Advise on Dodge Ram

[old-mo]

You may have seen my previous thread regarding me buying a 5th wheel caravan,,
KountryLite 26RK from Calder Leisure,,

And my subsequent enquiries regarding the use of a Nissan Navara as a towing vehicle,,

As explained I have been offered £4K for my Kia Sedona 2.9T. LE.. with just over 16000 miles, I am the first and only owner and the car is just over two n half years old,, and I paid just under £18K with a few extra`s,,

So I have decided that I dont want to loose that much in such a short time,, So I am going to hang onto it..

My question is what would be the best Dodge Ram or similar to tow the for mentioned 5th wheeler ??? I have no idea as to what I have to look for ie ==

Engine size, type of engine Cummins or whatever,Petrol or Diesal,, 2 or 4 wheel drive, (I am not likely to go off roading),, Manual or Auto,, I have to have a comfy 5 seater, so it would have to be a double cab,, and one that would give me a reasonable return on fuel,.

I have been scouring the web and have found a few with mileages from 8K up to 24K. for a year or two old vehicle,,

And price tag from 12K to 16K,, which would still work out cheaper than a new Navara and only getting £4K part X..

Opinions Please.:thumb:

 

[Mitch]

Hey Old Mo, will you please just stop it.
A Duc, two Harley's and now a Dodge Ram.

I hate you

But my wife hate's you more as your a inspiring me, as I attempt to justify another toy with the phrase "see love, look how many he's got"

 

[old-mo]

" Mitch" That`s where you are going wrong,,

Wait till she has gone shopping,, go and buy your toy`s and hide them in the back of the garage,, easy,, :thumb:

Cos if your wife is like mine she never goes near the garage,, oh:

Especially if you say,, I must go and clean the garage one day,, I have never seen so many huge hairy spiders in there as there was this morning,,

 

[Terry]

Hi my son had a Ram ,his was hemmy engine 5.7 ltr petrol same as they put in the Viper,not 100% sure but they do a smaller engined one at 4.5 ish ,all are petrol autos lhd (I think )I got about 10 mpg untill it needed fuel then I gave it back it would pull a house never mind a fithwheeler:thumb:
terry

 

[Thepips]

The Ram is available as the 1500, 2500 and 3500 models. I'm pretty certain that refers to the carrying capacity but also has a bearing on their towing capacity. My brother had to swap his 1500 for a 2500 as his 5th wheeler was too heavy for the 1500. Engines range from 3.7l V6 (gutless) right the way up to the 8.3L V10 (Monstrous!) as fitted to the Viper. (That's never had a V8 by the way). Diesels include the 5.9l and 6.7 litre Cummins. Gearboxes are 4 or 5 speed autos or a 6 speed manual.
If it was me I'd look for a 2500 auto fitted with 5.7 hemi or 5.9 Magnum and convert it to LPG.
If there's a downside to these it's the sheer size of the things. They've a bigger footprint than a Transit!
Best of luck and have fun

Doug

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[old-mo]

The Ram is available as the 1500, 2500 and 3500 models. Diesels include the 5.9l and 6.7 litre Cummins. Gearboxes are 4 or 5 speed autos or a 6 speed manual.
If it was me I'd look for a 2500 auto fitted with 5.7 hemi or 5.9 Magnum and convert it to LPG.
Best of luck and have fun

Doug

Cheers "Doug" Any idea as to what MPG I would get,, That`s the bit that worries me,, 10 gallon`s ish to a hundred miles equates to a lot of ££££.
Thanks
Maurice.

 

[sersol]

Typical, just when some one needs input about all things "Yank" Dazzer is nowhere to be seen,come on this ones right up you street mate,very little mention of "Euro's".
"right the way up to the 8.3L V10 (Monstrous!) as fitted to the Viper".

In my book thats the only one to have

 

[old-mo]

2006 DODGE (USA) RAM 1500 4WD SILVER
DODGE RAM Item number: 250309326043

Hi could any of you guy`s give me your opinion on this one, as you can see it is on flebay,,

And he say`s it is 2 wheel drive, not 4,, made a mistake and could not remove what he had written in the listing,,

The guy that owns it says he gets 10-12 local and 17-18 on a run, would this sound about right ?oh:

Should think it will go down big time with a 5er on the back,, What do you think ?

Thanks
Maurice.

 

[Terry]

2006 DODGE (USA) RAM 1500 4WD SILVER
DODGE RAM Item number: 250309326043


The guy that owns it says he gets 10-12 local and 17-18 on a run, would this sound about right ?oh:

Should think it will go down big time with a 5er on the back,, What do you think ?

Thanks
Maurice.

Don't belive the second fiigure Hes illusinating the guys added 10 mpg Son rekons he got no more than 10 and about 4 when clogging it Having said that when he's clogging his Impreza he only gets 96 out of a full tank £100 They will have you belive you are getting 20 mpg out of the RV next
terry

 

[Thepips]

Cheers "Doug" Any idea as to what MPG I would get,, That`s the bit that worries me,, 10 gallon`s ish to a hundred miles equates to a lot of ££££.
Thanks
Maurice.

