Ford F550 vs. Ram 5500

[Oshkosh-P]

Hello,

i am thinking about using on of those class 5 trucks as a bse vehicle for an expedition truck, but since both are quite rare in europe, i like some input first.

Both look pretty equal at first sight, both have a quite small 7.000lbs front alxe, but a massive 13.000lbs rear, both feature an open c-channel frame, both have nice big engines. Of course cummins may be the better option worldwide, but ford is much more common over here than dodge.

But are there any impoirtant diffeences? The dodge has this kickback frame and a higher steel rating, but i guess this is not of too much importance, since they are both 19500lbs trucks in the end. (well i guess for offroading it is necessary to redice the weight quite a bit)

One thing that i am not shure about: is it possible that the doge has the smaller width? Wat i found so far sounds like 80" incase of the doge, but 96" for the ford. Of course i will replace the dueal rear wheel with single tires, but i guess this will not change the width right? This dimension is quite crucial over here, 80", or maybe 84 with offroad-tires are no problem, but 96 is a completely different class, i can get an unimog of that size.....

Maybe someone knows a little more about this, as far as i know, ford trucks used to be smaller at least in the front area back until 2004, before they replaced the 6000lbs dana 60 front on leaf springs with the 7000lbs dana super 60 on coil.

Greetings

 

[haven]

Here are links to the specifications pages
2015 Ford F550
http://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/chassis-cab/specifications/exterior/

2014 Ram 5500 (Dodge trucks are now called Ram)
http://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/pdf/specsheet/ram_350045005500_dimensions.pdf

Looks like the track width of both vehicles is 74 inches. “Track width” means the overall width of an axle across to the outside faces of the tires. The vehicle body, including mirrors, will be wider still. The Ram cab including mirrors is 93 inches wide . In comparison, the Mercedes Sprinter with dual rear wheels measures 95 inches from mirror to mirror. So the Ram and Sprinter cabs are similar in width.

 

[Larry]

If you can live with settling on a complete throw-a-way truck built of questionable product quality at the lowest cost take the F550. If you would like a solid commercial grade truck chassis, Cummins engine, Aisin automatic transmission…..take the RAM. The 6.7L Cummins in the RAM is also quite popular in various commercial vehicles in Europe whereas the Ford in-house diesel engine is a US market novelty. The RAM would be easier to service and maintain. My vote would be for the RAM hands down.

 

[Oshkosh-P]

Is there really such a big difference in quality between the two?

Well the Cummins is big plus indeed, it is also quite interesting, that even Ford uses this Engine for the bigger F-650-750 trucks...

And of course the Dodge frame has 50.000PSI steele, while ford uses 36.000 with just a double layer, which might rust quite well.

Yeah from those spec-pages it sounds like they are the same dimensions, but is that the case front AND rear? I know that ford has the same front width since 2004, but if the width with foldet mirrors, as listed above, is only 83" for the dodge does that mean the dodge front is not as wide?


Because if this is the case, maybe you can sace some width in general by switching to single rear wheels, so the rear width matches the front, making the truck 83" in general?

Yeah the sprinter is quite big, but also quite fragile, i don't see a point in using a vehicle of above 90" width with so little payload, in this size-class i can just use a 14 ton Truck.

 

[AFBronco235]

You get what you pay for.

On swapping from dual wheels to single, why would you do that if you're wanting something that can handle weight like a class 5? I understand you have width restrictions, but you're also cutting down the max weight you can carry by doing that. Just how much modification are you wanting to do to your rig? And how long are your trips going to be?

BTW, Cummins engines are NOT a Dodge only engine. They manufacture engines for all applications. Dodge just shouts "CUMMINS" engine so much because they can't make a decent engine for ******%, so they have to outsource for an engine. You can power a ford with just about anything out there. If you're wanting to save some cash, you can buy an F550 with a burned out engine and drop in a diesel of your preference easily.
Honestly, it just all depends on what you'll be doing.

 

[Oshkosh-P]

Well one problem for me is: There is quite little data about the ram.

In case of the ford chassis cabs, there are these pdf which include anything important:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/2012/12_SD_ChassisCabs_SB.pdf

Frame dimensions, axle specs, general dimensions etc. pretty complete.

I don't find anything like this when looking for the rams specs.

So i guess it is not possible to get either the ram 5500 or the F-550 down to a general width of around 85" without mirrors?

Only the ram 3500/F-350 with single rear axle? But those, do not have enough load.

Why does switching to single rear wheels reduce the weight? The military f-550's or ram based armoured cars have the full 19500lbs...

 

[Joe917]

Sounds like you are in Europe and thinking of worldwide travel? Have you looked at Mercedes trucks? Not Mogs(which are a completely different beast) or Sprinters but actual trucks.

