Duramax or Cummins???

[HuntinJake_23]

Ok chevy and dodge guru's (no fords ): In the near future im gonna be looking at getting a newer truck(used of course) ive been looking back and forth at 97-01 dodge ram 2500's with the cummins, and also the 01-04 chevy silverado 2500 with the duramax/allison, i have pros and cons of each truck, ive been a chevy guy since ive been able to drive, what is yalls opinion?

 

[DAVE]

I would stay away from a 10 year old diesel, but if I had to have one it would be the cummins.

 

[aragorn1]

The weakness of a Dodge truck is the trans. If you go with a manual trans that has been taken care of(not abused then you will be fine). I would go with the Chevy or a GMC with the Duramax/Allison combo.

 

[Bighead]

I have been very pleased with my 02 Chevy 2500 with the Duramax/Allision combo it has over 200k on it now and still pulls, rides and drives very well. Other than your run of the mill stuff such as brakes, batteries and tie rod ends its given me no trouble, it's a farm truck too.

 

[HuntinJake_23]

thats one of my big cons is the independant front suspension, i have a 4x4 s10 with the IFS and its a pain to me

 

[Flaustin1]

Straight axle is the way to go. But then again the dodge transmissions arent the best in the world. My folks' work truck had 453k on it when they sold it. It was a cummins. Guy is still driving it. On its 3rd transmission rebuild though.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Cummins. Period. End of discussion.

 

[M80]

I had a 1998 cummins 4x4 for 10 years, 5spd, truck never let me down. Steering is not that good on the dodge's, Chevy steering is the best. It's night and day diff. The chevy is going to be your everyday driver, with good take off and speed, comfort driving. The dodge will be your haul anything anywhere, dependable engine, you really don't have to worry about the engine, it's just everything else. Don't get me wrong, I loved mine, I just never hauled enough to justify having it. You said you like the straight axle's front end, me too, but they do have there fair share of front end problems. The chevy might be independent, but man it rides much better and I really dont think your going to be out muddin in it so you really dont have much to worry about.

If you go with the cummins and are going to put a programmer on it make sure you put a new lift pump on it that will supply enough fuel to the injector pump or you will burn it up.

It's all about what you want, a noisy but very dependable cummins that rides like a dump truck, or a more daily driver vehicle, but make sure you go with a stick shift in the cummin's.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

I hear a lot about Dodge transmissions giving trouble, but that has not been my experience. ,They had some problems with the first generation back in 1990 and 1991, but pretty well had it straightened out by 1994.

Now, I don't pull a lot of 10k pound trailers, but on a regular basis, I put 2k to 3k pounds in the bed and haul it 40 to50 miles. One of my trucks did have to have a transmission in it a 240k miles, but it wasn't the transmissions fault. A coolant line for the tranny ruptured running the fast lane on I85. Before I could get it over 4 lanes and off the road it dumped all the fluid and smoked the clutches. The other one now has 247k on it and not a hint of trouble from the tranny.

I have seen Fords dump a transmission while trying to push a 24ft camper backwards into a camp site. I have seen Chevy's pop a transmission trying to pull a 16ft livestock trailer with 6 cows in it.

I think all of them have issues with the transmissions from time to time, but if you service them like you are suppose to, most will last a very long time.

Having said all that, If I were pulling fairly heavy loads on a real regular basis, I would want a manual transmission too. Better mileage, and it helps hold back on downhill grade better too.

 

[Showman]

Cummins changed the engine design in 03 to make it a quieter running motor. All brands have Transmission problems of one sort or another and remember that the Cummins has been around and in more varied applications for a heck of a lot more years than the Duramax has been. Ford even uses Cummins motors in their commercial applications occasionally. Cummins is a straight 6 where the Duramax is a V-8 and makes more HP but the Cummins is capable of producing more Torque and better fuel economy with the right mods. It's just too bad someone hasn't come out with a vehicle that combines all the good stuff from all three manufacturers.

 

[Browning01]

Between the two DIRTYMAX hands down. Heres a pic of mine.

