Which truck? Toyota, Dodge, Other?

[alienman]

Hey all. I currently have a 1990 dodge d250 cummins that I use to haul my equipment around with but with the recent addition to my family I need something bigger than a regular cab truck.

I want to hear some opinions on trucks from you all. I will be leasing something through the business so it will be brand new whatever it is.

I currently haul an 18 foot car hauler trailer with my excavator on it. Ballpark I figure the trailer weighs in at 2000 pounds and I know the excavator is 3500 pounds. During the spring/summer/fall that trailer and excavator is hooked to the truck most of the time.

My options that I have looked at so far are an 07 tundra double cab 4x4 TRD offroad, 07 Ram 1500 hemi, and the 07 Ram 2500 SLT hemi or diesel. The 1500 is the cheapest however the tow ratings seem like they could be low if I upgrade to a larger trailer or equipment in the next few years. The Tundra and 2500 Hemi are similar in towing and price, and the diesel is about an extra $6000.

What do you all think? I have drove both the Tundra and Hemi and that Toyota is nice, but I kinda want some input from people that have drove/rode/heard from a friend, what these trucks are like in real world situations.

Thank you all in advance.

[85regal]

have a look at the nissan titan

[illeagle]

I really like the new Silverado.. I drove one for a month, Duramax FTW. i liked it alot better than the dodge, The Titan was ok.. that's all i can say about that truck. The Tundra i have yet to drive.

[drtoohotty1]

+1 for the Titan

[kaput]

.

[street]

i like the dodge mega cab

[b_t]

The Titan is one of the most unreliable vehicles on the road, absolutely do NOT get a Titan. It has bombed every long term test it has ever been in.

Toyota on the other hand is always tops for reliability, has the most power in a gas truck right now, the most space, the best resale value, and the best stereo. They look kind of funny. But I would go with the Tundra hands down.

[Nav13]

My boss just bought a 07 tundra. and i must say its one of the nicest trucks ive been in. The interior doesnt look cheap like the silverado and the ram. nice looking truck with lots of power. that would be my pick hands down.

[The Cosworth]

Toyota if you want a gas, I am currently looking at a tacoma for a truck, but a tundra would be a good mix for you

I like the chevy/GM diesels but you pay $11,000 for the duramax/allison combo, I like the cummings engine but the interiors are crap (exact copy of my work dakota, and my dakota is a POS) and the exteriors are some of the oldest designs in trucks now

[Fastfuzz]

If you are towing a diesel is you best bet as the fuel economy goes way down in a gas truck as well as resale on a diesel is much better especially if you put on a lot of kilometers. I have driven and towed with both a tundra and a duramax and i must say the tundra gets killed...got basically half the fuel millage in the tundra and not near as much power...as well as the tranny in the toyota didn't act right when pulling where as the allison works awsome mabee thats why both dodge and GM use it. Thats my 2 cents...now keep in mind i am only talking about when towing here and that sounds like what you will be doing mostly with the truck....the toyota imo has the advantage when comparing it to the other gas trucks and if your not towing!
One other cool thing with the diesel truck is all the after market goodies you can get and still be reliable...my boss has a 500hp duramax that gets 22mpg and has 200 000km's on it!

[Supa Dexta]

My cuz got an 07 1500 hemi and hates it, wants his 06 or 05 back (can't remember what it was).. Not sure if he got a lemon, but it's been a hassle for him..

[b_t]

Originally posted by Fastfuzz
If you are towing a diesel is you best bet as the fuel economy goes way down in a gas truck as well as resale on a diesel is much better especially if you put on a lot of kilometers. I have driven and towed with both a tundra and a duramax and i must say the tundra gets killed...got basically half the fuel millage in the tundra and not near as much power...as well as the tranny in the toyota didn't act right when pulling where as the allison works awsome mabee thats why both dodge and GM use it. Thats my 2 cents...now keep in mind i am only talking about when towing here and that sounds like what you will be doing mostly with the truck....the toyota imo has the advantage when comparing it to the other gas trucks and if your not towing!
One other cool thing with the diesel truck is all the after market goodies you can get and still be reliable...my boss has a 500hp duramax that gets 22mpg and has 200 000km's on it!

Toyotas have a good history of holding their value even better than a domestic diesel does. What year Tundra do you have?

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by Nav13
My boss just bought a 07 tundra. and i must say its one of the nicest trucks ive been in. The interior doesnt look cheap like the silverado and the ram. nice looking truck with lots of power. that would be my pick hands down.

thats funny, I found the interior on the new Tundra the cheapest by far

[roopi]

I bought a GMC Sierra 1500 Crew Cab this summer and I'm very happy with it. Have you looked at the Duramax?

[ScottysZ]

Originally posted by b_t
The Titan is one of the most unreliable vehicles on the road, absolutely do NOT get a Titan. It has bombed every long term test it has ever been in.

Toyota on the other hand is always tops for reliability, has the most power in a gas truck right now, the most space, the best resale value, and the best stereo. They look kind of funny. But I would go with the Tundra hands down.

