Comments on a Chevy 1996 gas 3500 4x4 Dually?
How reliable do you think a used 1996 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 4x4 Extended Cab would be? Good mileage.... only 133,500 (good price too) I hear more people are buying gas for slide-in camper...
Forum Discussion
It all depends on how the previous owner cared for the truck as to how reliable it will be. I owned a 1996 ext cab 4x4 7.4 dually and it was a good reliable truck.
Cons- It had to down shift on every little hill where my current diesel does not. Maybe my engine was a bit worn and losing power? The fuel economy was not good either. I get better mpg on my diesel with my AF 1150 loaded then I did empty with my '96 7.4. I would get 7-8 mpg with the '96 hauling the TC about 12 empty. I get 13-14mpg with my diesel loaded and 20 mpg empty. When fuel price is the same, advantage diesel.
The other problem was it didn't have the weight carrying capacity I needed. When I was young and dumb I figured it was a dually so it could carry any TC. Boy was I wrong. If I recall correctly it has a 7500 lb rear axle rating and a 10,000 lb GVW. Seems like it had about a 2700 lb payload capacity which after putting in gear, camping supplies, and a couple of people left you with not much for a camper especially when owning a dually truck. I was going down the road at well over 12,000 lbs. I quickly upgraded trucks at a loss that I could have avoided had I done some research on TC weights and truck payload capacity first.
Cons- It had to down shift on every little hill where my current diesel does not. Maybe my engine was a bit worn and losing power? The fuel economy was not good either. I get better mpg on my diesel with my AF 1150 loaded then I did empty with my '96 7.4. I would get 7-8 mpg with the '96 hauling the TC about 12 empty. I get 13-14mpg with my diesel loaded and 20 mpg empty. When fuel price is the same, advantage diesel.
The other problem was it didn't have the weight carrying capacity I needed. When I was young and dumb I figured it was a dually so it could carry any TC. Boy was I wrong. If I recall correctly it has a 7500 lb rear axle rating and a 10,000 lb GVW. Seems like it had about a 2700 lb payload capacity which after putting in gear, camping supplies, and a couple of people left you with not much for a camper especially when owning a dually truck. I was going down the road at well over 12,000 lbs. I quickly upgraded trucks at a loss that I could have avoided had I done some research on TC weights and truck payload capacity first.
