NJMurvin

"The eagle has landed" was the message from my Dodge salesman. Got the call late yesterday morning. Picked it up last night (ordered 2/22, delivered 4/26). Here are my impressions from a total of about 1hr in the cockpit . . .

1) It looks great!

2) Man, this thing is high . . . gotta get those Putco steps on there

3) Cab smell - GOT IT, noticed it this morning at idle with the recirc off. Like others described, it kinda smells like oil - like I'm sitting in an auto repair shop. With recirc and a/c on, no smell

4) It looks great!

5) 2000rpm lag - Nope. Pulls evenly right past 2k

6) Rear end whine - Nope. Didn't notice it. I asked the salesman to ask the technicians who prepped the truck to check the levels of the differentials. Said they did. Who knows? I'll probably check later

7) Fit and finish - Perfect for the most part. Only complaint is the door on the center console. I have to really slam it down to get it to latch. I think the latching mechanism is not working freely. May have to have them look at that

8) It looks great!

9) 70mph vibration - GOT IT, came in right on cue at exactly 70mph. Hard to describe, but it feels kinda like someone switched the tires to a really aggressive offroad knobby tread while I was driving. Kept on vibrating until about 80mph when it smoothed out again. This is going to be really annoying and must be fixed

10) Speaker rattle - GOT IT, only noticed in driver side door (could still be in psgr door) - mostly during heavy bass. Noticed that the salesman had turned the bass all the way up, but even at the middle setting, songs with heavy bass even at moderate volume still caused a little rattle. I think this should be fixed

11) Ride quality - didn't go over any washboard fwy joints yet, but pretty good on the flat. I didn't look at the tire inflation, but plan to lower it while not towing

12) Mileage - too soon to tell, but the readout on the overhead scared me (8.9mpg). I will reset everything with my first fillup and do a manual calc

13) Did I mention it looks great?

Compared to my Ford 7.3PSD with Hypertech PPIII . . .

1) I like the quad cab better than the extended cab Ford. Just a skosh more room in the back, but access is WAY better with real (non-suicide) doors. My golden retriever will love the fold flat floor and extra room

2) I think the seat is more comfortable than the Ford. The Ford was more "bench-ish" while the Dodge seems to be more like a bucket seat with more lateral support

3) No comparison in sound system (Infinity system is way nicer - but I didn't have the premium Ford system)

4) Power is hard to compare as I haven't really romped on this one yet (too new). I think the PPIII makes the 7.3 numbers come up pretty close to the 600/325 and that's about how it feels. It will be interesting to compare how it tows

5) Wife says ride is way better in the Dodge . . . that may be due to its being quieter

6) CTD is way quieter

7) Cupholders in the CTD are a big improvement over the cup-throwers in the Ford

8) Neither had sunglasses holders but the Ford had a compartment in the dash that worked. With the Dodge, I'll have to use the center console

9) I like the white-faced gauges . . . wish they had put in EGT and real trans temp (and maybe boost) at least as paid options

10) I didn't have a grab bar on the Ford, so I used the 3-gauge pillar for gauges. I'm going to need the grab bar as the Dodge is so much higher. I may have to go with digital gauges this time

11) 48RE shifts are fairly firm and seem to change at the right time. I had the PPIII firm up the shifts on the 4R100 so I don't see that much difference there

Total delivery process including financing took about an hour. No hassle about the sold order protection (48 mo 0% + $2000) or the year-old farm bureau coupon that had been mailed to me. The only glitch was the dealer trying to sneak an extra $500 into his price. He'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to get that one past me. I did acquiesce to paying his price increase ($81). Otherwise, got it at the agreed-upon price (invoice)

That's about it for now. Will report later with any changes.

My biggest concern is the vibration - but I'm not alone there. I still wonder about the mileage , but won't lose any sleep over that until I know what it's actually giving me.

All in all, I really like it

Neil

wexman

Congrats Neil.

Buzzer

Congratulations on the new ride. Good luck with it.

hoot

Congrats!!!

Looks like the vibe is becoming a family

12PACK

Excellent write up, Neil. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Did you check your engine hours?

Good luck with the vibration.

NJMurvin

Nope. There were 8 miles on the odo, though. I'm not sure what I'd do if there were extra hours on it. It would just tick me off and I don't need the agravation. I'd rather save that for taking care of the vibe, smell, and so on. I won't even be driving it for the next several days (going out of town on business) . . . maybe I'll take a look next week.

Neil

guidster

My new 3500 (picked it up last week) came with the weight on the power booster hose....hence no vibration. I have yet to hear of one that arrived with it, so I thought I would mention it to help those obtain it.

hoot

Mines a 555 built in Dec/03. It has the weight. I'm not sure if it was from the factory or not though as the truck had 100 miles on it when I got it. It also has the new tranny line with the rubber hose section.

v12xke

I think NJMurvin was referring to a driveline vibration that seems to still be nagging some 4x4's. I don't think the 4x2's have it. Mine doesn't, and I don't recall others saying so. It may be related to the front driveshaft or transfer case. It's disappointing to hear some new (4x4) trucks are still rolling off the line with the vibration. The speaker rattle on mine turned out to be the door panel vibrating and was an easy fix. The oil smell went away after about 1,500 miles. Congrats on your new ride, NJMurvin!

Weatherbyman

Mine has/had the smell from the beginning, but it is wearing off....going away. Look at the Cosmoline thread.....

Mine has the vibration also......the numbers are growing.

No problems with the speakers........

280 Miles.

Dave65

Mine was built Dec 03 also Hoot,no vibrations everything is in order.

Only smell mine has is new car smell ahhh

ksadz

Finally, Neil!! Glad to hear you got it from the dealer with no major issues and actually like it!

Mine was delivered with the weight on the hose but still has the vibe. The smell is slowly going away (3000 miles this morning) but still there.

Love the truck but the vibration is getting more annoying each day.

I read on TDR that DC is aware of it and is allegedly working on a fix. I'll wait a little longer I guess. It's not bad enough to go to war just yet...

http://www.turbodieselregister.com/f...threadid=97749

NJMurvin

Kevin,

I, too, will give this one some time. I'm gonna wait a week or so and see if anything else develops. If not, I'll make at trip to the dealer to have them fix the center console latch. At that time, I'll go on record with the smell and the vibration. At least that documents the problem. Who knows, maybe one of the technicians at that dealership will be the one who figures it out.

Neil

Weatherbyman

Good idea.......I'll do that too.