Pressure_welder
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- Joined
- Jul 22, 2022
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So figured id throw together a bit of a review of the new truck, so far a massive 2500KM on the clock sorry if this gets a bit rambly but thought id share my thoughts from my point of view on a truck of this calibur. Finally got the welding bed installed, and the equipment on ready for work. Just waiting on custom drawer stacks for the toolboxes so as of right now its just small shelves in there. So i would say for the most part other than maybe 300lbs of tools the bed is fully outfitted for work. I havent weighed the truck yet, ill do that next week at the mine have some buckets to do, but i would guestimate in that 12-12,500lb range.
The truck itself coming from my last ram which was a 2015 limited dually to this the improvements are exponential.... wow is all i can say. Seats are super comfortable as ive come to expect with ram, the LED headlights on this laramie are extremely good from factory as well as the fog lights, and i love that cool feature when you turn the steering wheel it lights up the direction youre going. The heated seats and steering wheel are almost too warm which is excellent to get into when working in -35. The rubber floor i also extremely good, i was expecting it to be very industrial feeling like my previous trucks at the generating stations i worked at but the vynil flooring has a very nice cushion feel to it, and seems to melt snow very quickly, and stays plyable in the cold, glad i went with this option. The center console iam still getting used to, i am not sure weather i like it being open at the bottom yet or not but still lots of storage. The u-connect 5 is like having a iphone in your vehicle, the options seem endless in there and i am still learning. Back seat is spacious as i expected, kinda miss the infloor storage boots but not the end of the world. These laramie seats are quite nice as well, plush, and soft. But i must say..... just smiply cant beat the smell of the seats i had in my limited dually. All in all interior/exterior wise Ram hit it out of the park as far as i an concerned. I really dont have a ton of cons at this moment. The pearl white i LOVE! very easy to keep clean, and a classy color.
5500 aspects..... So of course driving it around from the dealership for 2 weeks without a bed was rather frustrating " at times ". ride quality was awful but not always! but i mean what can you expect really without a bed. I will say after bed installation the truck started to behave far better, after the welder and affiliated tools were installed it behaved better yet. I may be stretching just a bit but i would say based on experience the ride quality now would almost equal that of my unloaded 2015 ram limited dually, which to me was perfectly acceptable. Its no half ton of course though. My biggest concern with this purchase was ride quality in relation to a daily driver/family vehicle. So far i can say with the weight i am carrying it provides a perfectly adequate ride experience. Wifes durango is down in the shop so we have a 2500KM round trip to the inlaws for christmas this year so the truck will get to stretch her legs a bit so that may be a bit of a better test. The cabin though, i think makes the ride experience far superior than say maybe its predecessors. I actually just finished a 600KM round trip yesterday picking up the new sled from dealer, driving main highways the thing behaved as well as a cadillac. I would almost venture to say my father inlaws 22 - 3/4 ton AT4 short box duramax is rougher, that thing is brutal. The one thing i do notice is with the wide track front end it does search a bit on highways that are well worn from semis, at times it gets pretty bad with the truck figuring out which slot in the road it wants to fall into. But in all reality this is not a big deal, thats a small price to pay for such an excellent turning radius, wow! amazing. So i knew going in that this truck would obviously be a few points worse on fuel mileage than my previous 1 ton duallies, and that is accurate. For example yesterday my 600KM round trip i found the range of the truck to be quite good with this tank, i was able to get back to the house with just a touch over 1/2 tank, so i forsee roughly 1100km ish per tank. Yesterday was relatively ideal highway driving conditions, sunny, -20, and basically no wind. I seemed to average roughly 13-14mpg for the trip, at close to 13,000lbs with the sled in the back i feel that is perfectly reasonable, my 1 ton wouldve got maybe 15-18mpg. Ive heard that