Intriguing to me that there's comments here as to the towing rating, but nothing as to the actual seat-of-the-pants power a truck like this is supposed to put down.
We've got comments about the ride quality, ease of ingress/egress, rear-seat leg-room, and how smooth it shifts, but no one giggling about smoking some poseur car at a stoplight?
You …
We did floor it. Then we had to buy gas.
David...I hope not, since your test truck had a diesel engine!
I've got the Dodge equivalent - more or less. 2500 instead of 3500 means a better ride and still enough towing capacity to deal with anything I'm planning to hook up. I went for a 6-speed stick. It's not a drag racer, that's for sure - those gears don't last long before it's time to shift. But it's got that feeling of inevitability - if you want to go somewhere, nothing will stop you.
For the climbing in and out, get a set of running boards. Around here, every big truck has a set.
2wd trucks are for posers. Real trucks have 4wd.
No, they're quite different. The Cummins is an inline 6 real diesel (not to mention lower power) and the Duramax although impressive is really still a light duty V8 motor. Also, you have a solid front axle and the Chevrolet has an independent. You have more truck with a 3/4 than their tonner. I say this as the (regrettable) owner of a crew long Chevrolet tonner.
Did your hootus grow longer when you drove it?
Sadly, no, no reports of hootus enlargement.
The brakes as described in the spec field concern me. Although a lack of fade is desirable, I am not sure eliminating fade is worth eliminating the brakes entirely, and relying on trailer brakes would (obviously) necessitate towing a trailer at all times. Which is cool, true..., especially if you are towing a fleet of Miatas. But still, a truck should have a good set of binders, front and rear.
Sometimes you have to tow something big--like a race car trailer, a houseboat, or a small New England state. That's where monster trucks like the GMC Sierra 3500 HD come in. Properly configured, this beast can tow more than 21,000 pounds--that's like a fleet of Miatas.
Our test truck was nicely equipped to work. While the Vortec 6.0-liter V8 is standard, we had the 6.6-liter turbo-diesel Duramax backed by an Allison six-speed automatic. (Those are $7195 and $1200 options respectively, by the way.) The gross vehicle weight rating of this particular truck was a handy 11,500 pounds.
Other options included the SLE package ($980 to get dual-zone a/c, a six-way power driver's seat, USB port, fog lamps and some other thrills) plus $455 for the integrated trailer brake controller. Strip away the options, and the Sierra 3500 4WD Crew SRW SLE is a $40,485 truck.
Go with the most basic 3500 HD--regular cab, two-wheel drive and a long box--and you're looking at $28,805. Honestly, that's a lot of dragging capability for a reasonable price. Figure the wimpiest 3500 HD can tow at least 13,000 pounds. That's at least six Miatas, right?
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