In the market for a TRUCK

look at the dodge turbo diesel my son in law has 2 they are 6 cylinder and haul butt! he pulled a 8000 lb. tractor from Peoria in 6 Th. gear cruse set and never shifted again till we got off the interstate BIG hill leaving Peoria still in 6 Th. with cruse? impressed me! it is also fast!!?? he is getting 18 to 22 mpg around town?

 

what you need to know? don't buy a ford :lol:

DH says the dodges are nice.

 

2000 GMC Sierra SLT 4x4, sportside box, GT-5 (4.10 gears to tow a trailer), towing package, etc, MSRP $45,000 Cdn purchase price $39,000 Cdn. Hmmm, lessee here:

- bad rear pinion seal first week of ownership. Noticed a puddle of gear oil when I backed out of the garage.

- my Vortec 5.3 developed that infamous Vortec "piston slap" - or whatever they call it now - around 5,000km. It started to use a bit of oil too.

- "drum in hat" parking brakes needed adjusting every 6 months or they would never hold the empty truck, let alone the trailer hooked up.

- "drum in hat" rear parking brakes conveniently wore out 7 months past warranty, cost $850 to repair. I've never worn out parking brakes in my life, my original 1984 Ford F-150 has only needed new shoes twice over 530,000km.

- the rear American Axle & Manufacturing axle was a POS. Always did have a bit of a whine to it, that may have been due to the 4.10 gearing. The rear seals went after 3 years.

- many problems with the AutoTrak 4x4 system. I usually ended up stuck (Stranded) at my old cabin, as I couldn't drive out due to the system reverting to 2WD mode. They replaced the mode select switch cluster twice under warranty, once off warranty ($165). They also replaced the speed sensor reluctor rings a couple of times, then discovered a loose pin in the wiring harness connector at the switch.

Note: I actually looked after the truck. At 1,000km, I changed all the fluids except the engine oil, which the dealer recommended at 3,500km. I changed the rear axle oil after towing the first time too.

I quickly replaced the 80W-90 front gear oil with a synthetic 75W-90, dealer said I was nuts and it would ruin the axle. Just the opposite, sometime in 2002-2003, there was a TSB requiring a synthetic 75W-90 in the front axle. Seems the 80W-90 was too thick for a cold climate (No! Really?!) and the electric motor that engaged/disengaged the pawl for the front axle was burning out in a lot of trucks. Mine worked fine, when the rest of the transfer case worked that is.

It was a nice truck, looked *very* sharp in that Sunset Gold Metallic paint. And when everything worked, it worked well. That just wasn't very often.

 

Karl:

I've never owned a 3/4 or 1 ton truck, but I know people who have. For the best combination of long-term motor durability, economy, and power, consider a Dodge Ram with the Cummins inline-6 turbodiesel and the 6 speed standard transmission.

The rest of the truck will appear and feel crappy, and will probably fall apart with the motor still going strong.

The 3/4 and 1 ton Sierra use an Isuzu designed and built V8, which is completely different from the older GM 6.2 and 6.5. For starters, it's actually reliable and works well. It's best teamed up with the Allison automatic. The older Allison 1000 was a 5 speed auto, I think the new one is a 6 speed auto. Easy to service, the transmission has an external spin-on filter.

The older Ford PowerJoke made a lot of noise, like a bunch of marbles in an empty coffee can, the new one is very quiet. Folks I know who have them have reported issues with rail leaks and some head gasket problems.

Whatever the choice, make sure you run the correct viscosity motor oil. Something like Mobil Delvac 1 5W-40 or the newer Mobil 1 Truck & SUV 5W-40 is ideal for this application. In temps consistently colder than -20 C, run a heavy duty synthetic 0W-30.

Here in Canada, you can get a synthetic heavy duty 0W-30 from Esso/Imperial Oil. I use it in my tractor at the hobby farm as a winter oil, and it works very well.

 

I live in an area where there are a lot of pickups. I have a Chevy 4X4 diesel, its 14 years old and still running great, about 20 mpg highway/18 city. Just normal maintenance and replaced a few minor things, still drives like new. Of course I don't use it much because I have this neat little car called a Prius that's really fun to drive. But the old truck is sure nice to have around when it snows or when I need to go to the lumber yard.

My friend has a Dodge 4X4 Cummins Diesel with the 6 speed manual gearbox, I love it (for a truck anyway). It gets a little better mileage than my old Chevy and will pull anything, as previously stated.

I haven't had any experience with Ford diesel trucks other than driving a couple of them at work, they seemed fine and there are those who swear by them.

Personally I would pick any one of the three, or wait for the new Toyota. If I know anything about Toyota their new truck will be a very good product.

