Need help to decide what truck to buy.

[Bowties4Life]

Hello everyone. I'am new to this site. I want to know more information on
The diesel trucks. I always had gmc or chevy big blocks trucks and they
Tow fine but to drive around town or to tow my chevelle weighs 4,000
And my boat is 20ft and weighs 5,000 it just sucks up fuel. I've been looking
At articles on diesel trucks and it looks they are much better for towing and on
Fuel seem to get better mileage with a load or with out and. I've read a couple of
Post on here that some get 17 & 18 or 19 or 22 miles a gallon that's dam good.
I also see that when they tow the mileage drops to 10 to 11 miles that really a big drop. Then
They say that the engine only has about I think 4 or 6,000 miles. I don

[More Power]

Welcome to the BB!

With the loads you're pulling, a 2500HD would be a better fit - when considering fuel economy. A dually generally delivers a little lower fuel economy (1-2 mpg).

Some see a slight improvement in fuel economy over time, due to drivetrain break-in and the driver learns how to manage the engine/trans more efficiently.

12 towing and 20 empty are what I see (Interstate travel).

MP

[poolman12]

Hi Bowties
Tow 3 different trailers at times weighing 5,000
to 8,000 and get 13 mpg -- 15 mpg mixed town & hwy. Don't know how much dually would drop on mpg. I don't pull enough weight to justify dually with extras tires to buy & mpg drop. Also wider than comfortable with driving. Lot of rednecks around this part of country drive duallys for fun, also usually have biggest & meanest dog.

Have a good day. I started to get dually last time, but couldn't talk myself into it. Maybe i'm part redneck

[Bowties4Life]

The onely reason i want a dually is i will
be buying a 25ft 5th wheeler down the line.
will this be to much truck for that or will
the 2500 due.

[rjschoolcraft]

You shouldn't need a dually to pull a 25ft 5th wheel. The dually gives you extra stability for heavy towing or loads, but lot's of folks tow much larger with SRW 2500HD's or 3500's. A 25' 5th wheel shouldn't even come close to the rated towing capacity of a 2500HD.

I tow a 32' travel trailer with my 2500 Suburban. Fully loaded, it weighs 9000 lbs.

[tsreich76086]

I have a 2003 HD2500 with Duramax and Allison. I am in the equipment business part time, and this truck has seen 30,000# on numerous occasions. I also pull a 30' double slide fith wheel, and have had no problems. You will have to watch DOT closer if you are driving a dually.

[Bowties4Life]

Thanks for the info. If you have any
more info to share please do so thanks.

[Coldfront]

Bow tie You would be fine with a 3/4 ton duramax allison Gm now makes a 1 ton single wheel. But that would be over kill. I get 22-23( without the tailgate) mph empty in my dually about 11 with 3500 lbs of truck camper. I bought the dually for the top heavy truck camper. the dually is kinda of a pain in town. If I can get ya any info let me know I sell chevys. regards jim

[Bowties4Life]

That's pretty good fule mileage for a dually.
Does the 2500 get the same mileage emty or with a load that you may know. How is it towing with the singal wheel compare to the dually with the weight that i'll be towing that i have now can you tell the difference. Now say i decide to get a longer car trailer to pull two cars or i want to upgrade my 5th wheeler. This truck well be used mostly on the weekends for going to the ci local city parks and camping and taking the boat and taking the car to the track or just take a long drive to get out of town. I have a little 92 toyota tercel that i use every day to go to work. I work 20 miles from home. This is what i use to get around town and parking is great with this little car. Is the dually and the singal real wheel crew cab the same length. I figure if they are the same lenght that either way i would have trouble parking a big truck like that any where. Thats why i'm not to worry about parking i have my small little car and my wife has has a honda van and a bmw so if i need anything bigger than my car to go shoping we take the van. Thanks for the info i been receiving from everybody keep it coming.

[Bowties4Life]

One more thing if i get a Signal rear wheel truck it would be a 4x4. If i decide to get the dually it would be two wheel drive i know this
will make a big difference i'm thinking in towing and fuel mileage. Again thanks for the info.

