# Dodge Warranty Woes and Plow truck question??



## advlandscapellc (Nov 19, 2010)

I am new to this site this being my first post gonna start it up with a question that has been waying heavy on me the last few days causing stress and banging my head on the desk. Here is the situation.
I recently picked up a large 1 Truck contract for a commercial property, I got out of plowing two years ago after doing it for a few years saying i will never do this again but as everyone knows it always ropes you back in especially a good contract. Currently i have a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 quad cab dually with a cummins and auto tranny 4x4 with 90000 miles on her. I just purchase a chrylser service contract 2 months ago and financed it for 12 months at there 0% service financing I have roughly $450 paid into it so far and i have 3 more years and unlimited mileage. They tell me that putting a plow on my truck WILL void my powertrain warranty no questions asked F*** me right, well I went out and purchase a 1994 chevy 3500 hd dump with the 6.5 diesel with a 9' fisher procaster. I made the mistake of purchasing it at night because thats the only time my schedule allowed and boy o boy did i make a mistake this truck hates to start, eats oil is drawing excess power somewhere and has a bunch of electrical issues. So now i have a truck that will plow but is not reliable and cannot count on it on a good day let alone a 20 degree winter storm day. So the question is this do I void my warranty spend 5 grand and put a blade on the cummins or do i run the chevy and pray for the best, or try and find another truck with a plow that is more reliable for under $5000. I have been waying out the cost benefit of having two trucks rather than one such as insurance costs, maintenenance etc.... Any advice would much needed and incredibly helpful. thank you everyone, By the way my name is mike and i'm in guilford CT ussmileyflag
i attached a picture of the dodge and the chevy


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## bltp203 (Nov 5, 2006)

Personally, I would scrap the warranty and the POS chevy and roll the dice with the plow on the Dodge. You are right, the added costs of insurance, maintenace, etc. will add up and in my opinion probably cost more then an average warranty repair.

Short of catastrophic engine failure.......do you think you will recoup your warranty money in warranty repairs?

One reason why I own 2 dodges is because how simple they are to work on. 

Option 2 could be to get the plow, keep the warranty and if a major issue comes up, take the wiring and truck mount off......I could strip mine off in an hour. They will never know it was there.

Ultimately you will have to decide what your "peace of mind" is worth.

Best of luck.


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## Evan528 (Jan 12, 2000)

Tough situatuion. I bought the ezt warranty for my 03 Ram 3500 diesel this year as well. 1 Injector needing to be replaced with cost you almost $1,000. A new transmission probably $3,000. Both items that commonly fail on the Ram Diesels. To me it was worth the $1200.00 it cost me and gives me peace of mind. 

If this contract you got is lucritve enough then use the Dodge and set money aside for repairs. 

You will get most of that $450 your spent on the warranty back if you cancel now.


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## sno commander (Oct 16, 2007)

i dont think thats legal. if the plow doesnt cause the problem it should be covered. i could see them not covering ball joints and u-joints but not voiding your whole warranty.id like to see that in writing. i have had warranty repairs on my dodge like ball joints and u-joints covered and i have a plow.


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## advlandscapellc (Nov 19, 2010)

So what I am being told now by the plow dealer is that they will not install a plow on my truck because it would put my truck over my 11500 gvrw if it had the gas motor it would be acceptable but with the cummins it is not WTF! 

We got a little bit of snow this morning nothing substantial the truck took over an hour to finally start. I wish i had the plow on my dodge


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## Evan528 (Jan 12, 2000)

Find another plow dealer...... Some are not quite so strict about putting a plow on a crew cab diesel as others.......


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## REAPER (Nov 23, 2004)

Demand to have them show you where in the service contract it reads "PLOWING SNOW WILL VOID WARRANTY". Remember they are salesmen and do not want to pay anything. 

If it is not actually wrote into the contract either threaten to sue them to uphold the contract or you want 100% of the money paid into it. 

It is a contract and it has to have that invalidation wrote into it specifically.


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## b&b landscapes (Nov 7, 2010)

IMO i would keep the chevy and fix what little bit needs to be fixed on it and insure it because I just was in the chevy vs dodge battle and in my case I chose Dodge !!ONLY!! because the chevy needed a new flywheel and all the bolt heads were rusted about off and was $1200 to install flywheel because they had to pull everything and 'hot wrench' off bolts.... but the dodge was almost double to insure.....

