Chevy 3500 Trucks....opinions please.....

Sparktrician · Feb 7, 2012

Looking at newer service trucks.....want to find a 3500 dually, duramax....4wd....any cab style....the question is....how many miles are these trucks good for? Looking to buy one with 100,000 give or take.....and get another 100,000 plus out of it....just looking for others experiances! thanks, Mike

VADAVE · Feb 7, 2012

Well I have a 2004 2500HD 4X4 with the duramax. Have 115K on it now and have had no serious problems, in fact i would say it is just getting broken in.
The only issue I have had to deal with has been the gauges, they don't read exactly right.
I would stay away from 2003 and earlier has they had some injector issues, unless they have been changed. GM did do that.

G.Fields · Feb 7, 2012

I traded a 05 d-max off this aug with 240k on it. Only thing I did was 5 sets of tires, set of batteries, a water pump, and the infamouse t-case problem required a little j-b weld. It was still on the stock brakes, they were gone but I was trying to get 250k out of them. I miss it dearly(went back the next day to buy it back but it was gone) and would not hesitate to buy another pre 07

Dennis in NC · Feb 7, 2012

i just turned 96k on my 03 . did have a problem with the injectors . gm took care of it no charge .changed batteries .will be quite some time before i get 250 the way i use it,100 mi per week. so will have to wait and see.but love the truck

Jerry Coulter · Feb 7, 2012

I have an '02 GMC Duramax 3500 crew cab dually I bought second hand with 70K miles. It has 110K now. It developed the injector problem which GM took care of. And something in the transfer case came loose and wore a hole through the case. GM did not take care of that. One caution: If the replacement batteries are not the original type sealed on top, the RH battery by the firewall will catch rain water and flood acid over the areas below. My fix is to place an inverted aluminum baking pan over the battery. I got 18 MPG on the old fuel when not towing. Not so good on the Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel. I love my truck.

gbs · Feb 7, 2012

use a crew cab at work 05 duramax with an allison trans. has 227000 and still will out preform the newer 2 that are running 6.0 gas motors with less than 60000 on either,has had a leaking egr after cooler replaced and the thermostats,front end had to be rebuilt and both cv joints replaced, not bad for the hard use it has been put through being used for transmission power line const.and maintenance,if it were left up to me for what we use them for that's all i would use,on one job we were going up and old mountain road that was real steep and during the night it can a rain had 2 trucks hauling men and tools one was the diesel other was 6.0 gas, diesel was actually loaded a little heavier ,locked both in high 4wd, trans locked in 1st, diesel would turn 3750 rpm paw all 4 tires never let up all the way to the top,gas would run out of breath and stall,when shifted to low 4wd it would spin out,diesel is also better on fuel all the way round

urbancase · Feb 7, 2012

both my oldest son and myself have 04's, his is a 34 ton 4X4 with 221000 miles on it. mine is a 1 ton dully with a falt bed i put on last year, my truck i pick up as a bank repo with a blowed motor and the truck showed 750000 miles on it but we look at the hours and it does not match with the miles it showed.i put a new reman in mine for $9000.00 and do not regreat spending the money one bit. my son put new injectors in his this past summer other than that been good trucks and never go back to gas.

Rick Kr · Feb 7, 2012

Buddy just sold his with 320,000 miles for $9,000. He pulled a lot of skidsteers during those miles.

I use to get a new 3500 SRW every year, most I ever did was 30-35K on them. I would not be afraid to buy one with 100K on the odo.

Rick

John Harmon · Feb 8, 2012

Search "Stepper motors" for GM Vehicles.Lots of complaints about faulty dash guages. Our Impala was in the repair shop last week for 3 days for a fix for this problem.The Tach Guage was stuck on 3200 RPM"s for about two years. The Temp guage showed running "Hot" for quite awhile. Buying gas by miles is no fun. 312 miles seems to be the max for fuel use on the 3800 FI V6.Speedometer never guit working,probably just a matter of time. Had all the cluster lite bulbs replaced too. $735.00 for the garage bill,$200.00 for an Enterprise rental car[Hundia Accent].Not a bad little car. It is adverrtised as a 40 MPG car.We had it for a week and used 1/2 tank of gas.The first car they gave us was a Chevy AVEO. What a clunky little car. I would never buy one.Drove it about 5 miles and turned around and took it back for a swap to something much better. The Accent filled that bill ok.The AVEO reminded me of a Chevette we rented once a long time ago.

hd6gtom · Feb 8, 2012

sparktrician, Here at the dealership, they are the only diesels we try to get and sell. Used to keep a few of the 7.3 fords but not anymore. All used ford diesels go to an auto auction. Anything after 2004 should serve you well.

36 Coupe · Feb 12, 2012

An inverted aluminum baking pan over the battery?Sounds like a sure fire idea to burn the truck.M
y sons GMC has plastic covers over the batteries.

Chevy 3500 Trucks....opinions please.....

Sparktrician

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VADAVE

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G.Fields

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Dennis in NC

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Jerry Coulter

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gbs

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urbancase

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Rick Kr

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John Harmon

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hd6gtom

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36 Coupe

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