StuartV
Ram Guru
Monday:
Reached verbal agreement with dealer on deal to trade my truck for a newer, used truck.
Swapped out the wheels on my truck for the original, stock wheels and tires that were still in my garage.
Tuesday:
Hit the road in the morning and drove 930 miles, from SC to Davenport, IA, and checked into a hotel near the dealership. My Hemi got 18.0 MPG (hand calculated) on the way up.
Wednesday:
Arrived at Kimberly Car City at 8:30 am and executed the trade. Steve Simpson was my salesman. He was just flat-out GREAT! Jimmy, his finance guy, was also great. No BS. No wasting my time. Very nice. Just did what we needed to do for paperwork and test drives/appraisals and got me out of there. I had sent pictures and detailed info on my truck ahead of time and they made me an offer on it based on that. I went to a local Carmax and got a written offer as well. Both offers were for the same ($36K - it had 3 minor cosmetic issues, needed new tires, plus being high mileage). When I got there, there was no hassle whatsoever with the value on my trade-in. They gave me what they had said, without any questions.
Hit the road for home by 11am. Drove 930 miles back home in the new truck. Fueled up on arrival. Got 25.5 MPG (hand calculated) on the trip home. Got home at 2am.
There was a lot of construction zone driving along the way. And I went through Indianapolis right during 5:00 rush hour on the way home. I kept the Adaptive Cruise set 10 MPH over the limit (so, mostly at 80) the whole way up there and back. Took me about 13 hours to get there. 14 hours to get home, which just goes to show how much worse the conditions were coming home.
Old truck: '19 Laramie, 5.7 eTorque, 3.92, with 72K miles on it. Purchased new, 3 years ago.
New truck: '21 Limited, EcoDiesel, 3.21, with 17K miles on it.
My old truck was pretty well loaded. The new truck looks identical - Black Laramie with Black Appearance Pkg versus Black Limited with Night package.
The new truck adds/changes (for me), EcoDiesel, 3.21 rear end, Multi-Function Tailgate, Pano Sunroof, Trailer Reverse Steering, HUD, Digital Rearview Mirror, Adaptive LED headlights.
Both had/have adaptive cruise, RamBoxes, 33 gallon tank, anti-spin diff, power running boards, 12" Uconnect, 4-corner air suspension.
Thoughts after my first day with the new truck:
I really like the ED. It feels like it drives just as well as the Hemi, but it's quieter and the acceleration is smoother. I also like having 800+ mile range. Calculated fuel savings for the trip was 2.6 cents per mile saved in the ED, counting in the cost of the DEF used. The reason to have an ED is NOT to save money.
The Digital rearview mirror is taking some getting used to. One thing worth noting: You can flip the lever on the bottom front and it is then a normal mirror, so you don't have to use the LCD screen for rearview if you don't want to. The LCD is weird to use, at least at first (still). I think the big difference is that with a normal mirror, when you move your eyes from looking ahead to looking in the mirror, you are still focused at a distance. With the LCD, you go from focusing on distance to focusing on the LCD screen itself, which is close. It takes just a moment longer to "see" the mirror because of the time it takes my eyes to re-focus from far to close. Also, because of that, I don't have the same depth perception with the LCD. With a mirror, you have a sense of how far away the vehicle behind you is by how your eyes focus on it (and the parallax, as well). With the LCD, you don't have the sense of distance, so you cannot tell how far away the vehicle is other than just by how big it looks. And considering the LCD screen/camera is a wide angle camera/view, you cannot automatically tell how far it is by how big it is. It's going to take some getting used to, but I want to stick with it for a week or so and see how well I adjust to it before I decide whether to keep using it or go back to the normal mirror. It IS nice to not have any part of the back seat, window, truck bed, etc. obscuring my view behind me. Plus, the rear view camera gives a wider view than I get from using a mirror.
