Purchased beautiful 06 3500 4x4 Quad Cab, what do I need to know?

[salty]

It's an automatic as I was told several times by different sources that it's a decent transmission. Time will tell, but it's a nice truck with 80K and near showroom condition.



What are the tricks with this year and what should i accomplish right away? Totally happy with stock power, but want to address any known issues right away. Thanks in advance. BYW, keeping the old 95 with 500k on it. I am impressed with how tight and solid the newer truck is.

 

[MChrist]

Congratulations! You will love your truck!! The only problem I've had is with the way the transmission would shift. I couldn't pull our 12,000 lb trailer if it was parked on grass, even with flooring it (stock). I had to put it in low range to get it out onto pavement. I took it to Dave Goerend to have them pull the trans and beef up anything that needed it. Upon disassembly, the torque converter was fried, but the trans was like new (36,000miles). They installed a low stall triple disk billet converter, valve body and changed all the shafts to billet. COMPLETELY different truck!! Before, the truck would rev to 2,000 and stay there until the truck would eventually climb to 50, then drop to 1,600 when the torque converter would lock up. If I tried to spin the tires, I couldn't.
Now, truck runs like I feel it should. . solid shifts,(but not TOO solid!) and I can drive around town and never rev over 1600. Oh, and it pulls my 12,000 lb trailer out of grass with 1/3 throttle. The reason I keep saying grass is because the trailer tires will sink in, and it takes some oomph to move it.
Other than that, my truck has been trouble free. As far as all my modifications... those were done out of curiosity, not necessity.

 

[SBashaw]

No problems with my 06. only 20,000 on the ticker, so its not like I am on the road every day. just use it for vacation and hunting trips, usually pulling fifth wheel. everything is stock and plenty of power.

 

[AWeiman]

the wife has put 4000 miles on hers since we bought it in december and we are very pleased, no major issues so far. much smoother riding than my 01. the only thing we need to get fixed is the govoner solnoid in the trans. its doing the 1-2-1 gear hunt at low rpms. which i think you will find by searching other posts was somewhat of an issue with these autos. but i dont think it is very expensive or hard to fix.

 

[roberthall0]

I've got 75K miles on my 06 and the truck runs great. Also the body is tight with no rattles and the ride is good. I did not care for the stock 48re when pulling my 15-16 thousand pound trailer in the mountains. To fix the problem I had Suncoast torque converter, valve body, billet input shaft, and flex plate installed. Transmission does great now. I also had problems with the steering gear box on this truck and the 05 that I owned before this one. When I replaced the steering box on the 06 at about 36K miles, I also installed a Darrins Steering Stabilizer (DSS). The DSS is supposed to keep the gear box from getting stressed. Having to make 90 degree turns into my garage is what I think was causing my gear boxes to fail. I have put about 40K miles on the truck and have installed oversized tires (285-70-17) since installing the DSS and have not had any steering issues. I have owned several diesel pickups and this one is definitely my favorite.