Considering trading my 7.3 for a Duramax... thoughts?

[macgyvr]

Let me thread hijack this for a minute looking for opinions...

I have an 08 F450 crew cab long bed 6.4 powerstroke 62k miles 4.88 gears 4x4 loaded to the gills.

I average 6.5 mpg with a 15k trailer and the truck camper. With $1500 in dpf delete, a tuner, and full exhaust I may get 8 or 9 or 10 towing the same.

I have a buddy that has an 06 Chevy 3500 duramax LBZ? motor. Crew cab, long bed, 4x4 leather, 73k, LT3 option package, 5 inch exhaust, new eagle rims, turbo brake, and 60hp efi tow tune.

Claims truck will get 10 to 12 with 15k trailer. If we traded (I would get some $$ and his truck for my truck), I could probably lower my truck payment by about $150 bucks a month and get the mileage that I'm looking for without spending more money in mods. Basically I would have about 25k in the Chevy.

He wants an f450 to pull his pulling truck and the trailer weighs alot...f450 is suited better to tow what he's towing.

Thoughts, is this a good deal? It appears to be a good year for the Chevy as far as the good dirtymax motor.

We are going to possibly test drive trucks this weekend.

mac 'I hate chevy chit' gyvr

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

Let me thread hijack this for a minute looking for opinions...

I have an 08 F450 crew cab long bed 6.4 powerstroke 62k miles 4.88 gears 4x4 loaded to the gills.

I average 6.5 mpg with a 15k trailer and the truck camper. With $1500 in dpf delete, a tuner, and full exhaust I may get 8 or 9 or 10 towing the same.

I have a buddy that has an 06 Chevy 3500 duramax LBZ? motor. Crew cab, long bed, 4x4 leather, 73k, LT3 option package, 5 inch exhaust, new eagle rims, turbo brake, and 60hp efi tow tune.

Claims truck will get 10 to 12 with 15k trailer. If we traded (I would get some $$ and his truck for my truck), I could probably lower my truck payment by about $150 bucks a month and get the mileage that I'm looking for without spending more money in mods. Basically I would have about 25k in the Chevy.

He wants an f450 to pull his pulling truck and the trailer weighs alot...f450 is suited better to tow what he's towing.

Thoughts, is this a good deal? It appears to be a good year for the Chevy as far as the good dirtymax motor.

We are going to possibly test drive trucks this weekend.

mac 'I hate chevy chit' gyvr

In my uneducated opinion... go for it. You're getting a truck that's a little cheaper, but it's still dually and still long bed. You won't have to deal with the DPF crap. If he is excited about getting your F450 then I would jump all over it, you don't really lose much except for 2 lug nuts on each wheel.

The different gearing alone will probably help you out quite a bit. Hey, if it doesn't work out, just sell it and move on the next one. Maybe it's time you go medium-duty one of these days...

Again though I am not very brand loyal, it's whatever truck works the best for me. Since you bleed Ford blue, that will make it a little more difficult.

 

[RCman]

I have a buddy that has an 06 Chevy 3500 duramax LBZ? motor. Crew cab, long bed, 4x4 leather, 73k, LT3 option package, 5 inch exhaust, new eagle rims, turbo brake, and 60hp efi tow tune.

Claims truck will get 10 to 12 with 15k trailer. If we traded (I would get some $$ and his truck for my truck), I could probably lower my truck payment by about $150 bucks a month and get the mileage that I'm looking for without spending more money in mods. Basically I would have about 25k in the Chevy.

This seems about right to me. My '06 LBZ is a 2500HD ext cab, 55k miles, 4x4, LT3, yada yada, but stock. Completely unaltered at the moment. I average about 13-14mpg towing my pig of a Jeep and parts which is ~7-8k pounds with trailer. Unloaded I see mid-19mpg regularly during the summer months. Obviously winter months are not that high.

I did a lot of reading and searching about which "year was the best" before I bought mine. Seems like the '06-07 Classics with the LBZ are the best options. The LMMs are nice, but more emissions junk.
I haven't had my truck for too long, but I'm loving it so far.

 

[asp]

Financially, your argument for the trade makes a lot of sense. I can't comment too much on the hardware in the trucks because I'm not very well versed on it. One thing I would like to bring up is that I'm always wary of dealing with that much money or selling a car/truck/motorcycle/etc to a friend.

Good luck with your efforts.

 

[macgyvr]

I hear the argument for the dealing in large amounts of money with friends.

Normally I don't like to sell vehicles to friends cause I'm always afraid that they will have something major go wrong shortly after the sale (whether I knew there was something wrong or not).

With that said there is nothing wrong with my F450 that I am aware of. The guy that has the chebby works for a diesel shop and knows a lot of about diesels. He also used to sell tuners for them and knows what works and doesn't work. He also told me that you can beat on the allison trans but don't add more than 60 or 90 hp to the motor or the trans isn't happy. I know he's pulled a lot of weight with the chebby. I know that he's also had an accident in the truck and a few other issues that were related to the accident. He's been upfront with all that information and once I get to see the truck I'll go over it with a fine tooth comb.

