KaiB

Think I'll do the same soon; poor truck has never really been washed properly. I look forward to shiny once again.

Now the mud, fencing tools, two cycle oil on the dash, general stuff and dog tracks in the interior are another thing.

Doc GTO

NOOOOO. I would also not get one of the new urea injection diesels. I have an 09 Duramax and it does the regen crap but still gets 18-19 on the hwy solo and 12-14 towing 8K-5K. My buddies brand new '12 Ford gets 9mpg int he city . . . I get 12.5-13.5 city driving.

Find a nice 09-10 Duramax. The depreciation hit has happened so that is your best bet!!!

Here's my baby:


And I tow this:

Doc GTO

I had no issues with my 6.0 until 98K. They replaced the turbo under warranty. At 102K the FICM took a crap. $1100. At 104K I noticed that the oil temps and water temps were starting to have a greater then 15 degree split. Usually an early sign of EGR/oil cooler failure. It would have been $1800-2200 to fix out of warranty.

At this time I traded for a nice, under warranty 09 Duramax. Never looked back!

I did have an 03 Ford 7.3 before the 07 6.0. That was a monster!!!!! Too bad they stopped making that baby!

Charles A. Toupin

No, a 1500 pick-up (2011 GMC, 5.3L, extended cab, 6'6" bed). But yes 12mpg is standard. Ok, maybe 10-11 when I drive back home, as I drive faster (70-75mph). But at 60mph, I do easy 12mpg.

20ft Pace pursuit, no V-Nose.

c.

Eifeler

Best motor they ever made. Traded in my wife's rock solid 7.3 Excursion at close to 200k. Would have kept that as my tow vehicle if it would have had the rating to pull the boat.

tripleblack

Ditto that. It's not uncommon to see 7.3's with well over 500K miles on them.

Carrera GT

The Navistar deal was money, not quality. To Ford, $1B is a line item issue, if that's their shared warranty exposure, the top-line revenue is a much bigger number. Strategically, Ford did well to throw out the bad reputation of the 6.0 starting I think in '03, with the deal they tried to renew with Navistar (even in '07 according to that Web site) and eventually bit the bullet to produce their own engine line-up starting in '11 ... that glacial progress is typical of the US auto industry ... a decade to move a piece on the board. Meanwhile European and Asian car makers have delivered two full product cycles and have new technology in continuous roll-out instead of the US makers in continuous catch-up and counter-punch.

Still, at least now the 2011 models are of a reasonable quality standard (relatively speaking) and the shortcomings are in performance, reliability and durability.

I agree there's a laundry list of fixes to be made to a 6.0 to make it reliable beyond about 80K miles, but it's a $5K budget if done ahead of failures. Aside from a trusted mechanic -- who has made good money out of 6.0's, mostly from pick-up owners with at least some sort of after-market engine mods -- advising me to move on at 80K+ miles and consider myself lucky, my main hesitation is driving an '05 vehicle in 2012 and 2013 instead of a newer vehicle. Surely there's a higher failure rate in any 7+ year old vehicle (based on 30+ year old components) at 80K miles.

I'm leaning towards the advice of something like an '09 Chev or rolling the dice on current (2012/2013) vehicles given the likelihood of annual deep discounts. I note that Porsche has already started the deep discounts ($15K+) on their 997 stock.

Much as I'd like to get into something like the V6 turbo "eco tec" F150, I routinely rent a bobcat or mini excavator at those tow at about 10K lbs, which makes me drive the Excursion cautiously and I don't think it would be too clever behind an F150 working at its limits and less vehicle weight to balance out the physics of a bobcat if I needed to stop. So that leaves me in some sort of heavy duty size pickup.

There's always the after-market:

Sean F

Actually, the new engine has issues as well as noted earlier in the thread. The high pressure fuel pump is failing based on poor quality fuel ( or so Ford claims). It causes significant damage ($10k+) and so far Ford is not fixing under warranty claiming it is operator error for using low quality fuel.

Charles A. Toupin

That truck would be great. I want one. Actually, I don't understand why GM does not build a Diesel suv. Theu have the platform and the engine... Even the 4.5L Duramax would be great in a 1500 pick-up or suv...

