PSA: If you’re on the Fence with ordering a 4500/ 5500

[buzzuti]

PSA: Just got the dets from a trusted 34yr Ford commercial dealer…

Ford is only accepting orders for Fleet Companies only. To qualify for a fleet designation you have to own more then 15 trucks/cars/vans of any make or model in your company. There are virtually zero allocations remaining for ordering trucks for the retail public. Hopefully they will have their logistic issues ironed out for the 2024 model year

That may cause some folks to pivot to RAM.
So, if you’re on the fence, I would think hard about getting in line sooner than later.

(Yeah, I was contemplating the Dark Side with a F-550, cheaper, more parts)

 

[Firebird]

So Ford is only accepting fleet orders for C&C trucks now?

 

[buzzuti]

So Ford is only accepting fleet orders for C&C trucks now?

Was working with 3 diff dealers.
They were all more shady than normal dealers around 550’s. Every truck I saw on a site, I would call and it would actually be someone’s custom order, posted online to get backup offers if the deal fell through. I get the CYA aspect but I ignorantly burned several hours before realizing this was normal…

Finally, spoke with a vet dealer in Dallas that explained the issue, he said normal years he was allotted 150 F-550, but Ford corp cut his limit to 75 this year. He blew through that in January. December 31, there had already been 249k custom orders placed. He stated that in 34 years of selling Fords he has never seen anything like this.

He also stated orders (f-550’s/ chassis cabs, Class 5’s) are closed till 2024, orders to be opened for 2024 in July most likely. Fleet company orders only Ford wide on chassis cabs MDs.

To be clear, in no attempts to spin up the rumor mill, thought some of you folks may appreciate hearing that.

If anyone knows different, by all means let me know. Been on the fence between stepping to a F-550 instead of a Ram 5500.

 

[Pressure_welder]

PSA: Just got the dets from a trusted 34yr Ford commercial dealer…



That may cause some folks to pivot to RAM.
So, if you’re on the fence, I would think hard about getting in line sooner than later.

(Yeah, I was contemplating the Dark Side with a F-550, cheaper, more parts)

interesting! i threw a F550 lariat into the mix when i was shopping for my next welding rig. And for relatively the same optioned truck Ram vs Ford, the ford was almost exactly 11,000$ more. This may be a canadian thing though? I did it out of curiosity mostly just to make a more informed decision on purchase. But back in april i was told id have to wait for a 23, and that was even IF Ford decided to offer to general public. So that information and after test driving a F450 lariat, while nice.... it felt like something out of a fisher price store, so much plastic, center stack was extremely out dated. May be a bias opinon but i felt at the time Ram had a superior truck especially interior wise. Ford does offer quite a few more gearing/lengths though as compared to a ram. Had a look at an international CV as well, but couldn't bring myself to drive that super dated interior, on top of being on a 1.5 year waiting list.

I think in C&C world Ram has defiantly hit a home run between order to delivery time and capability. Having said that while i love my 5500 laramie the thing has cost me an absolute fortune in lost revenue due to def issues and i dont even have 9,000km yet. However it wouldn't matter if i went to a class 8 i/we would be in the exact same boat reliability wise. Its a terrible situation to be in! the only other option is a gas job, but holy man i couldnt imagine the fuel mileage with this thing if it had a 6.4 in it ! yikes.

 

[buzzuti]

interesting! i threw a F550 lariat into the mix when i was shopping for my next welding rig. And for relatively the same optioned truck Ram vs Ford, the ford was almost exactly 11,000$ more. This may be a canadian thing though? I did it out of curiosity mostly just to make a more informed decision on purchase. But back in april i was told id have to wait for a 23, and that was even IF Ford decided to offer to general public. So that information and after test driving a F450 lariat, while nice.... it felt like something out of a fisher price store, so much plastic, center stack was extremely out dated. May be a bias opinon but i felt at the time Ram had a superior truck especially interior wise. Ford does offer quite a few more gearing/lengths though as compared to a ram. Had a look at an international CV as well, but couldn't bring myself to drive that super dated interior, on top of being on a 1.5 year waiting list.

I think in C&C world Ram has defiantly hit a home run between order to delivery time and capability. Having said that while i love my 5500 laramie the thing has cost me an absolute fortune in lost revenue due to def issues and i dont even have 9,000km yet. However it wouldn't matter if i went to a class 8 i/we would be in the exact same boat reliability wise. Its a terrible situation to be in! the only other option is a gas job, but holy man i couldnt imagine the fuel mileage with this thing if it had a 6.4 in it ! yikes.

