Wondering if a 2019 or 2020 Ram 2500 and 3500 Cummins truck is right for you? I break it down and and walk through the important factors including the interior comfort, reliability, powertrain, suspension and more! This video is everything you need to make your decision!
What’s up guys andrew here and today we are going to be answering the hard question of is it worth it to buy a 2019 or 2020 ram let’s check this thing out now one thing i want to address off the bat is that i’ve heard a lot of people talk online that these trucks are just a front clip change everything is the same between this and the late 4th gens of 2014 plus
Trucks except for the front foot and that could not be more false ram has made changes from front to back under the skin the frame the suspension everything on this truck is altered the couple of things that are the same are going to be the cab and the bed skins now if any of you guys subscribe to me you know that i have always been a fan of the older diesel trucks
This is you know one of those things i really like the older diesel trucks i like the connection that you feel to them i like how they sound i like everything about driving them but for the first time i have been tempted to actually go out and get a new truck and that’s because of these 2019 plus if you want to call them 5th gen cummins ram trucks now i’m sure a
Lot of people are also in that similar position so i wanted to kind of walk through some of the pros and cons of these new trucks and basically give you guys my personal opinion on these new trucks and why you should or shouldn’t buy one now i want to try and keep this as concise as possible so we’re gonna break this down to a couple of things the first is going
To be powertrain we’re gonna talk about the powertrain we’re gonna talk about the interior we’re gonna talk about reliability and we’re going to talk about the general suspension and capability of the truck hopefully that keeps it as concise as possible and kind of lets us work through the most important parts of a new truck for 2019 ramp introduced the new cgi
Cummins that is a new block design that basically uses high-strength materials to both improve the strength and weight of the engine so it’s a little bit lighter it’s a little bit stronger and it has a little bit more power now this was a change that was needed basically to keep up with the competition right now as all these truck companies are fighting with each
Other right ram ford and chevy we’re creeping up in that thousand foot-pounds of torque number and ram was the first person to make that happen with this new cummins engine this is still the 6.7 it’s very similar to the last iteration of it but there’s a couple of weeks on it right the turbos different timings different injectors are different the fuel injection
Pump is different right move to the cp 4 from the cp 3 mind you this is an altered cv 4 so this is different than you would find on the duramax trucks that has been failing so much and it’s actually fed by a lift pump unlike the duramax trucks so it’s gonna be a little bit more reliable another area where they treat these trucks is in the emission systems they just
Made general updates to the emission systems to make them more reliable more effective the end result is the most power ever put out of a six-point-seven cummins or cummins in general and some of the best fuel economy that i’ve seen out of these trucks at this point these trucks are creeping up on the fuel economy numbers that were possible in like the o 3 range
Right that golden year where you had the first common-rail five 9s that were really impressive in terms of fuel economy these structures are creeping up on that so this trucks stocked was getting right in the mid 20s which is pretty impressive on the highway so you know those those numbers are really cool if you are an operator or someone that makes your living
Off of these trucks any penny you can save on fuel counts and so that is a big deal on these now another key area where they made differences and changes was in the transmission so while the 68 r fe still lives on in this truck it’s still a 6-speed they did make changes in the tuning and then the valve body so the transmission is going to shift better it shifts
Smoother and it’s a little bit smarter out in the road so i mentioned that ram did a bunch of trans tuning these trucks and it really translates on the road you really do feel better smoother shifting and smarter shifting the truck isn’t searching for gears especially on down shifts like when you come to graded the truck has to downshift the truck isn’t hunting it
Used to hunt a lot on these trucks and it doesn’t do that anymore there’s a much firmer more deliberate shift so the software updates and the valve body updates i did actually translate to better driving all around then this truck has is 68 r fe if you’re looking at the high output 3500 you also the option of the acm transmission which is a very stout transmission
But doesn’t quite have as many aftermarket upgrade opportunities as a 68 r fe platform does now one key area for 2019 plus trucks i know had a lot of people angry is the dropping of the manual transmission in 2019 ram decided to get rid of the manual transmission which makes sense right they were using the g 56 which had been used since 2005 i believe so it is a
Long in the tooth transmission it could not keep up with the power numbers especially the thousand foot-pounds and if you look at brands sales numbers we did to ourselves we shot ourselves in the foot by not buying manuals so if you’re gonna complain about not having a manual blame yourself because we didn’t buy them and that’s why ran nix them this is an area
Where ram has lacked in terms of transmission quality ford has the tennspeed which is a really exceptional trans and it has a huge gearing ratio and then chevy obviously has the allison which has been a very proven and reliable transmission so the 68 our efi has always kind of been the achilles heel on the ram platform i do think with these changes it will be a
Better transmission but i think that the ram is probably gonna get some sort of eight or ten speed update coming with the next body style change which i’ve rumored to be somewhat soon we’ll get into that later now the next thing about this truck that is new is the interior so the interior in 2019 got completely revamped it is hands down out of the big three the best
Interior period it has more soft touch materials it has higher quality materials more premium materials especially in these higher trim packages and the massive touchscreen in the centre modeled after tesla is the biggest infotainment system offered in a diesel pickup truck i really think that hands down especially if you get the mega cab this is the best interview
Can get in a diesel if you look at the chevy trucks they basically have an interior that looks like a kids play scape from 2005 if you look at the fords the interior is a little bit harsher there’s less soft touch materials it’s just not as friendly and nice and welcoming so i really do think that in terms of material quality in terms of trim packages and trims
Levels that the ram has absolutely outdone themselves in terms of the interior chrysler really went out of their way to make sure that their interior was the best possible and the most luxurious possible on these trucks now if you’ve been in the base model trucks it’s still really comfortable so even in the base model like slt package trucks or the tradesman it’s
