We don't tow often, maybe once a month at the most. Selling our Ford dually crew cab long bed, because it's so large and cumbersome to drive daily( forget parking garages, drive-thrus, and parking remotely close to a store  .)   Considering the Chevy 2500 HD, husband wants the Duramax with the Allison transmission, but I'm leaning toward the smaller V8 gas engine. ( In our area diesel costs more per gallon, and we'll only be pulling a trailer occassionally) Anyone recommend one over the other?

 BTW, the Duramax with allison trans. is about $8,000 more than the 6 liter gas engine. Our trailer is a 4H all aluminum Featherlite and we usually only have 3 horses( max) in at one time.

This might start up the whole gas vs. diesel debate again. However, I owned a F-250 once with the V-10, which is the closest equivalent to your gas engine in the Chevrolet.  When I went to trade it in on a diesel, I could hardly get a good trade in value for it.  It had the power, but I took a hit when it came time to get rid of it.  One of the parents of my FFA show kids just bought a new Chevrolet 2500 HD with the gas engine in it and he pulls a 24 foot Featherlite stock trailer hauling 6 head of show cattle with it. These cattle will easily match the weight of any horse.  He says that it pulls good.  Personally, I like the diesel engine.  I would lean more towards it for the long run.  Plus, it should come with more warranty as well.  Not sure how Chevrolet does warranty on their gas engines.  I know the 6.0 in the Ford comes with 100k mile warranty. 

I've got a 2004 2500HD ext cab with a duramax/allison in 4X4.  It is the best truck I have ever owned.  I've got 95K on it already and think it is just about broke in.  Do yourself a favor and get the duramax.  They are a great truck.  Remember for the money you are getting the duramax which is fine but your favorite part will be the allison.  The allison is by far and away the best tranny in the light duty truck. 

You will spend a bit more for the duramax but you will get quite a bit of it back in resale.  With my trailer (15K lbs) I get 9.5mpg when it is flat and not blowing like crazy.  It is a bit much for the truck but it does a pretty good job for me. 

Everytime I go up a hill I always tell my wife that we would be going as slow as those people we are passing if I would have bought the gas instead of the duramax.   

Later,

Chad

I would get the diesel, you'll get most or all of the additional cost you spend on the diesel back when you sell the truck.  In between, you'll have the added power, durability and fuel mileage of a diesel.  

My sister-in-law has a 2500 with the 6.0 gas engine in it.  We pulled our gooseneck trailer with 3 horses and everything but the kitchen sink in it, to Oklahoma City, with our 7.3 liter Diesel Ford dually.   She followed us with her truck and a 2 horse bumper pull trailer.  Our trailer weighed in at about 9500lbs, her trailer at about 6000lbs, even with her much lighter load, her gas engine really strained to keep up with us on hills and she had to stop for fuel almost twice as often as we did.  The duramax will outpull our 7.3 liter engine, so for you with your trailer the difference between the two engines is probably pretty significant.

And lastly, my sister-in-law and I both use our trucks for daily driving.  We figured out that even when diesel is .60 cents more per gallon, it's still cheaper to drive our diesel trucks than hers because ours diesels get much better mpg. 

From  a women's standpoint, buy a diesel or just keep what you have and buy a little car to toot around town. I've pulled with a 2500 gasser and now have the Duramax, and would never go back. I use my Dmax for all of my driving, around town, traveling and towing my 3horse gooseneck with a 6' short walled living quarters. I get 18mpg around town, 20-22mpg on the highway, without a trailer and 15-16mpg towing. And as others have said, the Allison transmission is superb.

Your husband is right in leaning towards a  diesel. I once had a guy come up to me while I was putting fuel in my truck with my trailer attached and he just shook his head and said" I should have bought one of those(Duramax)" and walked away. I watched him and he went over and got into his Chevy 2500HD gasser.

Thanks everyone .  I do have a chevy car to run errands in, but she's on her last leg, were going to trade in both the car and the dually for the Chevy truck.  I love the Ford dually, runs and pulls great, it's just the length and the width of the truck makes it difficult to manuever around town and I couldn't justify keeping it only to pull horses once a month. I think we will go with the Duramax or look at the Ford's SWB diesel. Thanks for all the advice!  : )

We bought a diesel truck ( ford 250) primarily because we wanted the pulling power of a diesel and the longer life of the engine. We bought it used rather than new, let someone else drive the depreciation off. I wouldn't buy new again unless there was a incredible deal.

I don't drive the truck for everyday stuff. We have a small car for that. Its easier to tootle around in, easier to get my stuff in and out plus, if we have a kid or two with us, there just isn't any room in the truck. With the 4:10 rear axle and over sized tires, I can get about 14 mpg pulling and its chipped.

