Truck shopping...

[67since67]

Originally Posted by Derek69SS

I decided to avoid all the lifter failure issues of the AFM/DOD system by going to an HD with the L8T 6.6L gas.

That's a nice truck Derek!
If I were looking to replace my 2500 HD I'd look at the 6.6 gasser. One of my friends just traded for his second and says the 10 Spd Allison trans is a game changer behind that engine.
I once chased him up Black Mountain on west bound NC I-40, I'm sure his gasser downshifted a couple but maintained 70-75 no problem.

[Derek69SS]

Originally Posted by 67since67

That's a nice truck Derek!
If I were looking to replace my 2500 HD I'd look at the 6.6 gasser. One of my friends just traded for his second and says the 10 Spd Allison trans is a game changer behind that engine.
I once chased him up Black Mountain on west bound NC I-40, I'm sure his gasser downshifted a couple but maintained 70-75 no problem.

My neighbor is the service-manager at the dealer I bought it from, so I discussed it quite a bit with him before I placed my order. The L8T 6.6L gas are the most trouble-free trucks they sell right now, since there's no turbos, no diesel emission systems, and no AFM lifter problems.

The 10-speed is fantastic. I hope I never have trouble with it after the warranty because I'm sure it's expensive as hell, but I sure am impressed with it so far.

Gas mileage is surprisingly good too when unloaded if you keep under 70mph. I got 17.5mpg driving it to Indianapolis for the 500 and 15.5 coming home into a strong head-wind. Another trip up North I got 18.3 on 60mph back-roads. It's tall and pushes a lot of air, so 75mph drops the mileage to about 13.5.

[Salvatore]

Man that is a nice truck Derek.

[markinnaples]

Beautiful truck and killer Camaro. Can you tell us a little more about the '69?

Scratch that, just found your thread on the '69 in the Day Two section, pretty cool!

[Derek69SS]

Thanks!
I never figured I'd buy a new one, but the used truck market has been ridiculous for the last 4 years. My old truck was a 2011 1500 with a 6.2 and Max Towing package. At 200,000 miles and a dozen Minnesota winters, the frame rusted out from the inside-out and I no longer wanted to trust towing my cars behind it.

I started looking in the 30k range at used stuff with 10k or better towing capacity (6.2L 1/2-tons, and any 3/4 or 1-ton) and it was all just as old, just as many miles, and probably not far behind on the rust in this part of the country. 30k for barely an upgrade seemed out of the question to me. 40k trucks were 100-125k miles and 5-7 years old, which is about the time they start to show rust here. Anything 3 years old and 50k miles was over 50k. This one, brand new, was 63k MSRP. More than I ever figured I'd spend on a truck, but it made more sense than spending 80% of that for something that had 1/4 of its best miles behind it, and been through the salt for 3 or 4 winters already. Also, 2024 was the first year of the 10-speed behind the gas 6.6L and got a facelift that looks a lot better than the 2020-2023s. It's not super fancy. Just an LT with only what I deemed worth the cost on options.

I ordered in November, and received it in February.
Since then, the market has cooled a little, and might be a bit more logical to buy used.

[GearheadSS]

Pre-2007 5.3s are definitely the most reliable. Anything with AFM/DFM is prone to lifter failure. If I were buying a new GM 1500 that I planned to keep a long time, I'd get a 3.0L Duramax diesel or a 2.7L 4 cyl turbo.

[dustinm]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

Pre-2007 5.3s are definitely the most reliable. Anything with AFM/DFM is prone to lifter failure. If I were buying a new GM 1500 that I planned to keep a long time, I'd get a 3.0L Duramax diesel or a 2.7L 4 cyl turbo.

You might want to investigate where the timing belt is on a 3.0l diesel as it's a 100k maintenance item, if your truly considering keeping one long term

[67since67]

Originally Posted by dustinm

You might want to investigate where the timing belt is on a 3.0l diesel as it's a 100k maintenance item, if your truly considering keeping one long term

Actually Dustin, the interval on early 3.0's is 150K, extended to 200K on 2023 and newer. By then it's all a crap-shoot anyway. Belt part number is the same for all years..

I've been down the rabbit hole researching this on forums (it's like talking politics!) and decided I'd prefer a scheduled maintenance over a "can fail at any time" (AFM/DFM lifters). I love my Baby Max, traded an Audi S6 for it and never looked back.
I rarely keep anything past 100K anyway. - Bill W

[GearheadSS]

Originally Posted by dustinm

You might want to investigate where the timing belt is on a 3.0l diesel as it's a 100k maintenance item, if your truly considering keeping one long term

I'll take the 200k timing belt service over the almost guaranteed lifter failures that come with the 5.3L and 6.2L.

[dustinm]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

I'll take the 200k timing belt service over the almost guaranteed lifter failures that come with the 5.3L and 6.2L.

So now the belt replacement is now at 200k?

When are the lifters guaranteed to fail? I have 4 and need to know when to plan for this.