How many miles is to many for reliablity?

[hobigusn]

Found a 2004 2500 2wd HO auto with 222000 miles for 13900. Is this to many miles for a reliable daily driver? Is it about that time where about of parts start wearing out and need replacing? 200000+ miles in 6 years has to be almost all highway. That's not too hard on a truck. What do you think?

 

[HBarlow]

A friend and fellow TDR member GAmes has over 750,000 miles on his '97 3500. He still wanders the US and Canada hauling trailers commercially. He considers his truck reliable.

Another old friend put just under one million on a '95 Ram 2500 before he retired it from transporting RVs. He still owns the old '95 and occasionally uses it as a backup truck for towing.

We have all read stories of Dodge-Cummins trucks with more than one million miles before overhaul.

 

[jgillott]

We have a high mileage '04. 5 work truck that is what I would consider abused and neglected. It routinely runs long distance trips. If the price is right for you, I wouldn't think twice about it.

 

[rscurtis]

Sort of reminds me of the statement, "there are no old, unsafe airplanes". Mileage shouldn't be an issue as long as you are aware of the life cycle of certain components.

 

[Grizzly]

Our Cummins engines may last half a million miles, some even may last a million miles, but the rest of the truck won't. 222K on the clock means that the power window motors may be on there last leg. All accessories are about wore out, such as, wiper motors, power seats, radio, AC and heating system and many others. You can only open and close a door so many times before something happens. I would look for a truck with less miles.

 

[Prairie Dog]

And don't forget that auto is probably getting tired. .

 

[Motorhead]

I help alot of people by checking out used vehicles for them. While 222,000 isn't alot for the Cummins, I have to agree about the rest of the truck especially when you don't know how it was taken care of.
My BEST words of advice when someone is looking at a high mileage vehicle is, You are generally always money ahead spending a little more money to purchase a lower mileage vehicle.
On the other note. When I worked at UPS, we had two International 28ft box trucks that ran 600 miles every other night to transport very time critical NEXT DAY AIR from Ontatio, ca airport to San Luis Obispo. They were also used during the day for heavy bulk pick ups and delivery. When I retired from there, both trucks had over 550,000 miles on them with the origional 7. 3 turbo V8's and trannies still in them.

 

[JMetzger]

Harvey, Didn't you put a lot of miles on your trucks when pulling trailers & I thought you said that you sold or gave your daughter one of your trucks & she is still driving it with a lot of miles on it, hard to beat a Cummins engine. I may be wrong but I thought it was you.

 

[MAshley]

You should pull the HRS on the motor, and that can tell you MPH average, Its some 3 key turn trick with the trip button pushed without starting the truck... look on TDR for specific directions for it. We can all assume its highway miles and being 2wd eliminates a lot of wear items. So if its a lot of highway miles some items like power windows, power seats may have less use then say a city truck at 100K miles, lets say it has 4,000 hrs for 200,000 miles averages 50 MPH is the same as a truck that averages 25MPH at 100,000 miles.



Honestly HRS have a little more truth to me then millage, I would love to hear about million mille trucks and thier engine HRS.



Im with everyone else if its been maintained, you like the truck, its what you want, and the price is fair ... then I would buy it.

 

[HBarlow]

Harvey, Didn't you put a lot of miles on your trucks when pulling trailers & I thought you said that you sold or gave your daughter one of your trucks & she is still driving it with a lot of miles on it, hard to beat a Cummins engine. I may be wrong but I thought it was you.

Yes, you are correct. I put 325,000 miles on my '01 HO six speed. I had very few problems and never had a breakdown with it. I considered it reliable when I retired it, just wanted a new one. My daughter insisted that her husband buy it for her when I bought a new one. They still have it and she drives it frequently.

My son-in-law owns a successful contruction company and employes a bunch of job superintendents to run his projects. He turned the old Dodge over to one of his supts. who drove the Dodge for a year and a half after I sold it to them. My son-in-law drove it out of town a few times to out of town jobs and he still drives it occasionally to pull his large car hauler. I haven't looked at it in a year or so but last time I knew it had mileage in the 350k range.

I put 230k miles on my '06, also with very problems. I sold it and bought the '08 I have now when I retired from RV transporting.

I strongly disagree with those who claim the Dodge platform is worn out on a high mileage Ram. It just ain't so. That was certainly not my experience and if you doubt me, PM Gary Ames (GAmes) and ask his opinion. Go up to Wakarusa, IN and hang around Horizon Transport and watch the drivers coming and going with Dodge duallies. Stop a few of them and ask how many miles they have run up and how their Dodges are holding up.

I have NEVER replaced a window operator, a heater/AC fan motor, a windshield wiper motor, or any seat, door, window hardware. Have never replaced any dash control or gauge component. Have never repaired or replaced a seat. Have never touched a front end or rear axle assembly. Have never replaced a brake rotor.