Carrera GT

In '05, Ford had finally built the Excursion to a level where it was pretty decent and buyers liked it, but there was high dose of fuel price scares in the political arena, so "gas guzzlers" were out and Ford explained that the Excursion was "no longer viable due to poor sales" (they went on to report 100,000 unit sales for the '05 model year ... I think Porsche would take those "poor" sales numbers any day ... and just about any company on the planet could surely profit from selling 100,000 of just about anything, especially if was based on 30 year old component designs that were stockpiled to the roof in factories that were built and paid for in the 70's and laborers who were basically free (the net cost of an auto worker had become their retirement fund, not their wage ... hence the imperative for GM to go "bankrupt" to release the liability.)

GM built the (now cult car) rear-steering Suburbland (Quadrasteer) which is regarded as a near perfect tow vehicle. I think the last year was '05 for Queer-steer, but I thought it was great. Not sure if it was ever paired with the (then available) diesel powertrain in any of the GM products. There used to be a great video of a test pilot factory driver performing "stunts" with a horse trailer (reversing in a circle at fast pace, reversing through slalom cones, etc.)

This video, below, does a halfway decent job using parking lot lines and wet ground and another video in the snow, to illustrate the turning circle. Note the running lights on the rear fender extensions (the q-steer made the rear end just wide enough to require DOT "clearance" markers for wide vehicles.) I think all the various negatives such as the wider rear end, $5000 more expensive on a $50,000 truck, poor marketing that failed to prove the cost-benefit value) and sheer lack of inventory (I tried to get one and literally couldn't find a dealer with one in stock that was close to my spec) all added up to a sales failure for what should have become the industry standard for any long wheelbase pickup or tow vehicle.

P.J.S.

3/4 or 1 ton diesel excursion/suburban/yukon -- I would buy.

I cannot for the life of me understand why none of the big three offer this.
Of course it must be a perceived volume problem but I thought the excursion was cancelled due to bad PC public relations... it is not bad enough that the prius drivers block the left lane everywhere, but they are vocal litte bastards that helped ford axe the excursion...

I just emailed the conversion guy to see if he could convert my current truck.. .although it looks like he only does Ford trucks...

BC

The 2000-2006 Surburban/YukonXl 2500 trucks are the best for this I think, except if you have a goose neck. And in the arena of conversions, people are putting the gm diesel (duramax I believe) into the suburbans with simple computer and fueling changes. No - the allison does not fit in the body because of floor-height. But a beefed up 4l85E is just as fine.

fatbillybob

I'm not sure what everyone is talking about extra maintenance and touchy fuel systems in new diesels. Facts are dodge ram diesel rebuild is at 300K miles! How is that for tough? People are saying things like the rest of your truck will fall apart before the diesel motor falls apart. That has been the history. The Deisel followers are almost as militant as the greenies! Those forum boards are replete with new deisel trucks running on all kinds of home brew bio/deisel blends, red deisel, used strained motor oil with deisel, and all kinds of oils a gasser can barely handle 15% ethanol. So what have those guys done? Most of those guys have taken off the deisel particulate filters and messed with the EGR and the rest of the emmissions to get their trucks to be like older deisel trucks shod in new shiny clothes with more torque and HP with these things called deletes. Dodge ram crewcab deisels are doing 14 sec quarter miles! Not bad for 7000+lb truck with light back end. Well if you are old like me and don't want to play that game you just keep it stock and the 600+ ft/lb of torque my 2012 cummings has is quite sufficient and for a megacab 2500 with laramine package and all the trimming sticker for $60k but sold for $49k before T and L you would be hard pressed to get a decked out chevy silverado 2500 gasser for that money. The ask on these trucks is one thing the sales prices is quite another.

Eifeler

My SRW DC 3500 was faster than that in the 1/4. Boosted 4x4 launch = sub 2 sec 60ft.

Wouldn't hesitate to buy another. It all depends on who has the best over truck for the money when it's time for another.

docwyte

I'd love to have a diesel Tahoe/Yukon...