Moving from 1/2 ton truck to HD truck

[davideubanks]

Is he married? Are you a divorce lawyer?

Good question, married 39 years this year and being on the road might be the reason. Divorce lawyer, never considered it.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Could be a good side business.

More tractor accessories.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Here is something to consider since you are having a hard time finding something that will pull, just buy a Peterbuilt, or Freightliner and pull anything including your house right off the foundation.

Now that you mention it, this is the Peterbilt I bought for real towing.

But it has since been replaced by something that actually could pull a house off of its foundation.

 

[Hay Dude]

We don't have any emissions testing in SC. I own the truck too, not financed. I'm concerned about the delete procedure, because of my AISIN transmission. I'm understanding that there is no way to "tune" the transmission, and I don't know any shop around that will provide a "tune" for the computer, to make the engine think that the emission stuff is still intact. I want to get rid of the emissions stuff, to help keep the oil cleaner... these things are DIRTY!!!!

I have a 2020 Ram 5500 Cummins/Aisin with 4.88’s and tow up to 18 tons with it. I can’t see the reason to touch anything on the truck.
It pulls more than anyone should want to stock with no modifications.
The oil will stay clean, just stay on top of oil changes and filters. Cummins knows what they are doing.
I’m going on 3.5 years of ownership and the emissions system is working 100% with zero issues.

 

[davideubanks]

Now that you mention it, this is the Peterbilt I bought for real towing.

But it has since been replaced by something that actually could pull a house off of its foundation.View attachment 818439

What did you get to pull a house off it foundation? Just curious.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

What did you get to pull a house off it foundation? Just curious.

An M936. Since it weighs about 40,000 lbs. and the rear winch is good for 45,000 lbs., it should work. If not, I have four snatch blocks for the 3/4" cable.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

We had one of these in my mob unit. Didn't get much use. We never took it on a deployment (too slow to keep up with rest of convoy), and only used it a couple times to recover a broken down semi truck. It wouldn't tow a whole 18 wheeler (not one of the "heavy" ones anyway), but we hauled a broken tractor (truck-no trailer) a few times. Was good at off road recovery, if you could keep from burying it in the process. We never got ours stuck on it's own, had "lockers" in each diff, but you could drag it with the winch if you had a rig really buried in the mud you were trying to unstick. Our mission trucks were "heavy" at 80-85K, and if a driver "brain faded" and stuck one, they were a pain to dig out. I'm sure we abused ours (wrecker) a few times, but honestly, it's rated specs are just not that spectacular:

Unless you needed the rotator crane, or off road recovery, the "modern" 3 axle Pete (not counting steer axle) I drove years later would out perform this wrecker in every metric a wrecker needed.

 

[davideubanks]

An M936. Since it weighs about 40,000 lbs. and the rear winch is good for 45,000 lbs., it should work. If not, I have four snatch blocks for the 3/4" cable.
View attachment 818511

Yep, that should do it. Congrats.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Oh, I sure didn't get that one for it's road manners or fuel economy. And if it wasn't a rotator, it wouldn't be nearly as useful to me.

While I did put an 18,000 lb. winch on one of the FLU 419 SEEs, the M936 is a far better puller. Also, there are things the crane on the FLU 419 HMMH just can't deal with, having a max capacity of only 8,000 lbs.

Basically I got it to get my own junk unstuck here around the house, move containers and such, but I'll obviously help a neighbor in need, too.

And speaking of moving houses, when I first got it my closest neighbor asked what I'd do with it. "Well, for example, if you don't like your view I can probably rotate the house for you." was my answer. For some reason he declined.

 

[Mike1955]

Have a very sweet Ram 1500 Hemi truck I got new (leased) last year.

Been thinking about moving up to a HD pickup to make towing my big enclosed trailer easier. Diesel HD trucks are insanely high in price. Even with 150k miles on them, you’re looking at $50k around here. So I opened my search up to gasoline HD trucks as well. I found a 2021 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with the new 6.6 gas engine. Sweet truck, extremely well cared for. Problem is, the 6.6 gas is a 400 HP engine. The axle is a 3.73. The trans is the old 6L90 that’s been around since 2006 and the ratios are really tall. So, I threw that combo into a spreadsheet along side the same info (power, trans ratios, axle ratio) from my Ram 1500. Looks like my Ram has significantly more pulling power in every gear, despite the 3.21 axle ratio. If my truck had the 3.92s it would be a bloodbath. But yeah, power/gearing advantage from 0 to 70 miles per hour. AND my truck is 1,500 lbs. lighter so that increases performance even more over the HD. I get that a HD truck is heavier and therefore in theory should handle/steer better with a trailer but I have a hard time justifying a move up to HD to get worse acceleration, fuel economy, and maneuverability. Sigh…

The Ford gas HD trucks can be had with 430 HP, 10 speed trans, and 4.30 gears which is a stellar combo but they are like finding a needle in a haystack. I can’t find one in my price range anywhere in this entire region.

The Ram HD gas trucks are nice but they seem to be abused on construction sites or work sites and by the time I find them on the used market they’re pretty rough.

"When going to HD trucks, go straight to 1 ton"? That’s what I was thinking too. But I looked up the tow chart from GM’s own website and it is surprising. The 2500 gas can tow more than the 3500 gas (only a couple hundred lbs., likely the difference in weight between the 11.5 and 12.0" axles). The payload gain on the 3500 is less than 500 lbs. If you go diesel then there’s a couple thousand lb. advantage for the 3500, but that’s not really a huge deal either. Surprising though that on the gas trucks the difference between “3/4 ton” and “1 ton” is almost zero on paper.

I posted before but I’m not sure I’m replying to the same post. I move up to a 2500 ram, couldn’t be happier. First dodge ever I was a toyota man. Pulls the fire out of my fifth wheel camper. Not the first issue, but the reviews scare you to death. Wife don’t like it says it’s big and rough. Or it may be cuz I luv it