I am relatively indifferent towards vehicle brand, I have never owned a GM vehicle of any sort, but I don’t really have anything against them. They don’t seem to be built quite as stout, but maybe that’s just me. The lighter duty front end and older engines just don’t appeal to me so much, not a huge fan of the styling or design, although that doesn’t matter as much to me. From what little I’ve been around older GM stuff, it did seem extremely straightforward and easy to work on… and they seem tough enough despite their light-duty-esque design.
I am partial to Dodge, they are definitely the worst trucks themselves… but of course the engines, particularly and especially the Cummins, are pretty awesome… even their gas engines hold their own, Hemis and Magnums might not have the most torque, but they run just fine. The V10 Magnum is an odd, overcomplicated weirdo in the world of heavy duty light truck engines, but it definitely does its job, with the whine of a vacuum and ghostly burbly rumble of… hell? Or something from another frickin dimension… no idea why they sound like they do… an almost alive, creepy sound… flat torque curve, which makes pulling easy as long as you like stopping for fuel haha. And the manual helps, but the V10 could only be had with a manual if you specifically ordered it that way… I know the complete and full history of mine for that reason…
The 6.7 Cummins is a beast. Big power and bigger dependability. Despite their small issues with short turbo lives, and emissions system malfunctions, they are very tough. Have over 300k on a few at work, run like they’re new. The trucks themselves are worse for wear but the engines don’t care. And the Dodge transmissions aren’t near as bad as people say. The programming can be a bit stupid sometimes for shifting while towing, but they definitely got that ironed out more recently.
The 5.9…
Common rail? An even stouter simpler version of the 6.7 it seems to me. The 06 and 07 models run like hell too. 03-05, not as powerful in my experience, had their share of injector issues, and other minor things, but all in all not too bad.
VP44… I actually don’t like these… they made something so simple very messy and kinda complicated. And they don’t seem much better power wise than a very lightly turned up P pump 12V… which is overrated but still an excellent engine. They came in absolutely crap trucks though. The early second gens are garbage, with the later version being hardly any better. I own a late second gen… it’s just not that great.
VE pump Cummins… staple of reliability, start so well… and in stock form, utterly, completely, totally, absolutely
gutless. Neighbor of mine 4 miles south has some, and my service truck would tun circles around him while I was without turbo and loaded almost twice as heavy. I help him with hay every summer, but those stock VE pump Cummins are the slowest, most gutless things I have ever driven. It’s horrible. But of course, just the lightest bump in fuel wakes them way up, and the same to a P pumped version makes an enormous difference… biggest problem with the mechanical Cummins, seems difficult to make power without smoke. Much easier to keep the smoke at bay with…
The IDI…
Ford… our trucks’ era, simple, capable, reliable, dependable, rugged, easy to maintain, work on, use, and really, kinda fun, the level of tinkering typically associated with these is enjoyable IMO. And the fact that you can still do something. The 7.3 PSD may as well fall in the same category despite its extra level of complexity. Parts are plentiful and there is still activity and new developments by the aftermarket stirring around. And really, affordable as well. Ford’s golden era for trucks IMO, the ‘90s. They are seeming to have another golden era with their 6.7s, which I have some experience with. Those things are frickin awesome. Would definitely be my first pick for a late model truck. 11-14 had their issues but the 15+ are tanks, really. All these things have their issues, but they’re complicated enough that it’s a given. Old trucks have their problems too, of a different sort though.
But, the price of parts for these 6.7s amazes me, Duramax parts and really some Cummins stuff is much pricier. A set of injectors for a 6.7 PSD is under $3k, for OEM! Of course that doesn’t include labor, but really, that just doesn’t seem so bad to me as complicated as these things are…
Probably wouldn’t last as long as a Cummins, but still…
It is my opinion that the Ford trucks themselves are about as good as it gets… at least for a full size American truck.
The ‘Yota trucks are too small, but from what I have been around the older ones, they are effectively designed to be abused to an extent. Neighbor of mine has 1.1 million on one, 800k on another, and 450k on another. They all have original engines, the million miler got a new tranny not too long ago
And he beats on them. Treats them like a kid treats an old ATV. Just tears around in em and they just keep going. Stuff breaks, but still. They just go.
