I am thinking of getting a used truck for a tow rig. I am looking at a 99-01 F250 w/ a powerstroke or a 97-01 Dodge 2500 w/a cummins. I also want to get the auto tranny. I have driven a friends 99 F250 auto with the powerstroke. We towed my toyota from Sc to Pa and it did great. But I have never driven a Dodge with the cummins. How does the Dodge do towing. I am guessing it does find. I can get a Dodge cheaper than the Ford. I found a 00 Dodge 2500 w/the cummins and a 5spd for $17,900 with 10k miles. The only thing wrong was it was rolled and rebuilt. And it was sold when I called, but the guy said they were getting another one. This is also going to be my daily driver too. It will be a 4x4.

Rockbound is selling his. Just by it.

www.triangle4x4.com and see the forsale area.

dead link?

Just as a disclaimer I don't own either of these but I do have some pretty good seat time in both. Anyway I think if you want an auto you should go Ford, if you can deal with a stick get the Dodge. Either one has really good power the suspensions both work well etc. From what I have seen the Dodge autos just plain suck. A friend had a Cummins auto combo last year (1999 model) that never towed anything more than a 1500 lb utility trailer. In 76000 miles the tranny had to be replaced once and the front pump was replaced at which point he traded it in on the ford. When he bought the Powerstroke he also got a 28 ft camp trailer 50000 miles later the Ford auto has had zero problems. Just my opinion but it seems that others have the same problems. Hope this helped. Later!

if you are wanting a ford automatic and are gonna get a used one i would get a 95-97 f250/f350. the powerstrokes went all to shat ion 99 when the redid them. the 96 my roommate had will out pull my cousins 99. also i would NEVER get a cummins with a auto in it. a friend of mine had his tranny replaced 3 times in the 2 years he owned it.

i have three friends with 97/98 power strokes all have had the autos replaced. my on feelings is you need a stick behind a diesel. i have a neighbor that hauls boats for a living about 120k a year and uses dodges with a auto. he says he can pop a tranny anytime he wants. he took out two on the first two trucks then he learned that if you ever feel it shudder back off, its about to destroy the converter. he did both on loading ramps with a 20k boat on the trailer in low range. he also has a 95 3/4 ton that has 390k on the original tranny than he uses for short haul stuff. it is getting weak as far as the tranny goes but runs great. as far as myself there is no real comparison between the cummings and the power stroke. the cummings wins hands down. better miliage, longer life, industrial design[as in it has twice the bearing surface of a power stroke] hell ford uses the 5.9 cumming in the f650 and f750 trucks as the standard engine. if you want more power the cummings can get to 900 fpt for under 1grand. and it will live. i have a friend of mine that has a 99 power stroke that hauls a jet dragster all over the country, lost the pilot bearing and input bearing at 44k, he was one pissed sob. swears he will never buy another. the best miliage he has ever got with the trailer is 12mpg. the best ford i have ever driven got 20 mpg with a power stroke, empty 3/4 ton 2wd with a stick. i have driven many dodges that hit 22+ in 2 wd trucks. my 93 4x4 with 4.10 gears and a 4 in lift got 19 all the time. i sold the truck at 220k and i am still regreting it. if you need the killer power get a 12v motor in a 98 on back to 94 truck. there are all kinds of aftermarket support for this motor. the 24v motors are still to new to get any real power out of. just remember that at 650 fpt the stock clutch slips and if its a auto the converter will let go at 550 fpt. so you have to be carful with what you do to the engine. my 2 cents mike

Actually, it's gonna be tough to get the best of the best all in one truck. Best auto trannies IMO are GM. But, the 6.5 sucks compared to the others. The Cummins is probably at least as good, if not better than the Powerstroke, but Dodge AT's are complete schit. That leaves the Ford. Very good diesel & decent AT's. So, that's what I'd suggest for an AT-equipped used diesel.

TEX

If you need want it soon and have to have an auto I would go with ford. If you can live with a standard, go with a dodge by all means. If you can't live with standard, but can wait a while, wait till the new chevy duramax's are in the used market. The allison and the isuzu engine is the best diesel/auto settup I have seen in a non-comercial truck.

