Barry Smith

I DON'T want an Allison in my truck! A friend of mine is die hard chevy and had the allison/dura. With anything behind it it searched for a gear constantly it wore me out and I was just riding! He traded it for a 6 speed/dura and is alot happier.

Hired Gun

I must have the biggest head turner in Kentucky then. I went from Dodge to chevy and the only thing I miss are my stacks. In my are, people love dodge, but they also cite the blue crew as not to be messed with. You will be shown a thing or two. All I run is a simple edge/attitude. Oh I it does not search for a gear. All I can say is that it better reach more than 86,000 miles before I have to shell out thousands like I did last year. Trucks are trucks, and I love them all. I just hate ricers with tachs the size of my head. Now those are too !

Dieseljunkie

Doesnt matter to me.. I don't wanna have to cross my fingers, hoping that the heads don't warp.
Scott

HOHN

I'll say this right here:

Guys who bash a Ford or GM just to bash one lose my respect. It's just ignorance. It's generally true of people who can only make themselves look good by trying to make others look worse.

There's nothing inherently wrong with an Aluminum head. My gripe with AL is that it's less thermally efficient (conducts more heat to cooling system). But the AL doesn't make it any less tough or more likely to warp. In fact, I'd venture to say that the AL heads are LESS LIKELY to warp because they conduct heat more evenly than iron heads do.

There's also nothing inherently wrong with IFS. It's the best way to go if done properly (look at a Humvee if you want to see stout IFS). Less unsprung weight means better ride quality and a host of other good things. The only weakness with IFS is when a company designs it to be weak (GM).

I've always considered myself to be something of a Mopar guy. I love the pre-72 Mopars so much. I love the boxy Dodge trucks that never seemed to die (built through '93).

But I wouldn't buy a new Aires-K in 1985 brand new and then bash anyone who's driving a Ford or Gm or "Jap Crap".

The reality is that loyalty should follow, not lead.

I am NOT one of those guys who talks that Kumbayah jibberish that goes something like "they're all good cars" "can't we all just get along." What a bunch of crap.

Fact is, some brands ARE better than others ON AVERAGE. An AVERAGE Acura will be better made and higher quality than a Daewoo.

The Cummins engine is a great one, and most of us have loyalty to the Cummins Company as a result of our Dodge experience. It doesn't mean Cummins or Dodge can do no wrong.

I'm glad we have other brand owners like Hired Gun on these boards. The more experiences we have from the membership, the more we can ALL make better decisions about our trucks.

For what's most important to me, there was no other choice than the Cummins. It was either CTD or Toyota.

Justin

Lil Dog

I'm not disputing a V-8 being able to romp me from the lites. The DMax with and Edge is a drag truck for sure, who could shift as fast as a 5 spd alli that keeps you in that narrow peak Hp window?

Fact is my gear shift doesn't slip from 5th on the highway EVER, my buddies DM-Alli does shift alot to maintain speed, and I don't have much over 300 hp either.

Whatever.. You like what you like and thats fine. We each have different criteria for what we like or we all would drive the same thing.

AlpineRAM

Something that will make it very difficult for US truck makers to get their stuff over to Europe is that most of Europe pays taxes for horsepower. With a big trailer we are limited to 80 km/h except on some highway stretches we can go 100 km/h. So we really don't need those "bragging numbers"- we'd need responsive diesels that will deliver all they are rated for any time and that economically. If I have to pay about 1000 US$/year in taxes alone just that I have to move my leg 1/2" less to maintain the posted speed limit it's getting quite useless IMHO.
If I could get a 2500 quad cab today new that wa rated at 150-160 hp it would be the killer on the market. (As long as it has the wide powerband of the Cummins)

AlpineRAM

mattymac

GM has the highest tranny failure rate for the big bad allison per 100 sold out of the big three market.

Give me a six speed HO 245 HP with a set of 60 hp injectors (305 HP supposedly) any day or 600 with the six speed as well and you can have the rest. V8 diesels are great for driving around town but if you want to tow I6 all the way!

Mcmopar

Where did you get that tidbit about the almighty allison?

dieselminded

This is the first time Ive ever heard anything bad about allison ..
When I was looking @ the duramax the showroom @ the dealer had an allison all tore apart and each piece had a explaination beside it and even the outside case had removeable inspection panels and a plate that was made to break so the trany wouldnt be trash if its guts blew out under extreme conditions. Ill admit it was very impressive. and it looked like allison had alot or research and development that went into the trany. Now Ive never owned one ,all Ive done is a little research and a short test drive and it seemed like the way to go, Try to research the getrag good luck its like a needle in a haystack 80% of my resources was in german. now dodges autos I dont know much about,,, but I do know this all the trany shops Ive been to has a 10:1 dodge vs other makes of vehicals up on the racks its really troubling.not just cummins trucks either so you cant blame the power.
MY autos doing good but Im @ almost stock torque and HP.

Joe Diesel

Add an EZ comp and WHAM 600lb/ft and more

Mcmopar

I did talk to a Chevy dealer about the Allison and he openly admitted that they have had some problems with the tranny. But his excuse was people were towing to much weight with the 3.73:1 ratio.

signature600

Say what you want about the Dmax/Allison, but until you drive one with a similar load that you pulled with a Cummins, it doesn't really matter.

I'm not flaming anyone, but my uncle has one that I've put a few thousand miles on with a 32' GN, and that Allison does just as good if not better than my Cummins. I'd like to see what it would do with the narrow powerband on a real truck. I've pulled wind, weight and both with both trucks, and neither one likes wind, mine does better with weight, and both suck fuel with wind and at about 35K gross. Personally, I think GM and Izuzu did an almost fine job designing that engine. They knew what the customers wanted, a car-like truck with a hard running engine. They did it.

Now, If they would have done one better it would have 6 cylinders and about 440 cu in, and would say CAT on the side, that Izuzu scared some people off. And the trucks hold up extremely well with what we throw at them, I have the only Dodge. Our flatbeds, service trucks, sales trucks, and daily drivers are all Chevy's, and some with better than 150,000 on the new styles, and we've had basically no problems.

Take it for what it's worth,
Chris