The 5.7L engine isn't too bad considering it's now developing 345hp. Expect about 13-14mpg on average probably dropping to around 11 when towing. There's more than enough room in the loadbay to fit a decent size LPG tank to seriously improve range and reduce costs.
The 1500 model can tow a maximum of 8000lbs, as near as makes no difference 3.5 tons. A lot of 5th wheelers will weigh more than that.


Regards
Doug

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[Thepips]

Don't belive the second fiigure Hes illusinating the guys added 10 mpg Son rekons he got no more than 10 and about 4 when clogging it Having said that when he's clogging his Impreza he only gets 96 out of a full tank £100 They will have you belive you are getting 20 mpg out of the RV next
terry

Yep, got to agree with you, he's exaggerating the fuel figures.
I drive an Impreza WRX Classic, 280 bhp as standard but ours is modded to 320bhp. I still average 22mpg running it on Shell Optimax. The only time I've got it into single figures is on a track day. Unless your son has fitted a larger tank (standard one is 11 gallons) he's paying a LOT for his fuel

Regards
Doug

 

[Sundowners]

Hi there

We are slightly biased as we own a Dodge Ram 3500 Dually.

When we bought our 32' fifth wheel it came with a F250 V8 4x4 Petrol Automatic. We sold this to a guy who now tows a 34' fiver. The fuel consumption is high and he is also looking for a Dodge Diesel, the reason we knew we would not keep the F250.

Ours is a 1999 5.9l Cummins Diesel 24Valve, automatic and 4x4 double cab - 8' bed. If we were to replace the truck today we would look for exactly the same truck but without dual rear wheels. The one we have was the only one available in our price range at the time we wanted one. The 2500 would give you the payload that you need. The later engine is as far as we know less economical, but even more powerful. A 6' bed would probably be OK with a slider hitch.

We have a huge amount of torque with our engine and as far as power goes we don't even know the fifth wheel is there when towing, up and down hills. We find it more convenient to run at the same speed as the trucks and doing this we get 15mpg towing at this speed, we have had 22mpg empty on a long run. We are more than satisfied with this consumption.

We belong to the Diesel Ram forum (american) DieselRam.com where we have gleaned a huge amount of information and help. If you are thinking of buying a diesel ram go onto the forum and ask any question you like, they are more than happy to oblige.

A couple of months ago we also bought a truck camper (our holiday home) for the Dodge and with this monster on the back weighing almost 2 tons we got 17mpg on a VERY windy day.

Our friend has just got back from the States with another Dodge 2500 and truck camper and I know he is selling his other Dodge 2500 5.9 12valve diesel Cummins 4x4, if you are interested pm us and we will give you his number.

We believe a 4x4 is vital as if you get stuck on wet grass who will pull you out. It is nice to be independent.

We are more than happy to give you more information if needed. We speak from experience and are more than happy with our Dodge.

Nigel and Pamala

 

[Terry]

Yep, got to agree with you, he's exaggerating the fuel figures.
I drive an Impreza WRX Classic, 280 bhp as standard but ours is modded to 320bhp. I still average 22mpg running it on Shell Optimax. The only time I've got it into single figures is on a track day. Unless your son has fitted a larger tank (standard one is 11 gallons) he's paying a LOT for his fuel

Regards
Doug

Hi Doug, he paid a fortune for some additives for a track day, his is a 350 bhp plus STI that had £21,000 spent on extras,titanium turbo ,carbon fibre bonnet and scoupe,c/f dails, wheels & tyrs P2 bottom end the list goes on !He took it to a tuning centre near her and they told him they could not improve on it and copyied the info from the chip said it was about 2k worthNot sure on rest of stuff it's got but he said the other day he's selling it,(thank god)before he does himslf some damage
terry

 

[Sundowners]

Hi
I just read the first page again. I see that you have a 26ft fifth wheel, a 1500 will cope with that OK, but I don't know if they fit the Cummins to that model. I feel that the 1500 is a car derived pick-up, but the 2500 & 3500 are TRUCKS!!
When you are looking at the power of towing units, look at TORQUE figures, high torque at low revs is best IMHO. BTW our fuel tank is over 100liters
Nigel

 

[Chrisdy]

Don't belive the second fiigure Hes illusinating the guys added 10 mpg Son rekons he got no more than 10 and about 4 when clogging it Having said that when he's clogging his Impreza he only gets 96 out of a full tank £100 They will have you belive you are getting 20 mpg out of the RV next
terry

If that's a petrol engine, then he's not far out. On a Ford 5.4l V6 I get 10-12 local and 14-16 on a long run, if on motorways or dual-carriageways. Note that most of these trucks (mine's a Ford) are running at under 2000 revs at 70mph in overdrive, on cruise control. If it's a supercharged engine, then a heavy right foot will eat the fuel of course, but that's down to the driver.

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[Road Runner]

I have a 5.7 ltr Jeep GC V8 and it struggle to get more than 14 mpg but does the same on LPG as petrol.

I want to get a US truck next with a view to a 5th wheel eventually