75% of truck owners tow 1/year or less?

[lostcause]

I want one of these as my daily driver, too. Heard a few bad things, but I loved my previous gas Tahoe. Couldn’t imagine how nice with a baby Dmax….

I've had the 1st generation 3.0 in a truck since early 2020 and I really have enjoyed it. Heaviest I towed was bringing my tractor home on a bumper pull car hauler - about 7k combined for 120+ miles. Towed like a dream and had plenty of power to do lane changes and accelerations up hills and out of corners. i averaged about 16mpg on the trip home. Empty I consistently got 30+ on the original tires when commuting.

Only hiccup in 4+ years was a code for a glow plug communication error. it went away in a couple restarts and never came back. I eventually had it in and the dealer flashed it and they said there was an update in there that could have been related to the code. My only issue has been the operator and mechanic. I have put it into limp mode twice - once for front brakes, and once for rear brakes. After doing it 100+ times I thought I was capable, but apparently I was wrong. You need to put the new ones into service mode before doing anything or it thinks it's broken. not a diesel issue, just a me issue.

Overall I couldn't be happier with it. I do plan on trading it sometime after the new year - ideally for the same thing. I'm gaining fast on the 100k mark, and I just don't want to play the repair cost lottery. I have no illusions that a modern emissions restricted diesel will be a lifetime of issue-free ownership.

 

[Paystar]

Even if I didn't tow and haul on a regular occasion....I am now only buying trucks for my wife. She just went through 3 cars and I'm sick of replacing springs, struts, brakes, sway bar links every oil change interval on our crappy roads.
Now that we have trucks, we both just drive and drive and replace nothing.

 

[Dftodd]

My trailers gonna be working overtime here in another week.

Daughter just bought another house, and put their current house on the market.

Closing on the 31st.

So.... I'll be hauling all their stuff for a couple weekends

 

[1 Old Man]

I bought my wife a 3.0 Duramax in 2023. It's been a great truck for her and she enjoys it.
MPG has been fantastic compared to my '03 Super Duty (she will no longer ride in my truck,
says it's too nasty and sits to high). I've used her truck to haul a couple of half full pallets.
It acts like there's nothing in the bed. A friend hauls a skid steer with his 1/2 ton 3.0 and he
said the same thing, acts like there's nothing holding it back.
Hoping this truck will make it to 150,000 or 200,000 with no real hiccups. I'm a maintenance
freak, so time will tell.

 

[sixdogs]

No one mentioned this but the accident survivability in a bigger truck, especially in a real world accident is much better than cars if for no other reason than height of truck and protective frame rails.

 

[WinterDeere]

No one mentioned this but the accident survivability in a bigger truck, especially in a real world accident is much better than cars if for no other reason than height of truck and protective frame rails.

I agree, you're probably right on this.

Crash test ratings is the best system we've come up with so far, for determining how a vehicle with perform in a crash. But they can't possibly capture all scenarios, they're just "pretty good" simulations. Auto manufacturers can "design to the test", making cars that do very well in these specific tests, but in the end there's something to be said for conservation of momentum.

BTW... people often wrongly quote "conservation of energy", but that's not applicable to a car crash. Conservation of energy relies on an elastic collision, where the objects bounce off one another without deformation, like billiard balls. Car crashes are generally inelastic collisions, in which deformation of the vehicle removes conservation of energy from the motion equations. Energy is maintained, but transformed into heat and deformation, rather than motion. Conservation of momentum puts a greater emphasis on mass, than conservation of energy (which favors velocity), meaning that generally speaking... the heavier vehicle wins.

The one strike against trucks, maybe balancing this "mass wins" principle, is rollover fatalities. I don't know the numbers there, but it doesn't take a physicist to guess that trucks must suffer more rollovers than sports cars. I will say, I personally know a lot more people surviving bad accidents today in all types of vehicles, than 40 years ago. Vehicles have definitely gotten much better, in this regard.

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

I just hauled 30- 80lb bags of concrete mix home from homedepot on Friday in the one ton truck, poured it all yesterday in a hour with a rented mud mixer.