Maybe you're right, a Canada $ thing, IDK.
Every time I price out, Laramie to Lariat (not even sure if that is a far comparison honestly), throwing most of the book at both build, I land between $6k-$9k more expensive on the Ram side

Agree on all fronts there. That "Fisher Price" isn't just you.
Ram destroys Ford on interior, without question. I will argue that all day in spite of "opinions".
Was arm wrestling Wife on a Ford possibility since she is a Ram interior diehard.

Judging by the Ford forum conversations, Ram manufacturing pipeline is again far superior. Yeah it has it's rough edges here and there, but those guys (ford), esp. last year have it real rough in comparison.

Just when I though that demand was dying down due to inflation, and that the supply chain has stabilized... I discover that it neither really have fully.

 

[LikeABoss]

Just ordered a 5500 Wednesday. The salesman initially said 6-8 weeks, then hedged and said 8-12. We will see!

 

[AH64ID]

Maybe you're right, a Canada $ thing, IDK.
Every time I price out, Laramie to Lariat (not even sure if that is a far comparison honestly), throwing most of the book at both build, I land between $6k-$9k more expensive on the Ram side

Agree on all fronts there. That "Fisher Price" isn't just you.
Ram destroys Ford on interior, without question. I will argue that all day in spite of "opinions".
Was arm wrestling Wife on a Ford possibility since she is a Ram interior diehard.

Judging by the Ford forum conversations, Ram manufacturing pipeline is again far superior. Yeah it has it's rough edges here and there, but those guys (ford), esp. last year have it real rough in comparison.

Just when I though that demand was dying down due to inflation, and that the supply chain has stabilized... I discover that it neither really have fully.

For fun I just built a Ram 5500 Laramie and a F-550 Lariat. I keep the options as close as possible and the Ram is 3K more, which is more than I remember the last time I looked.

Now the Ram can get a whole lot more money than that, as it has some options the Ford doesn’t… but I was trying to keep them as similar as possible.

 

[Pressure_welder]

Just ordered a 5500 Wednesday. The salesman initially said 6-8 weeks, then hedged and said 8-12. We will see!

hahah thats interesting, try 6-8 months

 

[JBoo2911]

Just ordered a 5500 Wednesday. The salesman initially said 6-8 weeks, then hedged and said 8-12. We will see!

My ‘23 Ram 5500 took 4 months to come in. Expect 16-24 weeks, depending what part of the country you ordered from. Anything earlier than 16 weeks is a bonus!

 

[Pressure_welder]

Just picking my brain on some decisions on upcoming trucks potentially. i have a 5500 laramie with 4.44s now and i quite like it. Not exactly a prius! but thats fine too... i am seeing maybe 13mpg average, absolute best case 16mpg hwy. Decided i am throwing an aluminium welding bed on the truck now, and am going to save about 1000+lbs by doing so, which sorta slides me into 4500 territory. My biggest issue was maintaining a decent payload capacity with my fully outfitted welding rig, and still being able to tow a heavy gooseneck or our fifth wheel/boat combo. I know the trucks are almost dead nuts identical, except for i believe an extra leaf and the 5500s come with 4.44s. My question is.... does one stick with a 5500.... or could there be slight MPG gains to be had with 4:10s? i am sure the ride comparison between a 45 and 55 are negligable. Its about a 2000$ savings for a 45 up here in canada vs 5500. Only reason i am considering this is this new dealer wants my 5500, and is giving me quite a substantial amount more than i paid for it. Moving onto a 23 would get me the digital guage cluster.... and a bunch of things previous dealer missed when ordering. (nightmare)

 

[gprguy]

I'll say it again - make sure you know what you'll be getting with the '23. Last I saw no Laramie's were coming with the digital gauges, only the Limiteds. And none of the '23 chassis cabs are available with the surround cameras or digital rear view mirror.

On a separate note - Kelderman is running 10% off and free shipping on everything this weekend. I'm getting my suspension ordered even though the truck is stuck in shipping hell..

 

[Pressure_welder]

Yea i checked with my dealer and he said the laramie would for sure be coming with the digital cluster... there calling it the "mutually exclusive pkg" rather than the level 1 or 2 laramie. that comes with the harmon/kardon sound system, 12" display etc. Dealer hasnt given me any restrictions on my build so who knows. Tire pressure information system iam putting on this truck too, this one was supposed to have it but dealer forgot.

