diesel4life

My thoughts are with you Russ. Hang in there sir!

Rebuilding to factory specs?

Yes and no. The Europeans have been using a variance of the 3.0 for some time now, but not with the emissions equipment the good ol US EPA mandates. They may hit it right out of the park the first year, or it may take a few to get the bugs worked out. I believe it is definitely a step in the right direction though. Hopefully this will push Ford and GM into the market as well. It would be really neat to someday see compact pickups with diesels in them as well, and possibly even a medium/large sized SUV.

It really all comes down to economics and what is practical. 600 ft lbs torque in a half ton won't get you really any further than the 3.0 VM engine IMO. Sure it would be quicker, but that's not going to increase pay loads. And it surely won't compete with anything in the half ton market in fuel economy. I saw a release from Ram a while back, and they were talking early on of fuel mileage in the neighborhood of 28 mpg highway. To me that's pretty impressive for a full size crew cab pick up. At 420 ft lbs, it will tow anything a half ton is capable of towing, and get better fuel mileage than anything else while doing it. I'm not knocking Ford (I've got 2 of them sitting in the driveway, love em both), but their Eco boost will not compete with a diesel engine in any category other than maybe drag racing right off the line. My brother in law has one in an F150, it is a quick little engine just bee bopping around town but hook his boat or enclosed trailer up to it, not impressive at all. No matter how many turbos you put on it, it's still just a small displacement SIE. You have to remember the Ecoboost got it's start in the Crossover world, and quite honestly it does OK in a pick up but that's it - OK. My brother in law actually regrets his purchase and would buy a V8 if he had it to do over again just for the purpose of hauling.Numbers may look good on paper but they can sometimes be misleading. I think what Ram is doing is a great step in the right direction. I bet they will be a big seller for Ram. I will honestly probably never be in the market for a brand new half ton diesel, but who knows, one day a 10 yr old half ton with a diesel may just be right up my alley for light duty jobs and general hauling the mail

Imagine if there was a white version of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.....:duh:They demand "equality" yet act like a bunch of barbarians. Sad thing is this never would have went public if it was the other way around. Want proof? How about the white girl from Kentucky that was gang raped and murdered by a group of Hispanics the day after Trevon got shot? And then Obummers comments put the icing on the cake. "If I had a son, he'd be like Trevon" Yep, he'd be a thug, just like you Mr Prez.

Colt Defender .45 over here, no issues concealing on a skinny framed body Everyone has their preferance, you just need to be comfortable with what you choose and know the laws. Personally I don't like the restrictions of open carry (which Ohio is btw), it can be a real hassle arming and disarming yourself (and trying to remember where its appropriate). Like being in a vehicle for instance. If I'm on the road travelling in unfamiliar territory the last thing I want to do is remove the clip from my pistol and stash it somewhere out of reach.

Definitely need to get your codes read, then post them up.

They charged you 240 bucks just for a motor?

Surprisingly ethanol has been slow to hit the pumps around home. What few stations do have it I avoid. We just drove through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska on into Wyoming to visit family. Every gas station in Iowa and Nebraska had ethanol advertised at their pumps. I kept a fuel mileage log from the moment we left the driveway and after the first fill up in Iowa our mileage dropped 1-2 mpg. This is with the same speed being maintained, same driving habits. I unknowingly filled my 650 Honda up with the crap at a low volume gas station when we were in W Virginia and had nothing but problems with it. Drained the gas as a last resort and filled with some fresh gas from another station and no more problems. The only thing we could figure was the lil mom and pops station I got it from had probably been sittingking for some time and collected enough moisture to give the ol girl a fit.

Hate to say it but 18 mpg city is just not realistic. 18-20 highway is more in the ballpark. I run my Smarty on SW5 with torque management maxed and timing at +2 above the catchers parameters. The biggest tires I run are 285/75/16 but for the most part I run my 4th gen wheels with the factory size tires. I keep a light foot for the most part and can break 20, may flirt with 21 On an extended highway run but that's as good as I've ever seen.

I bet it's gotta be frustrating. I've put an ad out on Craigslist a few times looking to do a swap with a manual trans truck just for the heck of it. I've had a few bites but nothing I was willing to seal the deal on. They were either really high mileage units, the one guy lost 2 gears and needed a clutch. It would be different if my trans needed work or even if it was stock I may have considered it, but I've got a solid unit and not willing to trade for something that I have to sink money into. It might be worth a shot for you to try though, it can't hurt. Especially if you advertise for an RH trans.

