Diesel Longevity worth the increased maintenance costs

[King27]

AK Fish

On our last trip to AK we pulled a 5th wheel that scaled at 15.8K with a GVCW of >23K with an '02 2500HD DuraMax. Prior to that we had made two trips up with a 30' Travel Trailer, same truck. Still have the truck and it is still going strong. Best Vehicle we've owned in my 70 years.

Ted

 

[FlaDon]

They do not have a braking option from the factory. That is where Dodge is one up on the competition at the time but I know for a fact the Ford had a VGT since the introduction of the 6.0 in 2003. As Don said the Dmax has had one since its mid life. It was introduced around the same time as Ford, maybe a year later, in the LLY to help up the HP.

Chris

I checked back. Revised VGT, GM annouced it in August of 2005 and started selling them in the 2006 model LBZ in 4th quarter 2005. First ones did show up in 2004 models and so would be 6 years back on the LLY.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

So, I'll be alright towing 14.5k over 2,800 miles...?? With a Dmax? That was the 5th trip over the Alcan.

They're usually around 8,000 miles round-trip.

Gonna go down and pick-up my new gooseneck in ID in about 10 days. Wanna come along?

AKfish

I wasn't excluding the Dmax as a good choice I just meant the older diesels.
I belive the diesel from gm before the dmax was junk(just from what I've read).

Ak you definatly qualify for the diesel club.

Matt

 

[Steve C]

I wasn't excluding the Dmax as a good choice I just meant the older diesels.
I belive the diesel from gm before the dmax was junk(just from what I've read).

Ak you definatly qualify for the diesel club.

Matt

I had a GMC extended cab one ton dually diesel with the 6.5 in it. It had a 5 speed manual transmission. It only had 220,000 miles on it when I sold it. I had bought it used from a guy I worked with. Most of the miles were towing horses and a race car trailer, nothing very heavy, perhaps 6,000 to 7,000#s most of the time.

It had the origional clutch in it and all the origional drive line. I didn't think anything was wrong with it except for it lacked horsepower in a big way when compared to the newer ones.

I think I remember that it had something like 4.83 gears in it also, or something crazy like that. It was a rear wheel drive truck. It only got 14-15 mpg even when running empty with the 220,000 miles on it. I don't know if it did any better when it was newer, I bought it with around 195,000 on it.

The guy I sold it to is still driving it. I sold it in 2003 when I bought my new one.