hdas
Active member
A truck that was 50k in 2019 is 75k now. That's just the reality.
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Turns out I need a real truck. Kindly help me choose one!
- Thread starter hdas
- Start date
Todd n Natalie
OverCamper
To be honest that could be said for any make and model of vehicle. But if you're digging the Ram, that's cool. They are nice trucks.
Todd n Natalie
OverCamper
It's crazy. When I build and price my 22 as a 23 model. The exact same truck has a $10,000 higher MSRP. Up 10G's! In one year!!
hdas
Active member
Yeah, and I meant to write 2019 not 2015
UglyViking
Well-known member
I'd strongly consider looking at Mark Dodge, Dave Smith, or even Granger. Most likely, even with the flight there and drive back, you'll end up thousands ahead vs buying local.
At this point, you shouldn't be paying anything close to MSRP for these trucks.
No Ma
Wonderer
Haven't come across anything yet that I would consider a negative. I'm very picky, but pretty realistic. Nothing's perfect. We ordered from the factory, so configured the truck to our needs. Bed liner and wheel well liners were two pretty cheap but great options. The 12" Nav system has been very useful. I put our travel apps on it with Android Auto and it works great.
I did want the surround cameras, but they were unavailable when we ordered due to pandemic related parts shortages. We travel some very tight trails and it would have been nice for visibility, especially up front, but we've done fine without it. On the visibility topic, I will say that on a couple of occasions, the A-pillar has been just a tad wide and requires a bit of leaning forward to make sure no one's coming around tight blind corners. A rare occurence and the visibility in the cab of the truck is way better than the visibility in our JKUR.
The Alpine sound system puts the subwoofer in the bigger under seat storage area in the back. Would have been nice as storage, but it's an okay tradeoff. The in floor storage buckets make up for it a bit, but are harder to access when we're loaded for travel with dog beds across the back seat.
Odds and ends... cloth seats are nice and wear like iron. Our truck seats are just like our Jeep seats which have been beaten unmercifully for years and are still in great shape. Front bucket seats are very comfortable. Front console holds large DSLR camera, 8x35 binoculars, hats, flannel shirts, OBDII code reader, headlamps with spare batteries, water bottles.
Haven't missed the LED headlights. We don't travel much after dark and we have a 30" LED light bar under the winch hoop on the bumper for off-road travel in bad light. The stock head lights aren't too bad at night even with the truck being lifted and on bigger tires. They are miles better than the stockers on our '16 Jeep... those had to go right away.
Do get a programmer, program or a shop that can reprogram your truck for the bigger tires. We used the AEV ProCal Snap. I like an accurate speedo/odometer and better fuel mileage estimates. It took a couple tries for me and a need to clear some fault codes when the tire size didn't take the first time.
Overall we really like our Ram. It's our preferred on-road travel platform and it just so happens to be our off-road rig too. My wife and I (and our dogs too) are really happy with it.
One last item. My wife is 5' tall. The stock truck is very tall. After the lift and 37"s it's really tall. I'm 6'1", so the grab handle is enough for me, but we carry a small 2-step fold flat step stool for my wife. With that and the sliders, no problems.
hdas
Active member
I agree. The issue is that due to the combination of preferred trim, features, color.......the options are limited, and most of the stuff available, that covers most of our features, is of higher MSRP, so even after a nice discount the price is not such a nice discount over our initial preferred build MSRP (79-82k), if that makes any sense.
hdas
Active member
Im trying to figure out if installing those is a pain in the ass.
This is not something we want, but some of the deals do include them, good to know that this is actually a negative.
I agree that this seems a very useful feature.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
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UglyViking
Well-known member
LED headlights are increadibly easy to add yourself. You pull a few plastic tabs, pop 2 painted trim pieces on the front, maybe 10-15 bolts, and install. I believe you add a small wiring harness if it's OEM that is plug and play, or if you go aftermarket I think it's strictly plug and play (alpharex and morimoto have good options). You then make a modification in alfaobd with a ~$99 OBD bluetooth reader (prob cheaper) and a $40 bypass cable (also prob cheaper).
I wouldn't let LED headlights alone stop you from a truck.
I wouldn't let LED headlights alone stop you from a truck.
I acknowledge that the OP has made their choice at this point but it is hilarious that this thread is now 15 pages long and one of the most consistent pieces of advice (in a thread asking for advice) is to avoid diesel.
Back in 2018, the migrant caravan held up my Ram 3500 so long that I ended up cancelling the order. It was probably around 5 months without a clear delivery date by the time I cancelled. At that time, I just brought in my build sheet and placed a deposit. It shouldn't be too hard to build a truck to your spec - and, at this price point, I would be seriously annoyed to settle.
hdas
Active member
Yeah, the main feeling is that I'm spending 80k on a truck and I can't get everything I want. Or I have to wait 3-8 months. Seems insane. It's a very frustrating experience.
Tex68w
Beach Bum
Check my old build thread. I put the factory blacked out reflector LED headlights in my Tradesman for around $1200. Thats both headlights and the custom harness and software needed to adapt them.
If you think 3-8 months wait is bad try being anyone ordering a Super Duty Tremor over the last two years, 10-16 months was the norm with many having their orders pushed to the next year model quite regularly.
hdas
Active member
I think going from this:
To this:
Involves buying new headlamps, changing some electrical connections and all the mechanical stuff around it.