My new Dodge

[KerryAll]

Nice truck, silver is a practical color up here in Prince Edward Island.. our soil is red! Silver doesn't show the dirt as much...

 

[dodge man]

Thanks for the link, it looks pretty simple. Yeah, I'd like to get the exhaust where its all the same size (4") all the way back. I see a place on the engine sticker where it says "catalyst type", so I'm assuming it had a covertor that the previous owner removed.

 

[RobertN]

Now I'm curious what they use here on I5 around Mt Shasta, and I80/H50 over Donner and Echo Summits. I have seen DOT sanding the roads.

Here in Missouri the DOT uses Salt to de-ice roads. Very corrosive!!!!!

 

[Diamondpilot]

Here we also use liquid salt. Its worse yet.

By the way, salt will not work in cold temps but works great in the 35 to 20 surface temps.

Chris

 

[Dmace]

Not starting a brand war but rust around the wheel wells and inside of the door bottoms of Dodge trucks is common in my parts. Both my 03 2500 Hemi and my work Dakota had rust after the third winter.
Chris

First off, Yes you are starting a brand war as you do in every thread about a vehicle. Second, it's NOT just common in Dodge trucks, it's common in ALL trucks. The biggest problem is that many of them don't come with wheel well liners (which my RAM did) and others just get used more, especially in the winter (eg: plow trucks). Before you go praising Ford for their trucks as usual, take a look around and you'll see more Ford trucks with rusty panels than any other. GM's tend to look better as they usually have the plastic fender flares blocking the common rust areas.

Typical Ford rust:

 

[RobertN]

Appears Ca uses salt, sand, and has tried liquid magnesium chloride. The article Ired was interesting. No comparitive use data though; hard to tell if they just use less, so we see less rusting?

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/snwicecontrol.pdf

Here we also use liquid salt. Its worse yet.

By the way, salt will not work in cold temps but works great in the 35 to 20 surface temps.

Chris

 

[frischtr]

Thanks for the link, it looks pretty simple. Yeah, I'd like to get the exhaust where its all the same size (4") all the way back. I see a place on the engine sticker where it says "catalyst type", so I'm assuming it had a covertor that the previous owner removed.

Look at the sticker on the valve cover. If it says Rated hp: 305, then you have an early '04, no cat. If it says Rated hp: 325, then it's an '04.5, and it had a cat originally. If the build date was 12/03 then it should be an early '04. '04.5s were built after Jan 1, '04. I just went through this myself to confirm my new truck was an early '04 for inspection purposes.

Edit: sorry, missed your earlier post about 305 hp. Yours definitely never had a cat.

 

[Diamondpilot]

My 04 and 06 Fords have no rust now but I know they will sooner or later. My 08 Nissan has no rust. I can say for a fact my GM trucks were showing rust in the cab corners and my Dodges on the door bottoms and fender area and front quarters at the bottoms near the doors.

My import cars and GM cars did very well.

I wonder if no fender liners help or not. All my vehicles get hand was ed once a week with a electric power washer and a sponge. Maybe fender liners hold dirt and crud which holds moisture that I can not wash out????

Chris

 

[Dmace]

My 04 and 06 Fords have no rust now but I know they will sooner or later. My 08 Nissan has no rust.

So what?
My 03 RAM doesn't have any rust either and I guarantee it's been through much longer and harder winters than your trucks. Point is, the rust dodge man's truck is showing is not a "common problem" and any truck including a Ford will have the same issues if not properly maintained.

 

[kenmac]

My 07 Dodge came from the salt state of FL. No rust:thumbsup:. BTW. Mine is also silver. I use the Baldwin fuel filters & Fleetguard oil filters from Cummins

 

[PapaPerk]

Here is a picture of my new to me 2004 Dodge Ram. Its a 3/4 ton, 305 hp 24 valve 5.9 Cummins. Its an automatic, 4.10 gears, has an Edge Chip and an Air Raid Jr. setup on it. It has also had some kind of exhaust work on it, but I'm not sure what kind. I also think, but I'm not sure, that it has a leveling kit. It has 106,000 miles on it, the interior is in great shape, the exterior is what I would call fair to good, it has a few battle scars. So far I've been happy with it, I've just put a few miles on it, but I'm getting around 20 mpg driving back and forth to work and such. I tried a couple of engine photos, but they came out blurry.

Mid year 2004.5 the Cummins 600 was installed along with a cat. I believe your truck never came with a cat. The 600 has around 325 hp and 600 lbs ft of torque.

Nice truck! :thumbsup:

 

[dodge man]

Thats cool mine didn't have a cat convertor on it, now I don't feel bad about polluting the air so much:laughing: I guessing the pipe I see added to the system was for the muffler delete.