Kyhorsechic,
I sent you a P.M.

                 Ardly

The gas engine is cheaper in the start and it will get r done but it eats gas and is not as good when it comes to pulling,My good friend has a chevy 2500 gas job and if we move hay he has to stop and fill up twice as often as I do.I bought a Ford simply because I couldn't get Chevy to give Me a good deal.Not to mention got the basic same package with all the goodies for $10000 less than Chevy.I don't have any chips but the dog puked in the back and the grand kids spilled some pop !!

That ought to be good for a couple of more miles per gallon.

I'm with you Farmbabe I really like the sound of a diesel and very rarely have trouble finding diesel. I would really have a hard time going back to a gas engine for towing.

Hi, new here. If what someone was telling me is right, I'd wait. I don't think it's a done deal yet and could take a couple of years for the change, but there is talk Chrysler, now owned by Mercedes, wants to end their deal with Cummins and go with a Mercedes diesel. Which has GM talking to Cummins about replacing the Duramax.

So have any of our truck experts here heard anything about the possibility of this actually happening?

Edited to add, if you aren't going to be driving it long distances when you do drive it, you might be better off with the gas engine. Diesels do best when they go distances on a regular basis.

There is a very large road construction company in my area that has a very large fleet of pickups, approx. 150 of them.  Most of these pickups are used to get to job sites, bring fuel to road equipment, that sort of thing.  They run these vehicles to approx. 120,000 to 150,000 miles.  They seldom use these pickups to pull a trailer however.  They run all Fords, and most are predominately super duty F250's.  In the past they have run a mix of diesels and gassers.  They keep an excellent history of each and every vehicle, keeping track of any cost associated with that vehicle, all the way down to light bulbs.  Starting this year, they will no longer buy any diesel pickups, because they can't justify the expense of them.  It costs them more per mile driven to have a diesel than it does a gas engine.

I think a diesel is a great engine for pulling a trailer, and if you want one, by all means you should have one.  I think there are many positives to be had by having a diesel such as more power and torque.  I just don't think that you can justify one by claiming you will be money ahead with one, especially if you aren't pulling a trailer constantly.  That's the great thing about the good ole USA; we have a choice of not only different brands, but different power plants to put in them.  In the end, do what is best for you and you alone, because you're the one who has to make the payments. 

It's just a matter of preference, I've done cross country travelling in both Fords & Chevy's.  Personally, I find the interior of the Ford much more comfortable and so does my husband who is 6'4".  Also, in my opinion, the fit and finish in the Ford is nicer than in the Chevy.  Our Fords are 7 and 4 years old, and the exterior and interiors look great.  My sister-in-law's Chevy truck is a year old and already has things breaking on it.  Both side view mirrors are broken, the doors on the passenger side have wind noise (since it was new) so loud it sounds like the window is partly open (the dealer has tried to fix it with no luck).  And lastly, the hinge on the lid for the center console is broken.  My sister doesn't abuse her truck, it's happened under normal use, I wouldn't expect it to happen in a truck so new.

Hey I am no expert but when I go to buy a truck, I buy what I like. If she likes the ford better, even if she thinks the chevy has "wimpy" tires, thats her business. I like nice, well placed cup holders and I am no interior auto designer. My pal has a nice Chevy,slick number it is. She loves it. I have a Ford- I love it. They both do the same job but we just perfer different things about them.

I'm not talking about hearsay, I'm talking about my experience.  When we went looking at diesels in 1999, we looked at all three, Ford, Chevy and Dodge.  We were most impressed with the Ford, that's why we chose that brand, and we've been really happy with both of our trucks.  I agree that you'll find happy and unhappy truck owners no-matter which brand you buy, and that the quality of the big three trucks isn't always what it should be.

you may notice the gmc dmax at the bottom of my sig, but when i had the trailblazer it got 13.5mpg pulling the same trailer.....and it was gas.

Occasional towing only, you'll never make up the initial expense of the diesel/Allison option.  Maintenance is higher on a diesel, and if diesel is more expensive than gasoline in your area then you're really probably better buying a gasoline engine.

NOW, having said that, I prefer towing with a diesel over gas any day.  I owned a '91 F-350 IDI diesel and now own an '06 Ram 3500 diesel WITHOUT an automatic transmission.  Best truck I have ever owned, bar none.  The Dmax/Allison are a great combination but are very expensive, and you'll need to consider rebuild costs on that Allison.  My opinion is that all automatics are getting too technical nowadays, too expensive to rebuild, and manuals are better for pure towing.  Just my opinion.