 

If the Tunda diesel holds up half as good as this Hilux it might be worth waiting for.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/prog28/toyota.shtml

 

Ford maintains its lead in the pickup arena year after year for good reason...


Oh, you said you wanted BIG:

BIG truck



Now, don't wimp out! You SAID big! Of course, literally driving a dump truck as a personal vehicle might seem stupid to SOME narrow minded types, but I say...I agree!

 

my father has an F350 Duelly Lariet. It's an 05 model i believe. It's smooth, nothing can stop it. he runs a construction company. He can haul a good 5 tons and not really feel the effect on his truck. He had an F250 but they don't hold up like the F350 does. It's a really nice truck. it only get 13.5mpg or about 14mpg.. but he drives like a maniac.. so.. yeah. if you drive good you can get in the 16 range or so.

 

Schmeek,

Edit: Why do you want diesel anyway?

I just wanted to pop in and say you really can't go wrong with an F250/350, there are TONS of great deals to be had now on them, and used trucks in general. Back in December, I seriously considered trading the Prius in for either a GMC Sierra 1500, or '04 F150 with 30K on the clock for around 20K.

...and if you're going the F route, you might as well pitch out and get the 5.4L V8, you're not going to save any meaningful amounts of gas with the 4.6L, plus you get a little more power. However, stay away from the '01's and '02's as some of those 5.4's had piston slap (which was, supposedly, "harmless").

I will add in this piece of advice though, do NOT let them know when you're going to show up for a test drive. Make sure you're with the salesman when he starts the truck up COLD, and listen real well. Lots of piston slap/valve problems (and various other engine problems) express themselves most significantly upon cold start up.

Oh yeah, and when you do decide upon a particular truck (or simply want to research one), check out the respective message boards, for example, f150online.com, is a great resource for Ford trucks.

 

In the Real World, Toyota 4 cyl diesel motors in their HiLux trucks and Land Cruiser's are famous for durability. I've never seen a Chevy pickup in Australia. I've been to Johannesburg, South Africa, once, and never noticed any American trucks.

Just plenty of Toyota HiLux trucks, some battered like that poor truck from Top Gear, also Nissan diesels and a funky customised MAN. It looked something like this one:

http://www.man-mn.co.uk/en/Trucks/TGL/TGL.jsp

It had wild body fairing and paint. I was too stunned to take a picture, just kept thinking "what the HELL is THAT?!?"

 

I agree with you Jayman.
Wealthy oil Middle Eastern countries, Israel, and some Latin American countries, predominantly Mexico, Venezuela and Columbia are the places where you find American trucks.
My biggest experience is on the African continent, where I have seen a few American trucks used mainly by American expats or US State Dept workers. Africa is truly Toyota and Land Rover territory as roads are seasonal and there is very little tarmac around with an exception of few countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Morocco). I have seen one Hummer only used by a wealthy mine owner to show off, and the funny thing is he only drove it on a paved road. I've seen US military Hummers in Djibouti where there is little challenge for them as they mainly commute from a base to the airport. In a Paris Dakar Rally somehow Hummers can't manage nor compete with Toyota's and Land Rovers such as Defender (not the glitzy Land Rover that we see used by wealthy suburbanites as a status vehicle). I've been off roading in some places with GPS only, without any roads whatsoever, and the only cars that I bumped into were Toyotas, Nissans, Mitsubishis, military Mercedes and Renault, and Land Rovers. Even if you get to the very hostile territories UN peace keepers use Toyotas, with special military chassis that can get dropped from helicopters and can withstand impact.

 

Trust me, the only place a HMMWV can't go is where it's too narrow to fit. I've driven them in some pretty rugged places and they've always answered the call. We beat the hell out of them and the still ran. Most of them were pretty old too. I can only speak for the military ones. I've never touched a civilian one. I doubt that they're made to the same specs. The civies are petrol, not diesel, right? I would never want to drive a land cruiser in combat. They're way too top heavy. They run well and they're tough but the vehicles no good if it's on its side. That's true for almost all of the civilian SUVs and Jeeps. Horrible stability.

 

I was talking about civilian cars, and I don't know much about military vehicles although I have seen them.
Just want to add that diesel is the choice for Africa due to reliablity and lack of petrol and petrol stations.

 

Is there anything, anything at all, about the U.S. you actually like, or even won't put down for a moment? To tell you the truth, I don't think I've ever seen you post one, even one, positive item...

 

Regarding civilian Hummers, the H1's were the real deal, the H2 is just a re-skinned Tahoe. But they're tall! (that last 'positive' bit was for Squiddy).

 

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