Which diesel pick-up to last the rest of my life?

The auto tranny was rebuilt in my 95 Cummins Dodge before I bought it and it was built right. Do the transmission once right and you'll be fine.

Im surprised nobody responded to this. The fact that it was done before you bought it means you got that rebuild at an extreme discount. If you buy a 95 cummins truck and 4k and want to rebuild the trans right, you're looking at.. another 4k. It is NOT CHEAP to build up that dodge 4spd. So unless you benefit from someone else's loss on getting a high dollar rebuild done (and most of them are just stock or barely upgraded rebuilds), you are gonna be in it for a lot more money than the truck is worth by the time you do a built trans.

I dont disagree with all the cummins love, but the rest of the truck, including the trans, are such big negatives for a non-enthusiast (someone who just wants it as a working truck) that i cant recommend them.

I think the 7.3 powerstroke super duties are harder to work on and need more work more often (in the engine bay) than the dodge trucks, but i still think they are a better truck. I agree with the very first response in this thread: Buy the best 7.3L Super Duty you can.

I dont think you can beef the E36 M3 out of the 4th gear clutch pack on on a 4r100 like you can on the dodge trans, but id be shopping for a manual anyways.. And if you end up with an auto, just be nice to 4th gear.

Wow. This one came from way back.

So... the answer was 2004.5 Chevy 2500HD Duramax. I have had it since not too long after posting this thread.

It's awesome.

/thread

What about the new crewcab 1/2 ton dodges with the 3.0L turbo diesel? 240hp, 420torques at 2000rpm! Should have a tow rating between 7k and 10k pounds (if some form of a "max tow package" is offered). 6 speed (or is that 8 speed? I forget).

It'll get amazing mpg (especially with a tune, stock is rumored to be over 25usmpg), but won't ride nearly as chuckwagon like as diesels typically do. Comes with self leveling factory airbags, and will be a bit cheaper than the equivalent 3/4 ton. Winning all around for 99% of people who need a truck.

Any official announcements on that or just confirmation they will put one in there

Short post since ive posted the same thing but longer.

Ive had all 4. (6.5 (2000 K3500), Duramax (2001 K2500), 7.3 PSD (02 F250), 12 valve Cummins (96 Ram).

They are all great. They all have traits that are better and traits that are worse. The best combination (so far) seems to be 02 F250/7.3 PSD. Best chassis/interior/2nd best ride/3rd best engine. The Cummins is a great engine in a bad truck. The Duramax is a good engine in a fair truck. The Ford is a good engine in a good truck. The 6.5 is a fair engine in a good truck.

I know everybody like to bash the 6.0 Ford, but I have had zero issues with mine. Had an 03 which I traded in on an 07 for tax reasons. Still have the 07. Both trucks ran flawlessly. No power adders, change the oil every 7,000 mile, tank of fuel every 500 miles, add a little fuel treatment when its real cold, and the thing works all day every day. Short trips, long trips, towing a trailer, hauling kids to soccer practice, mud pit job sites, doesn't matter. New batteries this past winter, and new tires and brakes at 90,000 miles. Changed the fuel filters once and they looked brand new at 40,000 miles. Maybe I should do those again. That's it. I do have a friend that installed a Bully Dog on his 04 and promptly lifted the heads off the block. $6K worth of work not covered by warranty because of the power adder. He had just bought a tow behind camper and was going to take the family to Montana for 2 weeks. Had to cancel his vacation and sell the camper to get his truck back on the road.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest maybe you look into keeping your Toyota and buying a real truck for your towing needs. By real truck I mean flatbed non-pickup, like an Isuzu NPR/NQR or IH S-series. A very nice one of either of those can be had for $8k, and if it's not your daily than who cares if it's got 300k miles on it, because for you to drive it 50k will take the next 15 years. Some shopping around might even yield a flatbed you could park your car on, instead of pulling a trailer.

