In reply to patgizz (and others):
I'm pleasantly surprised by all the support for the GMT400 platform- I had a GMT400 454 Suburban for a while which made a great tow vehicle, but I kind of expected a "250k miles? what are you doing?" response. I guess those are back on the list, parts are cheap and I know they're easy to work on.
The GMT-400 is the highwater mark of GM pickup trucks. They were good-looking, indestructible workhorses. About a year ago we picked up a 178,000 mile 1998 3500HD ext. cab, long bed duallie for $1700 and after a refreshening of the brakes and fuel system absolutely fell in love with it.
Bump because I found another tempting big berkeleying truck: 8.1/Allison/CC/LB
Hive thoughts? It's at a dealer, which scares me.
In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:
Wow, that's a big unit. Not terribly familiar with the 8100 engine, never saw many, but I'm sure they are a workhorse. Allison trans is always a plus. Price seems a little high considering it nearly has 200K miles. I mean, we got a 1998 3500HD duallie with 178K that needed some brake work for $1700.
At a dealer probably just means someone traded it on a new truck and a big name dealer doesn't care to sell it with those miles so off to auction it goes. Means it is priced with negotiating room too, you'd better get it for $5k or less.
It looks like they've had it for a while- I found an older post where the price was higher. Dealer claims no rust and no issues on the phone (of course), and these are my favorites of the trucks that I've driven, although I haven't gotten to play with an 8.1... Can't make it down there until Saturday anyway so I've got time to think about it.
I sincerely doubt that any single axle, single rear wheel truck out there is rated to hold a camper in the bed and still have any capacity left to tow with. My 2001 2500HD crew cab short box 4x4 duramax has a GVWR of 9200LB's. The rear axle is rated to hold 6084lbs, the front 4670lbs. The truck itself weighs 6900lbs with myself and other crap in the bed (take 1000lbs off for 6.0L truck, probably 500-600lbs off for big block truck). So I only have 1400lbs of spare bed weight/tongue weight available.
Also, as discussed in Tommy's thread, crewcab, long bed trucks SUCK.
Get a crewcab, shortbed truck and get a long enough flatdeck trailer to build an enclosed living space on. I'd rather tow a 26' or 28' car hauler with a living space on the first 12-14' then have a high center of gravity, cramped camper in the bed of my truck. My duramax is rated to tow 15,100lbs, but "legally" can never actually do so, and GVWR takes precedence over manufacturer tow ratings as those are just essentially suggestions (good suggestions, but suggestions nonetheless).
And considering you'd like to go off the road with it, a dually seems out of the question.
In reply to HiTempguy:
Hmmm... well E36 M3, I guess I need to think about 3/4 ton Suburbans again then? Then I can stick a rooftop tent on it, or throw a mattress in the back.
In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:
As I said on page one, other than the E36 M3 mileage, my GMT800 8.1L was a peach. It was rusty and smelled bad but it was a killer truck and I would totally have another one from some state without rust. Ran great, shifted great, drug a 31ft air stream almost as if it wasn't there. So much love.
In reply to singleslammer:
Yeah, that's part of what pushed me in the direction of the most recent one I posted. Honestly, I hate this- I don't want to have to buy a big practical vehicle. I like my tiny Toyota pickup. The only big towing capable monsters I've actually enjoyed driving have been later GM products, so I'm tempted to just buy one already because I'm sick of trying to weigh my options here.
If you really want to sleep in it, find one of the old, ugly aluminum camper shells that's still water tight. They were a good bit lighter than the modern fiberglass ones and can be had cheap. You could easily outfit the bed in comfortable expedition style and not pick up a lot of weight if you're careful. You wouldn't lose more than 5-600 lbs of hitch weight capacity that way.
A past company had one of those in diesel format. Drove well, but they had a lot of issues with the engine.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to HiTempguy: Hmmm... well E36 M3, I guess I need to think about 3/4 ton Suburbans again then? Then I can stick a rooftop tent on it, or throw a mattress in the back.
You made it sound like you wanted to actually live in it comfortably (hence the camper). If you are just looking for a place to sleep comfortably, a shortbox truck would be better than a suv IMO.
Tons of room to sleep in the back, a nice, quality topper will actually keep heat in and the elements out pretty well. Park someplace with an outlet and have a electric heater in the back, throw a double mattress down, and you are good to go!
In reply to HiTempguy:
Well, it's a little of both. Short term, I would like to be able to sleep at events, so a topper and a mattress would be fine. Long term, there is a "some day" vacation with the GF for which we'd like a little more comfort- but sleeping in a slide-in at races seems like a shortcut to a setup which will allow that "some day" trip to become closer to reality. Doing the math, it looks like only the lighter pop-up slide-ins would be doable with the 2500HD's payload if we want to tow anything, and even then it would be close once you add the rally car's spares, wheels, etc.
when I sell my cars I clean them and armor all them like crazy - is it that hard?
I know crewing for Jesse and driving his tow/support rig, he has an F250 diesel crew cab long-bed. And the whole truck is full of his rally stuff, spares, tools, gas cans, and a million other things. And he said that he doesn't carry much gear compared to most rally teams. The only way anyone could sleep in that thing is sitting in the front seats, honestly. He carries some stuff on the trailer as well. Is is possible you're underestimating how much stuff you'll be taking to rally weekends, and that in the end the camper-in-the-bed-while-towing-a-trailer is going to be a nonstarter anyhow?
I would say just get a pickup to tow with and carry all your rally gear. At the handful of rallies you run each year, stay in a cheap hotel/motel (what, $1k/year total if you go to 5 rallies?). Then when you want to "expedition" without the trailer, drop the camper shell in the back of the bed and go. You can have the truck do everything well if it doesn't have to do everything at the same time....
Just my 2 cents. But I long ago decided I'm too old and make enough money to not have to sleep in a vehicle any more, lol. I'll swing the hundred bucks a night for a good shower and a read bed ;) Maybe I'm just a wuss.
irish44j wrote: Just my 2 cents. But I long ago decided I'm too old and make enough money to not have to sleep in a vehicle any more, lol. I'll swing the hundred bucks a night for a good shower and a read bed ;) Maybe I'm just a wuss.
Alternately, you're too young and too poor to sleep in comfort in a 40 foot diesel pusher motorhome. :)
Excursion, remove the 3rd row seats.
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