 

[3205lpv]

I like the Chevy truck better, you can't beat the Cummins engine though. The duramaxs you are looking out are the Lb7 era engine, which is known to have problems with injectors. They are very expensive to fix. this website has a lot of good information about the duramax dieselplace.com

 

[merc123]

I would stay away from a 10 year old diesel, but if I had to have one it would be the cummins.

Nothing wrong with mine and it's 12 years old. Bought it used in 2010 with 95k miles on it...

 

[camodano]

when you are done with the Duramax and the Cummins get you a power stroke good for3 or even 400.000 miles. good luck with your search.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

when you are done with the Duramax and the Cummins get you a power stroke good for3 or even 400.000 miles. good luck with your search.

and you think a Cummins won't run 300k???

in a midsize commercial truck Cummins warranty is 250k. I have 2 Cummins with well over 200k on them and expect them to run many more miles with little or no trouble. If they don't hit 400k, I will be sorely disappointed.

 

[bluemarlin]

The Duramax is stronger and faster. Not that it can't happen but I haven't been beat by a Dodge. I've put over 250,000 on my 08 LMM and love it. I use to haul cars with it. She's retired from that and is my daily driver. To me it's the most comfortable of the 3 (Ford, Chevy, Dodge). The Cummins gets a little better mileage but not enough to offset the trans issues. Towing, my Chevy is a billy goat up hills and the exhaust brake allows me to not touch the brakes going down. The Allison is very easy to work on and has all kinds of upgrade options. Mine has Edge tuner that I keep on stage 2, 5" exhaust from the downpipe back, blocked the EGR, reroute the PVC, I upgraded to Alcoa 19.5's and got 200,000 miles out of them, added a 100 gallon fuel tank/toolbox in the bed that's gravity fed, etc... My dually gets around 10 mpg pulling 30,000 pounds and over 16 unloaded. I've seen 19 unloaded on the highway.

This pic is just under 34,000 pounds.

 

[camodano]

yea it might wouldn't put money on it.

 

[jesnic]

he Duramax is stronger and faster. Not that it can't happen but I haven't been beat by a Dodge. I've put over 250,000 on my 08 LMM and love it. I use to haul cars with it. She's retired from that and is my daily driver. To me it's the most comfortable of the 3 (Ford, Chevy, Dodge). The Cummins gets a little better mileage but not enough to offset the trans issues. Towing, my Chevy is a billy goat up hills and the exhaust brake allows me to not touch the brakes going down. The Allison is very easy to work on and has all kinds of upgrade options. Mine has Edge tuner that I keep on stage 2, 5" exhaust from the downpipe back, blocked the EGR, reroute the PVC, I upgraded to Alcoa 19.5's and got 200,000 miles out of them, added a 100 gallon fuel tank/toolbox in the bed that's gravity fed, etc... My dually gets around 10 mpg pulling 30,000 pounds and over 16 unloaded. I've seen 19 unloaded on the highway.

That is a very bold statement. It is few and far between to find a stock cummins anymore. I believe you might have to have a little more than a tuner to compete with most of the cummins running around our area.

 

[bluemarlin]

That is a very bold statement. It is few and far between to find a stock cummins anymore. I believe you might have to have a little more than a tuner to compete with most of the cummins running around our area.[/QUOTE]

True. All it takes is money and you can make any of them as fast as you desire.

I'm sharing the fact my 6.6 Duramax, with minor modifications, has been trouble free for 275,000 miles. The question regarding which truck has the best transmission is hardly as debatable as Cummins v/s Duramax question.

If I wanted a Dodge I would have bought one.

 

[jesnic]

That is a nice looking truck. I was simply replying to the statement of

"the Duramax is stronger and faster. Not that it can't happen but I haven't been beat by a Dodge"

With the same amount of money spent on upgrade for upgrade, the cummins will perform better. The cummins was a purposely built, industrial engine. Meant to last for many, many hrs of extreme abuse. The duramax and powerstroke were built for pickup trucks. DC actually detunes the cummins to mate to the crappy dodge trans. But most people know, if you want to play, you have to pay. Even a 500hp duramax will kill an allison in short order. So, when you reach the treshold hp of any of the big three, be prepared to drop some coin.