I just bought my first diesel, after many months reading here about them. You guys convinced me to buy a diesel. Nice ride. I bought a 2004 3500,dually 6 speed. 305hp. My question is, do you guys run all the gears, or do you do, 2-4-6? Also which engine oil do you guys use. Do you add Power Service to your diesl.
Please excuse the questions but I will be asking some more later.

I will not be pulling very heavy, this truck is for a slide in camper and pulling a jeep. Should I install those gauges for pressure etc.? Which do you guys recommend? Thanks for the reply. Zarr

 

starting in 2nd with no load and run all the gears.

 

Regular oil (called Dino)
Shell Rotella
Chevron Delo
Mobil Delvac
Valvoline Premium Blue
and others

Synthetics
AMSoil
Schaeffer
Royal Purple
and others

then each of the above regular ones come in synthetic forms also

 

Startoff in Second with no fuel most of time (unloaded), unless I need to get going in a hurry. Low for towing and tight spaces. I run through the gears allways and never skip ascending. Descending, I skip according to speed.
Chevron Delo 15W40
Chevron Synthetic 5W40
Schaeffer's 9000 5W40
I used PS, but prefer Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant Fuel Additive.

 

i have a 04 2500 and i pull around 10 to 12K about every weekend and i will start in 2nd only if i'm on a hill will i use 1st. on level ground you need to be pulling alot to use 1st. i would always use 2,3,4,5,6 with or without a load. maybe if you are bombed out would i do 2,4,6 but as you can see i don't have anything yet i just know that without a smarty i am shifting every .5 sec. anyways so with a smarty i don't think i would be able to keep up with it.