Hello everybody! This is a great forum and I'm glad I found it. If anybody can help me, I feel that you guys can. I am looking to buy a used diesel sometime between now and Sept. It will mainly be a commuter for me. I drive at least 30 miles a day to get to the office and back. It will also be a baby hauler. I have a 7 mo old daughter who will be in a rear facing car seat until she is 2 and I wouldn't be suprised if another one will be following. I would guess around 10x per year, it will be used to haul my Land Cruiser up into the woods. Someday I would even like to get a slide in camper, but that is a ways away. I have a job where I have to make it to work no matter what, so 4xd is a must and I work in the land of super narrow streets, so it has to be SRW. I would like to get something around $15k. It will probably have around 15k miles on it and I'm okay with that. The problem is I'm not sure what to get. I would look for a '01.5 - '02 Dodge 6-spd if it wasn't for my daughter. It sucks getting her in and out of the car seat in my BMW! I really think that I need to get a crew cab. (Any sage advice on that?) That leaves me with an early 3rd Gen Dodge, a LB7 Duramax or a 7.3l Powerstroke. I am partial to GM and have always had a thing against Ford, but I couldn't tell you why. I just want the best truck for the money. One that hopefully I will be able to teach my daughter how to drive in. I would like to do mild mods (intake, exhaust, tuner, leveling kit and bigger tires) with anything I get, but nothing too crazy. It's going to spend most of it's life unloaded until I hook up my 10k trailer! I would prefer an auto but a manual is doable. I just spend a lot of time in wonderful Portland traffic. Okay, gurus, what says you?

 

wow thats a tough one but it looks like your looking for a crewcab 4x4 with a short box early 2000 model duramax since you say you are partial to chevrolet products 15k on price maybe 15k on mileage might be aliitle tough to find unless you go newer which ups the price and by the way welcome to diesel bombers a good site and a good place to hang out good luck and hope you find what your looking for

 

I really don't know if that is the best... that's kinda why I posted it up. I have tried to do some research, but it seems like no matter what I get, I should a good amount of cash sitting around for a trans (Dodge), injectors (GM) or labor (Ford). I want to do a lot of the work myself, but I don't know much about diesels.

Can a rear-facing seat fit in a 2nd Gen Dodge quad-cab? How about a 3rd Gen? Would a 7.3 'Stroke be a more reliable rig than an LB7 'Max? Or for what I need my truck for, will a Duramax be a truck that I can love and enjoy for another 100k or so? I feel like I'm running around in circles!

 

to me owning a truck is like any thing else that is worthwhile they all have their advantages and disaadvantages it whatever you choose is the best your the one who has to drive it work on it and pay for it but the car seat thing it would work in all of them if you find one you like take the car seat with you and try it out and i think reliability boils down to what you like and how much time and effort you are willing to put in the care and maintenance of it

 

That's the conclusion that I have been coming to as well... Just wanting to make sure I don't have any buyers remorse, so to speak.

However, on a whim, it looks like my shopping is done! I ended up spending a bit more than I wanted, but I got a killer deal on a very nice 2005 Dodge 2500 CCSB SLT with 128k. It is an 48RE, but it has a fresh rebuild. She's bone stock except for a Banks exhaust and air bags. I am so stoked it's not even funny...

 

well congratulations welcome to the ctd family you will like it

 

congrats and enjoy

 

Congrats man your love the Cummins

 

Quick pic:

 

nice looking truck