The HUD is similar - jury is out on whether I'll use it long term or turn it off. The main problem I have with it is polarized sunglasses (which is what I have) cut the HUD's brightness by about half. It was very bright out yesterday and I had the HUD Brightness turned all the way up. I could see it, but it was MUCH easier to see/read if I ****ed (EDIT: I've been censored! LOL! The word might be re-stated as "roostered" LOL!) my head 45 degrees to the right. If I ****ed my head 45 to the left, it would just about completely disappear. And, with it turned up that bright for daytime use with polarized sunglasses, then it was annoyingly bright at night. I doubt I will want to futz with it every time my driving goes from day to night or vice versa. I'll probably just leave it turned on, but with the brightness turned down for night use... and not really see it during bright daytime driving.
The DEF gauge was showing just barely less than Full when the dealer handed it over. After driving 524 miles, it appeared to have dropped about to showing about 7/8 full. I stopped at a Buc-ee's and filled it up. It took right about 2 gallons. That seems to jibe with another thread here I read the other day that says the DEF gauge does not start to move off Full until after you've burned off the first 2 gallons from a full tank of DEF.
With the Adaptive Cruise engaged, if it slowed down to, say, more than 10 MPH less than the set speed, when traffic in front cleared out and it could accelerate back up to the set speed, I noted that it would generally accelerate pretty hard. Often downshifting as much as 2 gears to get back up to the set speed. I noticed that because I read a recent thread where someone else noted the same behavior and didn't like it because they were saying it really hurts fuel economy compared to accelerating more gently back up to speed. Well, personally, I like it. My Hemi (with Adaptive Cruise engaged) did not accelerate back up to speed with the urgency that the ED does and that annoyed me often.
I am super stoked by the Multi Function Tailgate. Most of my usage of the bed is putting scuba tanks and other gear in and out of the bed. Not having to lift tanks, a rebreather, or other gear, and lean over the tailgate to get them into the bed where they will ride is going to be very nice for my back.
I like the '21 wheels a LOT better than the stock '19 wheels. But, I will put my Helo wheels on the new truck at some point (when the stock tires start getting near to needing replacement).
Lastly, one more shout-out to Steve Simpson and Jimmy (the finance guy) at Kimberly Car City, in Davenport, Iowa. They were just awesome to deal with. 2 Thumbs Up. 5 Stars.
Old truck (background) and new truck (foreground, with red tag on front):
Reached verbal agreement with dealer on deal to trade my truck for a newer, used truck.
Swapped out the wheels on my truck for the original, stock wheels and tires that were still in my garage.
Tuesday:
Hit the road in the morning and drove 930 miles, from SC to Davenport, IA, and checked into a hotel near the dealership. My Hemi got 18.0 MPG (hand calculated) on the way up.
Wednesday:
Arrived at Kimberly Car City at 8:30 am and executed the trade. Steve Simpson was my salesman. He was just flat-out GREAT! Jimmy, his finance guy, was also great. No BS. No wasting my time. Very nice. Just did what we needed to do for paperwork and test drives/appraisals and got me out of there. I had sent pictures and detailed info on my truck ahead of time and they made me an offer on it based on that. I went to a local Carmax and got a written offer as well. Both offers were for the same ($36K - it had 3 minor cosmetic issues, needed new tires, plus being high mileage). When I got there, there was no hassle whatsoever with the value on my trade-in. They gave me what they had said, without any questions.
Hit the road for home by 11am. Drove 930 miles back home in the new truck. Fueled up on arrival. Got 25.5 MPG (hand calculated) on the trip home. Got home at 2am.
There was a lot of construction zone driving along the way. And I went through Indianapolis right during 5:00 rush hour on the way home. I kept the Adaptive Cruise set 10 MPH over the limit (so, mostly at 80) the whole way up there and back. Took me about 13 hours to get there. 14 hours to get home, which just goes to show how much worse the conditions were coming home.
Old truck: '19 Laramie, 5.7 eTorque, 3.92, with 72K miles on it. Purchased new, 3 years ago.
New truck: '21 Limited, EcoDiesel, 3.21, with 17K miles on it.
My old truck was pretty well loaded. The new truck looks identical - Black Laramie with Black Appearance Pkg versus Black Limited with Night package.
The new truck adds/changes (for me), EcoDiesel, 3.21 rear end, Multi-Function Tailgate, Pano Sunroof, Trailer Reverse Steering, HUD, Digital Rearview Mirror, Adaptive LED headlights.
