Ditching the Power Wagon, possibly for a new Tremor F350.

[ANVIL_01]

Hello All,

I am new to this site, but wanted to register and thank everyone for all the great information here. I was a dedicated dodge/ram guy for a long time. Until I purchased a 2015 power wagon, which turned out to be a lemon or a complete piece of crap. In all fairness when it is not in the shop have extensive warranty work done it performs fine, but every 4-6 months some major goes or resurfaces: I recently brought a 2019 Ford explorer for my wife and was completely blown away by the quality and performance over her old Jeep Cherokee. After thinking of that, and seeing how ford nailed the new Bronco and knocked it out of the park I started paying more attention to Ford and I think they are just crushing it lately. The Tremor seems to be everything the Power Wagon should have been.

Power Wagon
In the shop 5 times for the steering a total of just over 35-40 days total.
Transmission went and I rarely towed with it single instance 28 days in shop.
Column gear shift just snapped one day, in shop for 3 days.
Friday it started to wobble bad coming out of a left or right turn, in the shop god knows hoe many days this time.

Whatever I do buy I would not drive a Dodge, Ram, Chrysler product ever again, even it was given to me for free.

 

[ddowney]

I've only ever driven Ford trucks. I've had 2 F-150's (2011, 2018) and a 2015 F-250 powerstroke. Loved all 3 of them and never had any issues with them. It's why I didn't hesitate when I turned in my last F-150 for a SD again. I bought too much camper for the last F-150. I wanted to play devils advocate and checked out Chevy and the first comment my wife had when we checked it out was that the Ford interior is much nicer and much bigger, comparing crew cabs. If you get the chance, drive one and see the difference in them. I'm sure some guys have bad experiences but it seems like most of them are pretty well taken care of by Ford when they voice those complaints. Good luck in your truck search!

 

[ANVIL_01]

I've only ever driven Ford trucks. I've had 2 F-150's (2011, 2018) and a 2015 F-250 powerstroke. Loved all 3 of them and never had any issues with them. It's why I didn't hesitate when I turned in my last F-150 for a SD again. I bought too much camper for the last F-150. I wanted to play devils advocate and checked out Chevy and the first comment my wife had when we checked it out was that the Ford interior is much nicer and much bigger, comparing crew cabs. If you get the chance, drive one and see the difference in them. I'm sure some guys have bad experiences but it seems like most of them are pretty well taken care of by Ford when they voice those complaints. Good luck in your truck search!

I looked at all three major manufactures when I decided to loose this Lemon of a Power Wagon.

Dodge/Ram instantly ruled out because of the history and to be honest the inside of the new Power Wagon with that large screen is horrible.

Took an honest look at Chevy and Ford. I think the Ford Tremor is leading.

I drove some diesel trucks in the USMC, but I test drove a F350 Tremor this past Saturday..... and all I could think was...

1. Wow, complete amazement at the power and pick up, it is like every other truck I had owned in the past wasn't really a truck.
2. How my wife could not be wanting to get married to me all over again was beyond me, she was indifferent and said get what I want, but that Power-stroke is NO JOKE!

 

[IceSoldier88]

you should look into if the lemon law applies to you. my wife car was out of service for over 30 days, and was in the shop 4 times. And ford just bought it back.

 

[ANVIL_01]

you should look into if the lemon law applies to you. my wife car was out of service for over 30 days, and was in the shop 4 times. And ford just bought it back.

I didn't think of that initially and by the time I checked I was just outside the window, but the truck would have qualified if I made the time window. I could have possibly filed federal lemon law, but again live and learn, I thought to myself ahhhh it is probably all fixed now after the transmission, then the rest happened.

You know my first 2 weeks having it, I noticed the carpet under the seats was folded, and the seats bolted bear metal exposed and a few cosmetic issues, I thought at the time hmmmm, maybe this truck was put together by people that didn't give a F*&#. Live and learn, I will inspect every new vehicle to the max from now on.