 

[bigtiller]

I just hauled 30- 80lb bags of concrete mix home from homedepot on Friday in the one ton truck, poured it all yesterday in a hour with a rented mud mixer.

I'm getting mixed signals here. Are you boasting or complaining?

For mixing & pouring 30- 80lb bags of concrete in an hour, I would mention my sore back and stiff shoulders.

 

[paulsharvey]

I just hauled 30- 80lb bags of concrete mix home from homedepot on Friday in the one ton truck, poured it all yesterday in a hour with a rented mud mixer.

Those mud-mixers really do look like a much better system than a wheel barrow, loader bucket, or old system mixer. Not cheap for sure though

Also, I've found 60# bags vs 80#, maybe over an entire yard, might be $1-2 different, so I tend to buy 60s now.

It used to be, I would throw 80s all day, and 94# bags of Portland were tiring; now, 80s feel like the 94s used too

 

[Rockbadchild]

first time I see this thread, this statement came out in other thread as well.

I have a 2012 ram 1500, I got it new I now have 220 000km (138500 miles)
I used to go mudding (real offroad) for fun with my truck once every couple year and every time I got new tires, I stop after blowing up a few CV shaft and rack and pinion (water gets in and blow up during the winter). I still do lots of gravel and dirt road driving (going to camp, fishing and hunting).
I tow often at least twice a month I would say, quad, sled, dirt bike, fire wood, hay, gravel, building material, rocks, camper trailer, and you name it I haul or carry in the bed sometime both.

My truck is a truck, it was brand new and I used it as such. I would say that 90% of the folks up north use their trucks as such but city folks is probably closer then 5% or less.

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

Those mud-mixers really do look like a much better system than a wheel barrow, loader bucket, or old system mixer. Not cheap for sure though

Also, I've found 60# bags vs 80#, maybe over an entire yard, might be $1-2 different, so I tend to buy 60s now.

It used to be, I would throw 80s all day, and 94# bags of Portland were tiring; now, 80s feel like the 94s used too

I rented the mud mixer for about $75 for 4 hours, picked it up at 9 when they opened, returned it admit 10:45.

The price of the 60lb or 80lb bags don’t matter to me, the pallet of 80lb bags had how many I needed on it so I had them put the pallet in my truck with fork lift

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

I'm getting mixed signals here. Are you boasting or complaining?

For mixing & pouring 30- 80lb bags of concrete in an hour, I would mention my sore back and stiff shoulders.

Neither, just saying I use 2 of my 3 trucks the way some day trucks should be used. Was not sore at all, the Mud Mixer adds water and mixes the concrete, just dump the bags into it.

My third truck is a S-10, it is just a toy for me, a hot rod.

 

[Rockbadchild]

No one mentioned this but the accident survivability in a bigger truck, especially in a real world accident is much better than cars if for no other reason than height of truck and protective frame rails.

100%

 

[Jstpssng]

For mixing & pouring 30- 80lb bags of concrete in an hour, I would mention my sore back and stiff shoulders

My back hurts just from reading his post!

 

[Sprinkler Fitter]

My back hurts just from reading his post!

I am 63 years old and it didn't bother me doing the work, actually easier than the real job I had

 

[CliffordK]

75% of truck owners tow a trailer 1/year or less
70% go off road 1/year or less
35% haul something in the bed 1/year or less

This is a very binary way of looking at things. I'm not a big fan of going out and making a mess in the mud with the pickup.

However, I would never purchase a pickup without 4x4. Why?

It turns out that there are some places where I just need a little extra traction. Perhaps a difference between being stuck, and keeping moving.

Pickup manufacturers stopped putting "Granny Gear" in the pickups quite some time ago. Yet, there are times when one needs a little lower gearing and higher torque. So throw it into 4x4 low, and get up that hill that might just kill the pickup in normal RWD.

Or, I'll be on gravel, and rather than throw up a big rooster tail of gravel flying everywhere while leaving ruts behind, I'll throw it into 4x4, and get the traction I need.

