Truck Advice

[J T]

What is a good truck that has power and is good on gas for
pulling a car dolly and general use?Any input is helpful.
Thanks...

 

[arista5]

1500 with a 5.3 in it

i have a 2500HD and the MPG is poor

 

[kh440]

have to second arista5: the silverado seems to be best of the batch. The 6.0 is too much of a hog and the 4.8 may not have quite enough wheaties to do much towing.

 

[LV GN]

im very happy with my 2500hd with the duramax. about 18 mpg empty and 14 towing. and more power than you will ever need for towing. mine is 4wd and almost 7000 lbs. with a 100 hp computer up-grade it went 14.88 in the 1/4 mile. thats faster then 97.8% of the ricer's out here

 

[SGRIM]

Duramax

W/O question the Durumax is the BEAST!

Mine gets about same mpg as above LOVE IT! Can not wait for that upgrade myself. Got to quit working on T/R's first.

Gas, for sure 5.3. Best all around motor they got right now.

Fords
My buddy has 4 F-250's in his fleet and a King Ranch F-250 personally and guess what his next one is going to be

 

[Pressure-Less]

I have a Suburban with the 5.3 in it. I pulled our other car which was loaded with a bunch of stuff from Kansas to Virginia. We still got decent gas mileage and good power about 14 MPG for the trip. The 5.3 does respond to upgrades nicely. My cold air intake brought the engine to life with the same good gas mileage around 19 on the hi-way unloaded.

Drew

 

[dragonational]

5.3 silverado 1500 i own one with no complaints i get about 400 miles to the tank everyday driving. Harry

 

[2QUIK6]

I like my '94 Silverado with the upgraded LT4 13mpg towing the car and plently of power.....just the tranny is the weak link.
Whatever you end up with, install a tranny temp gauge and try to keep the temps below 200 if possible and keep the convertor locked as much as possible to keep temps down....it will make the tranny last much longer.

 

[crownvic96]

my dad has a '99 or '00 1500 ext cab 2wd with the 5.3. its his daily driver and work truck and it has 200k miles on it. all he's ever done is change the oil and brakes. tranny finally crapped out a month or so ago but he would tow all sorts of heavy stuff. so i don't know if it was from abuse or what because i don't think he ever changed the tranny fluid. still its a damn solid truck, has great power and for 200k miles of driving has held up great otherwise.

 

[Pressure-Less]

Here is a plug for a Chevy Truck website. It offers some good aftermarket performance parts. I bought the MAC cold air intake and have a 180 thermo to install yet. Check it out.


http://www.rpmoutlet.com/newgmcsuv.htm


Drew

 

[arista5]

check out

www.fullsizechevy.com/forums

they have a great site and your question would be best addressed there... but there is a bit of a bias toward chevy/gmc's

 

[Drac0nic]

A buddy who uses a van with an Express and a 5.3L said about 18/14 no load/loaded mpg. The diesels are the way to go in holding resale, MPG and overall power abilities.
The Dodge Cummins is a good choice for a diesel, albeit the stuff that puts the power to the ground can leave things to be desired.
The Powerstrokes are also good motors, as well as being overall durable trucks. Not too much a fan of ford OD autos though, albeit they may be better then the ancient crappy fleet vehicles I get to drive.
The D-maxes had injector issues, but that was a problem with Bosch rather then GM, but still a black eye. The thought I don't like about the D-maxes are that the heads are aluminum on an iron block, not to mention the ravages of a diesel with aluminum heads. I'm sure that there are those who will hop in on that one, but still something to consider IMO.

 

[cruzn57]

1500 w/ 5.3

I'm on my 3rd new style silverado, all 1500's with 5.3
I love em!! solid 20mpg on the road, and 14 to 16 mpg towing car trailer,, as comfortable as any car I've owned. and way more versatile!
Of course I still like my old 95 sliverado, 4x4, but its the ranch truck, I view a another scratch as another battle scar!
Hmmmmmm am I a chevy fan??
well yea, that and Buick's!

Diesel, well sure, but I can buy almost 2 gas silverados for 1 of those!!

good luck
cruzn57

 

[Night Train]

What rearend ratio do you guys have that get that good power and MPG? Probably more critical than engine. I'll bet the 6.0 comes with a different gear than the 5.3. I have a LOVE my Dmax CC SB with 3.73 gears.

 

[1badTTA]

Originally posted by Drac0nic
A buddy who uses a van with an Express and a 5.3L said about 18/14 no load/loaded mpg. The diesels are the way to go in holding resale, MPG and overall power abilities.
The Dodge Cummins is a good choice for a diesel, albeit the stuff that puts the power to the ground can leave things to be desired.
The Powerstrokes are also good motors, as well as being overall durable trucks. Not too much a fan of ford OD autos though, albeit they may be better then the ancient crappy fleet vehicles I get to drive.
The D-maxes had injector issues, but that was a problem with Bosch rather then GM, but still a black eye. The thought I don't like about the D-maxes are that the heads are aluminum on an iron block, not to mention the ravages of a diesel with aluminum heads. I'm sure that there are those who will hop in on that one, but still something to consider IMO.

There have been quite a few problems with the Dmax's having both bad injectors and blowing headgaskets, and the kicker is that chevy likes to say the blown headgaskets are from overheating and won't warranty them if they can get out of it. If you aren't going to tow too awfully much they are fine, but if towing all the time you might look elsewhere.

And yes, I do know someone personally who this happened to, my brother in-law's '04 3500 dually. He owns a Ford now after having to pay for the second set of headgaskets.

 

[LV GN]

i know about the injectors and i did have a injector body break on the way to bowling green last year about 70 miles before nashville tn. i change the oil and went to the chevy dealer in bg. they had all 8 injectors changed and ready to go the next afternoon.this would have taken 3 weeks in vegas.it cost 100.00 deductible. when we got home, gm sent a form to fill out and they paid the $100.00 back and increasted the warranty on the injectors to 7 yrs. or 200,000 miles. this was on john gallina's truck. it now has 78,000 miles. all this truck ever did was pull the 48 ft. 2 car trailer. 28,500 lbs. loaded. it has a computer upgrade and exhaust. it pulls like a bear. never had headgasket problems on his truck or mine with 80,000 miles. when you tow heavy you have to watch egt's. mite have something to do with blowing hg's

 

[BLACK DEATH DSR]

If I had to do it again, I would buy me a used Dodge truck with Cummins motor in it. I have a 1995 3/4 ton with the 12 valve cummins motor in it. The motor will last forever. Now the truck itself is a POS, but the drivetrain is better than a PSD & Duramax. I like chevys, I had a 1998 Chevy with the 5.7 Vortec motor and it towed a car on a trailer ok, and got around 12-15 mpg. The dodge gets better, but hey, get what you like.

 

[LV GN]

try towing with a duramax. dodge got nothin on us! and there transmission sucks

 

[scottyb]

4 of my friends have Cummins TD Dodge trucks. The ones that don't have insane gears get 18+ city, and 22 + highway. One of them has 250,000 miles and runs 12's in the 1/4. If I needed a truck, I'd get one of those without question.

Towing is a non-issue.

 

[ross87t]

Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel