Diesel Trucks

JaycoAngel wrote:
A newbie here to the forum. Would like to ask diesel owners if they would recommend a diesel for use as a primary vehicle (short trips to the grocery, etc. when not pulling). We have heard that short trips are hard on the injectors.

Short trips is hard on the emissions systems on the new diesels. I use my diesel as a daily driver too, but not to go to the grocery store and short trips all the time, although it does get used for these type driving conditions as well. Diesel emissions prefer highway miles, but are tolerable to short trips to some point until the DPF needs to be cleaned and that requires some driving to clean them out.

Short trips only driving is better left to a gas powered truck.

I have to agree with others that short trips are hard on them with the new emissions. I keep a daily gas driver for around town and use the Diesel for towing.

Thank you!

My 2015 Ram 2500 CTD is my daily driver and I've racked up over 50,000 miles on it. Absolutely no problems whatsoever using it as a daily driver.

Thanks for everyone's input !!

I use the 2500 CTD in my sig as my daily driver and love it.

Thank you!

This will be more for the Dodges since I own a few of them.

The '07.5 through '09 are the most problematic. Don't let them idle, drive them like you stole them even while towing. My '08 has lost boost pressure and has had other issues with the EGR and DPF systems, so I'm just working on them the best as I can.

'10 through '12 are better, but again, drive them like you stole it.

'13 and newer with DEF are running better, but you need to make sure the DEF doesn't go bad. It will start forming tiny yellow balls in the bottom of the container, so if you see them don't use it.



-Kris

troubledwaters wrote:

JaycoAngel wrote:
A newbie here to the forum. Would like to ask diesel owners if they would recommend a diesel for use as a primary vehicle (short trips to the grocery, etc. when not pulling). We have heard that short trips are hard on the injectors.

Your big problem is going to be trying to stay warm in the winter. Make sure you get a good winter coat and hat.

definitely true for my 04.5 duramax. Not at all true on my 2015.5

However, not sure all the things GM may have done but the 2015 warms up amazingly fast in the winter. not quite as quick as my cars with aluminum block engines, but still faster than my older chevy with an iron bloc 350.

And if it's well below freezing, I just do a remote start and it goes into the high idle warm up mode with turbo vanes in high backpressure mode. In 3 or 4 minutes cab is getting warm and it's blowing hot air out the heater vents.

JaycoAngel wrote:
A newbie here to the forum. Would like to ask diesel owners if they would recommend a diesel for use as a primary vehicle (short trips to the grocery, etc. when not pulling). We have heard that short trips are hard on the injectors.

Short trips and long idles are not good for the DPF system of a modern diesel, which can get clogged.

But if you tow/haul frequently and hard, then that can fix it by burning off the deposits.

We tow/haul 70% of the time, but the rest is often short trips. So far, no problem.

But as others have said, not letting the engine warm up is hard on gas and diesel.