Ford vs Ram vs Nissan- These Are GREAT Pickup Trucks with the WORST Engines

No, this is what you want to do with diesels because you want them to make that smoke On this episode, I want to show you guys and you three amazing pickup trucks With three crappy engines what yes Okay. Well, no, look these vehicles are decent vehicles, but they have engines that have a reputation That's negative. Yes. So we do have a nissan titan xd with a five liter cummins We have a ram power wagon with a hemi but not the hemi you think and also we have a 6.4 liter power stroke my friend we're doing this episode because Not many of us can buy brand new trucks, right? So all of us are searching for a pickup truck to buy and the reason why I say the titan xd is awesome It has a heavy frame. Yep. Just look how about how long and tall this truck is. Yeah, right. It has good payload Pretty good towing capability about 12 000 pounds But let's take a look at the engine. All right, let's pop the sucker. Okay Bam, that's a big motor. Well, yeah, this is a five liter cummins V8 diesel. Yes Because when we say cummins in a pickup truck, we usually mean a straight six, right? Yeah in a ram heavy duty and they tend to have a very good reputation there But this is a very different engine This is fairly new development of an engine that only was used by nissan through cummins And initially it was developed to be used in a ram Long long story behind this engine when it finally made it over to cummins and when nissan decided to adopt this engine For some reason they decided they're going to put it into a truck That's not a half ton but not a heavy duty truck either and the power rating at first seemed okay, right? 310 horsepower and triple nickels 555 pound feet of torque but was neither A half ton truck nor a heavy duty truck and turns out it was neither super fast or super efficient We're here at the dealer auto auction and it's always challenging to learn about the history of a vehicle, right? This has dual batteries, which is a heavy duty thing, right? Well for diesel. Yeah. Yeah There's a little bit of corrosion on this terminal But nathan i'm questioning this this has a front kind of an aftermarket hitch a two-inch receiver Yeah, and also the fog lamps look to be like homemade. Yeah, they're a little true cheesoid on the uh on those Well, let's listen to this engine and let's go for a ride. All right All right, let's start this up and give it a whirl interior is in really good shape Actually, this is a fancier version of this truck. Yeah, this is different than the higher end ones A couple things heated and uh heated seats, uh trailer brake controller four-wheel drive four low Uh, well, this is a 2017. It's got all the modern stuff Wait, yeah Check engine light. Yeah, but it says no warnings in the middle Oh, no, none. There's absolutely zero warning. So no problems there So it started right away, right? Sure. I was zoomed right up. Okay, no problems um Yeah, remember the seating position on these things is always a little bit on the but they have zero gravity seats You know doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like it and this one. Well, this one has a hundred thousand miles Maybe this is before the zero gravity This actually has gravity well, it has a check engine light so these engines oh gosh and I feel I feel I feel for cummins and nissan I mean they they they work for many many years both of these companies, right? They design the engine they put it together into this truck. Yeah, they really wanted something durable and something really You know really really good But in the end not only the power issue and the fuel economy issue but Reliability the government cummins got government loans. Yeah, um or a grant to to You know engineer this engine it was supposed to fit anywhere any other v8 fits Yeah, but you saw under the hood. This engine is tall It's large and the nose of this truck is even longer than ever. Yeah This is a it's a strange thing because you might think that this is just the same as the half ton version of the titan No, it's actually different frame. Yes, and if you put them next to each other, you can't see the subtle differences So it's an interesting change between the two of them. Alrighty, so we're going to get this a little brisk acceleration Yeah, just do it the same way for all of these. That's right. So i'm gonna do so I do a slight rev Add a couple hundred rpm and then take off. Oh There's my foot is all the way to the floor. There's nothing wait 20 20 miles an hour, dude. I don't think the turbine Um, you know what these engines um We're infamous for not working dpf and dev system issues. It doesn't you know regen. Yeah all those exhaust emissions, you know issues and then I mean this has a hundred thousand miles. So it should shouldn't be Maybe it wasn't taken care of it's entirely possible. Well, the interior is kind of okay. Yeah, it is okay but maybe you know mechanically This truck is at an auction for a reason right? So we're here at the dealer auto auction for a reason but my good friend Uh had one of these he also had problems. His truck was always in the at the dealership Yeah, but then go to the flip side I knew somebody who or know somebody who has one of these with the 5.6 in it the gas engine. Yeah, no problems And current value if this truck didn't have any check engine lights and was pretty much in good running order It's somewhere between 28 and 30 thousand dollars according to our