Ram quality

[tuffr2]

I believe consumer reports have black marks for all the bigger than 1/2 ton trucks.

I have a 2012 Ford Dually no problems. My friend has a 2011 Ram Dually no problems.

We both had one recall that was fixed with a laptop. Needed a software upgrade/fix.

To me, you could just of had bad luck or my friend and I have good luck.

I believe all the newer trucks are better, more reliable, than the old trucks.

[Cypressloser]

After reading the original post a second time and looking up the truck's vin # it looks like you're towing a 23k lbs trailer behind a srw truck with 11300 lbs GVWR and 4250 lbs max. payload.
Am I missing something?

[raineman]

Originally Posted by Cypressloser

After reading the original post a second time and looking up the truck's vin # it looks like you're towing a 23k lbs trailer behind a srw truck with 11300 lbs GVWR and 4250 lbs max. payload.
Am I missing something?

[harleyjt]

He mentioned that he replaced all 4 rear tires, so it has to be at least a 3500 with dual rear wheels.
jt

[Downwindtrac]

When Chrysler took over American Motors they got their engineering staff. These boys had learned to do a lot with a little and quickly without bureaucracy . Out of this they produced the '92 Ram pickup. A case can be made that it was the most revolutionary pickup since they stopped using car frames for pickups. The company was even making money. The execs sold out to Daimler . You can read about how badly the Germans did at managing. One of the programs they killed was called something like Quality Assurance. QC tanked. When Fait took over,they brought it back.

[Cypressloser]

Originally Posted by harleyjt

He mentioned that he replaced all 4 rear tires, so it has to be at least a 3500 with dual rear wheels.
jt

Point taken, I was looking for this information on the spec sheet on vin decoder and couldn't find it, but it showed the GVWR and payload.

[tuffr2]

My vin look-up showed a dually Ram truck that is for sale in Taylor Tx.

For sale at Nyle Maxwell Jeep Dodge of Taylor. Taylor Texas.

[Cypressloser]

Originally Posted by tuffr2

My vin look-up showed a dually Ram truck that is for sale in Taylor Tx.

For sale at Nyle Maxwell Jeep Dodge of Taylor. Taylor Texas.

Interesting, I used this site to get the info.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/vindecoder.php
Maybe the OP can chime in and clear the air.

[69Stang]

Originally Posted by Jccjr50

Thanks for the advice.
2014 Ram Longhorn Laramie 3500 DWR
23000 miles

Originally Posted by Cypressloser

Interesting, I used this site to get the info.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/vindecoder.php
Maybe the OP can chime in and clear the air.

He did on the 1st page. Post #8.

[tuffr2]

Agree, he mentioned replacing all 4 rear tires in the original post also.

Just type the vin into google. It shows a very nice looling truck. I am semi-jealous.

[raineman]

I saw SRW, but then I clicked another link and a picture of a DRW came up

[Jccjr50]

I feel like I should clarify some other things about this post.
First, there are a lot of good Ram trucks out there. I just happened to get a bad one. To be honest, my Ram was a great driving truck, quite a bit better then the 2012 Ford F350 DRW that I had.
What made me upset was when I brought these issues to Ram there was the absolute indifference to the excessive problems or my family's safety.
It is one thing thing to have a problem, but what determines the character of the company is how they address their problems. In this case I must give them a O for support.
Unless Ram has a change in their attitude toward their problems, I cannot in good conscience purchase a vehicle from them. I hope they change as I feel they make a good product.
Thanks for all your good responses to this thread. I learned from them.

[Old-Biscuit]

Originally Posted by Jccjr50

Thanks for the advice.
2014 Ram Longhorn Laramie 3500 DWR
23000 miles

Originally Posted by Jccjr50

I am posting a letter that I sent to Ram. Their total lack of concern for me and my family's safety leaves me horrified that I did business with them.

Ram problems
vin# 3C63RRKLX EG273715
Dealer: Covert Chrysler Austin, TX
First, I purchase this vehicle to pull a 23,000 lb 5th wheel, and reviewing the specs, it showed that this truck would be capable of towing this unit. Each year I take my trailer to Colorado as well as other places and I expected to be able to go and return safely.

23K is MAX Tow rating.......if truck is fully loaded (14K then max tow is only 18K.....GCVWR 32K)

Max Tow Rating....base model, 150# driver and 20# cargo
Any/ALL added equipment, passengers, stuff etc are subtracted from that MAX Tow number.

Course other factors weigh in....RAWR vs Rear Axle scaled weight, Payload rating vs actual cargo/hitch/pin weights


These are following things that happened
1. Transmission computer board went out. Could not drive vehicle. The truck had to be towed into Covert Chrysler. Fortunately I was near home, but I could have just as easily been on a trip and broken down in an area where there was no cell service. What would I have done then? It took Covert 3 to 4 weeks to fix this issue.

Electronics fail.....heck brand new out of box can be bad.
This is not a 'RAM' issue per se.
This is more of a lousy dealership taking 3 to 4 weeks to fix (was it 3 or was it 4??)