As far as the rust goes, I was about sick when I saw it. I was so worried about the mechanicals and the function of the vehicle, I didn't look for rust like I should have. There is a couple of places where the rocker has holes starting to form. I felt better about it after having a better look under the truck last night on a creeper. I couldn't find any other problems. The truck is nice enough I'm going to look at getting the rust problem repaired. I couldn't find any rust on the fenders or doors but I'll let my body man decide that for me.

As far as rust on this truck. It came from central Iowa, and it has snow mobile stickers on it. I'm guessing the person drove it north for snow mobiling often, plus all the salt and snow in central Iowa. The GMC I traded in was starting to rust out, and it was a 2002, and most of them in my area don't look as good as it did. Just my own observations for my area, but it seems like all three brands have rust problems. It seems like GM products might be a little worse followed by Ford and Dodge, but I haven't seen any brand that is free from it. I would say that the Ford Super Duties seem the most rust free. I do see a lot of rusty F150's though.

It like anything, if you take care of your stuff and keep ahead of it, you won't have a rust problem, if you don't, its just a matter of time if you live in the salt belt.

 

[ovrszd]

It like anything, if you take care of your stuff and keep ahead of it, you won't have a rust problem, if you don't, its just a matter of time if you live in the salt belt.

I agree. I don't like fender liners, hard to clean behind them. I especially don't like plastic fender extensions. I spend just as much time washing the underside of my truck as I do the painted surfaces. I frequent gravel or dirt roads but you won't find any mud collecting under my truck.

If not properly cleaned my Super Duty will hold a couple gallons of mud and gravel in the front bumper!!!!

 

[Willl]

Cats came into play with late model '04s as a part of the higher HP change. Early model '04s did not have a Cat.

Oops, my bad. Here I thought they went back to a CC when the VP44 IP went bye bye.

I'd opt for a new 4" turbo-back then. A SS would set you back about 5 bills, aluminized about 3.

 

[timswi]

My 04 and 06 Fords have no rust now but I know they will sooner or later. My 08 Nissan has no rust. I can say for a fact my GM trucks were showing rust in the cab corners and my Dodges on the door bottoms and fender area and front quarters at the bottoms near the doors.

My import cars and GM cars did very well.

I wonder if no fender liners help or not. All my vehicles get hand was ed once a week with a electric power washer and a sponge. Maybe fender liners hold dirt and crud which holds moisture that I can not wash out????

Chris

I don't believe we've ever seen pictures of your Fords...Just multiples of the Nissan.

My 97 Chevy (200K at trade) and my 04 GMC (100K at trade) had no rust anywhere and PENNDOT turns the roads into a salt dump every snow flurry around here.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I have posted many pics before of all my Fords and trucks for that matter. One lives at the Marina now days and is purely a work truck and the other is a daily driver. Here are a couple of quick shots.

Here is a pic of the 02 F-150, 07 F-150, and 06 F-350. Can not find one of the white 04 F-250 on this computer. I will look some more for you.

Chris

 

[Peacock]

I see you bought the '06 from Advantage Ford in Connersville. We've had a few techs/salesman/service writers from there.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I see you bought the '06 from Advantage Ford in Connersville. We've had a few techs/salesman/service writers from there.

I have bought 6 F-150's, 2 F-350's, a F-250, a Mountaineer, and a Milan from them since 1997. Rick Doyle sold me most of them. He has also sold my sister/bill and father about as many.

Chris

 

[Dargo]

First off, Yes you are starting a brand war as you do in every thread about a vehicle. Second, it's NOT just common in Dodge trucks, it's common in ALL trucks. The biggest problem is that many of them don't come with wheel well liners (which my RAM did) and others just get used more, especially in the winter (eg: plow trucks). Before you go praising Ford for their trucks as usual, take a look around and you'll see more Ford trucks with rusty panels than any other. GM's tend to look better as they usually have the plastic fender flares blocking the common rust areas.

Typical Ford rust:

I like Ford and Dodge. Sorry, I used to be nothing but GM, but now I'm the opposite. Anyway, I have my 2004 Excursion, one owner before me, never wrecked or painted on, in the body shop to have both the front and rear bumpers being replaced due to rust. The X only has 60k miles on it and is absolutely immaculate with the Eddie Bauer trim level. Nothing else rusted, but the painted bumpers were beyond being repaired they rusted so bad. I don't get it. I had an older '99 X and it never had any rust issues and had a million miles on it, but it didn't have the painted bumpers that Ford used in, I think, the '04 and '05 last years.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I have had a couple vehicles with painted bumpers and do not care for them. Never had a issue with the rear bumpers but the front ones get rock chips and will start to rust quickly if not touched up. On 3 of my Fords, F-250, Lightning, and a F-150 the trim packages gave them painted bumpers.

If I were you I would do away with the painted bumpers and get a set of OEM or even aftermarket Chrome Bumpers.

Chris