My dream truck!

[Big Eric]

I recently went looking to replace our Pontiac minivan that had over 250,000 miles on it. I was shopping online when I saw that the local dealer had a 2001 Chevy 2500HD for sale at a very reasonable price. It didn't take much to convince my wife to go and bring it home for a test drive. I have always wanted one of these trucks, and when I found out it had the 8.1 big block, I had to have it. Well, we weren't looking for minivans any longer. I always shop around just to make sure that I'm getting a good deal, and I couldn't find another 4X4 crew cab with the 8.1. All the others had diesels or the 6.0 engines. We test drove the 6.0 models and didn't like the sound or the power of those engines like we did this 8.1. We called the previous owner and he didn't have any problems with it. It only used 1 qt. of oil between oil changes and he used it to pull stock trailer. It has been well taken care, almost immaculate compared to many of the others we test drove. We love it. Our children really love it and they actually ask to be driven to school in it. No embarrassment here. Our children call the truck "Hercules." So, that's it's name. Anyhow, we came across this forum when we had a problem with the NSBU on the side of the tranny. You have an excellent forum here. I'm new to the forum. I live in the beautiful hills and bluffs of northeast Iowa and up here, we need lots of power for the hills and 4X4 to get around in the winter and in the mud.

My 2500HD has the 8.1/Allison combo, 4.10 gears with the locking diff. It has the tow package, dual batteries, skid plate, and almost all the bells and whistles. It has the cloth interior (which we prefer) and the front bucket seats. We get between 10-11 MPG no matter how we drive it, and we love our truck!

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t98/ericdurnan/IMG_2496-1.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t98/ericdurnan/IMG_2497.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t98/ericdurnan/IMG_2501.jpg

[6.5 Detroit Diesel]

very nice looking rig you got there. any plans for mods? :D

[Big Eric]

Not in the near future I don't. I am the type of guy that likes stock vehicles, unless they're pretty "vanilla." If the exhaust ever needs replaced on this one, I'd probably go dual. The engine and tranny run fine, so I wouldn't want to modify it there. The only other mod would be purely cosmetic. I'd take the stirrup steps off and put on full nerf bars, but again, not something I'm going to do here in the short term. We looked at several other trucks and this one was set up just about exactly as it would be if I had ordered it myself from the factory. The others were pretty plain Jane.

[More Power]

They are nice trucks. Great ride and great GVW/GCVWR too. Your truck has the Allison 5-speed, so any discussion in our 2500HD/3500 Drivetrain forum would apply to your truck as well.

Welcome aboard!

Jim