2. On last trip, pulling my trailer, at 21000 miles my two front tire treads separated from belt. Fortunately, after feeling the front end vibrate and dropping my trailer for some maintaince I took my truck to tire shop to have wheels balanced. That is when I was informed the treads had separated. Had to buy new tires. What would have happened if I had had a blowout and wrecked and either kill one of the members of my family or someone else. Know you did not make tires, but you did pick the tires to put on truck. Also I had previously taken truck over commercial scales to make sure I had not exceeded weight limits. On trip home had a rear tire where part of tread completely separated from belt. This was about at 22000 miles. Knowing I could not trust tires, I replace all 4 rear tires.

Crappy tires.....?
Defective tires...?
What brand where these tires?
What did weigh ticket show for scaled weights?
How old were tires....DOT date stamp?
What air pressures were you using?

Again not a 'RAM' issue per se. YES they chose tire vendor but have no control over mfg. process etc.
2014 year truck-------how long was warranty on those tires?
Did you contact Tire MFG?


3. The last issue, which again I was fortunate to be close to home and not pulling trailer, I lost both power steering and brakes. If I had been on road with trailer in a high traffic area, I would have caused a major accident, which one or more people could have been killed. That would have been Ram’s fault.

Loss of power steering AND brakes?
What was diagnosed as root cause?
2014 year truck.......

4. Again the truck was towed into Covert. Took 2 to 3 weeks to fix. When I picked up I saw that I had a crack along the lower left side of windshield. The crack was not there when truck was picked up.
Showed the crack to Covert and they would not do anything about it. Then contacted Ram customer service and they would not do anything. This ended costing me out of pocket almost
$500.00.

Again not a 'RAM' issue per se...
Lousy Dealership------2 to 3 weeks to fix power steering/brakes (was it 2 or 3 week?)
Again.lousy dealership!
Cracked windshield------you might 'know' it wasn't when you brought it in-----or maybe hadn't noticed it.
Dealer doesn't know if it was/wasn't, you trying to get over on them or if it actually got cracked at their place.
That is one of them ---he said/they said ----BUT a GOOD dealership would have had it replaced .
Again---lousy dealership

One reason we ALL carry insurance on our stuff.......or least one should

You can check with Covert Chrysler to see about all the warrantee work that has been done over the time I have owned the vehicle.
Don’t know how many other trucks you have trouble with, but after seeing the latest information on Consumer Reports on auto brand reliability, I see that the Ram brand is considered one of the most unreliable and the 3500 was the worst of Ram brand.

Consumer Reports
You're kidding RIGHT.

This is a very unreliable truck and I cannot put my family’s safety in peril.

Now don't take me wrong......
I think you had issues but they were not directly RAM's fault
I think your problems were not handled properly due to a LOUSY Dealership.

All MFGs have had issues with their products
I bought/drove FORDS my whole life. Only owned one other Dodge truck and could NOT wait to get rid of that 'POS' (back in the 80s)
BUT FORDs 6.0 was a crap shoot and I couldn't take the chance when we went FT so bought a Cummins that came wrapped in a Dodge.
That was in 2006 and my 2007 with 5.9l has been GREAT.


Am a bit confused though.
You stated that the 2014 RAM was so bad, so unreliable, so UNSAFE that families safety was in peril.
YET you traded it in.

Did you take low dollar trade in value, inform FORD dealer of its inherent safety issues-------

Or were you just so frustrated with LACK of dealerships incompetency that you traded off a very good truck for a newer good truck cause you really didn't want that truck anymore?
BTDT myself.....

[Parks]

Originally Posted by Jccjr50

I feel like I should clarify some other things about this post.
First, there are a lot of good Ram trucks out there. I just happened to get a bad one. To be honest, my Ram was a great driving truck, quite a bit better then the 2012 Ford F350 DRW that I had.
What made me upset was when I brought these issues to Ram there was the absolute indifference to the excessive problems or my family's safety.
It is one thing thing to have a problem, but what determines the character of the company is how they address their problems. In this case I must give them a O for support.
Unless Ram has a change in their attitude toward their problems, I cannot in good conscience purchase a vehicle from them. I hope they change as I feel they make a good product.
Thanks for all your good responses to this thread. I learned from them.

It is my opinion you just came here to complain about a truck that had some minor problems that were easily warranties but you chose to use a crappy dealer. Most auto manufactures will put on mediocre tires on their vehicles, just like the crap that was probably on your 5th wheel that you probably replaced before you had any problems. If you had a crappy factory tire blow out on your trailer would you claim the manufacture put our family and others on the hwy in danger, throw a fit about it and post it up on a forum about how little they care for your families safety? No you wouldn't but i guess it is Rams fault for their tires. It's your responsibility to make sure you have the best component on your truck when you are towing 23K# behind your truck.

It's a good think you didn't buy a Ford because one or more of your doors could have flown open dumping you onto the hwy because of their faulty door latches they just had a major recall on.

You see, every manufacture has problems. It is how your dealer takes care of your issues and it seems your Ram dealer is your biggest issue with your Ram problems.