Sorry - have never owned a half ton Dodge pickup, but experience with the bigger ones has been excellent. In 1970 bought a 1967 full crew cab 3/4 ton with the 8 foot bed - that truck was LONG - then added some rear leaves and put a heavy Red Dale Camper on it. With the camper dismounted, it was my wife's land yacht for hauling the kids around Tucson - she liked being up that high - loved the truck. A family of six, we traveled the entire US in that rig for nine years without anything to repair except new plugs/points/condensers and brake shoes. That little 318 V8 was a dependable workhorse and we sold the whole thing in 1979 (with 280k miles on it) for more than its purchase price. Now have owned a Dodge 4wd 2500 with Cummins HO and 6 speed manual for 19 years - 335k miles to date - and have replaced ball joints and drive shaft carrier bearing so far. Dodges have been good to us.
