new to diesel
 

I'm fairly new to diesels and I'm looking at purchasing one in the next few months. I plan on getting either a cummins or a duramax. My plans for the truck would be a DD/sled puller. With that said which one would better fit my plans? Thanks in advance for any advice.

-cope

personally , my favs are 12v cummins and 7.3 powerstroke.. :rocking:

however if ur pullin sht --- duramax has had a few that get some pretty good torque[age]

like the 2006 LBZ
or 2007 LMM which both make around a little over 600 ft-lbs i think

(plz correct me if im wrong guys)

get yourself a CR cummins or 12 valve cummins ull be more than satisfied :tu:

+1 for common rail cummins... but a 12v works too.

Duramax takes some work to be able to tow; their suspension and trans are junk. A cummins is MADE for pulling, which is why they OWN the title of pulling. A 7.3 is also a powerhouse though, and they can do very well also although it will cost more to make less power than a 12v can.

85_305, where did u get ur info that a duramax trans and suspension are junk? seriously dude.

now on the the question thats been asked, it has alot to do with how much ur wanting to spend. for the best bang for the buck DD/part time puller, you can not beat a 94-98 12v 5 speed. the problem with the duramax for a puller, is the IFS they have.

imo, best thing for you to do, is go out and drive several different year models of all the different brands, find out what u like the feel the best for a DD then gradualy build it into a DD/puler. thats the best advice any one on here or any where can realy give u

You answered your own question.

And those allisons really bite when you start putting power to them.

I know several d-max dd/pullers as far as the ifs being a problem they just had to upgrade their steering components. The problem with the tranny is also what saves them, the fact tha if they detect to much slipage the will defuel. If you are going to pull then you will probably upgrade tranny any way. The othe plus side with a d-max is the fact that with a single program you can get 500+ horse.

Yes this is true if the allison detects slippage it limp homes the truck.. but the slippage detections rate is rather low, if I recall correctly. Which means much more than stock power and it's slipping.

As far as a single program giving it over 500hp, a 6.0 is right up there with it, let alone a monster 6.4 psd, and the cummins do well also. How many owners have you heard of with over 200k on their dmax? Not a lot. Most of them brag about 150k miles as being a lot. I personally know handfulls of people with more than 300k on their bonestock cummins getting better mileage and performance than those with 1/3 the miles in their dmax

man i would just get what you like, as far as modding there will always be sumthing needed to be upgraded depending on how much power your wanting good luck with what ever you get bro!!!!

I know a lot of D-Max owners that have over 300k on them. A bone stock Cummins does no better in fuel then a D-max they both do in the high teen's low 20's in the early 2000's. I can agree the Cummins diesel is a very good engine but so is the D-Max.

In my late 1999 7.3 6spd powerstroke long bed ext cab, I'd never get below 18mpg city. That was ragging on it. I averaged about 20mpg city. In my 1997 cummins I got 20-22 city, 26 highway. My buddies 6.0 with a 6spd and lift and 35's gets about 20mpg city.

Cummins OWNS dmax in mileage.

My father in-laws 03 Cummins get 18-19 my cousins 02 D-max gets 18-19. There both almost identical trucks the D-max is a long crew cab long bed and the Dodge is a crew cab short bed. The biggest difference is the D-max has 100,000 more miles on it. The old 12v did better on fuel then the CR Cummins.

CR's are a little worse due to the emissions crap they put on them but with a few things their mileage goes way up. Same with the new 6.4 psd's.

And the story isn't the same for the D-max?

No I'm not denying that. ALL New motors mileage is being slammed due to the restrictions. But in my experience, best unloaded mileage is cummins. Best loaded mileage is a fight between ford and cummins. Worst loaded mileage is dmax. I've heard LOTS of dmax guys bitch that they get NOTHING for mileage when loaded, and a lot of those dmax guys complain about not enough power when towing large loads.

comparing mileage on two very different trucks is impossible. did they weigh the same. how was the driving style. manual or auto. what type of tires. any towing. what gear ratio. too many varibles i say. back to the orginial question. manual 12v cummins is best bang for your buck.

but a dmax will have a better ride and more luxiorous. and easier to tune to your liking. dmax also needs other suspension tweaks due to having a ifs. also dmaxs have great reliablity. there was a guy who just traded in a dmax with 700,000 miles with nothing more than a water pump replacemnet. check it out its in the dmax section.

I agree with most of that post. I've read on plenty of dmax forums the issues of bad injectors, overheating, poor transmissions, suspension problems, etc. Not to mention you really dont hear of that many hi-mile dmax. Granted, 700k is impressive.. but how often do you hear of that? In the cummins community, thats really nothing impressive. It happens all the time. Most dmax'ers brag about 150 and 200k miles. Cummins guys brag about 800k and a million.

The tranny and the suspension are not the engine. Bad injectors where in the first D-maxx's but there fixed now. Over heating came in the next ones but thats fixed now to. It is not that old of an engine so there is going to be problems that need fixed. The 5.9 Cummins went through the same thing. I would suspect that as time goes on you will start seeing more and more Duramax's reaching the 700k, 800k, and even 1 million mile marks.

