Where to start? I need a truck!

billyray50 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
The '01 to '04.5 LB7 Duramax had injector problems. Otherwise they were good engines but I would avoid because of the expensive injectors. The '04.5 to '05 LLY Duramax was a fine engine, some report having over heating issues. This engine had the smallest fan of any Duramax. My '05 has 214,000 miles on it and doesn't overheat.
The '06 - '07.5 LBZ is considered the absolute best, basically flawless, highly sought after, usually expensive. The Allison transmission went from a 5 speed to a 6 speed in '06. Duramaxes from '07.5 and on were fine, no major problems, just gained emissions junk that hurts mileage and makes things complicated.
The statement that GM trucks carry less weight than the corresponding year Ford/Dodge trucks is simply not true. In '01 for example, a Dodge dually had a GVWR of 10,500 while GM was 11,400. The GM truck was also several hundred pounds lighter and thus had well over 1,000 pounds of additional payload.
I highly recommend a GM truck. I've had 4 of them and worked them hard in my business towing and hauling. I don't put up with machines that aren't reliable and work well. My GM trucks had extremely good track records. My current '05 dually has 214,000 miles on it. It carries my truck camper and family at about 1,700 pounds over it's GVWR. It rides and handles very well.

Not disagreeing with you but am curious. My neighbor at our seasonal sight just bought a 2016 Chevy LTZ DRW 4x2 Duramax/Allison and his GVWR and payload is a lot less on door jam stickers than my 2015 Ram Laramie longhorn CTD DRW and mine is a 4x4?

Pictures of the door jam stickers would be nice.

Without all the stories and known problems/opinions etc.
If I had $30k and wanted to spend most or all of it, I would look in this order if I was willing to delete a truck if it had emissions issues.
1. Early 4th Gen Ram
2. LML Duramax (tie for 1st and second place, pick which color you like)
3. Late 3rd Gen Ram 09
4. Late LLY/LBZ Dmax
5. 3rd Gen 5.9 Dodge with 6 speed manual (Again, tie for 4 and 5th place, pick the one best cared for.

If I wasn't willing to delete, I'd use most of $30k to buy a garage queen, low mile, 4 or 5 from above and save $3-5k for impending repairs that wouldn't be needed on a new truck.

I have never owned a Ford or GM diesel. But, I have become an expert on both of them through the internet.

I an just jesting with the BS in my first paragraph. When you read several of the post, they too are just BS. I would ask anyone reading this thread to ask someone that makes a post about a given brand of truck if they have ever owned one, especially if they are posting negatives. It has been my experience that most people will be very defensive with what they have. Some people are so biased, they have only owned one brand of truck.

About a week ago, I realized from experience that ride and load capacity wise there are so many factors to consider.

I have two trucks:

A 1996 2500 2WD SRW Extended Cab long bed diesel. I added one lief to the spring pack, it has no overloads other than the bottom, but does have airbags and 19.5 tires.


My second truck is a 2004 3500 4WD DRW Dodge diesel Quad Cab. The '04 has stock suspension which includes upper and lower overload springs, and stock tires.

Empty, the '96 rides like a covered wagon, and the '04 rides like one of my previous Cadillacs. This is not an exaggeration. In reading the posts through the years, I would have thought the 3500 would have given the rough ride.

Last week, I rode in a 2016 Ram 3500 SRW 4WD short bed Mega Cab. It had only the lower overloads and stock tires. The main leaf pack looked the same as my '04, with the exception the lower leaf appeared engaged with no load in the bed. The ride was as bad as my '96, maybe even rougher. I have rode in a 2004 3500 4WD DRW quad(?) cab GMC completely stock. It rode about the same as my '04.

I am making this post to point out that you can only say how smooth a truck of any size or manufacture rides if you have ridden in it. You can speak in very general terms, but ... There are simply too many factors to consider to generalize.

Wayne

I'm not sure why everyone is jumping on the diesel train, but a 10 year old diesel is probably not going to be trouble free. I would have bought a Dodge/Ram/GM/Chevrolet if I believed everything in this forum. However, there are other sites out there that have a bigger sample of input. You'll find there is no such thing as a model that is bullet proof. Sure, there are some years/models that have more issues than others.