Hey Scott, How is it going? Thought I would add my 2 cents to this thread. A guy here in town has a late 90s Dodge 3/4 ton, cummins diesel. The first truck he got was an auto. He is a plumbing contractor, and the truck is always hooked to a 20ft Wells Cargo enclosed trailer that is loaded with his equipment, not to mention what's in the truck bed. Within 5k the trany had had gone south, also he said that the mileage sucked, nothing like it should be. Any way he went thru another auto pretty fast after that one was fixed. He ended up raisen enough hell, the dealer took the truck back, and he now has same model truck with straight drive. He has said mileage is reasonable, and no problems with trany. Get the Ford if it's an auto you must have. Email me sometime at home. Andy

Scott, this website may beworth lookingat about the Dodge turbo diesels.
http://www.turbodieselregister.com/
Check the discussion forums. Andy

DRM:

www.triangle4wd.com

You want my $0.02.

I own a 2000 PSD F250 4X4 Extended cab short bed with the 6 speed. My coworker has a 2001 Dodge 2500 with the HO Cummins and Automatic. So these are the two truck that all you people are telling him not to buy.

WHY?????

I have about 50,000 miles on mine and all I had go wrong was I fried the clutch pulling something that only a semi should have been pulling. My coworker has 25,000 on his and all that has happened is his ABS system went south. We race these trucks all the time and the only reason I always win is that I have a chip and his is still 100% stock. One day I pulled my chip and we raced and we were Neck-n-Neck. We both get around 20mpg when crusing at 65 but we normaly cruise at 90 so that lowers us to around 17mpg. My truck is louder but I have it Straight Piped and his still has the muffler. Someday I hope to by my lady a Cummins just so I can have the two biggest powerhouses out there. Stay away from the Duramax/Allison Combo for a while. I have two coworkers that put around 10,000 miles on them and the trucks spent more time in the shop than in their drivways. Let Chevy/GMC get the bugs worked out.

You got a great site already posted for dodge and head over to www.ford-diesel.com for the ford info. My advice is drive both and pick the one you like.

Kevin

Yep, I agree with Kevin. I test drove both an F350 with a PSD and the 3500 Cummins. Pretty much the same price and condition and year. I bought the Dodge. Why? Because it was the most comfortable for me to sit in and drive. Figured that with a tow rig comforts pretty important. Thing gets 20mpg, unless towing and pulls 8k like an empty trailer.

I am looking at the auto so my wife can drive it if she needs to. She can drive a stick but it would still be easier for her with the auto. Plus it's going to be my daily driver so I am lookin at being lazy on the way home from work. I will only be towing a few time a month. I also found a 97 F350 crew cab 4x4 with the psd and an auto for $15,900 but it was sold when I called about it aslo.sob. BellyUp I did see CJ's truck in the for sale but thought it was a little high priced for the milage and year, plus I want an auto. I think I'm going to look for a ford and stay away from the dodges because of the problems with the auto trannies. I have also heard the the fords had a problem with the clutch arm on the 6 spds. It was bending because the pressure was too much for them to handle. That is just something I heard from a guy that is a fleet mech. for a large co. that has alot of superduty's.

I have a 96 dodge 3500 excab dually 5 speed (Cummins). It gets average 20 mpg and towing (6000 lbs) 18 mpg. You can tweek them to make a reliable 300+ hp pretty easily. :smokin:

They are both good trucks, I always hated dodges until I got my first Cummins, I put 350,000 hard miles on my 93 without touching the engine, I have 25,000 miles so far on my 2001 2500 4wd with the Auto, and almost half the miles would be pulling a gooseneck. It has 4.10 gears and gets 17mpg, and will hit 110mph quick.

The main reason that I went with Dodge over ford was a lemon 93 7.3 diesel that Ford wouldn't make good on when the engine swarmed at 6500 miles. They just patched it up, so I had a patched up 2 month old truck. And I don't like the body style too much either.

i went through the same process,but i was looking at new trucks.i test drove many new fords and dodge diesel trucks,all 3/4 ton.i liked the nice ride of the dodge,the power was great.and the standard tranny shifts better than the ford.but i ended up buying a ford psd,auto,crewcab,and love it.but the deciding factor was,i wanted a crewcab and got a better interest rate through ford credit.but either truck will be good.also my co-worker has a crewcab single wheel 1-ton duramax/allison and he hates it,says it want pull as good as his sons cummins and he only get about 12 mpg unloaded.but i have never driven,so i can't give my opion on the chevy...