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Pickup Choices: Chevy Duramax or Dodge Ram?
by dooleyboy
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May 27, 2006 (11:01 am)
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Hey, I am a new member who is looking for a little advice. I am getting ready to buy a new truck and would like to find out what everyone thinks is a better truck. I am looking at either a 2006 Chevy 2500 Duramax or a 06 Dodge Ram Cummins. I am personally a Chevy fan, but not opposed to Dodges. I just would like to find out what users have found about these trucks. Thanks!
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- #2 of 78
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Re: Pickup Choices: Chevy Duramax or Dodge Ram? [dooleyboy]
by kcram HOST
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May 28, 2006 (8:03 am)
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Replying to: dooleyboy (May 27, 2006 11:01 am)
If you can provide a little more info, that would help:
- cab size
- drive type (4x2 or 4x4)
- transmission (auto or manual)
- intended use
kcram - Pickups Host
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- #3 of 78
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Re: Pickup Choices: Chevy Duramax or Dodge Ram? [dooleyboy]
by mjf3474
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May 29, 2006 (8:25 am)
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Replying to: dooleyboy (May 27, 2006 11:01 am)
Hey there, I own an 03 dodge ram 2500 cummins HO 6spd 4 door long box. This is the best truck that I have ever had. I have owned fords and chevys gas motors and I have buddies that drive the diesel fords and chevys. Long story short. Dodge has them all beat in performance ie, power and lots of it. Chevy has the comfort, and they are really comfortable, like a caddy. Fords are pretty comfortable too. Dodge is also the cheapest and Chevy is the most expensive. I have 130k on my truck and my only complaint is the front seats. They are not near as comfortable as the chevy. I should have added the seat upgrade but even then it would not be as comfortable as the chevy. My only other complaint is that it is a little stiff in the ride however the suspension can handle the toughest of off road terrain. I run my truck out on a ranch in west texas and in 4 low lock and 1 2nd or 3rd gear it will just crawl up and over just about anything. My truck produces 305HP stock and I think around 550 on the torque. I added a Dr. Performance (predator) chip which added 100HP and 250 torque. This chip keeps the EGT (exhaust gas temps) way down in the green where it shoud be. Other chips can raise the EGT's into the red which will hurt the life span of the engine in the long run. It increased my fuel milage from 10 to 20 percent. I drove from san antonio to waco on sat and I got a solid 25 mpg on the highway at 78mph, which was a record, I also had a pretty stiff tail wind which helped a lot. 23.5 mpg is the norm on the highway. Comeing home into the wind I got 22.5 mpg at 73mph. I get 21.5 mpg in the city. I might add that I try to keep my foot out of it. This truck wants to run. It will smoke the tires. When I run it hard thru the gears it just wants to take off in 5th and 6th. At 60 70 or 80mph all you have to do it push on the accelerator and the turbo comes alive and it will really go strong. It really likes to cruise at 80. It gets the best fuel mpg below 2100 rpm or 72 mph. As for the towing performance, well let just say that it pulls like an 18 wheeler tractor. It will pull more than the 2500 limits will allow. I pull boats, flat beds and a cattle hauler and I could not be happier with the performance. However when you load it up the fuel milage goes down. Anywhere from 10 to 18 depending on the load. I might add that I have 3.73 gears which are better suited for the highway and light hauling, but that is also what helps on the ausome fuel milage I get when I am not pulling. Good luck.
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- #4 of 78
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Preach on Brother!
by mears
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May 29, 2006 (3:28 pm)
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He is right about the Dodge. I have an 04 with over 298,000 miles on it. I used to haul horse trailers and flatbeds. I was a hot shot. i've been all over the country in the past 2 years. We had a little mis-hap with a Towing company up in Tenn. Needless to say we was without our big red She Devil for about 4 weeks. We had to rent a chevy dually in order to be able to keep working. That is the only type of vehicle that you can rent to do the work that we do. That is what the Insurance wanted us to do. Anyway, after have to use that Chevy for such a short period of time, I would never buy one. The Fuel mileage sucks.. I just loved running about the country. It was like a working vacation. My wife went with me. She is the one who found this beautiful truck on the Show Room floor. We took the back seats out and customized the back seat with a really nice bed and curtains. It was awesome. The funnest week we had was when we went to Niagra Falls and surprised her brother up in Buffalo NY. He is the batting coach for the AAA Phillies in Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa and they was playing a few games up there. We get a lot of comments about how pretty our truck is when she is all cleaned up..
