I'm as green as grass and need advice and help with the purchase of a new vehicle. As I"m sure you have all found the dealers are worthless and know very little, just want to sell. I need a heavy duty tow vehicle to tow my 7800lb. empty Airstream. I will mostly use the vehicle in the Northwest including Alaska. I was thinking of a 2013/14 3500 heavy duty with the aisin transmission. I only want reliability and then mileage. But do I get the 3.42's or stick with the 3.73s. I will probably do few mods and only drive many miles. I commonly get 3 to 5 hundred thousand on a gas truck so feel I am probably pretty easy on equipment. Suggestions?

 

Well Sir There will be lots of opinions about this. To start with the newer trucks will be hard to modify if at all. You would be better off getting a good used 3rd gen truck say 05-11 year and modding those for your needs. The 07.5 year and newer have the 6.7L eng and the 05 and older have the 5.9L eng. Also the 07.5 yr and up have the 6 speed auto trans, if that's your preference. With the newer trucks (07.5 and up) comes the emissions crap from EPA but can be done away with easily, except for the 13 yr and newer, nobody makes anything for them yet. As far as gearing 3.70 or 4.10 would be better for you in those hills where your talking about. The weights your talking about aren't much of a factor for the truck. You mentioned a 3500 but a 2500 would work as well for those weights. Best to you sir on your search and travels, I certainly wish the wife and I could go to Alaska as well.
Welcome to the DTR website, there are a bunch of good people with a lot of knowledge on here.

 

3 to 5 hundred thousand "miles" if your going to just tow something that light you could go with the 2500, and 3.42 gears but if your going to upgrade to a heavier trailer then I would go with the 3500 and 373 gears, getting harder to mod the new motors with all the emission crap.

 

I would also consider an F-350 with the new Diesel they offer.

If anything just to compare. I don't profess to come off as an expert on American trucks, just that I have owned all three majors over the years and they all have excellent points as well as flaws, but any current 1 ton from the big three is quite capable for what you want to do with it.

Also consider gear ratio and trans vs time. If you have the time and funds, get lower gears and enjoy the ride....