producer, uh, brendan, so so It's still a lot of money for this engine because there there's a lot of doubt in me with this Okay. Well, I agree with you Let's check out the next one This 2010 ram heavy duty. It's not just any heavy duty pickup It's the power wagon and it's a little bit camouflaged because it doesn't have a fancy grille or fancy graphics It does have this on the hood, but dude you and I love this thing, right? Adore the power wagon for those of you have watched tfl truck You know that we have our own saying that when it comes to power wagons and we have our own thing We even have a t-shirt dedicated to power wagon But in addition there are a couple things right off the bat that you could do to tell that it is an actual power wagon One of which is the winch now This is interesting because I don't remember it being recessed like this before but it's still there. That's for sure Well, this is kind of an early modern power wagon, right? It's a 2010 still has walkers front and rear. Yep. Solid axles beefy tires Let me pop the hood because why is it on our list because of what's under the hood? No, it's not the hemi you're thinking of It's a different hemi a lot of these trucks come with a 6.4 liter. Where's the rest of it? But this is a 5.7 Wow Not an awful engine, right? No, the engine's okay. It's just in a truck that weighs too much We can talk about its hemi tick and other things But like you said, this is a very big and heavy truck What's the engine they normally use? 6.4. 6.4. Thank you. So we're talking about something that has a lot more displacement It's got just good low end torque This is not that type of engine and putting something like this into a truck that weighs as much as a small planet Scares me. Yeah, technically these were rated about 383 horsepower. Yeah and about 400 pound-feet of torque That's the problem, but it's also a five-speed auto Yeah, that's not gonna get very good mileage either, but maybe we'll fall in love with it. Do you want to drive it? Yeah, let's drive it Somebody took care of this truck. Look at how nice this is and the seats in general And this is a what 13 or 14 year old truck with a hot almost 190 000 miles and To be fair. It does have a check engine light And I have a feeling that's going to be a reoccurring theme That could be something as simple as some service that needs to be done or it could be something horrible So I noticed there's not a lot of rust on this one just a little bit on the rear door Just a hair just lower lower parts um The check engine light could be anything right? I mean, it could be could be horrible could be horrible could be something minor Like a sensor. Yeah And as always we accelerate right give it the beans On a little test course and see how how it does. Yeah Um, so right off the bat, there's a couple things that I noticed what? First of all, these tires are brand new that are on this truck The underside and I did take a good look because it's pretty easy to look underneath the power wagon um And it looked really clean to me. All right. Well, let's see how it accelerates. That's what i'm concerned if it accelerates That's what i'm really concerned about This is where I just I can't believe they put this engine in this truck But maybe maybe you know, maybe well, you know what they discontinued this engine in this truck. Yeah, they certainly did didn't they? Okay, there's a little bit there 35 Almost there. Yeah Um something dinged. Yeah Yeah, I don't know what thing yeah Does it not happy not happy? Accelerated once how much are one of these things going for? Our producer brandon, uh was looking online and we were talking when we're talking about these values We're talking about fair market used value, right? And he told us between 18 and 20 000 for the year and the mileage, you know That's actually not a very expensive price No, but it really depends on what's going on with this truck So whatever is the issue? That is part of the deal because it could be hundreds of hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars Right, but otherwise, I mean this thing is really tight and surprisingly good Ah, finally Dude, the reason why I think the super duty especially this 350 single rear wheel the reason why I think it's great It's a great chassis. This does not have an eight foot bed So it's a little bit more, you know a little shorter a little bit more maneuverable has a heavy frame It's ready to tow a great amount of stuff and also has a lot a lot of payload Yeah, and also I forgot to remind you. This is a 2009 What? Yeah Well, you know, I I cannot Actually these headlamps you can rise recognize this truck anywhere. Yeah It's a specific generation of the super duty and that means what does it have under the hood 6.4 liter power stroke Ouch, let's look at it And then the entire grill comes with it. Look how amazing this is. You can work on any component here. You have to Look the reputation of these power strokes is not particularly good. Is it no so We've did actually a video on a very similar truck a few months back and we talked about Right the six liter power stroke being bad. Yeah, but there's a way to bulletproof those engines Okay, these ones We could talk for an hour about the issues And how very very difficult these are to repair and also almost impossible to bulletproof Ah, and can I add something else to this what if you look down here underneath the radiator at the very front of the vehicle There's something very telling that's