I talk a lot about how I like small pickups, but now this is a truck! If a person needed a truck-truck for truck duties – what a concept – this is it. You’ll cut your mileage in half while towing, but you can tow longer than 40 minutes without recharging the batteries with this one. This 1991 Dodge Ram 250 LE Cummins Turbo Diesel with a five-speed manual is listed here on eBay in Caldwell, Idaho and the current bid price is $9,900, but the reserve isn’t met.
Other than the color, I don’t see one thing that I’d change about this truck. Well, maybe I’d fix that lower right-front fender dent and add a side marker light, but I mean, spec-wise. A 4×4 would be nice as always, but a few hundred million of us somehow survived living in wintery U.S. and Canada areas with rear-wheel-drive vehicles before front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive because a must-have. Get some snow tires, put some weight in the back, and let’r rip.
Sneaking onto the market in the fall of 1980 for the 1981 model year, the “new” first-generation Ram pickups would hang around until mid-1993 before being totally redesigned into basically the same design as you see in showrooms today. The underside looks nicer than most of my vehicles’ topsides do. This looks like one nice, solid truck. All the seller says about the body condition is that it has “solid metal.” I think this is a ding-ding-ding winner-winner here.
The interior appears to be well-coated with some sort of shiny protectant on it, maybe that’s how it’s kept its like-new condition for so many decades. Yes, that’s a five-speed manual transmission. This truck has fewer than 97,000 miles on it, which is incredible after 31 years! That’s only 3,129 miles a year on average, this truck is barely broken in, especially with that powerful diesel engine.
This stump-puller is a 5.9-liter Cummins B-Series turbo-diesel, a 6BT which would have had 160 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. They were unique in having direct injection so they didn’t require a glow plug. Also, an in-block gear-driven camshaft reportedly made these powerful engines more reliable than what some other manufacturers were offering for their pickups. This seller isn’t exactly chatty with details, which is sometimes refreshing rather than a cheesy sales pitch. That’s not needed here as the photos speak for themselves. This is one beautiful and well-equipped truck, have any of you owned a diesel-powered Dodge pickup?
At the price of desiel these days I bet he wishes it was a good ol’ slant six. I know I would rather have that. No wait, in 91 not around any more. I will settle for a 318.
That combination of engine and transmission are perfect,that truck isn’t even broke in,those Cummins engines are the best built diesel,I had 234,000 miles on my 1999,if the Pa salt hadn’t done it in,would still be driving it, someone is going to get a good truck
These are excellent vehicles; one of the lumber yards where I worked used these as their delivery trucks. Several of them lived with heavy 5th wheel dump trailers attached without complaint. I always respected my boss for running these Dodge diesels. He still does today.
I bought a new 3500 duallie in 1996, replaced it with a special order 250 2wd 4 door shortbox manual in 2005, which I kept looking and driving like new until I sold it in 2019. At this mileage, the motor is just beginning to get run in, expect well in excess of 400,000 miles.
Not sure about these earlier versions, but the 2005 had gone to a 2 piece flywheel that apparently made it easier for lunkheads to shift. But you couldn’t get a clutch must past 35,000 in those units (at least I couldn’t). We swapped it out for an aftermarket one piece unit with a bespoke clutch, and never looked at it again
Great trucks. Someone will be really happy with this
cheers,
BT
If you learn to time the gears it becomes second nature — if you only use the clutch for a standing start it never wears out.
Some years ago I had a diesel bmw 5 series in England, which had over 300,000 miles on it. I was planning a road trip across Russia and thought my reliable car that was basically worthless would be a good choice for the trip, since it might be taken from me along the way (it wasn’t grabbed pr wrecked, as it happens, but it would be less of a blow than losing something new and shiny if it had been) I put the old beemer in the shop to replace the belts and hoses and whatever else needed doing and also to replace the clutch, which I thought must be getting close after 300,000 miles. They replaced the clutch but said it was about half used up. This was the original clutch. It made the trip out and back with no major issues but had shaken itself to pieces along the way and now squeaked and rattled and had to go.
