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Maintaining your Dodge Truck
Complete maintenance will insure that your Dodge Truck will last like it should. The most frequent items needing maintenance include chassis lube points and engine oil, while the less frequent items are transmission and rearend fluids.

Kris' List of Maintenance Items
Spending five or six years driving the same truck is no simple task, especially if you're on a budget like I am. Having driven close to 50,000 miles in my D-100, I've learned the hard way how to best maintain a Dodge Truck.

KEEP A LOG BOOK
An excellent way to keep track of all the things you've done to your truck is to keep a small log book in the glove box. This is a handy place that is easy to access when doing work on the truck. Provided that you can remember to write down when you've done maintenance, it will help you stay on track for future maintenance items. The best categories for this are Chassis Lube, Oil Change, Rotate Tires, Tranny/Rearend Fluid Change, Coolant Flush and Wheel Bearing Repack. These items are most crucial to the operation of the vehicle and usually involve the majority of the fluid in these trucks. For each entry and category, record the date and mileage for which the item was performed. Hopefully, you will get used to checking the book each time the low mileage items get performed and notice when its time to attend to other items.

DO IT YOURSELF
Most of us can perform oil changes and do lube jobs, so get the right tools and take care of them. Even things like wheel bearings can be done by the "Shadetree Mechanic". The most useful items will be a drain pan and/or oil recycling type drain pan, lever action grease gun, a few funnels and possibly a creeper. You will probably also want to have jack stands and a jack if you have an I-beam front axle, since it is highly recommended that I-beam kingpins anf joints be lubed with pressure off of the front wheels.

MAKE IT EASY
There are a few ways to make it easier to perform regular maintenance on your vehicle. For instance, buying a re-usable air filter element will save you the trouble of having to buy a new one all the time (you can simply reuse the old one by cleaning it up). Use a sticky note affixed to the dash or a window sticker to remind you when to perform certain maintenance items.

Listed directly below is my table of the most important items and the mileage at which they should be attended to.

Periodic Maintenance Table
Maintenance ItemMileage or Period
Lube Chassis (every grease zerk under truck). Check Tranny & Rearend FluidsEvery 2,000mi.
Change Oil & Filter. Top off all fluid levels under hood.Every 3,000mi.
Rotate TiresEvery 5,000mi.
Change Tranny & Rearend FluidsYearly
Lube all hinges, linkages, mechanisms & pedal mounts.Every second oil change
Check Wheel Bearings & BrakesEvery 10,000mi.
Check Coolant ConditionTwice Yearly
Flush Cooling System, Change Hoses & BeltsOnce Every Two Years

Dodge Truck Service Manual Recommendations
Below is a list from the Dodge Truck Technical Service Manual which is arranged in rising order of maintenance frequency.

POINTS TO BE SERVICED EVERY 2,000 MILES

POINTS TO BE SERVICED AT TIME OF OIL CHANGE (EVERY 3,000 MILES)

POINTS TO BE SERVICED EVERY 10,000 MILES OR SIX MONTHS

POINTS TO BE SERVICED EVERY 12,000 MILES

POINTS TO BE SERVICED EVERY 20,000 MILES

POINTS TO BE SERVICED EVERY 12,000 MILES

Light Duty Trucks Lubrication Chart (Models 100-300 Conventional)

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