hard to start

I have a 2005 and it's the same way. I also have a gas smell toward the back of the truck. Did you ever resolve your issue?

could be the oil is to heavy for the motor or the starter getting into a bind has it been replaced resently might need to be shimed up

I took it to Dodge and found out it's the fuel pump. It's losing pressure thus causing it to take a second to get fuel to the throttle body to start. They wanted $800 to change. About $225 to do yourself.

I have 2010 ram..just fix the cranking problem with changing the fuel pump...also the fan kept running down the battery instead of just changing the relay dodge had me to change the tipm another $ 1,000