Still a very comfortable interior obviously you’re not getting all the premium soft lots of materials and stuff like that but it is still a really nice interior so out of the big three hands down this interior winds now when it comes to reliability that’s one of the big reasons that i believe in the cummins platform it has less moving parts in the engine i
Think it’s easier to work on design and i truly think if you’re owning a truck outside of the warranty the cummins is probably one of the best platforms to get now in terms of reliability on these trucks they’ve made some big strides now one of the biggest areas that we saw failures in the 14 plus platform wasn’t the emissions equipment and every generation as the
Emissions equipment matures it gets better and better right so when that was first introduced in oh seven-and-a-half there were tons of problems that played those trucks in 2013 they came up with the def system that had its own issues but then in 2015-16 they kind of ironed that out and the trucks got more reliable all the way through 2018 now went the 2019 2020
Trucks they’ve really ironed out the kinks in the system it works really well there’s less issues with the def pump from everything that i’ve seen these trucks have been ultra liable in terms of the emissions equipment with the beefing up of the engine with the trans updates and the tuning and in the valve body i really think that these structures are going to be
More reliable than the predecessors the one key area of failure that i see is in the electronics everyone knows that chrysler is not the most trustworthy with electronics and these trucks have more than they’ve ever put on any of these trucks before so that is a key area where there could be a failure point but i do think that in terms of the general design of
These trucks i really think they are getting more reliable than ever and this is probably the platform that i would choose out of the big three in terms of reliability now in terms of suspension these trucks are very similar to the 14 plus trucks that suspension design changed in 14 and went all the way up to 18 and that suspension on these trucks is very similar
They did change some bushing materials some parts about the radius arm source now holes in them it’s very slight tweaks but it’s not anything that you are going to notice now one thing you will notice however is that there is a bunch of vibration reduction and damping materials that are in the frame and the suspension of the truck that basically transfer less road
Feedback to the driver of the truck so this is by far the smoothest quietest and nicest highway driving brand that’s ever been built the steering responsiveness is better it’s more stable at speed this is seriously a very very smooth and comfortable truck to drive it’s pretty hard to beat these 2500 trucks especially with the 19 plus platform they did make some
Tweaks they definitely made these trucks ride better and so right now i think that this is pretty much the smoothest riding 2500 platform between ram and ford and chevy now one thing i want to mention with the suspension is that on these new trucks the 2014 plus platform the ram 2500 sr going to have a coil spring rear end and the ram 3500 are going to have a leaf
Spring rear end if you plan to tow with your truck pretty much at all anything over 10,000 pounds you need to get a ram 3500 these 2500 s do not tow that well the coil sprung rear suspension design was basically made to be the most comfortable ride possible it makes this truck ride more like a 1500 but in terms of towing that rear track bar design everything about
That tends to get lateral wag and the suspension especially loaded and it just doesn’t have the payload and towing capacity so if you’re looking to put a camper in the bed of the truck if you’re looking to do overland setup or if you’re looking to do lots of heavy hauling a 3500 is the only way to go the other benefit of that is that you get the aysen transmission
Which is also a improved transmission over the 68 r fe and you get the option to have the high output cummins that new cgi block so if you are planning on towing you know having a big camper in the bed 100% you need a 3500 instead of this 2500 now it still has that heavy ram steering feel but if you’re into it i really like it it’s still maintained but it’s a lot
More stable you don’t have that wander that was kind of common in some of the fourth gen trucks i think because of the updates in the steering and track bar design that might have solved those who knows there’s a lot of complicated things going on under there but it is definitely one of the best driving ram trucks now in terms of chevy and ford i find that the
Chevy’s a little bit quicker off the line same with the forward then the cummins but the raw torque out of the commons it’s something that you can’t see in numbers it has to be something you feel in the seat and these trucks pull really hard up a grade pulling a trailer anything like that it really is that straight-6 design has an incredible amount of torque that
Gets delivered to the wheels so let’s talk about whether or not you should buy this truck here’s the basic gist of it if you’re planning on buying this truck and keeping it for eight to ten years by a 2019 or 2020 this is a huge step up from the fourth gen trucks this is one of the biggest moves that ram has made in terms of power and reliability and all that stuff
In you know recent years and this is a really impressive truck this will absolutely serve your needs for years to come however if you’re planning on keeping the truck for less than that i would hold out i’ve heard rumors that the new cab design which hasn’t changed and the new transmission all that stuff is going to be coming soon ish i know chrysler was a little
Bit hesitant because of the economy right they felt that there was gonna be bubble that was gonna be pop and it kind of did so they were a little bit hesitant about buyer confidence and so they wanted to make sure that if they made that tooling investment in the new cab the new transmission it was gonna be worth their while so who knows when that’s gonna come out
I would guess probably the next two to three years but when that does come out this will truly be a huge difference so hopefully that helps you guys i tried to kind of walk you guys through this truck give you a little bit of my personal feedback on this truck i think that my personal decision is i’m going to wait i really like these trucks i really like how they
Drive but i think that i am going to wait for the new cab update the new transmission update some couple things to change we’ll see how long ram keeps this cab design around but i personally i’m gonna hold out for the new cab the new bed design all that stuff so hopefully this video helped you guys if you have any questions please comment them below and i will do
My best to answer them and help you guys out thank you guys so much and if you learn something from this video please don’t forget to subscribe to my channel there will be a lot more coming
Transcribed from video
The TRUTH: Should you buy a 2019+ 5th Gen Cummins RAM Truck? By Just Diesels