I replaced sealed front hub assemblies on both my prior Dodges at around 215k miles and front brake pads. Put one set of Bilstein shocks on each at around 60k miles. Have never replaced rear brake pads on either. Have replaced a couple of water pumps, two lift pumps on the '01, one head gasket on the '01, one injection pump on the '01 due to bad troubleshooting (the injection pump was fine), one exhaust brake vacuum pump on the each IIRC, and lots of tires.

I was never a brand loyal Dodge owner until I bought my first Cummins engine in '01 with a Dodge dually wrapped around it. Now you couldn't give me anything else.

Those who think that the choice between a Govt. Motors, Furd, or Dodge truck are relatively equal with slight differences between the three are simply not well informed. Those who think the advertising copy showing Furd trucks leaping tall buildings and pulling ships or something similar for Nobama Motors trucks matter are falling victim to advertising BS.

A Dodge has a very tough platform. In the RV transport industry those who put high mileage on Furds and GMs and continued hauling replaced their trucks with Dodges when their trucks were worn out and they were.

Furd, Navistar, GM, Isuzu engines are similar to Cummins only as far as they all burn diesel fuel and will move a truck and trailer down the road. The similarity ends there.

A Cummins is a real truck motor that produces torque sufficient to move the truck and trailer at idle speed. The Cummins B motor produces between 350 and 400 ft. lbs. of torque AT IDLE depending on year and configuration. The same little B motor produces maximum torque by 1500 or 1600 rpm depending again on configuration. V8 diesels will simply stall if the driver engages the clutch at idle. That is a primary reason why Furd and GM quit offering optional manual transmissions. I have posted before. Back in 2002 when the new Sick. Ohh Furd came out just out of curiosity I drove a brand new '03 Furd Sick. Ohh with manual six speed. By that time I was well accustomed to my '01 HO Six speed Ram. I attempted to drive the Furd like I drove my Ram. I put it in second gear and eased out the clutch with the expectation it would start rolling then I would fuel it up with the accelerator pedal like I did my Dodge. I was embarrassed. I stalled the weak Navistar V8 every time I tried. I had to rev the engine and slip the clutch to get the piece of stuff rolling. I could launch my Dodge Ram with 3. 55 gears by engaging the clutch at idle with a heavy trailer hooked up. I did it many times over the years when I was transporting and the APPS module failed leaving me with no engine speed control.

Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500s with Cummins engines are a vastly superior products to Furds and GMs, even when the Furd is an El Rancho Grande or whatever the stupid thing is called with leather seats.

 

[jelag]

Over the past 15 years we've kept the trucks we've bought for 500K miles... and even though we've had problems with the fords, all of them made it to the point of sale with 500K with the factory engine...

The dodges are less expensive to keep than the fords... . my signature below shows the trucks that I currently own but the mileage is out of date... . I think that 500K is a safe number if you do basic maintenance...

I'm very frugal on the maintenance side... we run 19. 5" tires and don't rotate, and run the trucks to 7,500 miles between oil changes and don't change fuel filters but once a year... . air filters 2x's a year... . and do what ever happens to them... we've never done an alternator, but do brushes at 250K, u-joints as needed, as long as we don't see tire wear we don't touch the front end and yet we still see 100K miles on tires... .

I could go on... . but that's how I see it... .

 

[macdaddy]

Found a 2004 2500 2wd HO auto with 222000 miles for 13900. Is this to many miles for a reliable daily driver? Is it about that time where about of parts start wearing out and need replacing? 200000+ miles in 6 years has to be almost all highway. That's not too hard on a truck. What do you think?

You could put $10K into this truck and still be under 25K and have a very reliable truck. You also avoid all the other pains of a newer truck with all the added emissions etc.



If the motor wasn't heavily fueled and has a descent service record Id buy it in a minute. The obvious two things would be to check the miles on the injectors and install some kind of after market fuel transfer pump.



Remember the new CTD's are in the low to mid 50's. I could buy one but choose not to because of the cost and I really think id be better off just sinking 10 to 15 K into this one over the next 10 years.



Mac

 

[rbattelle]

Our Cummins engines may last half a million miles, some even may last a million miles, but the rest of the truck won't. 222K on the clock means that the power window motors may be on there last leg. All accessories are about wore out, such as, wiper motors, power seats, radio, AC and heating system and many others. You can only open and close a door so many times before something happens. I would look for a truck with less miles.

In general I agree with you, but we should also bear in mind this truck is only 6 years old. I think things like wipers, power seats, radio, heating system, and windows might wear more on a temporal basis than a mileage basis.



For instance, is mileage a first order effect on number of window up/down cycles? I don't know for sure, but I suspect time is the first order effect and mileage is second order.



-Ryan