Where did you find your info about laramies with no digital guage cluster? JB reviews on youtube did a review on a 23-4500 laramie and it had the digital cluster, folding mirrors etc.

keldermen would be awesome to have! such a big investment though. Great investment if your keeping the truck long term for sure. For me i seem to trade every 2-3 years, the dealer just wouldnt care if it had a keldermen on it. Ive heard liquid spring is also really good.

On a side note! one of the local business owners in town whos a bit of a twat, got his 22-4500 finally done which is literally a daily driver he hauls nothing with. He bought a typical 3500 dually bed, had the frame shortened on the 4500 6" by a friend who owns another welding shop in town which was insane money. Had to have a custom stainless fuel tank made etc. But the truck looks AWFUL, stock bed sits so high on the cab and chassis frame, and with the narrow rear axle and stock 3500 dually bed it looks like a hy-rail truck for the railroad. I can only imagine how rough it is lol.

 

[gprguy]

If a level 1 or 2 Laramie is actually orderable, you might get it. From what I've seen in the 2500/3500 world those aren't able to be ordered, and they've switched it over to the lettered packages (Level F) which delete the cluster:

2023 HD Crowdsourced Order Tracking & Waiting Room

Manual recommends 15k mile OCI and fuel filter interval, the truck has an indicator for fuel filter and oil life which roughly equate out to 15k miles. I did my first fuel filter and oil change at 10k miles and will do the remainder at 15k or 1 year miles or if the indicator says I need to...

hdrams.com

As far as the mirrors - you can get folding/heated/etc mirrors on the chassis cabs, but the cameras aren't available. "Quality control issue" specific to the chassis cabs for whatever that means. From what I've seen in the order guide for the chassis cabs (the latest I have is from last September - so YMMV) is the surround cameras were deleted entirely from '23 chassis cab Laramie's and base limiteds. They were supposed to be available on the limited level 1, but again - that's not able to be ordered, they have put out a Limited Level A which removes the surround cameras and the digital rear view. All the '23 Limited 4500/5500's I've seen window stickers for have Level A with the cameras deleted (including mine).

So - not saying your dealer is definitely wrong, but it flies in the face of everything I've seen.

Liquid Spring is neat too, I've seen some in person. But between the bulkiness of the 4 huge accumulators and the inability to do a field repair, they are not an option for me.

 

[gprguy]

Just found the video you mentioned - I think it's fair to say who knows what the heck Ram is up to.. That truck is a Laramie Level A, and it did get the digital dash.. Why they are allowing that on the CC vs the HDs who knows, but also who knows why the nice mirrors are on restriction on the CCs and available on the HD's..

 

[AH64ID]

I delayed ordering my ‘22 because the surround camera wasn’t an orderable option on the Laramie for a while, but you could still order it on Tradesman C&C’s.

Ram does different things with them.

 

[Pressure_welder]

Yea there seems to be a lack of consistancy, for instance dealer just called to make sure my build had everything i wanted and if we needed to edit anything. and he did confirm that the "mutually exclusive" pkg laramie, includes digital cluster, 12" screen, harmon kardon blah blah, power fold/adjustable mirrors etc. however! ram canadas build site shows TPMS as available options. Yet the dealers build page does not, so i told them thats a big time must and there looking into it now.

 

[gprguy]

Trailer TPMS or truck TPMS? Trailer TPMS should be available, mine says it was built with it. Truck TPMS (or TPIS) appears to have been deleted entirely from the chassis cabs for 23. Not sure what I will find when mine arrives but I plan to try to add it if it is missing.

 

[Pressure_welder]

yea there was TPIS available for order, not TPMS. However! it seems the great equalizer right now is the 7% interest there offering. Luckily i got into my truck for 4.49% in november. For a 4500 laramie with the mutually exclusive pkg it was going to be 100$ more bi weekly. Would be financially the dumbest decision ever made to move! They did give me more than i paid for on my truck though. Looks like ill wait for a good deal to come along, or the new refresh!

 

[AH64ID]

I don’t think TPMS has ever been an option on 3500+ trucks, but you can convert TPIS to TPMS with AlfaOBD.

 

[Pressure_welder]

I don’t think TPMS has ever been an option on 3500+ trucks, but you can convert TPIS to TPMS with AlfaOBD.

I definatly had tpms on my drw 19 denali, it sure was nice.

Can you add tpis to say our 5500s if it didnt come with it?