This is my thinking.......

Chevy - Cold start prob means it may just need a block heater or the like, and wiring issues are a given in chevy trucks of your generation but not too bad to fix if you put your head into it or a friend with wiring smarts..... I think it would be cheaper to fix the small probs with it just to get it thru one winter...

Dodge - first off.... you will prob have better luck with beating your head against the wall and waste better use of time by trying to deal with the whole warranty ordeal (weither it will or wont be covered) Because of course your going to hear nothing but other ppl on hear saying "well my warranty this and my warranty that" - well guess what. your warranty is your warranty and if putting a plow on it will void it then so be it. why waste $5000 on rigging it up at this time of the season to plow and put undo strain on such a nicer truck..... Ask yourself this is it worth it? I say no...,, Not to mention the difference in insurance costs prob... ( Cause my dodge was $500 more a year to insure than the chevy - in my case)

DEF let us know what you decide


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## advlandscapellc (Nov 19, 2010)

So I think i have made a decision here, the chevy needs alot of money in work that i will never recoup, it has bad blowby, bad glowplugs which are also rusted into the head, an electrical issue that i can not find and alot of cancer, the cancer is easy since i am decent with metal work but not so much on the wrenching. I will never get my money back fixing the chevy with the work that needs to be done to make it "reliable" i was not expecting a gem but i absolutely need reliability. I love my dodge and really do not want to plow with my dream truck that i worked so hard to finnally buy i would do it for the business but i feel i would be robbing peter to pay paul with the warranty issue, either way i will end up paying for it.

So this is my decision thus far. I found a 1997 ford f350 with a flat bed dump a fisher MM plow and a 7.3 powerstroke. They want $9800 for the truck and it is from a dealer that offers a warranty on the truck as it sits with the plow etc.. I need a dump for my landscaping business so it kills two birds with one stone in that aspect, i get the plow and the dump which i need. If you figure i would spend $5000 + for a plow on the dodge and lose my $2200 warranty it will work out economically smart. I'm going to look at it tommorow afternoon, was going to tonight but they were putting a new oil pan on it and from what i hear that is a costly and headache filled repair. I would rather spend the extra money on a reliable rig that will get the job done and look alot more presentable to my customers. I attached a picture of the truck im going to check out.


I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER THAN TO BUY A CHEVY LOLussmileyflag


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## b&b landscapes (Nov 7, 2010)

very nice and sorry for the misguided opinion, but it was based on the info supplied.... make sure you go over the ford real good, wish you the best of luck on this purchase.... BTW, what do you have in the chevy and what are the specific problem in the wiring department? cant help with the blow so much but just maybe i and others here may walk you thru some of the easier less expensive repairs to maybe recoup your money or at least of it


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## Banksy (Aug 31, 2005)

Buy the plow and put it on yourself. The Dodge will handle it just fine and throw a 1000#'s behind the rear axle.


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## D2 Cat (Sep 9, 2010)

Sounds like you've got it figured out. Just a few weeks too late. Gotta make buying decisions with logic not emotion.

I know, I got a '96 Chev I put a plow on. I got the truck real reasonable but took quite a bit of time to get the bugs worked out. (The seller could have gotten the truck in workable condition by replacing the return lines for a total cost of about $20) I also have an 01 Dodge I didn't want to take the abuse of snow removal. So I installed a Hiniker plow on the Chev and have the mount for the Dodge so I can use the plow on either truck and change quickly.


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## CarCrazed4Life (Dec 5, 2005)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110620262132
I can't help but think if your in CT, this can't be terribly far from you and its pretty cheap at $5k with the plow, where you could afford to spend a little $$$ to bring it upto to speed.


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## CarCrazed4Life (Dec 5, 2005)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250737680802
or this one.


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## EME 411 (Oct 21, 2008)

I cann't see how you would be over weight with a 3500 dually. My 2500 Mega cab handles the 8' fisher fine and it has the steel snow foil on it. I did put Timbrens on the frt for piece of mind.


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