$300 Dodge Ram - Good tow vehicle or money pit?

In reply to irish44j:

Lol wtf. The craziest outcome possible....yeah.

Well I tried to buy it this morning but the owner was out fishing. I let myself into the inside and popped the hood. Turns out it's a 2000 with the 5.9 V8. Also started right up but with a high idle and a squeaking belt. Also noticed some extra cans of antifreeze in the passenger seat. The interior isn't horrible if you don't pay attention to the top half of the dash missing.

I'm going to try again this afternoon.

For $300 you really can't go wrong, assuming the frame isn't about to break in two. There has to be at least $150 in scrap in the thing.

rslifkin wrote: And even the trans isn't much of a weak point. Add more cooling, do the proper fluid changes and band adjustments and they usually hold up pretty well (especially if you give it a couple turns on the line pressure screw).

Chrysler automatics from that time period also had their materials designed around a particular transmission fluid. Don't use ordinary Dextron on them as that can cause problems. Agree that the transmission is the most common weak point, but on a $300 truck, assume everything is a weak point until confirmed good.

Honestly the game plan has changed since I first thought about buying this thing. I think I'll buy it to try to make a quick buck on craigslist. Unless it drives really nice and I felt I could trust it for longer trips I'll likely bring it home, vacuum it and put it on craigslist for $1k obo. That will fund a few enterprise truck rentals or a 4.0 Jeep that won't be as ugly in the drive way. Then in a couple years I'll look into an F250.

I think I'd rather tow a boat with the car you have unless "4.0 Jeep" is code for "J10" or "Wagoneer". The Dodge does sound like a good fix & flip project.

Being a 5.9, it's got a 46RE for a trans. Basically an old 727 torqueflite with some extra parts. They're not nearly as easy to kill as the internet likes to claim. If the forums are to believed, it's totally impossible that mine is at 225k and still going...

pres589 wrote: I think I'd rather tow a boat with the car you have unless "4.0 Jeep" is code for "J10" or "Wagoneer". The Dodge does sound like a good fix & flip project.

I was talking about a Cherokee, why do you think that would be worse than a Corolla?

A Cherokee isn't exactly a great tow rig. Better than a Corolla, yeah, but not by as much as you might think. Stock suspension is soft, it's short wheelbase, only 3200-ish lbs, etc. Not exactly a recipe for stable towing of anything big or heavy.

My 2000 Cherokee suffered from terrifyingly E36 M3ty brakes for towing. By comparison my previous SUV (a 1997 Explorer Sport) was much more powerful, had far better brakes, and felt more composed and stable towing any reasonable amount.

KyAllroad wrote: My 2000 Cherokee suffered from terrifyingly E36 M3ty brakes for towing. By comparison my previous SUV (a 1997 Explorer Sport) was much more powerful, had far better brakes, and felt more composed and stable towing any reasonable amount.

Jokes aside, at the moment I only need something to tow for 500 mile trips to the keys with my 1500# Whaler. It's been previously done with my TDI Jetta but a little too hairy for my Corolla. The other option is a 2013 Ford Focus. The Cherokee would be a fun reliable tow car that could also serve for camping purposes. In 2-3 yeahs when the next boat comes into play and I need to tow 10k#s I'll have to upgrade to an F250 no matter what.

Get a cheap early 2000s tahoe, suburban, or escalade? They're like 2000 bucks cheap. And you can fit peoples too. Or a v10 excursion..so unloved!

My 2005 6.0 335hp Yukon cost me $3,500.

You could easily find a lesser-loaded GMT800 for less

Enyar wrote: I was talking about a Cherokee, why do you think that would be worse than a Corolla?

I thought you mean a jeep Jeep, like a Wrangler. Cherokee at least has some wheelbase advantage.

yupididit wrote: Get a cheap early 2000s tahoe, suburban, or escalade? They're like 2000 bucks cheap. And you can fit peoples too. Or a v10 excursion..so unloved!

I'm wondering about a full size Chevy or Dodge van for an adventure involving towing and bringing a bit of furniture across the country. Budget: $2k, all in for the vehicle. Not sure when this will happen but I'm sure there will be hyjinx.

Y'all are a bunch of enablers!! This think is a junker!!

