Would like honest suggestions about tow vehicle issues

[sld]

Yea I have towed with gassers for about 30 years, and really am tired of trucks struggling up steep hills. Not looking to rocket up any hill, but cannot tell you how sick it feels to have family in the vehicle, on a camping trip, with a light trailer, and going up SLOW, STEEP, SHARP turns and finding that with the thing FLOORED, it barely pulled itself out. Trust me there was NOWERE to back down to.

Not all situations are like that, but there have been too many to ignore. For me, it will diesel or nothing.

Knowing that, you just haven't had a truck with the right gas engine and rear gearing.

 

[Lt CHEG]

People are overlooking one thing, maybe the OP WANTS a diesel. Nothing wrong with that, its the American way.

I agree completely. If he wants a diesel then no gas engine, no matter how capable will satisfy him. I've been there, done that and understand completely. My comments were mostly geared towards the reality that finding a completely reliable diesel (at least one that I'd feel comfortable carting my family around in for a great distance) in the price range originally discussed is not going to happen. Either bust out the big check book or settle for something less than you want, and in my experience it is cheaper to just bust out the bigger check book in the first place the first time.

When I bought my backhoe and realized that I really needed bigger than a half ton truck to tow the setup that I had at the time, I just didn't want to stretch my payments to what it would have taken to get a crew cab short box 4x4 diesel. I certainly could have afforded it but it was just more than I wanted to spend. So I convinced myself that an extended cab would work since I rarely had passengers anyway. Even though I didn't have passengers often I really missed the crew cab and decided that I needed to go back to a crew cab. So I ended up with a crew cab gasser that was able to tow my load just fine. It didn't pull as easily as the diesel did but weight handling wise the truck was great. Then I realized how much I missed having a diesel. So I figured I'll find an older diesel with a manual tranny and use it for work type chores and just save the crew cab for longer distance hauling. So I actually ended up with a great deal on an F350 regular cab SRW 4x4 diesel with 5 speed and snow plow. That truck ran great, no complaints. But what started out as just ball joints, ended up basically being an entire front end. Not to mention the fact that I now had 4 vehicles in the house for 2 people counting my wife's CRV, my two trucks and my take home care provided by work (which even though it only gets driven to and from work gets more miles put on it at work than any of my vehicles) and that arrangement didn't work out either. So I bit the bullet and ended up selling the F350, trading in the crew cab HD gasser and just buying what I should have bought in the first place, a crew cab diesel. In reality if I had just spent the extra $50 to $75 a month on a crew cab diesel instead of the extended cab I'd probably still have that truck and it would be paid off in another year instead of having this truck paid off in a little less than 4 years. At least I now have pretty much exactly what I want and I absolutely love my truck. Driving it really puts a smile on my face and that's about all I can really ask for.

 

[mj007]

I agree, its just the wrapping it comes in. The newer Dodges are much better but the ones I have been around from say pre 08 were just always needing something.

Chris

What 'something', exactly? All mine has needed beyond fuel and normal maintenance items is ........ Nuttin'!

 

[Diamondpilot]

What 'something', exactly? All mine has needed beyond fuel and normal maintenance items is ........ Nuttin'!

Rust fixed, switches, engine sensors and components, and tranny rebuilds.

Just my experience, but they always seem to needed something.

Chris

 

[nwltruck]

They all have their problems. Chevy has the instrument cluster, door hinges, and if abused the front suspension. Dodge has electrical glitches and transmission. Ford has interior panels that break or fall apart, small electrical issues, and if its a 6.0 egr problems. They all rust just depends where. Everything with wheels has problems.

 

[CJONE]

They all have their problems. Chevy has the instrument cluster, door hinges, and if abused the front suspension. Dodge has electrical glitches and transmission. Ford has interior panels that break or fall apart, small electrical issues, and if its a 6.0 egr problems. They all rust just depends where. Everything with wheels has problems.

Just some have more than others and some will leave you stranded at the worst possible time. A great example of that is the 03-05 6L. CJ

 

[sd455dan]

They all have their problems. Chevy has the instrument cluster, door hinges, and if abused the front suspension. Dodge has electrical glitches and transmission. Ford has interior panels that break or fall apart, small electrical issues, and if its a 6.0 egr problems. They all rust just depends where. Everything with wheels has problems.

The instrument cluster failures on some GMs is in most cases a O dollar fix-

IF you Know how to solder and have the time to pull the cluster and touch up the solder points the contacts touch...

I will be the first to admit it was a dumb idea making a solder terminal point the place to make a spring type connection. Also the dealerships and repair shops love to just replace the entire cluster .

 

[timswi]

The instrument cluster failures on most GMs is in most cases a O dollar fix-

IF you Know how to solder and have the time to pull the cluster and touch up the solder points the contacts touch...

I will be the first to admit it was a dumb idea making a solder terminal point the place to make a spring type connection. Also the dealerships and repair shops love to just replace the entire cluster .

A full dealer replacement is what I got for free when WAAAAY out of warranty.

 

[sd455dan]

That's hard to beat, were they able to set the odometer to the approximate mileage?

I know some years of GM vehicles that use the solder / to spring multi connection are easy to repair by resoldering and then reassembling the dash.

This type of instrument cluster problem was also common on some GM cars. There are other designs that GM has used that are not as trouble prone but if they do develop a problem- the fix is probably going to require replacement. I made the earlier post sound like ALL GM electronic cluster problems are this easy to fix - They are not... many require new motors? This must have been fairly common since 2003 as it resulted in a class action settlement...

 

[timswi]

That's hard to beat, were they able to set the odometer to the approximate mileage?

I know some years of GM vehicles that use the solder / to spring multi connection are easy to repair by resoldering and then reassembling the dash.

This type of instrument cluster problem was also common on some GM cars. There are other designs that GM has used that are not as trouble prone but if they do develop a problem- the fix is probably going to require replacement. I made the earlier post sound like ALL GM electronic cluster problems are this easy to fix - They are not... many require new motors? This must have been fairly common since 2003 as it resulted in a class action settlement...

Mine was a 2004 GMC 1/2 4x4...The odometer read accurately post-replacement..I think that info is stored in the computer though.

I called my dealer and they said just bring it in..45 minutes later it was done. I'm sure it was a "silent recall"---didn't matter to me, it took care of the issue. My speedometer was reading 120 mph in my work parking lot and sometimes would quit all together.