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- #5 of 78
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Dodge or no Dodge?
by celestemitch
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Jun 20, 2006 (2:02 pm)
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Hey, I'm looking for some advice on a truck.. I'm considering a purchase on a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel engine. Would this be a good choice? I don't know how the diesel engines differ from the gas engines, but after about 90,000 miles, my mother's Dodge Durango and my step mother's Dodge Ram 2500 gas engine began having problems. This truck I am interested in, I know, has been WELL taken care of, but I'd just like a little bit of input on how a Cummins holds up rather than a V8.
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- #6 of 78
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Re: Pickup Choices: Chevy Duramax or Dodge Ram? [dooleyboy]
by trucktricks
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Jun 22, 2006 (8:07 am)
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Replying to: dooleyboy (May 27, 2006 11:01 am)
My advice is to go for the six speed automatic. You won't be sorry. Better performance, better fuel economy, quieter highway cruising.
Check it out: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=115662
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- #7 of 78
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Re: Pickup Choices: Chevy Duramax or Dodge Ram? [mjf3474]
by trucktricks
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Jun 22, 2006 (8:12 am)
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Replying to: mjf3474 (May 29, 2006 8:25 am)
Long story short. Dodge has them all beat in performance ie, power and lots of it.
Well not any more..............
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=115662
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- #8 of 78
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Duramax Diesel Maintenance and Mileage???
by dltdlt
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Jul 02, 2006 (8:38 am)
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I am very interested in a 2006 Chevy or GMC Extended cab 4x4 with the Duramax. I have never owned a diesel and I plan on starting a small construction business soon. Anyway, I can't seem to find much info. on the maintenance cost and fuel economy with this diesel.  I'm talking about the new 6600 HO. I have owned many 6 liter 2500's and found in the city only about 10mpg. I would like to take advantage of the 0% finance offers currently. Thanks for your quick responses.
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- #9 of 78
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Re: Duramax Diesel Maintenance and Mileage??? [dltdlt]
by dooleyboy
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Jul 02, 2006 (9:36 am)
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Replying to: dltdlt (Jul 02, 2006 8:38 am)
Hi. I posted a similar question earlier. But for what its worth, I went and ended up buying a 2006 Chevy Duramax Crew Cab 4x4 and I absolutely love it. I live in Branson(which is the hilly road and sitting in traffic capital of the world) and I'm getting about 16 in town and 22 on the highways already. The truck still has less than 1,000 miles on it too! Besides the $3.05 a gallon for diesel, the costs and fuel economy have been awesome for how big of a machine this is. But anyway, I hope this helps!
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- #10 of 78
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Re: Duramax Diesel Maintenance and Mileage??? [dooleyboy]
by timowen1
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Jul 03, 2006 (5:08 pm)
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Replying to: dooleyboy (Jul 02, 2006 9:36 am)
I just bought a new 2500 HD GMC d-max allison 6 speed June 29th. 0% at 72 months what a deal. The first 403 miles I drove it easy as suggested in the break in procedure. I filled the fuel tank just dying to see what the mileage was. It took 21.36 gallons, that's 18.86 mpg combination highway city. I put a tonneau on it July 1st, I hope that will make it a little better. I went from a 2003 2500 HD 8.1 5 speed allison that got about 11.7 city/highway. Both trucks were crew cabs, the 03 was a short box the d-max has a long box. This is a big truck. The Dodge and Ford boys need to look at the new numbers for the '06 Duramax , 360 hp and 650 ft.lbs of torque at 1600 rpm. I will follow the owners manual for maintenance and due it myself. I am going to get a Diesel Turbo Lifesaver. The guys at shopdiesel.com are checking into one. They only list up to 2004.
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