How about the Pappa Duramax

[Dinkie Diesel]

Anyone know where I might find any articles or forums relating to the 7.8l Duramax? I am shopping for a Medium Duty and can't find poop on the 7.8l. Is it as good as a Cat 7.2l or better?

[IndigoDually]

Check the "Medium-Duty" forum in the "Other Deisel" section of the forums page. There has been some talk along those lines going on.

John

[mark45678]

dinkie D what are you looking to do with the truck? I was faced with the same questions back in lat 99 when I was looking to replace the shop delivery truck with some thing bigger.I ended up getting a GMC 6500 with a CAT 3126(7.2l) 210 hp. my reason for chooseing the cat was we have a few really good big truck dealer to service it with in a 20 mile area. Plus I dont think at the time the dmax had the power I was looking for. I have a 24'box on 11/22.5 tires with a 3:70 rear gear and a 6 speed 26,000gvw. its geared to run about 85 mph and limited by the computer to 76 mph. and gets right around 9 mpg at 68. its 12' 9" high and theres no roof spoiler to push the air up over the box, I think if there was you may pick up 1 mpg. I would NOT get anything less the 210 hp in this configuration even though a lot of dealer/rental places have them with 190 hp and autos! If your getting a allison in this package you will want 30 more hp just to keep up with traffic(230 hp) If I was driveing this truck every day I would have cat turn up the motor to 250/275 hp but there are to many morrons that dont have respect for how much weight you have and how long it takes to stop it! the hydrolic disk brake by bendix are about the best there is for MD truck.... If you dont get Air brakes we have 75k on the truck todate 1 injector at 1000 miles and 1 brake job at 62K no tires and more then 1/2 of the tread still left! Michelins a+

[ 04-07-2002: Message edited by: mark45678 ]</p>