I know all vehicles have their issues, but the issues with my RAM are over the top.

I read a bad review of the tremor over at another forum someone suggested on ford trucks, but other than that its been pretty good on this generation of Ford HD's and the Power Strokes.

 

[PapaRaptor]

I agree with you on the FCA products. I had the old Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Turbo diesels for years everything went to hell except for the engine, transfer case and axles. Purchased a new 2015 Hellcat while it is fast its made cheap and the paint is poor quality. Purchased a 2017 Rubicon and it was also in the shop and on tow trucks over 6 times for a starting problem. I love my jeep but again the fit n finish with FCA is very low grade. I get all my vehicles ceramic coated and the Tremor was one of the easiest to color correct. Better paint than my wives Audi. I am impressed with Ford products right now.

 

[Ryno]

I too came from a Ram 2500. It was a ‘16 black package with the Cummins. Honestly, I liked the truck a lot. I put 90k on it and when I was towing my tractor up a hill just after 90k the tranny started making some noise. Got to the top of the hill and decided to get a new truck. Didn’t like the look of the new ram and I did the same thing as you. Went first to GMC and just couldn’t get past the cockpit and the fact that you had to do so much to get it looking right. Went to Ford and I said now that’s a good looking rig. Drove one and I was done. Researched and researched and the tremor popped up. That was it for me. It had everything I would want to do with a truck. I’ve had my Tremor since March and I absolutely love it! It’s comfortable, good looking, it’s a really tight and clean drive, and will tow your freaking house at 80mph straight up a hill at 1600RPM yawning. Thing is a monster. Sure, people will have problems and bad things to say, it’s a brand new truck with a newly introduced 10 speed that puts out major power. There are always unforeseen things right? At the end of the day when I compared all trucks that fit my needs, there is no other truck that came close and I still feel that way.

 

[modified]

Welcome to the forum @ANVIL_01

I'll be honest, there are some things I really like about my RAM 2500 diesel, but the reliability is not one of them!

1. Size - It's a great size for a HD truck. Turning radius is great.
2. Interior is nice. (Seats aren't as comfy as my Raptor, but not bad)
3. Price/Features - New it was $10k cheaper than a diesel F250 or Chevy 2500 Diesel

Bad things
1. It's on it's 3rd water pump and I have about 40k miles
2. Recalls, recalls, and more recalls.
3. Just had to spend $2k on a new AC compressor (6 years old)
4. Starter issues
5. Left me stranded twice. (both times were under the 3/36 warranty)

I saved money in the beginning, but I've paid for it in the long run. I can't wait to trade it in Hopefully by the end of the month.

 

[Mike Alcocer]

I read a bad review of the tremor over at another forum someone suggested on ford trucks, but other than that its been pretty good on this generation of Ford HD's and the Power Strokes.

What did the bad review have to say? The tremor, diesel atleast, is a truck designed to tow with an off road package. The power wagon was purpose built with off road in mind. Not really the best thing to compare the two directly. But 90% of SD buyers are looking for the 3/4 and 1 ton capacity. The off road stuff is in addition to that.

If you are shopping 250 vs 350 they both have the same tow capacity as I understand it. But the 350 can take a bit more weight in the bed. The price difference is almost nothing.

 

[Ryno]

What did the bad review have to say? The tremor, diesel atleast, is a truck designed to tow with an off road package. The power wagon was purpose built with off road in mind. Not really the best thing to compare the two directly. But 90% of SD buyers are looking for the 3/4 and 1 ton capacity. The off road stuff is in addition to that.

If you are shopping 250 vs 350 they both have the same tow capacity as I understand it. But the 350 can take a bit more weight in the bed. The price difference is almost nothing.

You hit the nail on the head. With the tremor package it includes the high capacity tow package on the 250 and with that package it makes it in essence a 350. Thought that was interesting in my research and almost pulled the trigger on the 350 since it was virtually same price.