Cummins has NEVER had bad track records in their heavy duty pickup truck segment. But a dmax is nothing other than an isuzu.. tell me why isuzu cant make a diesel motor thats finally problem-free?

No diesel is problem free if you don't believe that why do I own a service manual to a 12v Cummins? Isuzu does make a good diesel. I know there Japanese but there is a big difference between Japanese and Chinese. The 5.9 didn't go through the same crap? What about the 53 block, vp44 pump failures, fuel injection problems on the first CR, dowel pins coming out of the front cover. Would any of this keep me from owning a Cummins powered truck? Heck no. Part of what makes the 5.9 such a great engine is that they stuck with it for along time and progressively made them better.

I'd rather go thru 1 dowel pin than 3 injectors before 150 k miles like another dmax owner on here did ;)

I'm personally not big on isuzu. Just my opinion. I'll take a cat, cummins or detroit any day though.

Both Cummins and D-max are good. It all depends on which one you like more, or what you can afford. Take them for a drive and see what "fits" you. Any truck can be made to do your goals. :c:

isuzu helped designed the lb7 but that was it. everything else after that is all GM.

Isuzu OWNS the dmax. The Allison is it's own entity as well.

And GM? Well there's not a lot to be said there, considering a few months ago they almost didn't exist on Planet Earth anymore :)

So if you want a Detroit why don't you buy a 6.2? I think it is more along the lines of GM owning most of Isuzu. Chrysler was on the same path as GM a few months ago.

I personally would buy a Duramax more because I would be buying a whole truck and I like Chevy trucks better. If some one came along with a good enough deal I would own a Cummins.

Because the 6.x series motors are the most gutless motors ever lol. I mean they are GREAT motors.. they last forever. Just not my "cup 'oh tea" hehe

The most gutless ever. Come on now the 6.5 has 200hp and 440 lb-ft thats not that bad for a early 90's diesel.

Most of them only made 180hp and 360 lbs :P

The L56 emission and L65 non are both turbo and the most common in the trucks at 200hp.
They did put non turbos in some of them at 180 hp.

Did you do something with the military? Because most of the 6.5's they run are N/A.

Ya I was Army. And yes, most 6.5's WERE n/a and gutless. We were lucky to get a turbo on our 10,000lb up-armored humvees. And they were STILL dogs man.

I thought you where. Thanks for your service. Yea the n/a are dogs. 10,000lb of armor makes a pretty heavy truck rolling down the road. The pickups don't weigh nearly as much so there nicer to drive.

Thanks for your support :salute:

10k is a LOT of armor to be moving. One armored door on a hemtt is about 500lbs :s:

k ....... I'm new too ..... looking for something bone stock to pull the RV ... the gas GMC is not cutting the mustard at all. I got 8mpg last trip home with a x-breeze ..... angry.

Best stock truck for pulling my 11000lb bumper pull trailer in summer, sled deck in winter....... 07 and up .... ?? I like something about all of them .... but hate wrenching, takes away from beer and campfire time .....

LET THE BANTER BEGIN!!:c:

Ok depends what you want. If you want best unloaded mileage, a Cummins is the way to go.
If you want best loaded mileage, a Powerstroke is the way to go. If you want some foofoo ammenities and an overall weak truck with a decent amount of issues, get a duramax.
Would you be modding these trucks? The new powerstroke can put down tractor-trailer tq numbers with a tuner and still get amazing mileage, even for half the cars on the road.

prob keep her stock other than maybe exhaust and cold air ....... I need a to-and-from work driver that can pull my RV.

I heard:
FORD - less fuel mileage
DODGE - tranny issues
GMC - overpriced


like I said ... newbie looking for something to get er all done ... and I know nothing is perfect!

---AutoMerged DoublePost---

. and also 2007 and newer .........

EVERY SINGLE NEW DIESEL TRUCK comes with a terrible stock auto. ALL of them. The 6spds in all the trucks are tough.

Ford gets awesome pulling mileage, whereas hook up a load to a cummins and the mileage tends to drop. GM is overpriced isuzu junk. LOTS of issues I read of every single day on the forums. Plus Ford and Dodge get better mileage.

You can get alot of hp and torque out of a mechanical 12v cummins, but I love my 24v and if you mod them right you can make as much hp as any other diesel. but the commonrails seem to be the easiest too make "fast" besides the duramax of course.. Good luck in your search! :tu:

hey man, i dont mean to bother you but i was wondering if you could tell me how to post a thread cause i cant figure it out!! But to answer your question cummins in my opinion is a better engine. thx

go into a thread like for example 08 and up PSD and in the top left corner there will be a new thread "button" click on that and it will bring it up for you hope this helps sorry to thread jack guys:tu:

yea i just tried it to make sure it works and thats how its done it will say new thread in a block on the top left directly across from the pages numbers

As always it is an individual choice. Before the common rail injection cummins owned the diesel market in reliability. There are still a lot of those engines running around.

Common rails are nice for push button tuning. If I could go back in time I would have told myself to get a 02 or older cummins instead of the dmax.

Still I have been happy with my truck other than the LB7 injector bonehead engineering. The allison tranny is an incredible piece of machinery. The reliability of the design is there and it can be built to hold impressive amounts power with the stock hard parts.