Some people are funny

Local guy has hired a bunch of kids to put up his hay. My 16 year old is/was part of the crew and was running a skid steer loading big round bales out of a field that is very soft with the 11 inches of rain we've gotten in the past couple of weeks. He called me all upset because the owner told him to move his Dodge one ton with a couple round bales on the back. He said since the ground was soft he shifted it into 4 low and I thought uh oh - he twisted off a drive shaft. But he said the truck didn't want to go into gear and then the clutch slipped all the way across the field and you could smell it burning up when he got to gate way. He shut it down and told the owner his clutch was toast. The guy got all sh***y with him telling him it was fine before he drove it (about 1/2 a mile) then asked him if he'd ever driven a manual before. Son pointed at his 1974 Ford F250 and said he's been driving a manual for a couple years and his doesn't have any issues like that. The guy got really nasty and started talking about him paying for his clutch. I told him to leave a note with his hours on the seat of the Dodge and if the owner wanted to talk about someone paying for a new clutch in his Cummins shipping crate he could call me and I'll tell him what I thought of guys who thought they could push their repairs off on their help and what I think about Dodge's in general.


The guy is hiring high schoolers to run his equipment and wonders why he has repair bills. I told my son most likely the slave cylinder failed and that's why the clutch wouldn't fully engage or disengage and the owner didn't know enough to get it fixed. Even if he was a moron and rode the clutch all the way across the field (which he didn't that's why he shifted it into low side) while it wouldn't do it any good it also shouldn't be enough to ruin a clutch - if it was in good repair to start with.

Too bad an early work experience for your son had to turn out so unpleasant. The guy sounds like he is full of issues and has gotten as far as he has by pushing the blame off onto others. The fall can be so slow that it takes a lifetime for it to catch up to some people unfortunately.

You certainly have some valid concerns ..... although your thoughts on Dodge trucks should not be part of your argument in my opinion. Once you get into that part then the other guy would see your point of view from another perspective I think. Good luck with whatever happens, keep us posted.

I agree with Crazy Horse about the Dodge part. Don't make that a point of your argument. But also your son was doing what his employer asked. Move the pickup from one place to another. He did as told. The condition of the equipment before or after the work is the employer's responsibility.

Too bad your son didn't just leave it down in the field when he realized that it had a problem I'm not condemning your son; just an armchair thought after the fact. .-----Loren

You can say what you like about Dodge trucks, but here is what I have observed.

First thing is that I know a lot of folks with Dodge trucks. They are all satisfied customers and would buy another Dodge without question. On the few occasions I have had to do minor repairs on them, I have needed some parts that were more practical to get from a junkyard. This leads to me second observation.

Going through several "u-pull-it" types of junkyards, I have found that there is a scarcity of Dodges in the truck sections. The ones I did find are generally either completely worn out, wrecked, or just plain rusted out beyond redemption. It would appear that by and far, Dodge truck owners are keeping the trucks until they are no longer repairable.

I cannot say as much for other makes. The most I see in the scrapyards are GM followed by foreign followed by fords and lastly the Dodges.

So, while some of you may not like them, the folks that own them seem to love them.

He didn't realize how much it was slipping (never driven the truck before and it was struggling due to the load and soft ground) until he was close to the gate and smelled the clutch burning up.

Dodge owners love the Cummins, they hate the truck it's in. Dodge owners only buy another because that's where the Cummins is. If Ford or Chevy picked up the Cummins, they would buy those, and hate the truck just as much.

If he noticed it slipping in the field he should have just left it or called the owner and let him try to drive it.Put that decision to drive it any further back in the owners lap. Not knocking you kid because im not . But with age comes wisdom and he aint there yet. But he will remember this time if it ever happens again i am more than sure he will got at it with a different approach. Thats how we all learn.

(quoted from post at 17:10:13 06/01/19) You can say what you like about Dodge trucks, but here is what I have observed.

First thing is that I know a lot of folks with Dodge trucks. They are all satisfied customers and would buy another Dodge without question. On the few occasions I have had to do minor repairs on them, I have needed some parts that were more practical to get from a junkyard. This leads to me second observation.

Going through several "u-pull-it" types of junkyards, I have found that there is a scarcity of Dodges in the truck sections. The ones I did find are generally either completely worn out, wrecked, or just plain rusted out beyond redemption. It would appear that by and far, Dodge truck owners are keeping the trucks until they are no longer repairable.

I cannot say as much for other makes. The most I see in the scrapyards are GM followed by foreign followed by fords and lastly the Dodges.

So, while some of you may not like them, the folks that own them seem to love them.

Click to expand...

And your assumptions would be wrong. Prior to the body style change in the early 90's Dodge had 7% of the full sized pickup truck market. That's it. 7%. So out of every 100 trucks that were sold 46.5 were either Ford or GM and 7 were Dodge. In the mid 90 dodge had jumped up to about 21% of the market. That share stayed the same up through 2016. That means that our of every 100 trucks that were sold 20 or 21 were Dodge. 3 or 4 were Toyota or Nissan and the rest were GM or Ford.

In a 3 year study Ram ranks 5th from the very bottom in reliability according to JD Powers.https://www.jdpower.com/busi.... Do the same thing for 2000 to 2010. Rick

https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2019-us-vehicle-dependability-studyvds

Try that

Rick

There is a reason Dodge can't sell their pickups to fleets. While Ford and Chevy sold millions of base trucks to fleet buyers (like us) Dodge even with their lower prices couldn't crack the fleet market. Their 3.7 and 4.7 base engines (used through most of the 2000s) was known for being a being horribly unreliable - along with their transmissions. Anyone looking at maintenance costs and reliability took one look at Dodge and passed. Ford and Chevy have had their own issues but Dodge stands apart on their pickup issues. And anything that used that 3.7 engine (like the Jeep Liberty) also suffered horribly in reliability.



Their latest effort to break into the fleet market is their V6 diesel and it has also fallen flat on its face. On top on being horrible in drivability (extremely low on power) the mileage isn't quite what they promised and reliability on their diesel V6 is even worse than the crappy 3.7 was. But then what did they would happen when they took an already marginal Italian diesel, loaded it up with American required emissions and then shoved it in a vehicle that is already heavier than anything it was designed to haul.

OH, and for what it's worth? Even in 2018? Ram only grabbed about 22% of the market.

I'm serious. Next time you take a 200 mile or so road trip honestly count full sized pickups by brand and year model. Get over about 10 years old here to Fargo ND (bout 100 miles) I doubt you will see more than one or 2 dodges that are over 10 years old. But you will see a ton of Fords and GMs in that 10-30 year old range.

Rick

The guy posts about something that happened to his kid and it turns into a discussion about what kind of truck is best!! :roll: :roll:

No, about which one is worst!

Actually if you go back and read it the OP made a comment about Dodge trucks in the original post. Someone else tried to tell him his opinion was wrong and used some real weak argument as to why the OP was wrong.

Rick