Looking at my first common rail advice wanted

[Ram12vcummins]

Haven’t been around for awhile but hoping to get back into the reason why I joined the site in the first place. Looking at a 12’ with 50k miles ish and 4300 hrs on the clock. Seems excessive. Truck had a delete 10k miles ago.

Trucks in real nice shape. I’m just worried about the higher hours. Is there a way to know if there might be some issues in the future? What should I look for? One owner clean truck. Price is good. Thanks

[bracker8040]

That is very high hours for the miles. Less than a 12 mph average. I don’t know what the Cummins hour recommendations is for maintenance, but Ford use to say 250 hours, or 5,000 miles, whichever comes first. That is a 25mph average, and many trucks I see have a 32-37mph average. I have seen a few with a 42mph average.
Very few guys watch the hours, so a high hour truck is usually under maintained.

[Ram12vcummins]

Ya I know it’s a low ratio for sure. The truck appears to be looked after well. Wether or not it’s got oil changes per hr or per km I’m not sure.

[Ram12vcummins]

No one else? Was hoping for some more feedback on thoughts. If it should plane be avoided or if it’s doing good now what can I look for when I go look at the truck?

[Mark Nixon]

The #1 thing I look for is to see if it does "The Cap Dance", if it does, it's a puffin'.

Mark.

[Ram12vcummins]

Originally Posted by Mark Nixon

The #1 thing I look for is to see if it does "The Cap Dance", if it does, it's a puffin'.

Mark.

Yes. Warm is the better time to do this?

What’s the thought on the vgt? My worry would be large idle hours would cause it to stick. And it looks to be expensive to replace.

He said it never had any issue doing a “burn” assuming regen.

I’m gonna get a hold of the mechanics who did the delete. As I don’t know how efi live works. If they use std tunes or he made his own up.

[Mark Nixon]

Take it for a run, play with the exhaust brake on it while you have it out, then check the hot cap dance after you get back.
I understand your caution, it's a lot of hours in idle time, for ~ 50k miles, but does the owner have maintenance records?
You can also run the VIN by the dealer to see if it had any dealer maintenance, too.

Mark.

[USARMY12V]

I have 151,690 miles with 4593 so that is a considerable amount of idle time. But if he’s done oil changes regularly and maintenance records check out probably not a big deal if there’s no blow-by as already mentioned.

[Ram12vcummins]

Will do those checks. Truck is 7 hrs away
From me so just wanna get a list of stuff to peak at before making the journey.

Gonna call the mechanic that did the delete to get a bit of info from him as well.

[USARMY12V]

Balljoints could be another item that could have some play depending upon the area the truck was in. The stock ones are very hit or miss.

[Ram12vcummins]

Originally Posted by USARMY12V

Balljoints could be another item that could have some play depending upon the area the truck was in. The stock ones are very hit or miss.

Ya have a general idea of stuff like that. I’m more worried of basically engine and turbo health. I have no idea of cost rebuilding the engine either. But I imagine the common rails aren’t cheap.

[USARMY12V]

Not sure on your time you’re trying to make a decision, but if they’d let you send off an oil sample (I doubt they’re expecting you to ask) could get a little bit and send it off to Blackstone. That’ll tell some helpful information, too.

[Ram12vcummins]

Well heading out tomorrow to go look at the truck. If I buy(which most likely will unless I find something serious) then I’ll maybe start a new thread on advice for add ons and recommended maintenance and such.

[Ram12vcummins]

Originally Posted by Mark Nixon

The #1 thing I look for is to see if it does "The Cap Dance", if it does, it's a puffin'.

Mark.

What would be your cap dance check? I’m not sure what if any would be acceptable blow by.

[Ram12vcummins]

Well what a bust that was. Truck wasn’t nice like I was told. Cupped tires, spray liner peeling off rockers, air filter plugged with wet dirt. Rock chips n rust. Slightly pissed. It also shifted hard and had large amount of play in driveline. Ok a positive not the engine had zero blow by lol. The truck was also filthy with dog hair and dirt. Wasted 16 hrs of my day. And when I started telling him how I was kind of unhappy with it he told me to leave like I was an inconvenience. All the better I didn’t end up with it.

2 people I know said he looked after his stuff, I talked on the phone with his mechanic who said it’s in great shape. He safetied btw and nothing was written about the steering stiffness or the badly cupped tires. He also assured me it was a good truck and only had a couple rock chips. So weather he didn’t know or was trying to pawn it off. Either way I did as much as I could to get good info and not waste a trip......

[bateman]

Not much will piss me off more than that. I go the distance for what I want and also have always made sure to disclose every little thing when I'm selling. Such a shame to think so little of another man's time.

Hope you have better luck in the future.

[Ram12vcummins]

Originally Posted by bateman

Not much will piss me off more than that. I go the distance for what I want and also have always made sure to disclose every little thing when I'm selling. Such a shame to think so little of another man's time.

Hope you have better luck in the future.

Ya it’s a piss off. If there’s issues then say so. Especially since I told him I would buy based off what he said. But no way was I feeling pressured into an unmaintained and filthy pos.

I just bought one tonight. Almost doubled the price but it’s like new.

I’ll post pics when I pick up Friday.

2016 ram 2500 Laramie crew cab white pearl blacked out edition. Gorgeous truck.

[Ram12vcummins]

Here she be. Love it. Might start a thread on stuff I wanna do lol but maybe should keep the wallet closed for a while.

[bateman]

One helluva first common rail! Congrats. That is sharp.

[Smoken Gun]

Gorgeous truck, congrates sir!