If you want to know all of the issues for each brands, go ask about all three in the truck owner sites. :)

By now, all 10 year old vehicles problems are well documented and other than the first year models, any "could" be a good truck. The actual truck you get has more to do with reliability than the model/year/brand.

I bought a diesel again in case I get a fiver later on, and think this truck will last 20 years. It had been well taken care of according to Carfax and was a one owner. There are people out there that take care of everything they buy and there are others that destroy every vehicle they have before trade in/selling it.

Up until the last few years, the GVWR of all brands weren't anywhere near the same. Well, they were within thousands. You can argue that the axles/tires were rated the same or nearly the same. I believe GMs ride the best with their weaker front axle and generally have worse brakes in the 10 year old models compared to any other models.

That being said, if you truly want to save money and don't need a diesel, buy a gasoline model from the Northwest if you can find one. The trucks around here don't rust out as much as other areas of the country.

billyray50 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
The '01 to '04.5 LB7 Duramax had injector problems. Otherwise they were good engines but I would avoid because of the expensive injectors. The '04.5 to '05 LLY Duramax was a fine engine, some report having over heating issues. This engine had the smallest fan of any Duramax. My '05 has 214,000 miles on it and doesn't overheat.
The '06 - '07.5 LBZ is considered the absolute best, basically flawless, highly sought after, usually expensive. The Allison transmission went from a 5 speed to a 6 speed in '06. Duramaxes from '07.5 and on were fine, no major problems, just gained emissions junk that hurts mileage and makes things complicated.
The statement that GM trucks carry less weight than the corresponding year Ford/Dodge trucks is simply not true. In '01 for example, a Dodge dually had a GVWR of 10,500 while GM was 11,400. The GM truck was also several hundred pounds lighter and thus had well over 1,000 pounds of additional payload.
I highly recommend a GM truck. I've had 4 of them and worked them hard in my business towing and hauling. I don't put up with machines that aren't reliable and work well. My GM trucks had extremely good track records. My current '05 dually has 214,000 miles on it. It carries my truck camper and family at about 1,700 pounds over it's GVWR. It rides and handles very well.

Not disagreeing with you but am curious. My neighbor at our seasonal sight just bought a 2016 Chevy LTZ DRW 4x2 Duramax/Allison and his GVWR and payload is a lot less on door jam stickers than my 2015 Ram Laramie longhorn CTD DRW and mine is a 4x4?

So what do the stickers say? I would guess teh Chevy has a GVWR of 13,000 and the Ram is 14,000. I would also guess that the Chevy weighs about 800 pounds less empty. That would mean it probably has a payload of 200 pounds less than the Ram.
I'm doing a lot of guessing.

KD4UPL wrote:

billyray50 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
The '01 to '04.5 LB7 Duramax had injector problems. Otherwise they were good engines but I would avoid because of the expensive injectors. The '04.5 to '05 LLY Duramax was a fine engine, some report having over heating issues. This engine had the smallest fan of any Duramax. My '05 has 214,000 miles on it and doesn't overheat.
The '06 - '07.5 LBZ is considered the absolute best, basically flawless, highly sought after, usually expensive. The Allison transmission went from a 5 speed to a 6 speed in '06. Duramaxes from '07.5 and on were fine, no major problems, just gained emissions junk that hurts mileage and makes things complicated.
The statement that GM trucks carry less weight than the corresponding year Ford/Dodge trucks is simply not true. In '01 for example, a Dodge dually had a GVWR of 10,500 while GM was 11,400. The GM truck was also several hundred pounds lighter and thus had well over 1,000 pounds of additional payload.
I highly recommend a GM truck. I've had 4 of them and worked them hard in my business towing and hauling. I don't put up with machines that aren't reliable and work well. My GM trucks had extremely good track records. My current '05 dually has 214,000 miles on it. It carries my truck camper and family at about 1,700 pounds over it's GVWR. It rides and handles very well.

