Best Truck for hauling

I spent a good deal of time examining the best way to go when I was ready to trade my 1999 GMC 1/2 ton 5.8 liter gas pickup. I looked at all kinds of diesels (pre-2007). Ended up with a brand new 2007 GMC dually with 6.6 liter diesel and 6 speed allison transmission here is a link to pictures of my "dream rig". http://www.mainegoats.com/transportation.html This dream rig has turned into a nightmare. At 1200 miles the SES light came on and was diagnosed as a diesel particulate filter problem... Dealer said only half of the fuel software was downloaded at the factory. At that time I was getting 14 MPG empty and it dropped to 12 MPG with an empty trailer. Diesel was only $2.79/gallon and the dealer assured me that when I had 10,000 miles on it the mileage would improve. Let me say I paid over $45,000.00 for this truck. Well 10,000 miles came and went with no improvement. This past January I hauled a wedge trailer with snow mobile trailers on it for a 6 week period. My fuel economy dropped to 7 and 8 MPG and fuel prices have increased to $4.24 per gallon while gas has only increased to $3.25. My truck now has 25,000 miles on it and I will be trading out of it this summer. I expect to take a $15,000.00 loss but with prices the way they are it will be cheaper in the long run.

Oh yes, if you live in an area with toll roads be ready to dish out big bucks. With the duallys you will pay the same rate as all the straight trucks with 2 axles and dual wheels. Here in Maine that is almost three times the passenger car rate.

I would not even consider a diesel at this point unless you can get a used one and be shown what fuel mileage it gets.

Also don't believe that "professional grade" nonsense in the GMC commercials... These trucks are the flimsiest things I've ever seen. I've got more pucks and damage on this truck than I have ever had on anything else before. Just look at it crossways and "bam" there's a dent.

I don't know much about Dodges or Fords but the new GMC's are junk! My dealer hates seeing me come in and has already offered to trade me out of it.

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Ken In Maine
www.goatschool.com

Glad someone finally said why they liked duals theres a lot more to learn in a conversation than a statement!

Actually I do Like I said Ive driven literaly hundreds of these trucks on both duals and singles while single . puling a truck on a towbar,and pulling one or two trailers.Millions of miles of experiance.


On a semi they need the width to carry the load If the tire is rated for the load your in fine shape on width.
I will grant you the "Spare factor" on duals but if its important on the rear why isnt it important on the steers?
Truth is in my experiance (yours may differ) I have far fewer blowouts on singles(none I can remeber now) than duals( Dozens,some SEARED into my brain), it could be that I drive more miles on duals or that I mess with more Duals.
I think people tend to let one or both duals run low more than singles.
For someone looking at a pickup there is the "mailbox bump" factor, You tend to hit things with the duals hanging out AFTER you have gotten the Cab past them. Walk around a walmart or better yet a Rodeo parking lot looking carefully at the duallies , you will see many where the Duallie fender has been replaced or is banged up........EVEN ON THE DRIVERS SIDE!

So for me the benifits just dont seem nearly worth the hassle. Of course Im the kind of driver that doesnt have to have the biggest hat and am happy driving the other guys truck. I dont worry much about blowouts for myself and seldom have anyone else to drive my truck so dont worry about them handleing them either> of course if I had someone else driving my truck Id worry even more about the "Bump" factor. In the end I suppose its personal priorities.

You also need to think about where you're going to be hauling. Go to any livestock auctions and you'll almost exclusively see single rear wheel trucks. Why? They have to go into muddy or snowy barnyards where duals pack up and spin, even on 4WD trucks. Same goes for snowy roads. Unless you can be pretty darn sure your roads are always going to be plowed you'll get into trouble more often with the duals.

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The internet - fueling paranoia and misinformation since 1873.

A big concern a few years back with single rear wheel 3/4 ton trucks was that they didn't have a full floating axle like you would ASSume they would. When the truck craze was really booming with the bigger is better mentality the manufacturers were producing 3/4 ton series that had C-clip type axles with a single axle bearing. This was a definite problem when adding any weight to the vehicle like towing a goosenck type trailer. They had smaller brakes and because of the single bearing they flexed and the axle seals leaked easily. Now this was on gas powered trucks as I don't remember seeing any on the diesels, they were all full floaters. Another common problem with buying a used truck is wrong weight rated tires. Tires for a HD truck, especially 6 for a dually, are expensive. So what happens is people buy the cheapo maypops that aren't the correct weight rated tire for the vehicle. I have seen passenger rated tires on a 3/4 ton truck. Be sure the tires are LT prefix on the size.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

I found a site that will answer and assist with all of the diesels out there. When I looked for my rig I found this site and have been very pleased with it. WWW.dieselplace.com the guys here are very knowledgeable and can even assist with troubleshooting.


Theront

I've run diesels in Ford one tons since 1985. The Navistar engines were OK. Once you got into the electronic fuel ignition, it wasn't something you could easily troubleshoot yourself. from the reading I've done the past few years, I 'd go with an older 12 valve Cummins in a Dodge. A six cylinder inherently has more torque than a V8 diesel. The 12 valve Cummins is also simple to modify at reasonable cost to get outrageous hp and higher rpm. It has the potential produce more hp than the current 24 valve emission engines.

As for the dually or single rear tire debate, you can get one tons with singles. I'd also pick a manual over an automatic transmission. Twenty years ago the smallest transmission that Allison made was rated around 35,000 gvw. Allison had to redesign/cheap the transmission to get it in the one tons. The 35,000 gvw Allison twenty years ago was the transmission International used in its mediulm duty trucks behind the 6.9s and 7.3s. Ford used the C6 auto which seldom lived pass 100,000 miles.

FWIW, I'm currently looking for a one ton Dodge with a 12 valve Cummins. Hopefully I'll be able to find one with about 200,000 miles that the current owner thinks is done for because of the high mileage.

Did You forget a Zero? Usually its the E4OD that ford guys complain about.