Cab & Chassis detuning

[hurleyjd]

Trucks have come a long way with power and comfort no one could imagined in the Fifties. My Dad hauled many a load of watermelons to market with a 1952 2-ton Chevy powered by a blue flame six. Most loads were in the twenty thousand pound range.Four speed with a two speed axle.

 

[BigBear56]

As far as the chassis goes, the 5500 Ram is hands down more stout than the F550 in terms of frame strength, axle rating and braking capacity. My customers have been happy with both models tho. So it really comes down to what you intend to use the truck for. They all have weak spots and differences.

That's interesting to hear you say that. A good friend of mine works for the local electric co-op and they just got him a new Dodge 5500 bucket truck to replace his 2012 model, same truck. Every time I bring up his new truck he says the same thing - "Be glad you bought a Ford!"

There may be other issues causing him to have that opinion. Dodge has been known to "cheap out" on things over the years too but the new ones have been much improved. I sell bucket trucks like the ones your friend would buy and there is definitely a preference for Dodge right now. And I have no idea why that is. We have better pricing on the Fords at the moment too. I had 1 guy tell me he heard Ford donated to Hillary's campaign in 2016 and he immediately sold every Ford he had and switched to Rams. And this guys has A LOT of trucks

 

[Nesikep]

I don't see the need for steel pistons in these trucks.. lots of 1000+ HP trucks using aluminum pistons.. if you have EGT controls and a decent cooling system it works fine..
Why put such a piston and in all likelihood leave the rods that are a weak point over 600hp?

Yeah, they all have their weak points for sure.. I just find doing any work to the inline 6 is much easier than these new cab-over V8s that pretty much require cab lifting for anything you want to do

 

[greggy]

It will be to do with wear and longevity.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Wear and longevity went bye bye with the addition of emissions garbage to the diesel trucks. An engine eating it's own exhaust is never good. It's very common to see 7.3l and pre-emissions cummins motors go many hundreds of thousands of miles without being touched. Its ultra rare to see a EGR/SCR/DPF/yada yada truck go any kind of "longevity" without bunches of emissions troubles being addressed along the way. Some of those emissions problems causing more major issues.