someotherguy
Truly Awesome
Work truck, I didn't pay for it, not directly my problem. Just my problem when it breaks.
If GM still made a truck in this category (and it was worth a damn) we'd still be using them. As it is, the only choices are Ford and Dodge. Both are different flavors of the same problems.
With Ford, the 7.3 gas engine seems to be eating bearings - it's hard to get a straight answer because we have a middleman between the mechanic and me and he's not technical. The engines fail at varying mileages - some as low as 10K (a different company's truck) - we just had one let go at 22K. Others make it 75K, 100K, or more.. but suddenly the valvetrain starts clattering like crazy, even to the point of sounding like a knock. I heard "main bearings" one time but could be cam bearings, hard to say, as I said the middleman isn't technical and the mechanic doesn't speak solid English. The Fords also seem to eat up front suspension parts pretty quickly - particularly the track bar, which sometimes completely lets go without much warning. It's exciting.
With the Dodges I've seen other companies run, the 6.4 gas engine suffers from cam/lifter failures, seems to be caused by the lifters fail and eat up the cam. Also plenty of electrical issues that can be tricky to solve. Front suspensions don't seem to be much better than Ford; Dodge had an issue for a while where tie rods were letting go prematurely and they'd replace them with the exact same parts.
We don't do diesel because we don't need them for our work. Gas engines are quieter, cost far less to purchase and to operate, maintain, and repair - and they can go to pretty much any mechanic instead of needing a diesel "specialist" - plus we've seen the Ford guys have plenty of problems with their 6.7 PSD's. Not sure about the Cummins gang. The diesels really don't apply to us.
Richard