hanging out down here Yeah, also here where you would plug it in you see this is where you put a proper plow, right? Yes, big ones trucks that are used as snow plows Anywhere, but especially here in colorado have lived very difficult lives And then if you look at the tires on this vehicle, which are partially bald on one side You can tell that it hasn't been loved. So do you think it's going to run well? Well, i'm looking at the top of the hood i've seen a few of these and usually have sprays of oil or coolant a little bit No, this this could be that could be nothing. It could be almost nothing. Yeah, of course not Let's fire this up and let's run it. All right Okay, my friend. So this is really were you driving this? No my god Who did this? this is the oldest and also the Most affordable of these three. Yeah as far as market value is concerned um, it is Definitely the oldest although, you know, the interior is not in terrible condition. Oh look There's a snow plow They call him mr. Plow Okay, let's see Started right up That is a very loud shaky diesel Wait, does it say 59 000 miles? This is almost brand new 59 238.6 miles and but this is a 2009 Yeah, and the engine light's on and why is the check engine light is on? Why is it shaking right? It really is shaking a lot Isn't it? Okay, please don't explode Well, let's see the temperatures are so far Pretty good It's idling at just under this is about 900 rpm. Do you have any juice for the windscreen? Yes, uh on that side So I can see perfectly This is great for the passenger No, this has a sunroof and the seats I think are leather. Yeah, or at least just really and actually when I said 59 000 miles sounds low. It could be snow plowing miles. That's all of it. So that that is really punishing, right? And or potentially especially Or potentially especially You know at high elevation where you're pushing heavy heavy snow all the time and you're going forward and backwards forward and forward and backwards You're torturing the transmission Many engines do not like it It's definitely something that could contribute to the fact that there's a check engine light on this thing. Yeah All right, and also this engine, um You know, you could study this if you wanted to and I mean has many problems including Uh, you know cylinder heads and um, also it had one of the first rudimentary Particulate filter systems, right? Ford replaced this engine with a 6.7 liter in-house developed Completely different thing. Yes completely different thing And we agree that that is a huge step in the right direction Right, yes, I would agree especially the latest one the 2023 2024 power strokes are Superior to anything that came before. Yeah Okay. So now all right, will you be able to accelerate on this one? Well I gotta tell you it's it's pretty clanky and loud. I'm having a hard time seeing too Your side looks great though. Well, i'm i'm glad I'll just look out of your side. Well, all right. I mean, that's well, let's pull it up and burn some rubber I don't want to burn too much in this thing. It's already wow feel that it's shaking. Yeah, she's shaking a lot. Here we go Oh, what's all the way down? Oh Something is there there it goes No, that's no good. That's no good at all Uh cut power 25. Yeah, I think oh, you know, it could be in that, um limp mode It could be in some sort of a limp Limp mode. She does feel limp But i'm being honest, okay Um, it cut power on you at 25. Yeah, it cut power and it didn't feel like it wanted to go any further or do anything else um, so So if I was gonna buy a truck of this era super duty, I would definitely definitely look towards the gas engines, right? Um, you have to be still careful, right? The the big 6.8 liter v10 was also known to throw a spark plug out once in a while, right? Yeah, and you know, they had other engines and um available as well but I think I would go with a gas v8 if I was looking so if each one of these three trucks had a different engine Or which one would you choose for yourself? Or would you choose one as it is right now? Yes I stroke my beard in deep contemplation first acting as if you guys don't already know exactly what i'm going to say You're gonna say the titan xd no power wagon for crying out loud. Of course It is underpowered. It does not have enough power It is remarkably inefficient for what it is It's still an off-road monster. I love the way it looks. I love the way they handle I just don't like the fact that there's not a lot of horsepower going on with that 5.7 But with that being said and given the prices and once again, it's about prices This one's right in the middle So this is the one i'd probably look. Yeah, I think i'd get Gosh, you know, I love power wagons. Yes. Also. Yes. It's tempting. Yes but but but but but I wouldn't choose any of them Because here's here's the thing the power wagon is awesome, but it doesn't have a ton of payload Or it doesn't tow like a heavy-duty truck either especially with that engine exactly, so It's amazing off-roader. Yeah, but this I cannot currently purchase a five liter cummins And also the ticking of the 6.4 liter twin turbo scares the bejeebies out of me Okay, quick question if this had the regular v8, I think the 5.6. Yeah, this would be a truck worth getting I would I would So we're on the same page if this had a different engine. So there you have it from the expert himself All right, let us know what you think in the comments below happy holiday season and we'll see you next time cheers