Have a chance to buy a brand new 04, 3500 SRW, HO, 4x4, 3:73 gears, build date 5/28/04 for $14,000.00 to boot. How will it tow 21,000 lbs GCW in OD on slight grades of western ND or anywhere?

What kind of fuel mileage should I expect towing and none towing?

 

I don't think you would have a bit of problem towing that. What is in it for gear ratio, 4.10's will pull better in overdrive that what 3.73's will, I assume you are talking an automatic.

Milage really depends on speed, if you start running 75-85 you can drop it right down to 8-9 mpg. Keep it at a resonable speed and I would say 11-13 mpg towing, 18-20 area empty.

 

Truck will handle it well, but I would prefer a dually to pull that kind of weight, be a lot more stable and safer..........

 

Another option would be get the truck, then drop 2 grand on some brand new 19.5's But again, I don't think you want 3.73's if you're trying to get 4.10's for your other truck.

 

14k? must be salvage? or your not telling everything?

 

Dealer is still coming down in price, at $14,000 to boot, am trying to get that with tax included. The truck lists for over $43,000.00 so he is showing me almost $29,000.00 for mine. I know how the numbers game works but it sure looks good on paper. Invoice is $37,252.00 so that is still giving me $23,252.00 for mine which is over retail for my truck in this area. Personally I think my truck is worth more but whenever you add ad-on on you pretty much have to eat the difference.

It's never been titled and only has a few miles from driving around the lot and test drives. He told me I could take it out and put a hundred miles on it to check fuel mileage and anything else for problems just to satisfy me. I am pretty picky about things. I know it almost sounds too good to be true, time will tell.

Thank You mopar_mudder, wv smoker, njoverkill, and 1320. Thanks for the information so far, I really appreciate it.

 

Forgot to mention it is an auto.

With fuel prices going up I have been trying to train myself to drive 55-60 instead of 65-70. I know it sounds slow but it really does not add that much time unless your traveling thousands of miles. Another nice thing about going slower is the MPG has gone way up, I see more things, appreciate the country side more, and am not as tense trying to keep up with everyone.

 

It sounds like a great truck but I think the 3.73's is going to make you unhappy. I had 3.73's on my truck and towed about 20K, it was just a few hundred RPMs off from being really "happy"... especially if you slow down to 55-60 the RPMs will be even lower, it might be lugging but too fast to lock out OD... Can you lock out OD on the 04 trucks?

Check out http://xj.cdevco.net/auto/rpmchart/index.php - you can put in the 2 gear ratios to see how it'll effect your RPMS in each gear. I beleive the dually has 235/85/16 - I didn't add that to the tire but its the very slowly the same height (thus RPMs will be the same) as the 265/70/17 listed there.

I'd say the sweet spot on the newer trucks is around 2100 or 2200.

2100 with a 3.73 is 75 MPH vs with a 4.10 is 68 MPH, thats a pretty huge difference.

Slow it down to 60 MPH, 3.73 is 1700 RPM, 4.10 is about 1900 RPM...

 

Just got back from dealer and here is the story.
Arrived at dealer, bull for a few minutes, dealer myself and wife jump in truck and head down to the fuel station so he can fill it up for my road test. He fills truck up drives the long way around town out to interstate and back to the dealership. He leavs the truck running while we bull a few more minutes and then says take it out and put on a few miles I say it might be a hundred or so to get a mileage feel, he says o.k. go. Wife and I take off into a good head wind up and down rolling hills at 70 MPH. I set cruise and we drive 40 miles turn around and head back. On the return trip I goose it a little just to see if it has any power and yes I like it. Then I take it up to 80 MPH just to see if there is that vibration everyone talks about. No vibration and silking smooth at 80 MPH. We drive past town come back in on the other side of town and fill up where the sales man had filled. Get out the calculator and it averaged 15.6 MPG. I think to myself that it is a fuel hog and then start to remember the type of driving we just did and when he filled up the truck from empty there was alot more room for foam buildup which means less room for fuel before the pump shut off on him. I only had to put back in the top 5 gallons and it probably didn't agiatate the fuel enough to create as much foam as the dealer had. My thinking is the truck probably will make better hand calculated mileage if situations were a little different.

I will say these new trucks are alot better driving, power feel and shifting than the truck I now have when I bought that new. This new truck even shifts and drives better than the aftermarket transmission I have. The shifts were silky smooth and with OD on the 3rd gear lockup and then into OD lockup was fantastic.

The best part is I got him down to $13,000 to boot. I asked if it had ever been hailed on, he said No. I asked him if it has ever been in an accident, he said No. I asked him if it has ever seen the inside of a body shop, he said No. I asked him if any repair work has ever been done on the truck, he said No. I asked if it had a salvaged title, he said No.

The price makes me feel a little better about lossing money on all the after market parts I have on my truck. He will let me take off the comp but prefers I leave the rest.

If I do trade I will have a few other parts to sell also that he doesn't know about. Thanks for listening and if there is some other reason why I should not trade please let me hear them before I trade in a few days. We have an initialed agreed upon sale price but have not signed the bill of sale yet.

This truck has the upgrade motor 325 Hp/ 600 FT LB or some would call the 2004.5 year model. I tow with 270 Hp to the ground with the rig I have now and 3:54 gears. The 04.5 should be 270-290 Hp to the ground with 3:73 gears so it should do a little better then the truck I have now. I really do appreciate the heads up njoverkill and if it turns out I am unhappy with the new truck your comments will haunt me for the life of this new truck.

As stated above I have a few days to reconcider so if there is any reasons not to trade, please any and all comments are welcome and appreciated.

Sorry for the long post but am getting more excited about trading.

Thanks again,
Ron

 

Hey - It's not like it's a piece of junk! It's still an awesome truck. Sounds like a great deal either way

 

You'll be happy with it. I think you can probably get better mileage than that. We've gotten better than 16 not towing with ours. I didn't know there were some that say they vibrate at 80. I've never noticed any bad vibrations. A little rough at times.

 

The vibration is suppose to start at 68 MPH and continue up to 75 MPH. Don't know but they say if you do not have the vibration you never will but if you have it you will probably never get rid of it.

 

Im confused, is the 14,000 the price outright, or after your trade in? I was thinking youre nuts for not taking it on the spot if it was 14,000 outright..

 

Read his first sentence in the first post - -

TOO BOOT.

 

At $13,000 to boot as of last night.