What brand Diesel truck would you buy?

[GoldTip]

I have a 2005 3/4ton dodge cummins, never a problem with it.  Better mileage by far then my buddies or my brothers duramax and both would agree they are pretty much equal power wise.  62K on it, plenty of those towing a 12-14K loaded toy hauler and never a tranny issue, just have it serviced every 30K like they recommend and I've not had problems.  The chevy definitely rides better, but the turning radius on them absolutely sucks, I'm not even sure how a guy parks one in a parking lot these days.  My Dad's ford is a good truck but seems under powered under a heavy load to be honest and does not get the mileage my Cummins gets.

[400out]

If someone would put dodges powertrain on chevy running gear with a ford body it would be the truck for me 

[MuleySniper]

I like my 07 cummins. Even better now that I ripped out all the DPF emissions junk It rides like a tank though. Consider I put a 6" superlift on it and 37" Toyo MT's. The power is unreal. The majority of my buddies drive diesel trucks. Ive driven most of them. The Chevs do ride real nice and have sweet interiors but you get that with IFS. I haven't driven any of the newer 05+ fords so I can't relate. Most of us are in to jeeping so we tow flatbeds with the jeeps. I towed my buddies Jeep home one night with his truck. He has a 06 Duramax. It honestly felt sluggish compared to my cummins. Like Jackelope mentioned, the 07 earlier 5.9 cummins are beasts. My dad has one and it flat out hauls. His buddies are all Ford guys. One of them drove it towing a fat load of building materials to the eastside when we were building his cabin. This guy normally will never compliment anything and he was blown away with how much power my dads truck had. He's tows all kinds of crap, has over 100k and never has had one tranny issue. Only failure so far has been the fuel pump right at 100k. Honestly though, to each their own. You pay a lot more for those comfy Chev interiors
MS

[MuleySniper]

If someone would put dodges powertrain on chevy running gear with a ford body it would be the truck for me 

Ive seen em! In the magazines of course
MS

[Sneaky]

Toss up for me. I have an '86 isuzu pup diesel work truck and it has been the best vehicle I have ever owned hands down as far as reliability goes. The duramax is an isuzu motor as far as I know...but I have heard of problems with pumps/injectors/filters.

Cummins has always made a good engine, but dodge won't back that up with a decent auto tranny, or a decent anything else on the pickup.

Where I work we have yard goats with a 5.9L cummins pushing an Allison transmission. Super reliable, maybe if you sold all three of your pickups you could buy a newer dodge cummins and have an allison put in 

[FC]

The Dodge truck transmission thing has always confused me.
I work at the Dodge dealer in the service drive, I see 30 Ram trucks a day and hardly ever do I see major trans problems.

It was early to mid 90's Dodge trucks that ate their transmissions all the time, I want to say that they finally got them straightened out around 2000. The problem was weak (for application) torque converters and truck owners taking off from every stop with their foot to the floor.

[Rick]

The Dodge truck transmission thing has always confused me.
I work at the Dodge dealer in the service drive, I see 30 Ram trucks a day and hardly ever do I see major trans problems.

Its the same old shiat that gets regurgitated when these threads show up.

Somebody knows a guy that had their Dodge tranny go out at 10,000 miles.

Another guy knows someone that had the front end fall off their GM at 12,000 miles.

Truck threads are never based on facts. Its always opinion or hearsay.

I've owned trucks from Ford,Dodge,and GM. They all had problems of some sort. You're an idiot if you think that just because you bought a certain brand,you're never going to have issues.

Drive all three and buy what YOU like the best.

[high country]

if a guy *censored*foots a dmax, the tranny learns the pattern and shifts accordingly, this is the one thing I do not like about it. I like to have my shifts governed like the old school auto's......of course hitting the button helps a bunch. I felt like my chev was underpowered also, so  I made a buddy drive my dodge and I in the dmax, my dodge was pretty much pimped with all the go fast goodies to about 425ish hp. my dmax bone stock minus a $100 superchip downloader. the chevy ran away from it. the mileage I absolutely hand to dodge, as well as stiff rear springs. my chev will take plenty of weight, but the dodge was silly. the scary part is stopping it, the chev sure has better brakes by a long ways.

[SnakeEyes]

I had a dodge  cummins in the 90's and thought it was a good truck. I now have an 03 duramax and love it. The one thing that amazes me is the brakes. I have 150,000 miles and have not touched them yet. My dodge needed brakes every 40,000. My only complaint with the Chevy is the turning radius and small fuel tank. I miss the big fuel tank I had in the Dodge.

[jeepasaurusrex]

Put a Cummins and a 6 speed in a F-350 and you would have the ultimate truck. 

[jackelope]

Well said, Rick.

The only common(not very common but it does happen) transmission issue I see on Dodge trucks now is when the governor pressure sensor/transducer flops. It's about $600 or so to fix it. By no means is it a cheap fix but it's far from major transmission issue relatively speaking.

[400out]

Well said, Rick.

The only common(not very common but it does happen) transmission issue I see on Dodge trucks now is when the governor pressure sensor/transducer flops. It's about $600 or so to fix it. By no means is it a cheap fix but it's far from major transmission issue relatively speaking.

My father inlaw has this exact issue with his dodge and it comes and goes 

[jackelope]

You know that's what's wrong with it?

What are the symptoms?

[JackOfAllTrades]

Put a Cummins and a 6 speed in a F-350 and you would have the ultimate truck.  

I like the early 07 Cummins, like Jackalope said. I am quite happy with my Ford 6.0 though. But yes, the 6spd (ZF6 or the Dodge 5spd) is the way to go.

Buy the GM for the interior ergonomics, ride of a car, and brakes as best of the big three. The Dmax has as many issues as the PowerStroke and well.. Its an Isusu.
Buy the Dodge/Cummins for the torque/fuel economy. But get the manual transmission.
Buy the Ford for the looks and actual heavy load/drivability, (but upgrade the brake rotors). And don't close your eyes to the Lariet models. The interiors are near as nice as the GM.
I know that loggers bought the Dodges for quite a while, but the dashes were actually falling off! There's a good many Fords in the hills in 7.3 and 6.0 diesels that are going strong.

I would not buy a new diesel right now. Too many emissions rules and such that have them all scratching the surface of inovation. I'd wait a couple more years.

Things I like about my truck that were not available on the others when I bought mine?

MANUAL/automatic hubs.
Love the keypad door lock.
GRANNY first gear!
Very simple no mess cartridge engine oil filter.
38 gallon fuel tank that gives me more than a 600mile cruising range.

Things I don't like:
38 gallon fuel tank that gives me more than a 600mile cruising range. Cost me $116 to fill up the other day.
Air filter is a PITA to change.
Lower fuel filter should be more accessible and have a drain cock.
Trailer wire connector should be integrated into the bumper and not hang down next to the reciever.
Adding accessories that require power and subsequent switching is not a simple task with the current fuse block. Upfitter switching should be standard. (flip a switch for high idle and such)
My drivers seat with manual lumbar adjust is buckinfusted.
The 40/20/40 seats are fine, but the center section with flip down console does not slide.
No interior lighting under dash/at kick panels.

That's a pretty slim list of what I don't like about my truck. Ford F250 PSD with ZF6spd.

It rides like a tank. But well... Its a truck!

-Steve

[shoot-em-dead]

I would go with Ford. I like how the interior and exterior are.