Both had/have adaptive cruise, RamBoxes, 33 gallon tank, anti-spin diff, power running boards, 12" Uconnect, 4-corner air suspension.
Thoughts after my first day with the new truck:
I really like the ED. It feels like it drives just as well as the Hemi, but it's quieter and the acceleration is smoother. I also like having 800+ mile range. Calculated fuel savings for the trip was 2.6 cents per mile saved in the ED, counting in the cost of the DEF used. The reason to have an ED is NOT to save money.
The Digital rearview mirror is taking some getting used to. One thing worth noting: You can flip the lever on the bottom front and it is then a normal mirror, so you don't have to use the LCD screen for rearview if you don't want to. The LCD is weird to use, at least at first (still). I think the big difference is that with a normal mirror, when you move your eyes from looking ahead to looking in the mirror, you are still focused at a distance. With the LCD, you go from focusing on distance to focusing on the LCD screen itself, which is close. It takes just a moment longer to "see" the mirror because of the time it takes my eyes to re-focus from far to close. Also, because of that, I don't have the same depth perception with the LCD. With a mirror, you have a sense of how far away the vehicle behind you is by how your eyes focus on it (and the parallax, as well). With the LCD, you don't have the sense of distance, so you cannot tell how far away the vehicle is other than just by how big it looks. And considering the LCD screen/camera is a wide angle camera/view, you cannot automatically tell how far it is by how big it is. It's going to take some getting used to, but I want to stick with it for a week or so and see how well I adjust to it before I decide whether to keep using it or go back to the normal mirror. It IS nice to not have any part of the back seat, window, truck bed, etc. obscuring my view behind me. Plus, the rear view camera gives a wider view than I get from using a mirror.
The HUD is similar - jury is out on whether I'll use it long term or turn it off. The main problem I have with it is polarized sunglasses (which is what I have) cut the HUD's brightness by about half. It was very bright out yesterday and I had the HUD Brightness turned all the way up. I could see it, but it was MUCH easier to see/read if I ****ed (EDIT: I've been censored! LOL! The word might be re-stated as "roostered" LOL!) my head 45 degrees to the right. If I ****ed my head 45 to the left, it would just about completely disappear. And, with it turned up that bright for daytime use with polarized sunglasses, then it was annoyingly bright at night. I doubt I will want to futz with it every time my driving goes from day to night or vice versa. I'll probably just leave it turned on, but with the brightness turned down for night use... and not really see it during bright daytime driving.
The DEF gauge was showing just barely less than Full when the dealer handed it over. After driving 524 miles, it appeared to have dropped about to showing about 7/8 full. I stopped at a Buc-ee's and filled it up. It took right about 2 gallons. That seems to jibe with another thread here I read the other day that says the DEF gauge does not start to move off Full until after you've burned off the first 2 gallons from a full tank of DEF.
With the Adaptive Cruise engaged, if it slowed down to, say, more than 10 MPH less than the set speed, when traffic in front cleared out and it could accelerate back up to the set speed, I noted that it would generally accelerate pretty hard. Often downshifting as much as 2 gears to get back up to the set speed. I noticed that because I read a recent thread where someone else noted the same behavior and didn't like it because they were saying it really hurts fuel economy compared to accelerating more gently back up to speed. Well, personally, I like it. My Hemi (with Adaptive Cruise engaged) did not accelerate back up to speed with the urgency that the ED does and that annoyed me often.
I am super stoked by the Multi Function Tailgate. Most of my usage of the bed is putting scuba tanks and other gear in and out of the bed. Not having to lift tanks, a rebreather, or other gear, and lean over the tailgate to get them into the bed where they will ride is going to be very nice for my back.
I like the '21 wheels a LOT better than the stock '19 wheels. But, I will put my Helo wheels on the new truck at some point (when the stock tires start getting near to needing replacement).
Lastly, one more shout-out to Steve Simpson and Jimmy (the finance guy) at Kimberly Car City, in Davenport, Iowa. They were just awesome to deal with. 2 Thumbs Up. 5 Stars.
Old truck (background) and new truck (foreground, with red tag on front):
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