If that's just not the right option for you, but you're still insistent on Diesel, pay attention to what your local delivery guy is putting thousands of miles on right now. Odds are pretty good it's a Sprinter van, and that he's knocking down 20+ MPG every single tank. Your 20k budget should get you into a used one without a lot of difficulty, though $25k would let you get a nicer/newer one.

Jaynen wrote: Any official announcements on that or just confirmation they will put one in there

This is official. Exact specs are still being fine tuned, but it's basically the same as the Grand Cherokee spec wise. It's being released 3rd quarter this year. The diesel is confirmed as the 3.0L VM diesel, hp and tq really shouldn't change, and in 2wd form, the Cherokee is rated for something like 29usmpg or 30usmpg on the highway (which has about the same frontal area as a 1/2 ton doge ram).

It's going to be amazing. I'm going to buy one, considering that a max tow package ecoboost is rated to tow 11k pounds in a 1/2 ton, there is no reason this truck with the diesel shouldn't be able to tow close to that much. And it'll knock down (I am willing to bet) 20usmpg towing 6000lbs at 65mph whereas the ecoboost fords only do 15usmpg doing that.

Don't the Sprinter diesels have truly pathetic power numbers, though? I seem to recall a friend of mine looking at a Sprinter 2500 diesel and it was rated at something 150 hp and not a huge torque number, either.

My memory could be faulty, but it seemed like an awful lot of truck for that little engine to lug around, let alone tow 5k with it.

Duke wrote: Don't the Sprinter diesels have truly pathetic power numbers, though? I seem to recall a friend of mine looking at a Sprinter 2500 diesel and it was rated at something 150 hp and not a huge torque number, either. My memory could be faulty, but it seemed like an awful lot of truck for that little engine to lug around, let alone tow 5k with it.

Sprinters aren't really made to tow. They are made to offer covered space to anything inside. The 5 cylinder is fairly weak, but the trans and rear axle ratios make it move "decently".

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Wow. This one came from way back. So... the answer was 2004.5 Chevy 2500HD Duramax. I have had it since not too long after posting this thread. It's awesome. /thread

yeah, you were still walterj when this one started

Duke wrote: Don't the Sprinter diesels have truly pathetic power numbers, though? I seem to recall a friend of mine looking at a Sprinter 2500 diesel and it was rated at something 150 hp and not a huge torque number, either. My memory could be faulty, but it seemed like an awful lot of truck for that little engine to lug around, let alone tow 5k with it.

The sprinter shares nothing with these vehicles. Also, for what they were, the sprinters (while expensive to maintain), were quite good at what they did (good mpg, good down low torque, able to tow a decent amount and haul a ton inside them). If I had a dedicated rally-tow rig, I'd seriously consider a sprinter, but some of the stuff was not so good (transmission I believe). I hope they release an updated sprinter-type of van with the new motor, which is much better.

The grand cherokee was sold as a diesel (at least in canada) from something like 2006-2008. They were on backorder here, but they couldn't sell many in the US. They made up a ton of sales. Could tow 7000 pounds, and also got close to 30usmpg on the highway. There aren't much downsides IMO.

Worst thing about the sprinter transmission was the torque converter clutch, iirc.

Don't the Sprinter diesels have truly pathetic power numbers, though?

Yeah but nobody complains because they drive fine. Get into a 300 hp turbo diesel pickup moving the same weight and you'd probably find that the vasty majority of time, people are using LESS than the sprinter's peak numbers to get down the road and do whatever they do. Peak power is for acceleration. 99% of driving in a dynamically boring/inferior vehicle has nothing to do with peak power.

Vigo wrote: Peak power is for acceleration. 99% of driving in a dynamically boring/inferior vehicle has nothing to do with peak power.

That depends on how often you're pulling a trailer up a 5% grade!

codrus wrote: That depends on how often you're pulling a trailer up a 5% grade!

Which is why it's so important to me, because I tow over 10,000kms a year through the foothills and rocky mountains And unfortunately, area under the curve/proper dyno charts are so hard to come by that you kind of have to extrapolate what the peaks work out to.