I learned to change gears without a clutch in a Peterbilt with a Fuller Roadranger transmission in the 8o0. It is impossible and frustrating at first but eventually becomes second nature and can be done instantly in any manual vehicle — even an unfamiliar one. It also forces you to drive smoothly, which saves wear and tear on everything else. I drove trucks in Europe for a while and Scania put on a class I attended on coasting or freewheeling. Truckers in Europe are taught to run in neutral as much as possible to save fuel. You can generally dobthis about a quarter of the time in any moderately hilly area — Pheonix or Orlando are not ideal for this type of driving, but any slightly hilly area is perfect. Staying in gear downhill or when decellerating is a bit like pedaling downhill — Neutral is the most important gear, and the fact that automatic transmissions don’t allow you to use the N gear is a serious shortfall. Besides the better fuel economy of a mstick shift’s mechanical rather than hydraulic drive, there is also the ability to just coast when situations allow, which is unavailable with an automatic.
I only buy manual cars and trucks now because automatic transmissions eventually die and the cost of replacing them generally exceeds the value of the vehicle when they go. Very high mileages are economically impossible in an automatic. I had an automatic Chevy Blazer in the 90s which succumbed to this fate. It had 250,000 miles on it when the tranny died. It was worth about $600 by then which was a lot less than a rebuilt transmission would have cost, so it was donated to the Salvation Army.
It’s a shame that people have forgotten to use manual transmissions in the US. They are a superior technology — cheaper, more efficient and more reliable. Or maybe the kids are right and we are just dinosaurs.
A regular cab long bed with a manual shift, THAT is my idea of a truck! I realize of course I am in the minority, so if my current truck dies irreversibly someday I am going to be in a tough spot…
It’s at $12,900 with two days left!
How much is a new one?
I have a 1993 D250 with a Diesel and a Club Cab. 297000 miles. The Diesels can get over 600000 miles easy with care and are dropdead reliable. Excellent fuel mileage even towing. I pulled a 31 ft fifth wheel 9K RV from Jersey to Southern Florida and averaged 16 mpg. Thing is a beast. The silver one is a beauty and should get well over 10 k for it
I had a 1991, hit 665,000 miles before I sold it. It would have been the 4th body I would have to put on it. The best truck I ever had.
I presently have an ‘01 2500 Laramie and my truck camper is on my ‘06 3500 4×4 Cummins power and reliability
I had the first year model of this D250. No power windows, locks, anything. 5 speed Getrag tranny. Used it primarily to run from Fl to NC with all sorts of heavy gear for a commercial fishing boat I was having built. It got 20-25 mpg. Kept it for 20 years – the only problems were 1) the tank, mounted fore-aft, had no baffles, and would suck air at less than 1/4 tank if you ran a steep incline or accelerated heavily; 2) the shifter linkage broke off in my hand (luckily at the head of my driveway; and 3) replaced the clutch once. Loved the SS exhaust system, and the truck in general. My dad had a later model dually, automatic, and got much worse mileage.
Memories, had an ’84 D250 long bed 2WD, same color with the same 16.5″ Bud wheels and floating diff. Mine was a 360/auto. Of all the trucks I’ve had it was a favorite. Super heavy duty. Fully loaded or empty bed it got 10MPG. Coworkers used to say the space shuttle got better mileage. The few times I had to have it flat bedded taken home the drivers said “geez this thing is heavy”. Needing to go to the truck center to have rotors and drums turned too. This was a truck. Rode great, to me anyway.
I have a 91 D350 Non IC Cummins 5 sp Getrag Arizona truck with 140k on the odo. Starts right up every time. Getting it ready for paint and a new owner.
Bought a brand new 91 W250 4×4 with AT & 360. Best truck I ever owned!