ford. With a twelve valve cummins.


Not that I have anything against dodge, I just know more about fords.

 

Dad has two Duramaxes. A 2001 with more than 500k miles on it. Beats the living crap out of it and it just keeps running. His newer one I believe is a 2006. Loves it too, and it also gets beat to death. Both trucks in oil fields all day.

Brother loves his ford even if it took him three years of fighting through two ford buybacks to get one that finally runs, for now.

I have a Dodge 3500 6.7 2007 and love the 6spd auto married with the exhaust brake. The fit and finish of the truck is better than any truck I've owned.


Had a 2004 3500 6 spd manual and loved it.

Had a 1999 Dodge auto 2500 cummins and loved it but didn't like having to get a new VP-44. Also went through two auto transmissions. That wasn't fun.

Had a 97 Ford PSD 7.3l 5 spd manual. Great truck. Ran forever.

Had a 95 Ford PSD 7.3L 5 spd manual. Great truck. Sold it way before I should have.

I've never owned a 12 valve and I regret that very much. From what I've seen of my members who have them, they are the most beloved of all the cummins trucks.

 

In between the 2 trucks I have, I personally like driving my 06 much more then my 92. But in all honesty I feel that the 92 is a better built, more reliable, last forever kind of truck. I wouldn't mind a duramax, to me they seem like good trucks. I have also been very pleased with the 7.3 in my mother's excursion and thank god every day its not a 6.0.

 

Well I'm looking at a 2004 Crew cab 2500HD 4WD Duramax with 70K miles. It's pretty much exactly what I want. I wanted a Cummins because of the motor, but knowing that I'm not going to be towing mountains on a regular basis I should be ok with a Duramax. It's the body style I want and Chevy interior is my personal favorite. I'm still kinda up in the air, but if they drop the price a bit I'll be signing the papers. It's already a pretty good deal IMO at $16,995 but I think they can do better.

 

justinlhc, does that truck come with a rear locker?

 

I have no idea. I haven't inspected it that close yet. I'm not sure if they come with a locker standard with the 2500HD/Duramax/Allison package?

 

99% of the dmax's have a rear locker (gov-lock).

I think ive only seen ONE that came from the factory without a rear locker.

Look in the glovebox sticker if you see "G80" then it has a factory locker.

ben

 

I would choose a Ford 99+ Super Duty with a Cummins under the hood.

 

I just sold an '02 DMax that was an awesome truck. Only had 100k mi on it, but NEVER a lick of trouble, other than one power window went out. Truck was stinkin' fast with just an Edge J/A. Drove and towed smoothly. Tows as well as my new Dodge. I'd buy another DMax in a heartbeat. LB7 '01-'04 was known for injector problems. GM has warrantied all the LB7's for 7 yrs/200k mi for injectors, so an '03 or '04 would have 2-3 yrs of warranty on that, plus no EGR or cat unless it's a Cali truck.
'04.5 - 05 LLY have potential overheating problems, but there's a relatively cheap, few hundred $, fix for those, aftermarket, and it wasn't all the trucks.
'06-'07 LLY/LBZ, no real issues that I've heard of. (I used to read all the BS on DieselPlace.com when I had the DMax). '06-up have 6speed Alli vs the 5sp of the earlier yrs.
The Alli trans is 2nd to none IMO. I've heard the Dodge 48RE's hold up just as well and can't deny it, but the Alli is top notch for shiifting/towing with an auto trans.
With all that said about DMax/Alli GM trucks, I couldn't be happier with my '07 Dodge either.
I'd buy whichever you could get a better apples to apples deal on, but I'd probably lean towards a DMax if most of your driving is city friving.