'12 Ram 2500 CTD

fast murray · 02-10-2014, 10:00 PM

I've been looking to upgrade our tow vehicle for a while now and my dealership has a local 2012 2500 diesel on the lot that seems reasonably priced. It has 22K on the odo and a H&S delete kit. A call to the former owner didn't reaveal any bad news, the guy just doesn't keep vehicles very long. Is there anything good or bad to know about this particular year of truck?

deerslayer · 02-11-2014, 03:37 PM

Your best bet is to go to the cummins forum and look around there, lots of knowledge!

Chewie · 02-11-2014, 08:38 PM

Look at cumminsforum.com. Great site with a ton of info. I love my 2012 cummins 3500. Great truck although mine is stock. I wouldn't be opposed to buying a deleted truck, only concerns are it's illegal if you have to have emissions checks, the warranty is voided, and there is no way to really know if they juiced it at times. I'm exempt from emissions checks in Ohio since my gvwr is over 10k. I've often contemplated deleting my truck, but the warranty is nice too. Other than that, I've never owned a dodge before, but this truck is great. Comfy and has no issues pulling my 5er. Fuel mileage is a little less than the Ford I had prior. But I would definitely buy another Ram again. Good luck in your search.

Dave_Monica · 02-11-2014, 10:10 PM

I recall that the tow rating with the 3.73 rear end aren't that high...you need the 4.10 ratio for the high tow ratings.

Dave

fast murray · 02-11-2014, 10:34 PM

Thanks guys, I checked into the cummins forum. Lots of stuff there for sure. It's at a local dealership that I trust and they put me onto the previous owner. He deleted it because he wasn't happy with his fuel economy. The tuner was stored in the floor compartnet unlike my buddy who keeps his in close reach for his tire smoking dually. The guy said he got rid of it because he didn't tow very much. I'm not sure what the gear ratio is, how does one find that out? BTW, Regarding emission laws I'm in South Dakota & there isn't much that's illegal here!

Dave_Monica · 02-12-2014, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fast murray

I'm not sure what the gear ratio is, how does one find that out?

The dealership can look it up from the truck's VIN.

Dave

AquaMan · 02-12-2014, 06:03 AM

The difference in gear ratio on a 2500 is negligible, you will run out of truck WAY before you run out of power with either gear choice.

PapaSmurf · 02-12-2014, 06:49 AM

I have a 2011 Ram 2500 with 3.73. Came from a Ford 7.3 Powerstroke with 4.10's. Trust me the Ram will run circles around the Ford with power to spare. Don't let the 3.73 rearend deter you from the truck... with all that power and torque you will never know the difference. I love the Ram! I have had two camping buddies buy Rams since I bought mine... one was a die hard Ford man! I put about 10,000 towing miles on the truck last year and enjoyed every mile.

**ependydad** · 02-12-2014, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave_Monica

The dealership can look it up from the truck's VIN.

You can also email Chrysler directly. I did that when I was looking at a used truck before we ordered ours. They sent the full build sheet.

Dave_Monica · 02-12-2014, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaMan

The difference in gear ratio on a 2500 is negligible, you will run out of truck WAY before you run out of power with either gear choice.

Here's the max towing numbers for a 2012 Ram 2500, Crew, short bed, 4x4, 6.7 with A6...

3.42 - 9650 lbs
3.73 - 12650 lbs
4.10 - 14650 lbs

Numbers are from the 2012 Trailer Life Towing guide...
http://dcd96xmek71bc.cloudfront.net/...ide_lo_res.pdf

Dave

RKR · 02-12-2014, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fast murray

I've been looking to upgrade our tow vehicle for a while now and my dealership has a local 2012 2500 diesel on the lot that seems reasonably priced. It has 22K on the odo and a H&S delete kit. A call to the former owner didn't reaveal any bad news, the guy just doesn't keep vehicles very long. Is there anything good or bad to know about this particular year of truck?

Check the recall notice and double check with the dealer. We have several 2011's at work and one broke a tie rod last year. The recall covers several years of HD pickups. Hope the link works.

http://m.autoblog.com/2013/11/09/ram...call-tie-rods/

MIFarmer · 02-13-2014, 09:29 PM

The 6-speed auto has proven itself to be very reliable behind the Cummins - until a tuner is put on. You have no way of knowing what power levels he used, just what's in there now. And that's a very expensive tranny to get into. Hopefully the price reflects the lack of warranty and the potential for big dollar tranny repairs.

Gearing-wise, don't fear a 3.42. As Aquaman said, you'll run out of truck first. A 3.42 ratio does have an advantage, in that 5th with 3.42s is the same as 4.10s in 6th. So you could lock it out of 6th with a trailer, and then run 6th while solo for a serious overdrive. On a side note, the only gearset you can get in a new 2500 with a Cummins/68RFE is the 3.42...

avolnek · 02-13-2014, 10:35 PM

The 2012 is the year I would pick for many reasons! The 12 was the last year before DEF was introduced and the interior was changed a little bit in the 13 and I don't much care for them. The 2013 also doesn't even have a delete kit available if you wanted!

A 2012 deleted would be my pick! A 12 deleted will be nearly 20mpg empty as well!

Big Bad Allis · 02-14-2014, 06:07 AM

I personally would not buy a later model truck that has been deleted. The stock trucks make great power and are tuned and matched to the tranny. If your buying it to be a tow vehicle and a daily driver I wouldn't want to. That new of a truck it's nice to have warranty. Like said in a previous response you don't know what kind of a tune the previous owner was running and how he drove it. Even if you spoke with him doesn't mean it the truth.

Good luck

avolnek · 02-14-2014, 08:52 AM

Deleting a truck has little to do with actually making more power... More or less it is to allow the engine to work rather than to choke itself!

EGR is exhaust gas recirculation. Basically it is taking a determined amount of the engine's exhaust and routing it back into the intake of the engine! The idea behind this is to pre heat incoming air for better combustion in the chamber as well as to burn off some of the gases that may not have been burnt the first go around. The issue I find with this other than the fact that it is EXHAUST and not INCOMING air is that this exhaust is coming in without any filter, thus the soot that you see from a typical diesel coming out of the exhaust in the form of black smoke is being pumped into the intake side of the engine. When we deleted my father's 2012 with 12,000 miles on it there was at least and 1/8" of soot built up on the intake horn of his truck!

The other thing that is deleted is the DPF- diesel particulate filter and the NOX filter (removes some sort of gas, not really sure). The issue here is that the DPF is designed to catch the "soot" that you would normally see come out of the tail pipe. Obviously after some time this filter will begin to fill up and need some sort of maintenance. The truck monitors the incoming pressure and the exit pressure to find a difference and once it reaches a certain level and determines it needs to clear the filter, the engine begins to retard the timing as well as throw extra fuel into the cylinder. By doing this it is increasing the exhaust temperature and pumping diesel fuel into the exhaust to help clear that filter!

Now anyone that understands diesels understands that in the purest example a diesel engine is incredibly simple, but the epa has turned them into a joke by adding this crap!

I wouldn't be scared a bit because a truck was deleted. Obviously it is going to have a tuner installed to delete it but doesn't mean it was hot rodded, doesn't mean it wasn't either...

As I stated before, if I were buying a newer style truck the 2012 is what I would buy! If it wasn't deleted I would be deleting it and I wouldn't shy away from one that was, I would have to look closer at some things...

The dealership where my father bought his actually SUGGESTED he delete his truck. Said they would honor warranty unless it could be proven that he abused the truck in some manner...

These cummins are monsters and I have a ton of faith in them! Not that there wont be a few that fail for whatever reason but overall they are very problem free! I drive a 2006 with 180,000 daily! Only the typical maintenance, fluids, shocks, steering, tires. Nothing has ever happened to the trans or the injectors as of yet... (knocking on wood now!)

pwrstroke2012 · 02-14-2014, 09:05 AM

Just asking a question because I don't know, not trying to start argument or hijack thread. Doesn't deleting all that stuff on diesels defeat what manufacturers are trying to do, keep bad emissions down which equals cleaner air?

avolnek · 02-14-2014, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwrstroke2012

Just asking a question because I don't know, not trying to start argument or hijack thread. Doesn't deleting all that stuff on diesels defeat what manufacturers are trying to do, keep bad emissions down which equals cleaner air?

The manufacturers are being required by EPA to meet certain tiers of emission standards. So in a way yes it defeats what the manufacturer is trying to accomplish, but I can almost certainly tell you that Ram/Ford/Chevy would have nothing to do with any of this crap if they didn't have to...

To me what the EPA is doing is a joke because you are not "polluting" as much with this trucks through the exhaust, but you at the price of fuel economy. Thus we have to rape the land of fuel to save the air... Robing Peter to pay Paul the way I see it...

mvolnek · 02-15-2014, 08:08 AM

I love my 2012 2500 Mega Cab. My son and I removed the stock exhaust and replaced with a good replacement kit. Mileage went up from 15 ave. to 18 mpg the first time I had it out. I tow a 16,000 lb. fiver and it handles it like a dream. I manually place the tranny in 5th and the 6.7 runs an easy 2100 rpm's. Dealer here in Seward said that since the replacement exhaust is "after" the motor, it won't void any of the warranty. So I wouldn't worry about the delete.

AquaMan · 02-15-2014, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by avolnek

The manufacturers are being required by EPA to meet certain tiers of emission standards. So in a way yes it defeats what the manufacturer is trying to accomplish, but I can almost certainly tell you that Ram/Ford/Chevy would have nothing to do with any of this crap if they didn't have to...

To me what the EPA is doing is a joke because you are not "polluting" as much with this trucks through the exhaust, but you at the price of fuel economy. Thus we have to rape the land of fuel to save the air... Robing Peter to pay Paul the way I see it...

I personally could live much better without the use of fossil fuels than I could without the use of air. Dont agree with the EPA either, another unchecked government entity.

Sent from my SM-T210R using Forest River Forums mobile app

fast murray · 02-15-2014, 08:18 PM

Well, done deal. I was a little sad to drop of the 1500 Hemi but this will be a better deal. I learned that it has 3.73 gears which should suit me fine. Its mostly a daily driver except for camping season. As far as deletes, the dealership said about 70% of new diesels that left their lot were deleted right away. There's a guy right in town that does them for everyone. Now I have to get a B&W Companion here before the season is upon us!

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