What's the Best Farm Truck to Haul my Tractor and Cattle with?

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I custom haul cattle/horses (part time) from pasture to pasture or to the sale barn with a old beater '98 chevy 3500 DRW crew cab 4x4 454 4.10 gears long bed and 6-8 mpg. The 454 has been "worked" into a strong gazz guzzler tow motor (375hp/500-520 torque). You need a 4x4 for this type of work.

Most road trips I use my '03 2500 quad cab Dodge/Cummins NV5600 3.73 gear 2wd pulling the same 16k triaxle GN stock trailer when making road trips (all paved) out to around 300-350 miles at 12-13 mpg. This truck has just over 300k miles with little maintenance and gets more road use than the DRW.

Both trucks pull several other GN and bumper pull trailers. I even have a GN bed plate in my wifes '16 chevy crew cab 4x4 so she can pony my empty trailers when needed.

No more than your doing a gas engine will work fine.

Some serious rigs you have there, I'm still undecided on gasser or diesel, I know a gasser will work for my needs but won't get as good of gas mileage.

I feel a diesel is a little less maintenance and break downs but I have never owned one.

 

[aarolar]

I had a Chevy 2000 K2500 7.4L and it was a beast, I pulled a 14k lb mini ex on a gooseneck no problems 65mph down the highway. However beware they have issues with the fuel system, the factory injectors stop up and leak plus the fuel pressure regulator goes bad. If you are halfway handy neither are more than a one weekend project to fix. Don't mess with any of the pre vortec 454 trucks the mileage will be terrible.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I'm surprised nobody had mentioned duramax lol my buddy has a 2500HD with a 6.6 turbo duramax that hauled my tractor home and I like that truck a lot, but there a bit out of my price range right now.

You need to keep your cost down. A used diesel truck worth anything is $20,000. A gas or even can be had for $7500

 

[Diamondpilot]

Some serious rigs you have there, I'm still undecided on gasser or diesel, I know a gasser will work for my needs but won't get as good of gas mileage.

I feel a diesel is a little less maintenance and break downs but I have never owned one.

Diesels are the opposite. My Powerstroke oil filter is $22 and it holds 15qts of oil. Air filters are $40 and and you change the fuel filter yearly at $35.

I have been lucky and had no major repairs but 3 years ago my buddy had to put a set of injectors in his 03 Dura Max. It was $6,800.

 

[atsah]

If you do go with a Ford, stay FAR away from the 2003-2007 6.0 diesel, good for nothing. I had two of them because I thought the first one was a fluke but nope, there trouble.

 

[fried1765]

I had a Chevy 2000 K2500 7.4L and it was a beast, I pulled a 14k lb mini ex on a gooseneck no problems 65mph down the highway. However beware they have issues with the fuel system, the factory injectors stop up and leak plus the fuel pressure regulator goes bad. If you are halfway handy neither are more than a one weekend project to fix. Don't mess with any of the pre vortec 454 trucks the mileage will be terrible.

I don't know what a "pre vortec" 454 truck is.
I have a 1997 GMC K2500 4x4 Suburban w/454 (7.3L) pulling a 12K load (combined GVW 20,650).
My Suburban has 130,000 miles on it (I bought it with 100,000, on E-Bay 10 years ago).
The mpg is rather poor (9.6), but I tow less than 1500 miles per year.
If the mileage was exceptional, at 15 mpg., the gas saved over 1500 miles. would be only 56 gal.,($130?) certainly not anywhere near justification for buying a newer 14-15 mpg vehicle.
The 7.3L(454) does not seem to have any problem performing the desired task.
No tailgating, and electric trailer brakes properly set, are important considerations.

 

[ovrszd]

Around here it's Dodge Cummins, older Super Duty 7.3Ls and then Duramax. In that order. 10 Dodge Cummins for every Duramax.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

If you do go with a Ford, stay FAR away from the 2003-2007 6.0 diesel, good for nothing. I had two of them because I thought the first one was a fluke but nope, there trouble.

Yeah I can't tell you how many people around here that dumped loads of money in a 6.0 powerstroke, I like Ford a lot but that engine made me cautious of the powerstrokes all together. I'm not dumping 1000s into any motor, cheaper to take a loss and buy another truck.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Around here it's Dodge Cummins, older Super Duty 7.3Ls and then Duramax. In that order. 10 Dodge Cummins for every Duramax.

I read somewhere that Cummings is king when it comes to pulling but there super expensive to fix, the IDI 7.3 is really cheap to fix but low on power and the older powerstrokes were a happy median, middle of the road power and repair costs weren't terrible.

I never researched repair costs of either but I remember reading that a few days ago.

 

[ovrszd]

Yeah I can't tell you how many people around here that dumped loads of money in a 6.0 powerstroke, I like Ford a lot but that engine made me cautious of the powerstrokes all together. I'm not dumping 1000s into any motor, cheaper to take a loss and buy another truck.

Couple months ago my youngest Son bought an '05 F350 crew long bed 4x4 6.0L AT truck with 180K miles. Very straight Lariat truck. No engine repairs had been done. Paid $3200. Brought it home and discovered it was drinking water. Tore it down and did all the mods and deletes. Spent $1800. All the diesel guys say he now has a very dependable diesel engine. He's in for $5000. Pretty good investment. Time will tell.