I drive more miles than “average”, for whatever that is supposed to be compared to. 40K+ miles a year on my primary vehicle plus my econo cars. I’ve owned gasoline engines and they all seem to puke by 260-290K miles.
I switched to diesel in ’01 and never looked back. But, that is what works for me. My 01 GMC has 539,000 and is still rock solid in the drive train. My 03 GMC has 255,000 miles, and our 04 Chevy has 190,000 miles. All our 6.6L Diesels trucks have had the same issues. Pump rub in the transfer case and injectors are not cheap. Otherwise, rock solid machines that have provided very reliable service for us for a number of years and still going.
Like you, my trucks are outside and subject to this God Forsaken BS salt that the state thinks they need to apply by the ton per mile of road. Its sad that my 01 is rusted through and trickling down the driveway. Wont be long and it will look like the flintsone mobile. I generally keep a few hundred pounds in the rear box to soften the ride. With that, its a very smooth ride and I wouldn’t trade it for a car whewn making the hike from WI to Wyoming or Colorado and back.
One other thing we changed on all our trucks. They all came factory with 245 tires and those were changed to 265’s. Speedometer is off about 3 @ 70MPH.
Most of my family and friends in Colorado & Wyoming own Dodge EXT cab/long beds with the larger Cummins. They all leak a little oil around the oil pan and have had transfer case work done. They are all manual trans so of coarse the clutch gets done. Most of these are ’01 to 2010’s and range from 400K to 100K in milage. They swear by them and I see their reliability and agree.
As for Ford, I’ve owned two gas engines and a couple of family members have had their Power Stroke Diesels. I’ve made two B.A.M.’s in buying them, and it was two very happy days as I watched the new owners drive them away. My first new Ford truck was a lemon from day one. Vacumm leaks, gas in the oil, trans burnt up, rear end chewed up gears, emission failures and the list continued. My second was continually plagued with little crap. Sensors, more sensors, and everything electrical seemed to fail in that truck. The only reliability I counted on was something to fail next. Family hasn’t had too much luck with the Ford Diesels either. Mileage sucked, and constant problems. Pretty bad that whenever a vacation came around for them, they wanted to use one of my trucks so that they didn’t have to worry about getting stranded. FUNNY!!!!
Diesel comes at a premium price. No way to put lipstick on that pig. Fuel costs more and the obvious up-cost in purchase price. Also, cost of ownership is more. I run Lucas fuel lubricant in most of my fill ups. I alternate between Rotella in the summer and Delvac synthetic in the winter for oil changes (10 Qts at a time), Allison screw on filters a couple times a year. I also changed out the transmission fluid to synthetic Tran Synd in tranny and transfer case – (Every other year I drain about 2 gallons and replace @ $38.00/gal). Plus the water separator/fuel filter I change at each oil change at $30+/filter.
One other down fall when owning a diesel that many don’t look at or they try to cheat the system on is Registration/Plate costs. I see so many other Chevy/GMCs with light truck “B” plates. Very few state troopers here in WI enforce the weight law on light trucks. BUT the fact is many are over their plate limit. The vehicle GVW is near 9,000 lbs and B is up to 8,000lbs. So if you have a GVW of 8600 lbs plus 500lbs of cargo in it, you 9100 lbs or 1,100 lbs over your plate limit. I haven’t read the penalty, but I was told that if your scaled, you pay a PER POUND fine for your overage