One question, does the chevy diesel have the 5yr/100k motor warranty like the others.

mac 'If I could justify a semi...i would' gyvr

 

[POSJ]

Mac I can say his mileage claims are probably legitimate. I pulled my 12k trailer down from Minot, ND to Tucson, AZ and averaged around 12 mpg that was with the cruise set at 65mph going over the Rockies too...I don't know much about the F450's and trucks that big because I don't have a use for it. I wouldn't trade my 07 Chevy for any other truck but that is just my opinion.

 

[BMB5150]

Duramax all the way. I have an 07 Classic with the LBZ, good strong engine even when stock. Get a programmer and hold on!

 

[Maxcfm]

Let me thread hijack this for a minute looking for opinions...

I have an 08 F450 crew cab long bed 6.4 powerstroke 62k miles 4.88 gears 4x4 loaded to the gills.

I average 6.5 mpg with a 15k trailer and the truck camper. With $1500 in dpf delete, a tuner, and full exhaust I may get 8 or 9 or 10 towing the same.

I have a buddy that has an 06 Chevy 3500 duramax LBZ? motor. Crew cab, long bed, 4x4 leather, 73k, LT3 option package, 5 inch exhaust, new eagle rims, turbo brake, and 60hp efi tow tune.

Claims truck will get 10 to 12 with 15k trailer. If we traded (I would get some $$ and his truck for my truck), I could probably lower my truck payment by about $150 bucks a month and get the mileage that I'm looking for without spending more money in mods. Basically I would have about 25k in the Chevy.

He wants an f450 to pull his pulling truck and the trailer weighs alot...f450 is suited better to tow what he's towing.

Thoughts, is this a good deal? It appears to be a good year for the Chevy as far as the good dirtymax motor.

We are going to possibly test drive trucks this weekend.

mac 'I hate chevy chit' gyvr

Mac from my point of view your gears are too deep for what little your towing, fixing that is a lot less coin in my book.

I could not figure out why my rig was getting very different mpg then other 2010 3500 guys I opted for deeper gears when I ordered it knowing that I would be towing. Those same guys that kept the stock gears in my truck are now the same complaining about performance towing there 35' 5th wheels and are going to change brands over it. I could get even better mpg if I did the the DPF delete, but to do it legally is a bunch of work but its an option.

Also there might be a sweet spot on speed/rpm as well, on my 4k mile trip out west and back I found it for my rig 65 - 68 mph nets me 14.8 -15.7mpg yeah it'll do 70 and better but I pay for it in fuel costs and brake wear. If I had to take a guess this would be same if I was towing just the mpg would go down. I have my 23' goose I need to hook it up and tow the XJ around with it see what I find

Keep your truck fix the real problem don't trade it for different ones, also trading/selling to a buddy almost always leads to someone having a problem down the road my .02

 

[macgyvr]

My rear axle is a dana s110. The cheapest I have found gearsets for is $1000. Thats no install or install kit, just the gears, just the rear axle and thats the cheapest I have found, the dealer is $2000. Add to that whatever the super60 axle gears are and its some coin. Also, I have 4.88 gears. To keep the speed senor for the abs the lowest you can go is 4.30 gears. You can go lower but you'll get a check engine light. Seems like a lot of money for not much difference. At 70mph I'm turning 2650rpm with 4.88s.

The sweet spot in this truck...maybe 60...but its still just barely getting 7mpg with 15k of trailer.

I love this truck, minus the fuel economy...I would love to get an '11 Ford...but that's out of my price range...for now.

mac 'dpf is dumb' gyvr

 

[99xjache]

Mac,

What tuner are you running in your truck? If its an off the shelf unit like banks or edge, you might consider ditching it for a DP tuner. Try looking at the F6 multi tuner from dptuners.com Link Chips - Tuning - Ford Powerstroke 7.3L
This tuner will give you the option to shift in and out of tunes "on the fly" you can shift from a 40hp tow to an 80hp econ tune while driving. Jody can load up to 16 tunes on the chip. Not sayin you should buy it, but at least check it out. It seems like a cheaper option to keep your tow power and get your econ when you need it.

Aaron

 

[GoSlowGetStuck]

Mac,

What tuner are you running in your truck? If its an off the shelf unit like banks or edge, you might consider ditching it for a DP tuner. Try looking at the F6 multi tuner from dptuners.com Link Chips - Tuning - Ford Powerstroke 7.3L
This tuner will give you the option to shift in and out of tunes "on the fly" you can shift from a 40hp tow to an 80hp econ tune while driving. Jody can load up to 16 tunes on the chip. Not sayin you should buy it, but at least check it out. It seems like a cheaper option to keep your tow power and get your econ when you need it.

Aaron

For what it's worth, I'm the guy with the 7.3L. Mac has a 6.4L F450.

Thanks for the link though, it looks like I will be keeping the 7.3 since I am in the process of getting a new house, so the Duramax will have to wait. The 7.3 is kind of a dog though, so maybe a chip and exhaust will hold me over for a while.

 

[macgyvr]

I own an 08 F450 for now

mac 'never owned a 7.3' gyvr

 

[iluv83vettes]

some other tuners to look at for the 7.3 are the power hungry performance, tony wildman, and swamps