mileage seems to improve after that 4000km point but well see. We live about 20 min by highway on a lake from our "city" if you want to call it that 50,000 people, so about 40 min a day is hwy driving the rest is slower in town driving, idling due to cold weather etc and my average mpg is sitting at about 11mpg. So as a practical daily driver its maybe not the BEST choice in vehicles but when combined into a work/family truck i think it works out in the wash. Honestly i dont think going to a 4500 wouldve provided a much better ride either, i have maybe 5-6000lbs of payload left on this 5500 which is just about perfect when we hook up to our loaded gooseneck or fifth wheel. It leaves me a nice cushion of 2000lbs which i always like to have for that "overkill" scenario. Pulled our gooseneck once with our skid steer which comes in just over 18,000lbs. Can i say that holyyyy **** did i ever miss pulling with a cummins. The previous 19 duramax i had the exhaust brake was awful, i am not even sure why they put it in there its all computer controlled and the TRUCK decides when you need it. The exhaust brake on this cummins.... when you let off the throttle its there instantly BOOM throwing you in your seat. I cant say enough about cummins exhaust brakes, it was the same with my 15. Pulling this load with the 5500 vs my 19 gmc dually is night and day and more from a cummins/duramax perspective than anything. I did notice the superior braking power of the 5500 though and it felt far more planted to the ground. oh!!! another super positive that i was concerned about.... the infamous dead pedal which i had on my 2015 ram..... pull out to pass someone and the truck dosent go anywhere, i was oh so glad to find out, directly out from the dealership parking lot that this truck has no dead pedal. I guess lastly would be power, i drive around like a grandpa as it is so these high hp diesel trucks are sort of lost on me, but yes my 19 gmc with 445hp did have more get up and go, but even this 5500 with 360 has pleanty to pass, and get upto highway speed with a load, if your concerned about the detuned portion of this vehicle during purchase i dont think id put much thought into it unless your into racing from stop lights. One thing that i was actually quite suprised with was the height of this 5500, i parked my 19 gmc dually beside it when i got to the dealer and i swear it was minimum 4-5" taller. Without running boards it was a bit of a jump for me to get into. I like height! the extra clearance for mine work is AWESOME! my 19 gmc was a dozer at times. awful. OH! for anyone curious!!! the off road option atleast when i ordered as the michelin xds2 tires, which is a quality tire which is generally never offered from factory. Just finished hunting season last week and the truck did fantastic driving through 6" of snow without 4x4 to get my buck. Also seem to be quite good on ice. I also have experienced ZERO issues with drive tires on all 4 corners, truck reacts completely normal, only thing is maybe a little bit of extra road noise which is negligible. Highly recommend if considering this option!!!
The truck itself coming from my last ram which was a 2015 limited dually to this the improvements are exponential.... wow is all i can say. Seats are super comfortable as ive come to expect with ram, the LED headlights on this laramie are extremely good from factory as well as the fog lights, and i love that cool feature when you turn the steering wheel it lights up the direction youre going. The heated seats and steering wheel are almost too warm which is excellent to get into when working in -35. The rubber floor i also extremely good, i was expecting it to be very industrial feeling like my previous trucks at the generating stations i worked at but the vynil flooring has a very nice cushion feel to it, and seems to melt snow very quickly, and stays plyable in the cold, glad i went with this option. The center console iam still getting used to, i am not sure weather i like it being open at the bottom yet or not but still lots of storage. The u-connect 5 is like having a iphone in your vehicle, the options seem endless in there and i am still learning. Back seat is spacious as i expected, kinda miss the infloor storage boots but not the end of the world. These laramie seats are quite nice as well, plush, and soft. But i must say..... just smiply cant beat the smell of the seats i had in my limited dually. All in all interior/exterior wise Ram hit it out of the park as far as i an concerned. I really dont have a ton of cons at this moment. The pearl white i LOVE! very easy to keep clean, and a classy color.
