Which Diesel is best to pull with?

[Thomasjb40]

I am on limited funds. $ 10,000.00 to be precise. I will be pulling a 39 ft. Keystone Raptor toy hauler. I have a family, so a 4 door is a must. I'm leaning towards one ton DRW's because of better stability and less road walk. So now my main concern is; make, engine and towing capacity and power. The two that I've narrowed it down to is a Ford F350, 7.3 diesel. Or. A Dodge 5.9 cummins. Those seem to fall in that price range. Unless you think of something that might be better.

[jenandjon]

There are a few decent ones on Ebay. Stay away from fords 6.0.

[Rolfsted]

There are some one owner low miles 7.3s out there. I just found one after a year of looking online everyday. Lots of 200,000 + out there too, but I figure even if a 7.3 will go 400,000 miles many parts on it won't.

[jenandjon]

There will probably not be many low milage trucks in this price range. I searched for almost a year before I found my 07 chevy classic. 6.6 duramax crew cab long box with leather bench seats. It had 99,900 miles. Price was $29,999. Found at a chevrolet dealer where it was sold new and they always serviced it there so have all the records. Adult owned and unmolested (I called the former owner). They would not budge on price.

One important thing when buying a diesel. These trucks are very popular with the younger generation. They buy them put big tuners on them with all kinds of aftermarket crap and literally beat them. Then they pull all that crap off make it original again and sell it so be careful who you buy from.

[timetogo]

You will need to really look at any brand selling for $10K or less. Turbo or injector problems cost $1,000's.
$10,000 could buy a real money pit.
I hope you can fine a good one.

[camato5]

Originally Posted by jenandjon

There are a few decent ones on Ebay. Stay away from fords 6.0.

I have been running a Ford F250 6.0 Power stroke for years and pulled my 37' quad slide 5er for years before purchasing my MH last summer.

It is a horse and have never had any trouble pulling. Empty weight on my Cedar Creek was 12450 lbs. I was pulling around 15K with it all over the south and NEVER had any problems

[vettehead]

In my opinion the G M. is the best. Duramax 6.6 will be connected to an Allison transmission. Nothing on the market can even come close to the Allison. GM's will have a better resale value than the Ford or Dodge.
Last thing is it will cost more than 10 grand.

[2500HD]

for 10k your basically only looking at 5.9 cummins and 7.3 ford, a pre duramax chevy diesel is a no-no. For that price range you would be better off with a gas truck but it looks like you have a bit too much trailer for one. You may get lucky and find an 01 or 02 chevy with the 8.1 that doesn't have a million miles. Any truck that age with some miles is going to cost you some money for a bunch of little things no matter how legendary the engine is.

The main issue I see here is you have a whole lotta trailer and not much of a truck budget. If you had a bit less trailer you would be open to a ton of different trucks for the same budget.

[Thomasjb40]

Well even though I don't want to. It looks like I might have to finance another $ 10,000.00. Thank you

[Rolfsted]

The best deals are on the 6.0 Ford diesel. I looked at ton of them. You can get a crew cab Lariat for 15-18 all day long. Yes, I know...the 6.0s are fraught with problems. But....you go into any park with 5ers being towed by one and talk to the owner. They will sing the praises of their 6.0. Yep they probably had the head studs, egr, and oil cooler work done but then it will pull like crazy. Personally, I stuck with the 7.3. I'm still working and don't need to have my truck down doing engine mods. My mechanic is a diesel whiz and told not to be afraid of the 6.0 just make sure I brought to him before I bought it. Like I said earlier, I looked for a year or more and found this 2001 F350 cc lb 7.3 dually one owner not one dent...zero dents 112,000 miles bought and traded back in at a local dealer for $15,800. I got exactly on trade what paid for my 2000 F250 6 years ago. I also got a 3 year 50,000 miles warranty. So I'm happy. Figure at least $5,000 over the 10 you want to spend and you'll get a good truck. If you find a 6.0 take it to a mechanic and plan to maybe sink another 3 into the engine. But a lot of the 6.0s have already been updated.

[caissiel]

Lots of 6.0 XLs at low price. Just look around at the numbers of 2005 to 2007 ford on the road and going strong. The aftermarket have fixed these and most are well kept. Mine has been a great cheap truck for the past 8 years.

[jenandjon]

Where are all the dodge guys at? We have a 09 doully with the 6.7 and 6 speed manual on the farm that we bought just for pulling. It rides like a brick but pulls great. A couple weeks a go hauling hay we pulled across the scales at 40,000 pounds. After that we didn't make the trailer quite so full.

The dodge is great but I have a Chevy for a personal vehicle for a reason. Once you get a little bit of a load on it rides like a Cadillac.

[Nana25K]

We had An 07 Ram dually with the 5.9. With the crew cab. Long bed, 410 rearend. Lots of room, rode great. We loved that truck. Just check out the front wheel bearing. That was our only issue once it hit 100k miles. Would still be using it if we hadn't moved to a MH. Driving at 55/60 mph towing we averaged 11.5 mpg over a year time in all terrain across the country. I would think that you should find one in the 15k range

[Thomasjb40]

Good to know. I was wondering what all the problems were. I'll keep my eyes open a little more on the 6.0's. Thanks