[rosenlof/lucas]

Hi everybody,

We are buying our first new truck. We are committed to using bio diesel and we're interested in the bare bones Dodge Ram-2500 with the Cummins 6.7 Turbo diesel engine in it. We will be using it mostly for transporting equipment and not a lot of real heavy stuff or winter use.

Here's a few questions:
Anybody have experience with the Ram 2500?
Anybody have experience with bio diesel?
Any words of advice?

We'd love some help with this.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic summer.

Best,
Matt

[cutntrim]

Lots of experience with Dodge 2500. Zero experience with bio-diesel, or diesel period for that matter...except in my skidsteer. My quadcab 2500 has been a great truck. Used for trailering all summer, plowing all winter for the past 4 years. No complaints. Planning on a new one this fall as the lease expires, but likely gas and not diesel. Not enough miles to warrant the extra $9k (CDN) for the diesel.

Advice? Check out Sterling trucks. They're re-badged Dodge 4500 with the 6.7 turbo and can be spec'd exactly as you require, option by option. Serviced and warranteed by truck mechanics, not automotive dealer mechanics. Company is out of Michigan.

[BuenPatron]

We use bio in our 7.3L powerstroke and in our walker mower with no ill effects. Even smells kinda good.

But it's not what you'd call "pure" by any stretch. It's from the Phillips stations and is probably a pretty low percentage blend.

The 4-cyl. cab-over trucks (Isuzu NPR, Mitsubishi Fuso, et.al.) seem pretty appealing to me, especially since I have other trucks for snow. I wonder how their gas mileage is... gotta be better than the 12 my ford gets, or the 9 my other ford gets...

[Green4Me]

Two Dodge Ram 3500's. One gas, one diesel. both great trucks, no experience yet with bio-diesel, the only place that sells bio diesel is 20 miles away and it costs more money. Everything I hear about it is better for your engine.

Cummins diesel is an awesome motor and I plan to convert my fleet to diesels. Dodge makes a great truck
good luck

[site]

No experience with Dodge. We bought a 500 gallon tank this year and we are keeping it full of B20 (20% Bio 80% Diesel). We are using it on 3 tractors and three trucks so far with no troubles. The only difference I notice is less smoke. The B20 is professionally mixed, and until someone mentions it I forget we even use it. Having our own tank has saved a ton of time- Now one guy fills the truck while the other guys do stuff around the shop. No more Hangin' at the gas station for 20 minutes every few days.

[stonebear]

I've been driving a Ram 2500 with the 5.9 Cummins Turbo for about 5 years. No complaints at all.

No experience with Bio per se, but worked around two of the chemicals used to prepare it (Potassium Hydroxide and Methanol) for several years. I have heard rumors of concerns with gasket deterioration when older engines are switched over, but other than that, Bio sounds like a definite thing to look into.

[jwholden]

I have an 02 2500 quad cab with the 5.9 Cummins and an automatic. I have had no trouble with the Dodge automatic and I'm up to 52,000 miles. That being said, this truck is used more for leasure than work. I average 14 mpg with a 4.10 rear. It is nice to know I can pull a Bobcat in a pinch.

The newer Cummins are sooooo quiet.

[Mac]

depending if I get enough work for another plowing route, I may set up a personal truck, dodge with cummins just for plowing. In the future, Im plan on buying only dodge with cummins, especially since they now have a class 4/5.

[groundwork]

We've been running our very old truck on b99 for 7 months now. It smells like popcorn and makes us kinda hungry now and then, but besides that it's working great. The only thing I know that makes it a little harder to deal with is that it clogs feul filters more frequently. We had to change ours four or five times in the first few months, but have not had to change it for quite some time now. I don't know if this is due to the warm weather or the bio has cleaned out the engine. I guess we'll see this winter.

Good luck!

[rosenlof/lucas]

Thanks for the replies everybody.

We're really big on the green aspects of using the (b99) bio diesel and have been pleasantly surprised to learn that some truckers say it works better. I've yet to hear a bad word about the Cummins engines so...

We're a company that is committed to doing things green, as well as being good corporate citizens (I'm really interested in the concept of B Corporations right now too), but beyond that, we think we'll be able to use this as a way to reinforce our brand promise to our clients. As you noted cut'n'trim, it is quite a bit more expensive to buy a diesel engine and furthermore, the only b99 dealer in our community isn't that close. Still, the prospect of almost eliminating emissions will be worth a lot to us and we think, our clients.

I'll post about our experience in a few months. Thanks again.

[Paul]

I can't really comment on the new trucks (6.7 Vs 5.9) but my 2005 has 86,000 miles on it with out a problem, the last truck I had was a 1997 and I put 265,000 on it before I sold it to one of my men, He now has just over 350,000 on it and it still runs great!

[mdvaden]

I'm big on natural too, and derivitives. That's why I like gasoline.

Refined right out of mother earth.

Reminds me of distilling alchohol from plants and berries, or purifying water.

Good ol' gasoline - up from the ground and into the tank with a little bit of work.

Like my Dodge truck too. Gas, but great cab design.

[rosenlof/lucas]

Originally posted by mdvaden
I'm big on natural too, and derivitives. That's why I like gasoline.

Refined right out of mother earth.

Reminds me of distilling alchohol from plants and berries, or purifying water.

Good ol' gasoline - up from the ground and into the tank with a little bit of work.

Gasoline? Natural? Mother Earth? You have got to be kidding me. I think you're kidding anyway.

If you're not, there's a refinery pretty close to here, maybe you'd like to look at some retirement real estate near it. The air is real fresh out there. Makes one think of plants and berries.
Ha Ha.

[mdvaden]

Originally posted by rosenlof/lucas
Gasoline? Natural? Mother Earth? You have got to be kidding me. I think you're kidding anyway.

If you're not, there's a refinery pretty close to here, maybe you'd like to look at some retirement real estate near it. The air is real fresh out there. Makes one think of plants and berries.
Ha Ha.

Not really kidding.

Gasoline is derived from within product found within the Earth.

Also, with Bio-diesel, its not exactly all green, because of the energy and resources required to manufacture it.

Probably more green though than the hybrid found to be less green than the Hummer in recent research.

Did you see the report?

The Hummers long life and lack of battery needs
(like manufacture and disposal) make it more Earth friendly than the hybrid.