Do I need a diesel?

EdJonesJeeper

EdJonesJeeper

The Stig's NC cousin
Joined
Apr 24, 2010
Location
Pisgah Forest, NC
I live in the mountains and would use it as a DD for 40 miles a day. I want 4x4 crew cab with a short bed.

I'd be towing a TJ and or an XJ at the most to Harlan, Golden Mountain and Windrock of the likes.

My budget for now is 15-18k.

I would like to stick with the Golden ages of tow pigs if I go with a diesel I.e
03-04 cummins (tranny scares me)
06-07 duramax (expensive)
99-00 7.3 (slow, cheap and steady)


Or should I just bite the bullet and get a gasser and never try to haul two rigs? The chance of me hauling two rigs at this point is less than 20%. I just don't want to have issues because I'm overloading a gasser pulling the mountains.


For what it's worth I also would love to run biodiesel and I'm not 100% sure I can with the 04 cummins or the duramax.
 
can probably find a damn nice 2500 GM with the 6.0 and 4l80e for that price range....crappy fuel economy, though.
 
Aside from the fuel milage issue a gasser would be an alright tow rig as long as you understand and can live with the fact that if you're loaded heavy you're not going to win any drag race to the top of the mountain. Most trucks from the last decade or so have little if any difference in tow capacity between gas or diesel, in other words they're rated to pull the same weight just the more powerful engine will do it faster.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
 
You need to weigh the diesel repair costs vs. fuel economy gains vs. initial costs and so on. The "golden age" diesels are great as far as engine reliability goes. But they all seem to have other issues as well. Issues like crappy seats, cracked dashes, transmission problems, front axle service items among others. That being said, I have a 190,000 mile 99 7.3. But I have the ability to fix whatever it may need. That in itself allowed me to buy an older "golden age" truck. Ya know what I mean? An injector for a CRD Cummins is $600-$800 plus labor. 2 unit bearings, ball joints and a couple front axle joints will set you back over a grand.

In order to properly and safely tow 2 rigs more than occasionally, I wouldn't consider a SRW truck. I can't see you pimping around a 4wd dually.

It seems that you would be well served with a somewhat new 1/2 ton truck and a lighter weight trailer. Drop the gasser into 2nd or 3rd coming up Old Fort and Saluda, no biggie. Like Hurley said, a 2500 Chevy or GMC rides great, delivers adequate power and gets acceptable mileage. Don't buy a diesel for mileage alone. Unless you are professionally towing, it'll never be worth it.
 
drkelly said:
4L80E is the GM auto tranny behind the 6.0 in the Chevy trucks.
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And its "basically" an old turbo 400 with an overdrive making it a four speed.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
 
EdJonesJeeper said:
03-04 cummins (tranny scares me)
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Go with the manual transmission. I know that they are harder to find. I've got an 01 Ram CTD with the NV4500 tranny. The truck has 225,000 miles with no tranny problems.
 
I was faced with the same issue a few years back. I wanted another CTD but I couldn't justify it. So, I ended up buying 01 F350 Crew cab with a V10. With a good programmer and a slight exhaust mod, it makes plenty of power to drag my 36 ft 9500lb travel trailer or my 30 ft 10,000 lb (loaded) toyhauler up into the mountains.
I just had to learn to deal with the higher RPM's of the gas motor.
I'm currently looking for a newer V10 truck, I love it.
 
My wife can't drive my diesel truck either.
 
Yep. Don't overlook a V10. I had one in my Excursion. It towed my heavy pig of an MJ around just fine. Plus, since they aren't a diesel, people let them go fairly cheap.
 
Jody Treadway said:
Yep. Don't overlook a V10. I had one in my Excursion. It towed my heavy pig of an MJ around just fine. Plus, since they aren't a diesel, people let them go fairly cheap.
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Love mine!!! I am replacing my motor with a crate as we speak......
 
The more I read about a duramax LBZ mpg and biodiesel capabilities the more I like it.

V10 fuel mileage yikes!

Any major issues with the lbz years with higher mileage I need to worry about?
 
Really all the Duramax engine were good. Some say the LB7 had injector problems. I have a 02 with 70k on it an have never done anything to it. I do change my oil an fuel filter every 5k. The LBZ is also a good engine, but around the 05 the trucks seem to have alot of instrament (guage cluster) problems.
 
EdJonesJeeper said:
The more I read about a duramax LBZ mpg and biodiesel capabilities the more I like it.

V10 fuel mileage yikes!

