I recently took my 2003 Ram 1500 in to a local automotive shop to ask about a problem with my a/c. The a/c would not blow cold air at stops or slow speeds. (I fixed the problem later on my own). Right away the mechanic takes a look and says I need a new fan clutch and pointed out that my fan was not spinning while the engine was on. He grabbed it and gave it a spin and said "it's not supposed to do that" and that it should be spinning fast. So he charged me 150 dollars for the part and the labor. Now my fan spins when it is cold and engine running. It is very loud when I first take off but quiets down after I get going. I am suspicious that I was ripped off because the problem wasn't fixed and when I took it back he said he would have to replace the compressor and drier for 600 dollars. Instead I purchased a Chilton repair manual to find that my compressor fan wasn't blowing. After some trial I bent the prongs inside the harness to make a better connection and now it works fine.

Did I get ripped off with the fan clutch?
Should it be so loud when I take off?

no it should not make a loud noise if your hearing it from the inside the car. you may hear it a little bit at a stop light.

It is a very common problem on your truck for the electric AC fan to fail and cause the problem you had (poor cooling at low speeds) The fan clutch has nothing to do with it. You may have needed a new fan clutch but if he was diagnosing an AC problem he is an idiot. If the noise you speak of sounds like a 747 taking off it could be nornal wind noise for a good clutch that you are not use to hearing.

yup, you got ripped off. The ac uses a electric fan, it also uses part of the manual fan but not as much. It is normal to hear the fan roar for about 5 seconds when you first start it then the noise dissapates. The fan clutch will spin slow or fast according to engine bay temp.

Thank you for your responses. I know that the fan clutch did not have anything to do with my problem. If the fan does not spin at all when the engine is started and he reached in a spun it with his hand, does that indicate a bad fan clutch? That is the only test he did to determine that I needed to replace it.