alot I was thinking at the time.

I have always said on here diesels are not worth it in a pickup in many cases.

3:55s are no good for the hills or mountains IMO. 4:11s are good.

My 99 chevy was ordered with 4:56s. The salesman told me it was to be gas hog, it was!! Luckily I live 1.5 miles from work and some days only drove to and from work.

But it would pull with those gears, I pulled a 49' for while. 49' trailer was too much for my 99 454 dually with 4:56 gears.
That is why I got the toterhome.

Funny, in the years of cummins pickups I had, the standards had the higher hp rating. You can argue me, but I have known too many guys who have shelled out 3-4k for a transmission job because the automatic in their cummins crapped out somewhere on the side of the road far from home where they had no choice but to eat the repair cost at a shop. Those 4sp autos were junk, just look at how many are for sale with transmission problems. It shouldn't take thousands in upgrades to make one live behind a stock 5.9.

The worst mpg I ever saw in mine was 14.5 and that was when I had a caliper hanging on the front. The truck stock on 295/75 tire got 17.5, went to 35" tires, added an edge comp and 100hp injector and I average 18-19 and it's all local. I hauled a 5500 pound ram on a 2000 pounds trailer through the ridges/mountains recently and still got 16 plus on that 200 mile trip.

If your going to haul a trailer even a few thousand miles a year, to me a cummins is well worth it. When you live where it's all hills like I do, it'd be hard to even consider anything less for towing.

Figured id chime in here. Diesels are definitely not for everybody. And im surprised of a lot of the bad luck people have had in this thread. Of coarse forums are manly for people having issues, and solving them..
Me, Ive had many ram cummins trucks, personal and work/business since they decided to put em in the 1st gens. since 93 Ive had 10 personal and add another 10 to that for work employees ect.. With the exeption of an 07 and an 11 all of my personal trucks have manual trans. They've all seen about 150k of mixed family truckster/towing about 10k-15k from time to time and off road use, with the exception of my 03 and 05 which each have/had 250k and the 05 which I still have has 277k. and presently also have a 13. Most all of them had 4.10 or 3.73 and the 13 has 3.42. Of the 10 personal trucks ive had 2 were modded pretty heavily, and ran like a bat out of hell and was just absolute blast to drive, but out of all of my personal trucks, Ive had 6 warranty claims. and one of em was for the radio in my 13.. fuel line rubbed on filter housing on the 97, 03-05 each had front hub assemblys/bearing while in warranty, front axle ujoints on 03 and 07 and throwout bearing failed on 13 ( at 12k ) gave me a new clutch on that too. Most of the 3rd gens I did do ball joints/tie rod ends at some point and u joints all around, which are to be expected regardless of gas/diesel or brand as it is typical maintenance. My 05 I did pull all the injectors and sent them out to be rebuilt when the first one went out at 230k. All have seen an avg of 19-20 mpg. Even the 07 and up trucks. The worst being the 07 6.7 16mpg and the best being the 05 22mpg. and around 12-14 towing. Now as far as value goes, the initial diesel option cost is more to have them, however, when your done with them, you get it back, and then some. The diesel trucks will hold there value usually more than the initial cost when comparing to a gas truck.
As far as work/business trucks go, they get used and abused, just as they are intended to be. Most of them autos, loaded with fuel tanks, tools, pulling trailers, lots of idle time and off road constantly, and still basically only need typical front end wear stuff, ball joints, ujoints ect.. and definitely always stocked lift pumps for the 24v second gens trucks, shift solenoids, water pumps and idler and always had a spare hub assembly for them along with track bar bushings. Never had a single driveline failure engine or trans in any of them. Personal or business. Only had one work truck (99) lose an injector pump (twice) for a pinched fuel line starving pump for fuel.
Now, with all that being said, I work with diesels of all brands constantly work with heavy equip/mining for a living, do all of my own maintenance and repairs on my personal trucks and all the work trucks maintenance/repairs other than warranty are done in house for the most part.
My experience with diesel ram/cummins trucks, personal and work, is, as long as theyre maintained properly they will yield you the best bang for the buck and if you can do any of the maintenance/repairs yourself youll be that much further ahead. But most importantly, the power and reliability is the main reason I stick with them.
When repairs are needed, they can be pricey, especially when having to farm out the work. Clean fuel and fuel filters are your friend with a diesel. Ignore the fuel system and typical maintence on a diesel of any kind, and you wont have much luck with them. And if youre buying one to go to the grocery store once a month you will not be very happy with it..

I get about 18mpg empty with my 2003 CTD. All stock 5.9. Edge tuner for gauges. I've only turned it up a couple times, but its an auto so I keep the program "economy" so the trans lives. About 245K miles on it. Did the injectors last year. Upgraded to the FASS pump/filtration to keep the new injectors happy. I'm one of those fools that likes daily driving at CTD for no good reason. I don't have anything new to add that has not already been said about maintenance.

I put one of those kits on last year, nice kit no problem going on. Once the payments stop put that money in the bank to fix whatever when it comes up, can't ride for nothing. I have an 06 with many issues but I just fix them as they come along. Can't beat that low down grunt of a diesel on up and down grades, no down-up shifting, smooth. If I want easy driving I take the SRT 392 out for a spin.

to the earlier hate on the DEF systems.... so far from what I've noted. They are a lot better with short trip driving than their predecessor 6.7 models. MPG is probably some of the best I've ever seen, oil change interval is back to being 7K+ miles, and they finally have dual filtration....something they've needed since 03 when the common rail came about. Only downside, the trucks are HUGE! Make my 01 2500 look like a Dakota parked next to them. They like a set of tires about every 30K. 13 and newer are really nice rides! (and NO WAY would I get a stick! 6spd Aisen, or Chrysler trans have been REALLY good)