I just shake my head when I see all these brand new fully loaded diesel duallies all over here in Texas. Yea I know, they got money and they do use them. I see huge trailers with cattle, hay, equipment. But the prices if you only need one for occasional hauling and the rest as a grocery getter is insane.
I still have my 2004 Cummins I bought brand new for 39k.
The only emission equipment it had from the factory was a cam that gave a little egr.
No cat, no particulate filter, no DEF. Factory.
Power brakes, power steering, power windows, power door locks, power drivers seat, air conditioning that has never failed, cruise control, nice stereo with steering wheel controls.
One great feature I just love about this truck is you cannot drain the batteries down if you leave something on. The truck automatically times out and shuts all accessories and lights off.
Another thing... some vehicles don't do. my wipers park after shutting them off.
Truck is 18 years old now. She's been through a lot with performance upgrades and plowing snow every winter when we lived in PA. Lots of rust especially the wheel wells and the rockers from the salt.
Pulled a 12k fully loaded enclosed trailer from PA to Texas twice. Pulled like a dream except I didn't do a great job distributing the load so dealing with sway was a pain. (Single wheel)
Dyno's 600hp 1200tq at the rear wheels every time.
Trans never failed but I did have it worked at around 65k went I went from 400hp to 600. Over 200k on the odo.
03 and 04 Cummins did have a tendency to drop a valve seat when you jack them up. Well wouldn't you know.. at about 125k she dropped a valve seat.
$15k later she's a brand new engine (rebuilt) with bigger pistons, new tow cam to eliminate the egr, heavier valve springs, diamond coated injectors from F1, and I just had to have my bigger turbo rebuilt.
Truck is on my lift right now as I'm going over the front end before I put a new set of boots on her.