On the fence about going to a Diesel - looking at Cummins

BuickMike

Money pit
Joined
Jun 7, 2001
So I've been going back and forth whether it would be worth while for me to get a Diesel truck.

Right now I have an '06 Nissan Titan Crew Cab with the Big Tow package and use it to tow a 27' bunk house trailer. The trailer is about 7500lbs with all our crap in it. All in all the Titan pulls it pretty good. Going up to the mountains I have to slow down to about 45 on the 6% grades and get about 7.5mpg up. Going down I get 11.5. I did a 1200 mile road trip last summer to Utah and averaged 9.8mpg. It has a 5 speed auto and I almost never put it into 5th. That way the trans stays cool and the torque converter stays locked.

It would be nice to have a Diesel to tow with, however they are quite a bit more expensive to buy, and maintain. My Titan is paid for. I have already decided to not touch a PowerStroke or Duramax after really digging in and asking questions from those owners and mechanics. They have all agreed that I am better off with what I have from a cost standpoint.

One mechanic I was talking to was stating that the older Cummins trucks are a bit cheaper to operate because they are more reliable, easier to work on, and a little cheaper to fix. He pointed me towards the '03 - '04 2500's. As long as I find one manufactured after 1/03 it will have the 48RE trans. He said that the 04.5-07's are ok, but have more failures with the fuel system. Anything newer has more smog crap and gets worse fuel economy. The '02 and older 24V Cummins have injection pumps that are not as reliable as the newer ones and the 47RE is weaker.

My dilemna is that if I get into one I really don't want to have to dump a bunch of money into it. If I was able to get one for what I could sell my Titan for (around 15k), would it be worth it? I found a '03 2500 2WD SO 4 door (manufactured 3/03) with 117k miles that looks clean for about $15k. Otherwise it seems like the 4X4's are out of my price range.

Thoughts?
 
We had an 06 and had three transmissions in it before we sold it. Now we have a 06 duramax with 90k and a 10 duramax with 128k and neither have ever had any problems. The 10 still has original brakes.


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If you can find one of the first gen Cummins get it Mike. It's simpler and fairly basic and were built to last. Stick was the better tranny after the first couple of years but the auto was good before they started adding electronics to them.;)
 
We had an 06 and had three transmissions in it before we sold it. Now we have a 06 duramax with 90k and a 10 duramax with 128k and neither have ever had any problems. The 10 still has original brakes.


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What kind of mileage are you getting with the duramax? I am thinking about the duramax since the service data is so user friendly, but hard to beat the Cummins in power. Interested in hearing what you have to say!!


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I have had all kinds of Power strokes, 7.3, and 6.0

Right now we have a 97 PSD and an 06 5.9 Cummins. Lots of guys here have Duramax, they are all good if you take care of them.
 
As much as I would like to have an old 12V Cummins for the reliability and simple factor, I need a crew cab to fit my son and my dog. Not to mention I'd like to find something with relatively low miles and be nice to ride in.

As far as the trans issue goes, it seems everything out there has someone complaining that the transmissions are crap, with exception of the Alison. Keep in mind I currently tow with a toothpick Dana 44 and the same auto that can be found in the 350Z. Some guys blow the Nissan transmissions sky high on their first trip, while others tow quite a bit with no issues. I figure if you have a good trans cooler, have a trans temp gauge (and watch it), and drop down a gear to keep the TC locked (1.00:1 is what I am always in on flat surfaces) then your trans should not grenade.
 
I have a 99 cummins ex cab long bed 4x4 five speed. Pushing close to 320k miles doesn't burn or leak any oil. I average 17 MPG in town. 20-24 MPG on the hwy empty. Pulling skid steer and trailer I get average of 16mpg on hilly back roads. I would never own a power stroke unless it was a 7.3.. the 6.0 is junk and will nickle and dime you to death. Duramax are bad about head gaskets and injectors going out. Few of my buddy's have had bad luck with the Allison transmissions

cummins auto trannys are junk in. Motors run forever as long as they are maintained.
With any diesel injection pumps go out from time to time.

The only trucks I will ever own will be powered by a 5.9 cummins

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The key is finding a used truck that has the known issues already done...ie injectors, fuel pump, turbo etc...
 
Cummins and never go back het a 2004- 20061/2 5.9 if you cant get a maunual trans be prepared to spend about 4-5 thousand and the 48re they are bullet proof mine gets about 34 mpg and will leave alot of sports cars in the dust @ only 68 pounds of boost.. I would rather be cummin the stroken

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Make sure it does NOT have 4.10 gears or anything over 65 mph eats gas. I had a 2004.5 Cummins and they did some sort of ECU update that allowed me to run a different tune. The tuners are great for gas mileage and power as long as you can keep your foot off the gas. I got my best gas mileage using the "Power" setting on my Smarty and loved every minute of it.
 
I got an o8 ram 3500 6.7 dually and i use it for my car haul business i regularly pull 19,000-22,000 lbs and it has 320,000 miles i got the 6 speed manual g56.. The stock clutch /dual mass flywheel is the weakpoint it would be the second upgrade id make... the first one is drain the trans fluid and put the correct fluid in... from the factory its filled with atf +4 According to the transmission manufacturer (mercedes) Its supposed to have 50 wt synthetic trans fluid its $55 a gallon, trans holds 7 quarts.....Apparently Dodge decided to cheap out with the tranny fluid and you will notice an immediate difference when you change it...... The ford is a PITA to work on and if you get one buy a 7.3.... The new engines dont last from what ive seen myself (my dad had a 05 ford 6.0) and been told by those that own them(except the ford guys with blinders on) Im a gm guy myself and i bought a dodge with the cummins because they work....
 
I have a 05 dmax that i love.. This is my first diesel and i love it. The only dodge I looked at (as others mentioned) was the older 5.9 cummins with a manual tranny but they are hard to find in decent condition.. I have never been a ford fan and the only diesels i see around that are good are the 7.3s. Too bad they cant put the cummins and allison together
 
You should be able to find a nice 2wd for your budget. I've seen a few 4x4 near me that are very.close to your budget

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I replaced the clutch and flywheel at 180,000 miles all hwy tho...The flywheel sheared the dowel pins and split in half....You prolly wont be pulling nowhere near the weight i do so you should be fine...look on pickup.com theres a lot of trucks on there..
 
04 duramax here. i bought it with 3000 miles and it has 90,000 now, by far best truck i have ever had! brakes and tires and regular maintance thats all i have done to it. average mpg is about 15 no matter what i have hooked to it. longer trips with no trailer i have gotten 21mpg. cummins is a great engine,if it had an allison trans behind it
 
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