Agreed on the titan.


Im surprised no ones said anythign bad about the tundra yet, they are falling apart left and right. First off, so many camshafts were breaking in the 5.7s that toyota considered doing a recall of ALL of them before they broke and destroyed the engines. A lot of them are having transmission troubles due to shitty torque converters, and the tailgates are bending, breaking, and falling off.

The thing is completely underengineered, toyota cut costs everywhere possible. the leaf springs are smaller than a rangers for cristsake. The frames bend and twist like crazy under load too.

Do not buy a new tundra.



If youre already towing 5500lbs and thinking of upgrading, id really consider a diesel as it wont break a sweat if youre pulling 8 or 9 thousand pouns around when that gas engine will be working pretty damn hard.

Import fanboys... flame away.

[PrezeS_PL]

Originally posted by Fastfuzz
If you are towing a diesel is you best bet as the fuel economy goes way down in a gas truck as well as resale on a diesel is much better especially if you put on a lot of kilometers. I have driven and towed with both a tundra and a duramax and i must say the tundra gets killed...got basically half the fuel millage in the tundra and not near as much power...as well as the tranny in the toyota didn't act right when pulling where as the allison works awsome mabee thats why both dodge and GM use it. Thats my 2 cents...now keep in mind i am only talking about when towing here and that sounds like what you will be doing mostly with the truck....the toyota imo has the advantage when comparing it to the other gas trucks and if your not towing!
One other cool thing with the diesel truck is all the after market goodies you can get and still be reliable...my boss has a 500hp duramax that gets 22mpg and has 200 000km's on it!

The new 6 speed auto in dodge is still dodge not Allison.

Interior in the dodge sucks and new 6.7 has worse fuel mileage than 5.9, there were also reports of frequent ECM reflashes by the dealer to fix drivability issues.

New gm has very nice interior and the vortecmax 6.0 can pull with the tundra (weight wise) but its still only 4 speed vs. 6 speed in the tundra so economy and drivability might be not as good as the tundra.
Duramaxx with Alison pulls the nicest but if I was getting one I would opted for the LBZ (06-07) instead of LMM (2008) - same motor without all the emission crap .

Unless you tow 80% of the time diesel wont pay for it self. It cost on average $10k more for the diesel and in long run it cost more for service and repairs.

I'm looking into new tundra , just got the pricing this morning. Going to ditch my gm diesel since I only tow occasionally and when running empty around the city there is no savings.

[Palmiros]

Take a look at the Nissan Frontier.

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by Palmiros
Take a look at the Nissan Frontier.

did you even read the post? 5500lbs on a Frontier? The Frontier 4.0L V-6 specs were listed as 265HP @ 5600 rpm, 284 lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm

Shitty amounts of power for that weight

Originally posted by ScottysZ
A lot of them are having transmission troubles due to shitty torque converters

I drove one and it shifted awful in both auto and manual shifting. I wonder if that is why

[b_t]

Originally posted by ScottysZ


Agreed on the titan.


Im surprised no ones said anythign bad about the tundra yet, they are falling apart left and right. First off, so many camshafts were breaking in the 5.7s that toyota considered doing a recall of ALL of them before they broke and destroyed the engines. A lot of them are having transmission troubles due to shitty torque converters, and the tailgates are bending, breaking, and falling off.

The thing is completely underengineered, toyota cut costs everywhere possible. the leaf springs are smaller than a rangers for cristsake. The frames bend and twist like crazy under load too.

Do not buy a new tundra.

falling apart left and right? The fact of the matter is they did NOT do a full recall like you are talking about and it effected only a very small portion of the earliest Tundras (guess how many? TWENTY), so this is not a legit criticism especially since he would be looking at a new 2008 Tundra and the not the '07.

The tailgate thing only happens if you are driving around with your tailgate half down (45 degrees) which is the same angle you put the gate at to remove it. So its not a design flaw - its operator error.

The frame bending and twisting under load, bullshit... since when do you judge the quality of a vehicle on the size of the leaf springs? Not a valid complaint either.

The Tundra is the only truck with its kind of power I've driven that hauls a trailer so smoothly. It doesn't bump and jerk with a heavy trailer like domestics do, isn't seriously oversprung like domestics are (so it doesn't bounce real bad going over speedbumps) and so on.
The most serious Real issue affecting these trucks seems to be transmission problems, but there are none with the Tundra we've got and it has almost 40,000km on it already and its only a few months old. It'll be covered under warranty anyways, and like any work truck, you should only lease it to get a bigger tax break and also to get rid of it as soon as hard job site use starts to catch up to it (around 2 years 100,000km)

[RUQUIKR]

Originally posted by b_t


The frame bending and twisting under load, bullshit...

Actually it does twist alot, do a search on youtube and see for your self. Its because the Tundra's frame is not a fully boxed frame, the section under the box is a c channel. It actually flexes 5-6 inches were as the domestic trucks were closer to 1-2 inches. Not to mention their tailgate is severly under buit, wont support much more than 200lbs.