 

[Oshkosh-P]

Yeah i did, but there seems to be a gap. Up to 10.000lbs you have the G-wagon, above 30.000lbs you have the Zetros, Actros, Arocs but the Atego and pretty much any other trucks aroun 15-20.000lbs are normally not 4x4 and they are also not as massiv as the US Trucks within this weight class.

Only the Unimog is kinda in between, the U300 or U3000 at least, but in size the 3000/4000/5000 are pretty much the same as the way bigger trucks and they are quite expensive and i do not need this degree of offroad capabilities.

 

[redthies]

Well one problem for me is: There is quite little data about the ram.

In case of the ford chassis cabs, there are these pdf which include anything important:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/2012/12_SD_ChassisCabs_SB.pdf

Frame dimensions, axle specs, general dimensions etc. pretty complete.

I don't find anything like this when looking for the rams specs.

So i guess it is not possible to get either the ram 5500 or the F-550 down to a general width of around 85" without mirrors?

Only the ram 3500/F-350 with single rear axle? But those, do not have enough load.

Why does switching to single rear wheels reduce the weight? The military f-550's or ram based armoured cars have the full 19500lbs...

Look into "super-single" wheels maybe. They are designed to carry much heavier loads without using dual wheels.

 

[redthies]

Dodge just shouts "CUMMINS" engine so much because they can't make a decent engine for ******%, so they have to outsource for an engine.

If you're wanting to save some cash, you can buy an F550 with a burned out engine and drop in a diesel.

No, Dodge shouts Cummins because it is probably the best Diesel engine used in the light truck segment, and has been for 25 years. Dodge is at least smart enough to stick with a good thing. Ford has gone from 7.3 to 6.0 (great move!) to 6.4 to 6.7.

I also don't see how embarking on a swap is going to SAVE money? Maybe if you are a diesel tech, but not for the average guy.

 

[Joe917]

Are you buying new or used?
New Actros comes in 4X4 at 10.5 tonnes.
Used, the German market is full of 4X4 trucks from 8 tonnes up (mobile.de)
I'm not saying the Ford is terrible(like the Dodge guys) or the Dodge is junk(like the Ford guys) but I think Mercedes is worth another look if you are in Europe.
BTW a 5 class pick up ain't that small and has a horrible turning radius and fuel economy.

Yeah i did, but there seems to be a gap. Up to 10.000lbs you have the G-wagon, above 30.000lbs you have the Zetros, Actros, Arocs but the Atego and pretty much any other trucks aroun 15-20.000lbs are normally not 4x4 and they are also not as massiv as the US Trucks within this weight class.

Only the Unimog is kinda in between, the U300 or U3000 at least, but in size the 3000/4000/5000 are pretty much the same as the way bigger trucks and they are quite expensive and i do not need this degree of offroad capabilities.

 

[deserteagle56]

If you can live with settling on a complete throw-a-way truck built of questionable product quality at the lowest cost take the F550. If you would like a solid commercial grade truck chassis, Cummins engine, Aisin automatic transmission…..take the RAM. The 6.7L Cummins in the RAM is also quite popular in various commercial vehicles in Europe whereas the Ford in-house diesel engine is a US market novelty. The RAM would be easier to service and maintain. My vote would be for the RAM hands down.

The company I work for bought a couple of the Ram 5500s and installed service bodies on them to use around the site. After three years they are now getting rid of them. One thing after another, but just couldn't keep them running for any length of time. And getting needed replacement parts could take weeks - what's up with that?? So they are going back to Ford. At least any part is available overnight.

And before you go to bashing me - my truck for many years has been a Cummins Ram and I love it. But it's an '04.

 

[Heloflyboy]

I have a buddy that has the F550 with 30k miles on it. It had a leaky hose on the back of the engine,that require the entire cab to be lifted to do the work. Apparently this is not uncommon with fords new trucks. The work was covered under warranty but I would not want those kinds of problems on a new truck.

 

[quickfarms]

Ford sold off there heavy truck division that became sterling and is now owned by freightliner. The current medium duty fords are interesting vehicles. I will stick with my older heavy duty fords, they are 1989's. Most parts are available still for the ford 7.8 diesel. They just ask me if I want to pay for overnight or wait a couple of days. The fun part is that some parts come from ford and some come from freightliner.

 

[Raul B]

I would stick to Ford but thats just me. the problem is that everyone has their opinions. Im a die hard Ford guy. my parents owned a dodge ram and durango and both were a piece of you know what. Im also in the construction field and my whole fleet of trucks are superdutys because they hold up to the abuse where as the dodges tend to break down faster....