I agree! One of the problem I've had with Chrysler products is they rust to crap quick. To be fair, here in Wisconsin everything rusts to crap but Chryslers seem to rust quicker than the others. I have never had a need to haul long distances so I don't have much experience with diesel trucks, but I have a friend who hauls cars and he swears by the cummins and manual trans.The old Dodge 12 valve Cummins with manual transmission and serious frame, is the best pickup chassis/drivetrain in recent memory IMO.
Unfortunately the bodies rusted to crap.
I'd love to stick a newer Chev body on a one of those chassis.
The newer Rams are not great IMO, due to electrical issues and premature rust. (the late 1990s trucks were better in my experience)
Recent example: We had a guy 1 month ago have his horn give out.
The intergrated power module in the newer ones is just another word for "fuse, relays and logic board with some non-replaceable relays".
Non-replaceable horn relay on the power module was bad.. Result: Replace the whole module. A huge bill just to get a horn work. Can't just wire up a generic relay back to the steering wheel, because the steering wheel communicates via CANbus.
Ford ? All the techs in our shop hate Fords. Horrible to work on across the whole range of vehicles.
The tritons were crap, the v6 ecoboost has issues, etc. The older Ford diesels were good.
Their reputation is based on trucks from long past.
While I like Toyotas for MANY reasons, we recently had a new customer come into replace the starter, for a second time, on his 5.7 tundra.
R&R a starter in that truck is over 5 hours labour !
Unless you are towing constantly, and the truck is in daily use, I'd find an older Pre-DPF diesel with a manual trans. Less complicated the better.
Of course, if everyone thought that way, our shop would make less money.
My brother pulls his Malibu ski boat all over the Midwest with his Tundra and never has any problems.
Attached is my current F250 ready to haul a Hobie mast.
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