Towing... Do we really want all pickup drivers towing? I'm always surprised with those that figured towing is simply driving forward down the road. Yet I frequently get somewhere where it is just expected to back up around a corner, perhaps leaving only inches of space on the sides.

I can't believe people aren't at least throwing some groceries in the back every once in a while. Or, perhaps they have a 5th wheel, and don't like the bed full.

 

[Jstpssng]

Towing... Do we really want all pickup drivers towing?

Amen!!!!! I was thinking about this yesterday. Our current license schedule here allows you to pass your driver's test, go home and hook onto a 10,000 lb trailer. Things may have changed but when I took driver's Ed 50 years ago we never even discussed trailers.

I will add that I make it a point never to get somewhere where it is just expected to back up around a corner, perhaps leaving only inches of space on the sides.
I could have done it with my tandem axle, but not with my little 8 foot dump trailer.

 

[paulsharvey]

This is a very binary way of looking at things. I'm not a big fan of going out and making a mess in the mud with the pickup.

However, I would never purchase a pickup without 4x4. Why?

It turns out that there are some places where I just need a little extra traction. Perhaps a difference between being stuck, and keeping moving.

Pickup manufacturers stopped putting "Granny Gear" in the pickups quite some time ago. Yet, there are times when one needs a little lower gearing and higher torque. So throw it into 4x4 low, and get up that hill that might just kill the pickup in normal RWD.

Or, I'll be on gravel, and rather than throw up a big rooster tail of gravel flying everywhere while leaving ruts behind, I'll throw it into 4x4, and get the traction I need.

Towing... Do we really want all pickup drivers towing? I'm always surprised with those that figured towing is simply driving forward down the road. Yet I frequently get somewhere where it is just expected to back up around a corner, perhaps leaving only inches of space on the sides.

I can't believe people aren't at least throwing some groceries in the back every once in a while. Or, perhaps they have a 5th wheel, and don't like the bed full.

Clif, we already determined the data was selected from a specific area, of drivers of a specific truck, by a news source to prove that Noone should be allowed to own a truck. So, the numbers are not correct nationwide.

However, there is a very small bit of truth in it. Many (probably most) people with a truck could likely get by with something else, or at the very least, under utilize the truck.

 

[paulsharvey]

Not 100% truck, but along a similar point.

Our new place is back a unmaintaned dirt road (it's FLa, so it's a sand road). One guy grades it sometimes, and I have graded the worse part a couple times too, over the last 2 months. Then, our driveway goes up the hill from the road, and although it's got a bit of ball field clay, and a bit of mixed gravel/millings, it is wash prone; and when it stays dry for long, everything turns into loose sand.

Wife drives a mid sized car (charger RT), owes about 3 years on a 5 year loan, and I mentioned, it might be worth looking to see if an almost even swap kinda deal could be found for a small 4wd pickup or medium suv. I dont doubt she can make it in during any day with decent or even kinda bad weather, but in heavy heavy rain, it might be iffy. She also brought up, her car is basically perfect now; but she worries that at some point, she's gonna tear it up, hitting the nose going into a wash out or whatever, or just hitting the loose stuff at the speed needed to make it through.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Those mud-mixers really do look like a much better system than a wheel barrow, loader bucket, or old system mixer. Not cheap for sure though

Also, I've found 60# bags vs 80#, maybe over an entire yard, might be $1-2 different, so I tend to buy 60s now.

It used to be, I would throw 80s all day, and 94# bags of Portland were tiring; now, 80s feel like the 94s used too

I do a lot of small concrete jobs around the property and renting a mud mixer isn't very practical. I needed something handy to pour the occasional one or two yard project.

I picked up a used 5 cu. ft. stand mixer at a yard sale for $50. It had a burned out motor which I took off and replaced with a hydraulic motor. I welded an SSQA plate to the stand and move it around with the tractor FEL. I power the motor with the 3rd function valve, load the ingredients at the sand pile, and mix while I transport to the job site. With the mixer on the FEL, I get a good reach and can easily pour into the form. The only time I get off the tractor is to load the ingredients.

It sure beats a wheelbarrow and making trips to the rental yard.