If you are looking for a good truck around 2000, I would go with the Ford F250 or F350 SRW. The 7.3 is the best diesel motor Ford ever made, and it's almost indestructible. The Cummins Diesel is really the best diesel, but as someone has already said, the rest of a Dodge Truck is junk. I have a 2001 F250 Crew Cab with the 5.4 gas motor, and I love it. A diesel motor is made to work, not sit. The expenses are higher with a diesel, but if taken care of, they should last longer.
Here is a web site that I am a member of, and have been for several years. It's a forum like this, but it's all Ford Trucks, and they have almost 729,000 members, a lot of them are Ford employees, former employees, mechanics, and good people. This is by far the best Ford Truck web site out there, and I am a member of at least 10 or more truck and car web sites. If you want to learn about Ford's, this is it. Good luck.
http://www.ford-trucks.com/