My 2019 Ram 3500 Cummins gooseneck rig I got off harbert's

spun this off the big f350 thread since a few of you asked for the cummins side of the story. i run hotshot, mostly expedited freight and the occasional equipment move, out of central texas. been doing it about four years now and the truck is the business so when i replaced my last one i did a lot of homework.

what i ended up with is a 2019 ram 3500 laramie dually, 6.7 cummins high output, aisin AS69RC six speed, 3.73 rear, crew cab long bed 4x4, 58k miles. it had the factory gooseneck and fifth wheel prep package with the bed puck system and the in dash trailer brake. bought it off harbertsautosales.com out of the waco lot back in august, it was a clean bank repo, carfax showed fleet maintenance records and no wrecks.

the reason i went ram this time instead of another ford is the aisin transmission behind the high output cummins. for heavy hotshot work where i am loaded to the gills on a 40 foot gooseneck a lot of miles, that aisin is about as bulletproof as it gets, and the manual regen button means i can clean the dpf on my schedule instead of mid load on the interstate. the high output motor makes 1000 lb ft which is silly for what i pull but it never breaks a sweat.

price was 46,500 plus harberts fee. a comparable HO aisin truck at the ram dealer in waco was stickered at 61 with more miles. i drove over to bellmead and looked it over myself, the online photos were honest, crawled under it and the frame and gooseneck mount were clean. only thing i had to sort out was a worn out set of rear tires which is just used dually life.

anyway, ask away if you are cross shopping ford and ram for a tow rig, happy to talk through why i landed where i did.

marcus, loaded on a 40 foot gooseneck im seeing 9 to 10 mpg, empty deadhead back about 15, which for the weight i pull is good. the aisin holds gears smart on grades so it is not constantly hunting which helps the numbers. honestly fuel is real close to what justin reports on his ford, these motors are within a half mpg of each other in the real world, pick the truck and trans you like.

when i was shopping they had two HO trucks on the lot, the laramie i bought and a tradesman work truck version with more miles. they get the gooseneck prep ram duallys fairly often because a lot of the repos are off small fleets and oilfield outfits that spec exactly these trucks. roy is dead on about the steering damper by the way, i can already feel mine getting a little vague over rough pavement, going to swap it this winter.

UPDATE five months and 21k hotshot miles in, coming back to close the loop for anyone cross shopping a ram tow rig.

swapped that steering damper roy and i both called out, which was the one easy fix this truck needed. 90 dollar part, half hour in my driveway, and the little vague feeling over rough pavement with a load is completely gone. should have just done it the week i bought it. other than that and routine fluid and filter service the ram has been flawless through a busy winter of loads.

aisin shifts the same as the day i got it, no fuel system drama, dpf regens on its own schedule and i hit the manual button before long grades. averaging right at 9.6 loaded over the whole stretch. i have put this truck through some genuinely heavy gooseneck loads and it has not once made me nervous.

so for the cummins crowd, buying off harbert's auto sales worked out exactly like it did for justin on the ford side. clean truck, honest listing, real savings, and the gooseneck prep duallys do show up on their lot if you watch for them. if you are after a heavy hauler, the HO aisin ram off the waco lot is a deal worth making the drive for.