Cowboy, Thanks for your info. It has been a good debate. Truth be told, I have always been partial to Fords. This is the first Dodge I've ever owned, but I am impressed so far. I originally was going to go with a powerstroke, but the reason I was swayed to the Cummins really was fuel economy. I have 6 brother-in-laws in the ranching business. Between them, they are split between the Fords and Dodges. They have all reported great HP but poor fuel economy with the powerstrokes. They told me that they only get 14-16 MPG with their powerstrokes, while the Cummins get around 19-21 MPG. Now, maybe the new powerstrokes are much better at fuel economy. (And maybe my BIL's just drive them Fords too fast). I don't know.
Cowboy, I forgot to add: You mentioned not having enough power with the Cummins and the Dodge trucks being poor quality in the early 90s. I agree, those old Dodge trucks simply fell apart and they were rough riding. We had lots of those at my agency that fell apart. BUT, the new generation model trucks are a HUGE IMPROVEMENT. We have many of those at my agency also, and they are holding up great. I'm a forester, and you know that we really test our vehicles, day in, day out, pretty much all off-road driving. The old 12-valve, pre-turbo Cummins didn't have much oomph. The 24 valve turbos, were a big improvement. These came out around 1998 (I think).
Egon,
I can legally haul up to 30k with my licenses on my truck. We were grossed at 26,300 on my last trip to Idaho elk hunting. No problems at all. My trailer has huge brakes and that helps alot.
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