Hello from a Newbie this forum and Cummins

[2500MegaDiesel]

Hello to all.

Just joined this forum as I have a new to me Dodge with the 6.7 Cummins. I plan to retire as soon as my house is sold and take to the road full time in a travel trailer. I researched all the medium duty trucks, got sticker shock with the new ones, then started to study my options for a diesel, which is the only thing that will serve my needs for full time towing. Price, performance, style, and durability led me to choose Dodge. A lot of that decision was based on the great reputation of the Cummins diesels in the Dodge products over the years. The competition either priced themselves out of my market (GM) or seemed not to be able to settle on a working diesel and keeps changing it every other year or so (Ford).

After some months of following used trucks on the internet and locally, I stumbled on a deal. A not perfect, but not trashed 2007 2500 MegaCab. I had narrowed it down to a Mega to hold more stuff while on the road. My lovely wife and I will be living full time in the truck and trailer, with visits to the kids, and timeshare condos to allow us some room to breathe on occasion.

Now that I have the truck, I am dressing it up with some addons, as well as getting an Edge Juice with Attitude, and trying to line up a Smarty programmer too. The Edge for its ability to tune on the fly and display all the vital data. The Smarty for programming the latest Dodge ECM codes with fixes etc. I might play with the Smarty tunes when I have time to fuss around.

Right now work consumes me.

As for this forum, it really suits me as the folks here are after good mileage, performance for towing etc. There are other forums I joined that seem to be slanted toward racing diesel performance. Still lot's of good info.

So anyone with suggestions to make my towing life easier, please chime in.

[jamespi]

Welcome, you are on the right track with the truck you bought.

[Squid]

Welcome to the site and I hear ya about work! Congrats with the truck and even with the emissions growing pains I still believe the Cummins is the best engine on the road and couple it with the transmission and I haven't looked back.

[steve]

welcome to the site , sounds like the right truck for the right reasons, best of luck oh and keep checking through the site as there is a ton of info on the site for these trucks .

[jamespi]

Originally Posted by Squid

Welcome to the site and I hear ya about work! Congrats with the truck and even with the emissions growing pains I still believe the Cummins is the best engine on the road and couple it with the transmission and I haven't looked back.

What makes the new Dodge tranny so good? I am happy with my auto tranny but I do not know what makes it a good one. My buddy has a Chevy with the Allison and says he has the best tranny. What say you?

[Squid]

Originally Posted by jamespi

What makes the new Dodge tranny so good? I am happy with my auto tranny but I do not know what makes it a good one. My buddy has a Chevy with the Allison and says he has the best tranny. What say you?

It was stated because before 2007 you could only get a 4 speed auto. Now with the 6 speed being built it rivals the Allison and makes the engine/tranny package the best on the road and why I bought the Dodge. If the engine/tranny package would have been in a Ford or Chevy that's what I would have bought.

If the 4 speed was still being produced rather then the 6 speed I probably would have went with the Allison since I know longer get pleasure out of shifting gears.

[Vis-a'-vis]

Welcome to the site. I'm glad that I won't be the only retired old fart here...Glad to have ya.

[notrader]

Originally Posted by jamespi

What makes the new Dodge tranny so good? I am happy with my auto tranny but I do not know what makes it a good one. My buddy has a Chevy with the Allison and says he has the best tranny. What say you?

I don't know. Maybe one is not any better than the other. But here is some good information about the 68rfe that is in our trucks. It can be found at:

turbodieselregister.com/tdarticles/tdarticle_68RFEtransmission.html

[2500MegaDiesel]

The Edge Juice with Attitude arrived yesterday, I went out at lunch and did a recon on all the connectors, so tomorrow that should be a quick plug and play. I have ordered a TCM tune from MHP to give some additional life to my tranny. I got a Maxbrake to control the trailer brakes, a couple herculiner kits for the bed, ordered a Jason cap on their internet special coupon at the local LineX dealer, some nice running boards were sitting in the drive when I got home and some dress em up chrome and wood dash will soon be here. I will take some before and after pics. If Squid doesn't mind I might do an addendum to his great Edge install thread, with some additional pics. I will definitely do a thread on the Maxbrake install for any interested parties.

[Squid]

Originally Posted by 2500MegaDiesel

If Squid doesn't mind I might do an addendum to his great Edge install thread, with some additional pics. I will definitely do a thread on the Maxbrake install for any interested parties.

Please do!