I have been shopping for my first Diesel truck and need some direction. I am leaning heavly towards a Dodge because I like the looks and have heard good things. However, I have not decided yet.

Whatever I buy will be 3-4 years old to bring it into budget. It needs to be 4x4 and ext cab and 90% of this trucks life will be in the city running empty.

I have heard the Duramax has the best power (but I just watched the tow video...ouch). I also heard the ford was more comfortable. I'm told the dodge also has power and good MPG... Usually when I hear someone give advice they add a comment like "but I would never be seen driving a chevy so it dont matter"
I need to wade through the BS and find the real answers.

MPG?
Comfort?
Durability?
Power?

What do you guys suggest?

 

Well I wouldn't say I would never be seen driving another brand because I am not brand loyal by any means. I used to drive an 04 duramax and am now driving an 06 cummins. I like the truck I'm driving now and it has been trouble free, so was the duramax. The fords do have one of the nicer interiors but if you want reliability your best bet is going to be a 7.3. A 03 or 04 cummins could be what your looking for, possibly a 2500 quad cab short box if your doing most of your driving in town it will be easy to get around in and get you good fuel economy. The fuel economy can vary on these trucks quite a bit but do some searching aroung this site and you should be able to get a good idea. Welcome to the site

 

For what your doing either the Duramax or Cummins will fit. Are you towing or hauling anything that would require a long bed? For town the short bed is the way to go. (If you want a pain in town get a long wheelbase dually)
As for the Cummins, mileage in town for when I lived totally in town my mileage was around 12-14mpg, but I hot dogged with a heavier truck that wasn't broke in. Reliability is good on ours with trucks running 350,000 miles easy unless you get the bug that comes with hanging out here. The power bug can shorten the life span of your engine depending on how much you throw at it and how much you ask of it. (Your rear tire life will definitely shorten with a lead foot) I love my seats, there are people that preferred the seats in the older models, but I prefer my 04 seats over my Dads 2000.
Mainly running in town, I don't know if 4.10s might not be better (someone with proof please correct me, but if your just going to pop off because of mileage at 70+mpg don't bother) for in town driving since the engine will not be worked as much.
Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

I will be doing some hauling, mostly things that won't tend to damage the truck. For the firewood and crushed rock trips I will use my tandem axle flatbed trailer. I also will be pulling a 18' boat or a camp trailer on occasion. I suppose the shortbed will serve me best because I dont have a slide in camper or other large item that needs that room.

Cab size - I see a lot of club cabs driving around with only one person in them. I have been leaning toward a extended cab because we only have one kid left at home and he is 16. After he is gone it will be the two of us and the dogs. Wouldn't a club cab be a waste of space at that point? An extended cab also makes for a slightly shorter truck, easier to park or at least this is my argument. What is the advantage of a club if you dont have a herd of kids to tow around???

Auto vs. stick - I love shifting and dream of actually upgrading the truck to a two speed axle or even a exhaust brake someday, this meas a stick is best. On the other hand the auto is a no brainer and I hear it adds life to the motor because of consistent shift points. Are the auto tranny problems I hear about a real issue? Better mileage with a sitck?

Power bug - I can't say I will be hot rodding all over town but the truck I am in now is a real dog and I am sick of planting the pedal on the floor and then quietly waiting for some perceptable change in velocity. When I decide at the last second to get an espresso I want to be first across the intersection to make that quick unsignaled right into the parking lot. That's not too much to ask. Power on demand...not race quality, just enough to let my type "A" personality run wild when it needs to. A few test drives will tell me if I have the right truck, I guess. As far as performance parts goes, a header, intake and maybe a chip and thats about it.

The 07 dodge offers a fuel fired cab heater....<drool, slobber>

 

Ahhh the diesel headers, everyone on here is running a set of those from Edlebrock right? (sorry to be sarcastic, you can change the manifold to the turbo, change the turbo, change the exhaust, but to my knowledge there are no headers.)
There is about 6" difference between the long bed ext. cab (old quad cab) and the long bed crew cab (new Quad cab). And 4" are the cab.

 

Pardon my faux pas on the diesel headers but I was generalizing. Free flow exhaust, oversize pipe or what have you. My point was that I probably wouldn't start doing major overhauls to get more of a "bug" fix. I have never owned a diesel and have only driven a few. I am a good gas mechanic but most of this is new territory.
Do you think hotter spark plugs would make a difference?

Interesting info about the cab size. kinda make it pointless to NOT get a club of the difference is only a few inches.

Do they make a extended cab short bed diesel?

 

GM still does, otherwise for Dodge it's a Quad cab (short crew cab) with short bed. I hope you where joking about the spark plugs. You can get hotter injectors though.

 

That cab options on new dodges just FYI is the standard cab, quad cab, and mega cab. A quad cab short box is not an unreasonably long truck by any means and would be easy to get around just about anywhere....You can get plenty of power out of these trucks with just a chip and intake for under a grand

 

Quad cab short bed is the same wheel base as single cab long bed

 

I see intakes on eBay for pretty cheap, are they any good?
Where is a good place to shop for chips?

 

The vendors on here are good, or what you can find on Ebay.