All I want to say is, you don't see to many DURAMAX with over 225,000 miles, with-out any engine repaires

 

So what you are saying is that you have looked at alot of Duramax equipped trucks odometer to see if that is a fact? How can you say this as fact?

Just curious, not trying to start a brand war, just wanted to see the scope of your investigation. I would imagine that you could find an equal amount of all brands with over 225,00 miles per ratio that are still on the road, not sold but on the road. You cannot consider totaled, flooded, fire, or whatever or base you findings on sold units. It would have to be still driven units.

 

Wow, and you know this from first hand experiance?? I guess I need to sell 3 of my Duramaxes before they internally explode, they are close to their life expectancy....


People call our trucks crap because they don't know any better. The Duramax is still called a 'retrofitted gas engine' or still think the 6.5 nightmares are a carryover to the Duramax, but it's all false. Yep, the LB7 has injector issues, but GM is taking care of that to 200k (which according to gunman is 50k away from total meltdown). The LLY will overheat for the 1% of users that work the truck to it's max, otherwise there is nothing wrong with those, the LBZ had some EGR's go bad (big woop), and the LMM is a product of the EPA with the POS DPF that all diesels now have and hate.

The IFS is just fine when the truck stays in stock trim. Add some major power, lift or big heavy wheels/tires and you'll be replacing parts....you have to pay to play, you know. Truly, when was the last time any SFA $40-50k trucks went rock crawling?? Ya, didn't think so. That's the only place SFA is superior to IFS, crawling rocks. They both go through the mud the same, they roll over stumps the same...bla bla bla, but the ride is much nicer on a IFS, plus you can get about 2" of lift for free.

The Allison is bullet proof, rear diff, frame, etc., no worries there.

I tow up to and over my GCVW and never worry about making it from point A to point B. The truck rides well and has yet to leave me stuck in the mud, even with a trailer behind it, but tire make the difference there, too.

 

In my opinion the duramax is a good compromise of the things I like in a truck. Mines an LBZ, has plenty of power, but I added an edge juice and opened up the exhaust to help pull my big trailer (didn't help much, just gets to hot now). The transmission works just as fine as any other auto transmission I've had, nothing magical about it for me (not impressed with the manual shift at all) and the tow haul works just like the tow haul in my 06 Dodge did. I like to take my Chevy out in the hills better because it does ride a notch smoother, but there is a noticeable problem in catching the cross members on old two track roads.

I love that it sits lower than my dodge, as it's my daily work truck and makes it easy getting things in and out of it. I like the room the crew cab has, I can take three guys and my dog with me comfortably and then flip the seat back down and load up with tools. While I feel my Dodge has more pulling power and handles trailers better, the Chevy is no wimp at it either, it can get the job done just the same.

Realistically, my only true gripe is the cost of the thing. I don't understand why they cost so much more, it is not any better or any worse than the Dodge. If it wasn't for the fact that I just like having different kinds of trucks, I wouldn't buy one due to the price difference.

If I could only have one, the Chevy might win out for the fact that I don't need the trailer pulling stability that the Dodge has (My opinion here) on a daily basis, so using just the Chevy would be something I could get used to.

Oh, my duramax starts easier than any other diesel I've had in cold weather hands down. I like that for sure.

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The 04.5-05 LLY is not the same as the 06 LLY. The 06 LLY and LBZ are the same with just a different tune. 06 manuals were only available with the LLY, and I don't know if they continued that into 07 or not.

 

I had a friend that owned one and worked at a chevy dealership, he was always checking the miles on those duramax

 

The only difference between the LLY and the LBZ is the different ecm tune and the LBZ has a different block. I have really come to like the Duramax even tho I broke the front end many times from my own personal additions to the truck so you cannot say that it was poorly made. I broke it and yea i bitched but i decided to do something about it and built the front end practically bullet proof like you have to do with any other truck.... I did a 23psi launch a couple weeks back and it held fine it was one wild ride but the front end didnt break. I have done alot of things to my Duramax and one of my buddies has done an equal amout to his Dodge Cummins and when we race we are close i pull him a little better in the higher gears but on a dyno we are no where close. He hits 450-500 and I'm in the 600-650 range. Also seeing that I am a mechanic at a GM dealership i see alot of Duramaxes and 85% are regular maintence and yes i have seen duramaxes with over 300,000 miles on them. yea some of them had some engine work like a new head which in my book is real minor but there is one that really sticks out in my mind. Its a 2001 LB7 that we see regularly and all it ever has done is scheduled maintence and its not even the cleanest truck out there its got its dents and scratches but the truck runs great. I'm not saying one brand is particular to another brand because they all have there quirks but the Duramax is no wussy truck it ranks right dead even with ford and dodge in my book.

 

Most never take their vehicles to the dealer after warrenty is up. So 100k is about the max a dealer will ever see. Most dealership techs run from vehicles over the 100-150k mark and the service writers don't normally deal with those over the 100-150k mark either. Hell, in all my years at the dealer, I can count on one hand how many vehicles I saw over 150k. As a matter of fact, I can only think of 2; one was an old Suburban 'Ma and Jr.' brought in. It had 300 and change on the odo, no one wanted to touch it. The other was a '79 Caprice wagon with 499,900 that the lady wanted a few things done to it before it hit the 500 mark, because GM was going to take pictures of it. For you Houston fans, it still had a Houston Gamblers sticker in the windshield.

Here where I work now, 150k is just a break in point. Out of my current fleet of 63, I have 1 vehicle over 300k, 13 over 200k, 17 between 100-200k and the rest are fairly new under 100k.

The 3 high mileage Duramaxes are at 220k, 190k, 180k all still running strong without any internal damage or major work performed. The other 2 are fairly new with 100k and 60k respectfully.

 

Man its so great in a world of 6 cylinders, to hear how great my Duramax is. It seems we always hear how cheap it is to make power with a 12v, or how reliable a 24 v is.. or blah blah blah about a CR cummins.. The cummins guys might outnumber us, but they cant deny out existence.

The Duramax is a GM motor.. can the Dodge guys say a cummins is? no.. can the ford guys say a powerstroke is? no..

Im glad I bought a Duramax, and I love my IFS. Every time a Ford or Dodge diesel owner rides in my truck, they ask if its a 2wd cause it rides so smooth. Thats got to say something.. and I think mine rides rough since Ive cranked my Torsion Bars..

And Pull? oh wow does it pull. My Father in law has a 98.5 Goat.. I guess that makes it a 24v. And when I first got mine, we were going down I-40 pulling the EXACT same trailers.. both empty, and I could EASILY walk off from him from a 70mph PUNCH.. I also got better fuel mileage than he did. Granted, Ive got 6 gears too..


All in all, I think ya'll will be hard pressed to find very many unhappy Duramax owners. They are great trucks.

 

And your fleet gets worked more than the average vehicle....to say the least.


When I used to work at the dealer there was a similar policy. With a few exception they would not write up a vehicle with over 100k unless the manager said it was ok. Vehicles over 100k tended to be problematic (often because of the owners) so we just avoided them. We would have never seen anything with 200k or so. In fact, I don't think we ever did in my years there.

 

Had an 03, it did drive smooth and had plenty of power, but the seats. Your back hurt after a 250 mi trip. It could've been that particular model or if they were better with the 10 way power w/ or w/o leather IDK.