[joe hatfield]

Welcome
I agree with the general consense that a dually is overkill for you and they are a pain to try and park in town, if you don't backin to a parking spot, someone will break your pretty fenders getting into or out of their parking spot (the 93 has had 4 rear fenders replaced due to this at about $1200 a pop complete) As you can see in my sig I own both GMC and Dodge, the 93 was my 7th or 8th GM product and I liked it, with a few Fords thrown in for fun. I was very reluctant to purchase a Dodge as I had never owned one in the past. However I have had no problems with it in 70K+ work miles and love the Cummins HO/6spd combination. It gets between 16.6 and 17.5 mpg empty around town and 19 to 20 mpg 75mph on the highway. Loaded with gvw in excess of 20k it will get 11.5 to 13 mpg running hard!.
The Dodge is not as comfortable as the GM product, but is not bad at all. I don't like the radically sloped windshield as it gets really hot when the sun shines (only a couple of months a year in Oregon). All in All I would buy another one. What I would really like to see is the option to have the Cummins in a GMC w/the Allison
That would make me a happy camper. Whatever you do don't even consider the 6L Powerstroke, it has been a nightmare for Ford Just my .02's worth

[dcalex]

Well, Bowtie, it looks like your getting some good info here. It would appear that the way you use your truck would eliminate a lot of the negatives with the dually, but that is more truck than you need. You don't say where you live so we don't really know what practical use of a 4X4 you'd have, but if it were me and given what you have said, I would go with the 4X4 2500HD over the 4X2 dually. Dually's have their purpose and they're good for that.....you just don't really need one. The 2500 really will do all you need and lots more....it's not as though your taking it close to the wire....your not: there will be a lot of truck left over after you've hitched up.
You mentioned fuel mileage in your first post, so I'm thinkin' that it's one of your prime concerns. You also mentioned that there was quite a drop in towing vs unloaded....well thats true, but consider this. These tow mileages drop because the darned trucks will tow your load 70 - 75 mph down the road. That drops mileages. If you want to nurse it along you can improve those mileages, but I'm willing to bet as you get on down the interstate, you'll be right up there with the rest of them....why?....because it'll do it and never even let you think it's working....because it's not :D

[Bowties4Life]

Again thanks for the information it is really helpful. My wife tells me the same thing don't get a dually it's To much. She likes the crew cab 2500. Well with this information I at least know that I won't have no Problem towing what ever i need to tow. Thank you all. If there is anything else I need to know about these trucks please let me know. Like I said before I'm new to diesels so this helps. Thanks.

[royalglen]

Just traded from 03 to 05-was happy until i looked under and saw road salt and rust-not from transport but before assembly?Transmission-Transfer case were loaded with road salt. The front U-joint yoke was so rusted it was already pited. The frame and steering parts Did`nt have any evidents of salt so the problem with transmission etc is before assembly.Take i good look under before u buy.Is Flint in a 3rd world country?

[VT_mountain_man]

Well Royalglen must be right, Flint is a 3rd world Country ! My 2004 GMC 2500HD with a LLY is still at the Dealer waiting parts, week 3 day 19 and counting. less than 7K miles on it.
I spent the big $$$$$$ on this truck and now think I should have gone with a Big block Gas job or maybe stayed with the Dodge.

I have been reading a lot of the old posts here in the forum and don't see any benefit or payback to the Duramax. What I do see is a lot of injector problems at big $$$$ if you have to
pay for them. And other parts that you might need if you can get them from GM.

Also the cost of Diesel is running about 35 to 40 cents more than gas. thus the posted 16 to 18 mpg Diesel is not that great when a gas job gets 11 to 14 mpg in the same rig. you can buy a lot of gas with the extra $6000 saved on the diesel. Just my 2 cents worth! Enjoy

[dcalex]

VT....sorry to hear about your problems and that it has soured you on GM. I do need to clarify some of what you said though. The $6000 for the Dmax isn't quite true when you break it out. Yes, thats the rounded out numbers for the HD power package, but that package includes the Allison, HD air, locking rear axle and a few other things. The Allison being a big chunk of it. When I broke it out the Dmax itself came out at a bit under $3600 and that didn't include the $1000 incentive on the package nor the Dmax incentives that may be in place at any one time. Of course there's incentives on the other packages too. My point is that the Dmax isn't all of that $6000 since you'd want those other things with the big block as well.
Yes......your right....gotta be aware of the injector issues. This is one of those things where we each have to make an informed decision and weigh the risk vs gain....it'll be different for each of us.

Fuel costs.....I don't pretend to understand the forces that are driving it.....sometimes I think I've got a handle on the causes only to see something else crop up. Anyway, here where I live (So Ca) diesel seems to holding , on average, somewhere around the mid-range gas prices. Don't know why it's that high.

[Bowties4Life]

I have a friend at work who has a chevy truck
with the 496 big block with the Allison he loves it. He pulls a 30ft trailer but he is thinking
of trading it in for a diesel of course it would
be a chevy. He told me he is getting 7 miles a gallon when towing. Empty he gets a little more but not much. That is a big difference when you
look at the diesel and some people here on this
site are getting 11 12 or 13 miles a gallon towing the same trailer and much much better Empty. I thought of getting a big block at first
but the gas mileage is a killer. Sorry to here about you truck. I think most of the trucks gm makes are good and once in awhile you get a bad one and makes every body back off from buying one.