I was at the dealership today, for rearend problems, and I was talkin to the salesman about a 98 Dodge 1500 4x4 reg cab w/318 5spd. It's got 130000 kms and they want $15'000 Canadian for it. They told me I could trade my 99 F150 with 125000kms in and they will give me $6000 on top. Do you think this is a good deal? I checked around and it seems to me like the F150 has twice the common problems(blown plugs, head gaskets, door cracks, tranny, leaking windows, fuel economy,etc) as the dodge. To tell you the truth after being to this site day after day, its really depressing knowing that my truck will have some or if not all these problems in the future. I think I have myself convinced to trade for something else and I can't seem to find a 94-96 F150 that i like. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanx

 

There's no free lunch.
And despite what you read here car salesmen aren't stupid.
He will make money off a Dodge plus 6 trade for your truck.
(or he wouldn't have offered)
You have a lot of nice modifications.

p.s. You anywhere near Lunenburg?

 

About 2 1/2 hours from Lunenburg.

 

You're trading one potential problem for another. Expect major troubles out of Dodge transmissions.

 

My 98 is going on five years now, and to date, I've done nothing but modify, and maintain it. The list of warrenty repairs is very small, with the biggest one being balljoints which go out on all trucks now that there is no way to grease them. Probably if I didn't use my Truck the way I do, they would have lasted longer, but then it wouldn't have been covered under warrenty.

If you take his 'dump plus 6' offer, use the 6 to buy a new Ford at a reputable dealer, and use the dump truck to haul garbage around in till it dies.

 

Are there problems with the 5speed manual tranny? or is it just the auto?

 

Unlawful,

I really think that if you dredge the web, you'll find a similar site that is very similar to f150online that deals specifically with Dodge and, again, if you dredge a little farther, you'll see that the Dodge is having problems on the same scale as the F150. Bottom line, anything that is going through mass production is going to have problems.

Do what you need to do but, if I were you, I'd ride the ship I was on... very very very few sink... all of them need an occasional 'patch'.

RP

 

I don't know about the manuals, but the autos have the bad reputation. I was talking to one Dodge guy, (2500 V8) and he was exhuberent that he got almost 140k on his auto before having it rebuilt. But he also tows frequently and has equipment weighing close to a ton mounted in his bed.

 

are you crazy or not? as soon as i read you are thinking about trading down to a dodge, the word YES comes to mind

 

my step brother drives a 3500 dodge. with manual, he's had to put 3 third gears in it. in 150,000 mi.
granted it's a heavy duty truck that gets used but he also had a half ton, that he dumped at the first oppurtunity. had probs, with u joints, ball joints, tranny, and i think the rear end on that one.
would think hard about that one. there's definitely a reason why the dealer would make that deal. it's not because he's a nice guy, or likes you. ya know what i mean.

 

hey wild child,

i have put 2 third gears and a second gear syncro in my 99 f-150

moose

 

i never said the fords were perfect, although my '97 w/5spd had and my g/f's '01 w/5spd has no probs with gears. can only speak of my own experience.
i would trade my auto in a minute for the 5 spd if it could pull more weight.

 

Well here are my biggest problems with my Ford which makes me consider this trade. I have had a real harsh shift from 1st to 2nd gear in the auto tranny, I have had it to the dealer at least 5 times about this, and they keep telling me there are no codes and they take it for a test drive and it won't shift harsh for them. So I figure that as soon as my extended warranty runs out the tranny is gonna fall outta it. The body lift I installed a year ago has forced me to change the steering shaft 3 times. The piston slap in the engine lasts 10-15 minutes on cold start up not just 2-3 mins. and the gas mileage is down right horrible. If I could get the tranny problem fixed and figure out why it has such a prolonged piston slap I'd keep this truck in a flash. Because I know there ain't goin to be no Dodge as good looking as my Ford.