Any major issues with the lbz years with higher mileage I need to worry about?
Click to expand...
Do the math, the v10 is way cheaper.... Cost to purchase,let's say the excurison, I gave $4,100 for mine with 130k on it. The diesels where going for $16-18k.... Gas is 3.49 compared to 3.95.... Milage is 12 mpg vs 19mpg... It takes about 300k miles to break even...
 
I bought the duramax in my signature for under $7k. It had 290k on it when I bought it. It now has 315k. The steering was loose, and the leather on the drivers seat was worn out (and it looked like a 10 year old truck with 300k miles, haha), but now that I've replaced a few things on the steering, it drives as good as a new truck. I've got about $8k total in it with steering stuff and new tires, and anticipate getting another 150k-200k out of it before I sell it. With the way diesel truck prices are going, it will probably be worth more than I paid for it in 10 years anyway, haha! Is it in perfect condition? No. But it looks good from 20ft away, gets 18mpg when I drive it to work, pulls 10k pounds just fine, rides decent, has good AC, and is paid for.
 
snappy said:
Do the math, the v10 is way cheaper.... Cost to purchase,let's say the excurison, I gave $4,100 for mine with 130k on it. The diesels where going for $16-18k.... Gas is 3.49 compared to 3.95.... Milage is 12 mpg vs 19mpg... It takes about 300k miles to break even...
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You're definitely tugging on my inner budget mind. Those numbers look great.

I understand you don't have to put a weighted tag and I've seen the up side in safety of belongings in an SUV like an Excursion.

How many miles did you put on your's to need to replace the engine?

There are few and far between ford v10s out there that I can find. And I really want a truck bed. What do I need to look out for with the v10s?
 
I was at 200k, the previous owner negelected oil changes.... The up side is remans are very reasonable. I will still be under 10k with new tires, reman motor, and a few extra goodies in total....
 
snappy said:
Do the math, the v10 is way cheaper.... Cost to purchase,let's say the excurison, I gave $4,100 for mine with 130k on it. The diesels where going for $16-18k.... Gas is 3.49 compared to 3.95.... Milage is 12 mpg vs 19mpg... It takes about 300k miles to break even...
Click to expand...

Mighty compelling numbers there brother! I wondered if that was why the X hadn't undergone the Cummins transplant...

My buds '99 F-250 XCLB 4x4 (150k) with FULL compliment of Banks widgets drags down 12 highway/10 towing. By rough cipher, that's 20% better than a comparable 8.1L... just saying :D
 
Caver Dave said:
Mighty compelling numbers there brother! I wondered if that was why the X hadn't undergone the Cummins transplant...

My buds '99 F-250 XCLB 4x4 (150k) with FULL compliment of Banks widgets drags down 12 highway/10 towing. By rough cipher, that's 20% better than a comparable 8.1L... just saying :D
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Exactly why..... Used cummins $2000
Adapters $2500
Tcm $600
Inter cooler $200
Fuel tank $150
Fuel lines and other misc $500
All that to have a motor that has who knows mileage......
Math didn't add up for me
 
I had an 07 SCLB Chevy 2500 6.0 and NV4500. Made 2-3 trips to Tellico pulling a heavy YJ on a lowboy. The 5pd made all the difference towing. Got decent mileage unloaded and acceptable loaded. The 4L80 is 100 times better than a 4L60 found in the 1/2 ton trucks. If your pulling a load 2-3 times a month a diesel is the way to go. But other than fuel mileage towing and more power there is no upside to me. for DD purpose gas is the way to go.
 
Hemi Commander? I tow my pig of a XJ behind mine and even in the mountains of VA, no issues. I get 11mpg towing 7k behind it. It is rated at 7400# and with a equalizing/stabilizing hitch and a Prodigy controller, I never know the Heep/19' trailer is back there. A very comfy and stable tow vehicle.

I don't recommend it for daily or weekly heavy towing but for the trip to Harlan once a month it would be fine.

ai418.photobucket.com_albums_pp266_xjtrailrider_jeep_20fleet_0703131736.jpg
 
I wouldn't want to DD a diesel(my DD gets 30+mpg) but I couldn't imagine living in the mountains and constantly towing with a gasser. I'm thinking you may get tired of that rather quickly. I admit I have the HP bug and love to kill hills five over the speed limit with the cruise on. I'm thankful my wife can drive a stick and has learned how to tow a trailer. I dislike towing anything with any auto trans and I've done it alot, just can't get the thought of failure/possible over heating out of my head. I don't have to think about my manual transmission, I RARELY have to downshift my trans. I cringe everytime an auto tranny drops two gears, although some vehicles sound great at that point:D No offense anyone, thats just my .02
 
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