Get the gas engine, go lightly on the throttle, and enjoy reasonable mpg and lower maintenance costs.

One final thought.  Posts on this topic have mentioned Ford and Chevy, but very little about Dodge.  I come from a 10+ year background of driving Ford trucks, but defected to Dodge when I bought my new truck this month to replace my '91 F350 diesel.  Ford would not make me a good deal on price.  The Ram 3500 I ordered is TIGHT--not a rattle over ANY bump.  I could have gotten out of the dealership for $30,000 even until I started adding options such as side airbags, nav system, Jake brake, tow package, etc.  I'm totally impressed with the quality of the truck and wouldn't feel right if I didn't push it just a little bit.  This ain't your daddy's Dodge... so to say.

My wife's 2000 Silverado was falling apart when I met her in 2003; by this year, the tailgate latch trim had fallen off in my hand, her driver's side mirror had broken from just normal use, her turn signal relay would not shut off, the thing leaked coolant into the engine, and her front end was making noises.  Interior carpet had faded badly, and the seats had broken down.  SO... take the kind words on Chevy trucks with a grain of salt.  ALL the Big 3 have their problems, and you'll just have to 1) take a chance and 2) decide what you can/can't live with.  I'd say the best all-around gas-powered truck would be a Ford.  The quad cab Dodge would be my choice in a diesel--smaller than a crew cab but bigger in the back seat than Ford's extended cab offering.  The $4000 difference in negotiated price between the diesel Ram and the diesel F-350 made my decision relatively easy.

I didn't even consider Chevy due to experiences with my wife's truck and my 2001 Impala LS, which lost its transmission at 40,000 miles (and GM would not step up to help with any of the $3000 replacement cost), then lost its catalytic converter at 41,000 miles, and at 41,500 is starting to need front end work.

 Are you SURE you're getting the same mpg towing and unloaded?  That's the first time I've ever heard that, from ANY diesel pickup owner.  Most folks I know are getting about 12-14 towing 10,000 pounds with their diesels, maybe 20-22 when unloaded on the newer trucks from the Big 3 makers.

I got 12-13 with my '91 F-350 pulling a 30' long 3-horse gooseneck grossed out at 10,000 pounds.  I got 18 on the 800 mile drive home with the brand new Dodge--and that included miles of driving up the Smokies through TN/NC-- but expect 21-22 by the time it is broken in sometime after 20,000 miles.  Mileage has been constantly improving... most other Dodge owners I know are getting 13-14 with trailers anywhere from 10,000 to 14,000 pounds.  The Ford guys seem to be doing about the same.

Reg:

 I said the Chevy 2500 had LESS head room, leg room and the interior was narrower than our Ford F-350. The tires were wimpy, on the Chevy we test drove.  They sure didn't look like they belonged on a 4x4 truck, more like a sedan. The rear seats were like sitting on a stadium bench, not good in my opinion. As far as your "hip room" remark, your probably right. I'm sure you've never had hips in your truck, so you wouldn't know. 

You guys talk about Quiet like it is a good thing.

Boy, where have the real diesel enthusiasts gone.... 

 "I said the Chevy 2500 had LESS head room, leg room and the interior was narrower than our Ford F-350. The tires were wimpy, on the Chevy we test drove.  They sure didn't look like they belonged on a 4x4 truck, more like a sedan. The rear seats were like sitting on a stadium bench, not good in my opinion. As far as your "hip room" remark, your probably right. I'm sure you've never had hips in your truck, so you wouldn't know. " Quote by KYhorseychic

My '04 Dmax has those so-called "wimpy tires" you saw on a Dmax and I have 40,000 miles on them with no problems and I tow a 3 horse slant LQ gooseneck. They are wearing well and still have decent tread on them.  They are rated for towing and I'll probably go the 50,000 miles on them before I replace them with the same.

  P.S. Kyhorsechick,  please send more info on the Ford C.C. you have for sale, if it's a 4x4. I may be, I mean.... I may know someone that is interested!  What color is it?

Here ya go !!! my friend saw my new Ford CC lariat 4x4 and when we were hauling hay he was so impressed he now wants to trade his chevy for a Ford !!

Gotta get some scrap metal and fabricate a gooseneck hitch for my scooter so I can pull my 45 foot horse trailer cross country this summer.

Thats why they make different trucks......it is all in they eye of the beholder,just like women and men in a bar.Keep drinkin till they'r pretty.My diesel does drop in fuel milage when towing 15000 pounds, but My friends gas job gets what I get and his truck is empty.

IT"S ALL A MATTER OF TASTE,wimpy tires and all.

TEE HEEE HEEE ""is that a chicken your riden or are those your legs ?"