Ran great on the rest drive but started stalling at stop signs on the way home. Also unsure about the great AC claim from the seller. Honestly I probably could have got this thing for free but the owner sounded like he was on the edge of death so I gave him the $300 and left.

Here is the beast after stalling 4 times trying to back it into the driveway:

We're in!

The good side:

Some sort of medieval homicide weapon

I had to use some expensive german tools to get the passenger side door to open (was hitting fender)

Typical career path for a UF graduate

The good part is I've found a bunch of change and a nice set of vice grips. I've shop vacced the whole truck and tonight I'm going to wash it down. Also wouldn't mind washing down the engine bay so I can get a better idea of if it has oil leaks or coolant leaks. The truck hesitates and stumbles on acceleration, hopefully I can spray some stuff in the throttle body to clean that up because I don't feel like disassembling anything.

Any other ideas? Do people still do the seafoam treatment? I believe I have some of that in the garage.

Take a look down the intake manifold with a flashlight (with the throttle held open). If there's more than a slight film of oil in there, plan to pull the intake and do a plenum gasket (figure it's about 6 hours of work).

For the stumbling and stalling, spray some carb cleaner through the IAC on the throttle body and see what happens. Check the condition of the spark plugs too. Does it do it all the time or only when hot?

Looks like a heckuva deal for $300!

I'd try seafoam, spray out the throttle body, and probably a fuel filter.

Stalling at stop signs? Maybe the torque converter is not unlocking. Good luck!

Is that a 318 or a 3.9 under the hood? The 3.9 in my Dakota had similar symptoms until I did a proper tune-up. My plugs were so fried that they were causing misfires. I also still have intermittent throttle issues due to weird MAP and TPS problems. I've replaced both sensors on the truck a few times, and while it's better, it still tries to be a jerk sometimes. These trucks don't have an inline fuel filter to change; they depend on the pump sock to do the filtering.

I'd say at the very least: Do a tune-up, clean the throttle body out, run some fuel injector cleaner additive, toss some Seafoam in, and hope for the best.

rslifkin wrote: Take a look down the intake manifold with a flashlight (with the throttle held open). If there's more than a slight film of oil in there, plan to pull the intake and do a plenum gasket (figure it's about 6 hours of work). For the stumbling and stalling, spray some carb cleaner through the IAC on the throttle body and see what happens. Check the condition of the spark plugs too. Does it do it all the time or only when hot?

It was worse when hot. I only drove it home down the street to my house. I did a TB cleaning with just removing the air filter but I think I'll pull the TB and clean that, the IAC and the TPS. Otherwise I think I'm going to put a new belt, cap/rotor and air filter on it. Hope to sell it by Sunday.

If anyone wants it let me know now before I put more effort into it.

It actually looks worse than it is. The bubble up paint and missing dash make it look horrendous but it has potential.

My wife hates it!

For $300 I'd say you got a steal. That's at least a $1000 truck here in Ohio, due to the lack of rust that I can see.

Does it stumble and stall all the time, or just when it is warmed up? Does it run OK at WOT? Had the same issue with my Dad's Dodge of that vintage. It ended up being the O2 sensor.

For some reason it didn't throw a code, but my scanner showed the O2 biased really rich, which caused the ECU to pull fuel and cause it to run lean and die out.

So, if I were you I would unplug the primary O2 sensor and see if it runs better. My dad actually drove the truck this way for about a month, until I had time to fix it. It goes into a default mode when you do this, because the ECU has no signal to follow. Same with WOT and warm up, the ECU ignores the O2 and goes to a preset fuel map.

If it is your O2, I hope the threads aren't galled in the pipe, like the one I had to change was.

That's a $1500 truck around here, i'm not a Dodge guy but it does sound like a MAP sensor issue, on my Chevy when I had MAP sensor issues I noticed the stalling tends to get worse with heat. I think you got a deal for a beater truck.

Definitely worse with heat but I don't plan on putting that much effort into it. I'll sell it for 7-900 and let the next guy figure it out. No rust that I've found but a lot of questionable wires going no where for the radio and possibly what used to be some lights. Also no better at WOT. Plenty of CE lights so I'm sure that would offer some help to the next owner.

Battery from 2015!