I've only owned ford trucks all between 87-94 so far. My dad bought a 96 dodge fairly new when I was younger with less than 60,000 miles. It shined on certain things but that front axle I cursed every time I worked on it. I wonder sometimes if we had used dodge replacement hub assemblies if it would have been better along with axle shaft ujoints but I think it was the bad bearings that was taking them out. I am way too familiar with his front axle. He does have it up to like 250k now but he paid to have an engine and transmission once, I put in a transmission and now it needs another. I have done a few things to the engine but I think the engine was pretty solid for the upkeep it received. The transmissions really weren't all that bad either we just towed way too heavy with it and had no additional cooling added. I think if it had a 79 ford dana 44 front axle thrown under it, it would have been a real nice truck.