5500 aspects..... So of course driving it around from the dealership for 2 weeks without a bed was rather frustrating " at times ". ride quality was awful but not always! but i mean what can you expect really without a bed. I will say after bed installation the truck started to behave far better, after the welder and affiliated tools were installed it behaved better yet. I may be stretching just a bit but i would say based on experience the ride quality now would almost equal that of my unloaded 2015 ram limited dually, which to me was perfectly acceptable. Its no half ton of course though. My biggest concern with this purchase was ride quality in relation to a daily driver/family vehicle. So far i can say with the weight i am carrying it provides a perfectly adequate ride experience. Wifes durango is down in the shop so we have a 2500KM round trip to the inlaws for christmas this year so the truck will get to stretch her legs a bit so that may be a bit of a better test. The cabin though, i think makes the ride experience far superior than say maybe its predecessors. I actually just finished a 600KM round trip yesterday picking up the new sled from dealer, driving main highways the thing behaved as well as a cadillac. I would almost venture to say my father inlaws 22 - 3/4 ton AT4 short box duramax is rougher, that thing is brutal. The one thing i do notice is with the wide track front end it does search a bit on highways that are well worn from semis, at times it gets pretty bad with the truck figuring out which slot in the road it wants to fall into. But in all reality this is not a big deal, thats a small price to pay for such an excellent turning radius, wow! amazing. So i knew going in that this truck would obviously be a few points worse on fuel mileage than my previous 1 ton duallies, and that is accurate. For example yesterday my 600KM round trip i found the range of the truck to be quite good with this tank, i was able to get back to the house with just a touch over 1/2 tank, so i forsee roughly 1100km ish per tank. Yesterday was relatively ideal highway driving conditions, sunny, -20, and basically no wind. I seemed to average roughly 13-14mpg for the trip, at close to 13,000lbs with the sled in the back i feel that is perfectly reasonable, my 1 ton wouldve got maybe 15-18mpg. Ive heard that mileage seems to improve after that 4000km point but well see. We live about 20 min by highway on a lake from our "city" if you want to call it that 50,000 people, so about 40 min a day is hwy driving the rest is slower in town driving, idling due to cold weather etc and my average mpg is sitting at about 11mpg. So as a practical daily driver its maybe not the BEST choice in vehicles but when combined into a work/family truck i think it works out in the wash. Honestly i dont think going to a 4500 wouldve provided a much better ride either, i have maybe 5-6000lbs of payload left on this 5500 which is just about perfect when we hook up to our loaded gooseneck or fifth wheel. It leaves me a nice cushion of 2000lbs which i always like to have for that "overkill" scenario. Pulled our gooseneck once with our skid steer which comes in just over 18,000lbs. Can i say that holyyyy **** did i ever miss pulling with a cummins. The previous 19 duramax i had the exhaust brake was awful, i am not even sure why they put it in there its all computer controlled and the TRUCK decides when you need it. The exhaust brake on this cummins.... when you let off the throttle its there instantly BOOM throwing you in your seat. I cant say enough about cummins exhaust brakes, it was the same with my 15. Pulling this load with the 5500 vs my 19 gmc dually is night and day and more from a cummins/duramax perspective than anything. I did notice the superior braking power of the 5500 though and it felt far more planted to the ground. oh!!! another super positive that i was concerned about.... the infamous dead pedal which i had on my 2015 ram..... pull out to pass someone and the truck dosent go anywhere, i was oh so glad to find out, directly out from the dealership parking lot that this truck has no dead pedal. I guess lastly would be power, i drive around like a grandpa as it is so these high hp diesel trucks are sort of lost on me, but yes my 19 gmc with 445hp did have more get up and go, but even this 5500 with 360 has pleanty to pass, and get upto highway speed with a load, if your concerned about the detuned portion of this vehicle during purchase i dont think id put much thought into it unless your into racing from stop lights. One thing that i was actually quite suprised with was the height of this 5500, i parked my 19 gmc dually beside it when i got to the dealer and i swear it was minimum 4-5" taller. Without running boards it was a bit of a jump for me to get into. I like height! the extra clearance for mine work is AWESOME! my 19 gmc was a dozer at times. awful. OH! for anyone curious!!! the off road option atleast when i ordered as the michelin xds2 tires, which is a quality tire which is generally never offered from factory. Just finished hunting season last week and the truck did fantastic driving through 6" of snow without 4x4 to get my buck. Also seem to be quite good on ice. I also have experienced ZERO issues with drive tires on all 4 corners, truck reacts completely normal, only thing is maybe a little bit of extra road noise which is negligible. Highly recommend if considering this option!!!