Sounds like a starter issue. Check your connections and starter cable. Might have to pull it to bench test it.

Dam Rick, you just can't catch a break. How far from home?

That would be an easy remedy, simply pull the round end cover off and pop the gears out and clean them. You should be able to turn them manually.

Assuming your talking about going from Park to Reverse, try shifting from Park to Drive first then from Drive to Reverse.

City mileage can really vary from one person to the next and from one truck to another depending on the number of starts/ stops, how much idling is taking place, how heavy your foot is from light to light, loaded vs unloaded, etc. Etc. Highway mileage is much more compare able between people because your simply driving down the road. The only factor now is speed and driving loaded vs unloaded. What speeds do you typically run. If your consistantly running 80+ then your mileage will suffer. Where I live I'm very rural so it's all country road driving and I consistantly run 50-60 mph sometimes if I jump on RT11 I'll run 65. If I run an entire tank without being hooked to anything I can flirt with 21 mpg And that's hand calculated. You can't really go by the ScanGauge, I have one and it just doesn't seem to be the most accurate. Close, but close isn't accurate. Another thing you have to consider is what others are telling you. Often times people will inflate their numbers just to make their truck look better. When people tell me they're getting really good mileage with a truck, I can usually take a closer look and find some holes in their story.

Hey Stew, have you crawled under your truck and inspected the hitch for any damage? That would be a concern for me since the tongue incurred that much damage, the hitch also had to see quite a bit of stress.Glad you all are OK, and hopefully your back on the road quickly. Hang in there!

Anything that pertains to the pump. Its very possible you have a bad motor like was mentioned above, its just very strange it happened at the same time you washed the truck down. Does the motor smell like its gotten hot? I know on the AD someone gave me the motor was burned up and there was a very obvious burnt smell to it. (You had to be right up on it to smell it)

Sounds to me like you got something wet. Make sure all connections are completely dried out.It just seems odd everything was working fine prior to you washing the truck down.

And 4 wheel drive. Its apples to oranges comparing fuel mileage with these 2nd gens in that aspect. I know a guy with a 00 24v 2x4 3500 dually and he runs circles around me in mileage. Glad to see your up and running and happy with it! That's all that really matters!

Is that city driving? Unloaded/loaded? If I run a tank without being hooked to anything I can top 20 mpg with an auto, but virtually all of my driving is rural country roads. Once I get up to speed, I'll lock the converter into 3rd or 4th depending on speed/load conditions.

Abuse doesn't create rusty bolts, climate does. Spend a few years in a humid climate that spreads calcium chloride on the roads, you'll have plenty of rusty bolts to fight.

We are still trying to dry out over here. Thursday we got record rainfalls of 2" to 2 1/2" of rain PER HOUR for Nearly 3 straight hours and then around 1/2" an hour through late afternoon. I have never seen it rain so hard in my life, it was literally like a sheet of rain coming down nonstop. I ended up leaving work to run home and check on the basement at home fearing it would be flooding but to my relief it stayed very dry. (Our house sits on high ground) The sump ran nonstop most of the day though, so the wife stayed around to monitor it and I took my little trash pump and ran over to my cousins to help bail him out. When I got there the water was past ankle deep but the trash pump emptied it out in no time. By that time his wife had got back with another sump borrowed from a family member so we stuck it down in the pit and ran the hose out the window and it along with his sump was able to keep up with the water coming in. By that time a friend was calling with the same issue so I booked over to his house to help get his situation under control. It was a challenge even getting to his house by that time they had started closing roads because they were flooded overHe lives on a back road and it was also flooded over but I pushed through anyway, hanging out the window as I was driving through some of the deep spots it was well up past the hubs of my truck. It was a scary few moments as the current was really ripping in some spots, I'm glad it wasn't any deeper.I feel the worst for the farmers around here, the beans and corn were really starting to come up and looking pretty good. Many fields spent 2 to 3. Days solid under water. Time will tell how they fare. It's been an interesting few days around here.

Boy that car sure is wadded up. That girl is lucky to be alive, hopefully she pulls through ok. 19 yrs old, shoot shes just a baby still...

Are you sure your parking brake isnt hanging up?