Not disagreeing with you but am curious. My neighbor at our seasonal sight just bought a 2016 Chevy LTZ DRW 4x2 Duramax/Allison and his GVWR and payload is a lot less on door jam stickers than my 2015 Ram Laramie longhorn CTD DRW and mine is a 4x4?

So what do the stickers say? I would guess teh Chevy has a GVWR of 13,000 and the Ram is 14,000. I would also guess that the Chevy weighs about 800 pounds less empty. That would mean it probably has a payload of 200 pounds less than the Ram.
I'm doing a lot of guessing.

Pictures of the stickers would put a definite end to guessing.

I'd highly recommend a dually for hauling a 990.

I haul my AF811 on a dually, and I'm glad I went dually.

You should be able to find a 2011 or so F-350 with a 6.7 diesel used in decent shape for under 30K with a warranty. I've had mine since new in 2011 and it has been trouble free. I've changed fuel filters and had one issue with an emissions glitch that was still under warranty.

It has tons of power and cruises everywhere effortlessly. If you needed a nice truck to haul an AF990 this would be my pick. You do not need a dually in spite of the advice of some here, you do need to add airbags and buying a truck with "camper package" and/or heavy duty suspension options is a must,

RCMAN46 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:

billyray50 wrote:

KD4UPL wrote:
The '01 to '04.5 LB7 Duramax had injector problems. Otherwise they were good engines but I would avoid because of the expensive injectors. The '04.5 to '05 LLY Duramax was a fine engine, some report having over heating issues. This engine had the smallest fan of any Duramax. My '05 has 214,000 miles on it and doesn't overheat.
The '06 - '07.5 LBZ is considered the absolute best, basically flawless, highly sought after, usually expensive. The Allison transmission went from a 5 speed to a 6 speed in '06. Duramaxes from '07.5 and on were fine, no major problems, just gained emissions junk that hurts mileage and makes things complicated.
The statement that GM trucks carry less weight than the corresponding year Ford/Dodge trucks is simply not true. In '01 for example, a Dodge dually had a GVWR of 10,500 while GM was 11,400. The GM truck was also several hundred pounds lighter and thus had well over 1,000 pounds of additional payload.
I highly recommend a GM truck. I've had 4 of them and worked them hard in my business towing and hauling. I don't put up with machines that aren't reliable and work well. My GM trucks had extremely good track records. My current '05 dually has 214,000 miles on it. It carries my truck camper and family at about 1,700 pounds over it's GVWR. It rides and handles very well.

Not disagreeing with you but am curious. My neighbor at our seasonal sight just bought a 2016 Chevy LTZ DRW 4x2 Duramax/Allison and his GVWR and payload is a lot less on door jam stickers than my 2015 Ram Laramie longhorn CTD DRW and mine is a 4x4?

So what do the stickers say? I would guess teh Chevy has a GVWR of 13,000 and the Ram is 14,000. I would also guess that the Chevy weighs about 800 pounds less empty. That would mean it probably has a payload of 200 pounds less than the Ram.
I'm doing a lot of guessing.

Pictures of the stickers would put a definite end to guessing.

I will try to get a picture of his stickers. I just was surprised that GVWR was 13,100 and change and payload was just shy of 5000 with a 4x2 that's all. Real nice truck though.

Jimh, the OP only mentioned a diesel in his original post. Guessing that's why everyone "jumped on the diesel train."
I agree completely about used vehicles in the PNW. Having lived in a lot of different parts of the country, the PNW, wet side in particular, seems to be the overall easiest environmental conditions for vehicle longevity. Of course if everyone comes here to buy, it will make the already higher than avg prices go up even more!
Pluses here:
No extreme heat or cold. Easier on components.
Cloudy 300 @?!;&@ing days a year! Easy on paint, plastics, anything subject to UV damage.
No snow means very little salt or calcium on the roads, although king co likes to coat the roads with mag at the first sign of frost. Rains enough to wash it all away quickly though.
A lot of rain means fresh water rinse of under carriages daily from Oct - Apr. no build up trapping moisture for rust.
Wet roads over half the year are inherently easier on tires, drivetrain etc. Less stress on everything because in general, have to drive with a lighter foot on wet roads.
This really is worth considering for those buying used vehicles.