afishinado wrote:
I'm in the exact position as the OP suggests... $20k budget, undetermined whether or not to go dually, praying when I scale the thing I can get away with a 3/4 ton...
One vehicle not mentioned that I came across and like is a 07 Dodge with the 5.9 it has 203,000 on it. I have read to stay with it rather than the 6.7.. What say you experts?
I'm no expert, but I bought a one owner 2004.5 5.9L Dodge. There is a reason that these trucks often bring more than the newer 6.7L -- lots of emissions equipment added to the 6.7 that the 5.9 doesn't have. I'm very impressed with the capability of the truck, and plan to keep it indefinitely (we only put 5k to 7K miles per year on it). The Dodge with 5.9 Cummins is legendary. You can't go wrong with it.
I shopped the 06-07 Duramaxes, but never found a clean one for less than about 25K, which was more than I wanted to pay. Plus one thing I didn't like about the Duramax is that the OEM fuel tank is only like 26 gallons -- absurd for a diesel truck! The 5.9 Cummins has something like a 34 or 35 gallon capacity, but by doing a vent mod (mine was done by the previous owner), you can up the capacity to something closer to 40 gallons. They put the same fuel tank in the gas and diesel trucks, and left a huge bulge at the top for expansion for the gas models, which isn't needed for the diesels, so many have done the fuel vent mod, raising the vent to a high point on the tank to increase capacity.
