Have you switched Truck Brands?

[D2Reid]

After driving Chevy's forever bought a Ford, 4:30 rear end differential was the key deciding factor.

[Brother_Bluto]

I owned 4 Chev/GMC trucks from 1992 to 2017. Two 1/2T gassers, and two 3/4T Duramax. I decided to look elsewhere due to my experience with the 15 GMC 2500HD Denali - poor towing mirrors (huge blind spots); poor headlamps (couldn't' see when dark & raining); no "grown-ups" headrest in backseats (anyone over 10yo would hit their head on the glass); no air vents (A/C or heat) to backseat folks; front cooled seats blew hot air on knees of backseat passengers; kids seats in back required front seats to be moved up; lackluster infotainment system, ADAS & electronics; uncomfortable front seats (especially compared to my old 2004 plush seats). Was very happy with the Duramax/Allison combo though (no issues whatsoever with the 2004.5 - my brother is still driving it today without issue).

I drove all 3 in late 2017, and made the switch to Ford with a 17 F350 Platinum. Addressed all my issues from the 15+ GM models. I think Ford is several years ahead of GM in terms of electronics and driver's/passenger experience & safety in the higher trim models. Have been impressed with the 6.6L Powerstroke. While some of my GM "gripes" look to have been addressed in the 2020 GM models, I still think Ford is ahead and placed an order for a 19 F450 in preparation for a future Momentum.

[bigb56]

My last F150 Lariat crew cab truck is the last of the 7.3 diesels, and I'm not about to get rid of it at 145K miles. With 2 tone paint, it still looks great. And with a 80 hp econo tuner, I'm getting 20 mpg on the open highway, and it's certainly strong enough to pull my Reflection 5th wheel.

This truck is scheduled to wear out the engine when I'm 93 years old.

Hope you mean F-250/350? Unless you dropped a 7.3 in a 150? (I do know of at least one, same guy also dropped one in a Crown Vic, see pics)

[bigb56]

When I was younger (and foolisher) it was strictly GM for me. Wouldn't be caught dead in anything else. Then Ford came out with the 6.9 diesel. People were still scared of diesels after the GM diesel fiasco but I did my homework and found a used F-250 4 speed manual with a 6.9, non turbo. Slow as molasses and very dirty by today's standards but that was a great truck, drove all over the US with a Lance camper and spent many summers boating at the lake with it. That sold me and all my pickups have been Fords since. Unfortunately when I needed a hi top utility van for work the local Ford dealer couldn't help so I went with a Chevy Express 3500 gas, it has been OK but nothing to write home about between the failed starter at 37K, 4 water pumps in 100K, failed radiator at 36K and plenty of oil leaks ever since the warranty expired. The worst is the cheap interior, cheap plastics, door handles, visors, thin seat fabrics. Even the seat belts broke just out of warranty. The visor broke off at the plastic stem and they wanted $140 for a piece of cardboard with some gray felt on it so I drilled the pieces, slid in a piece of coat hanger and JB welded it back together. It's 3 years newer than my Ford and my Ford's interior is still like new while the Chevy's is trashed.

[FordmanNJ]

Depends on which vehicle in the house.

Trucks- Ford. No doubt. I pretty much owned a Ford truck or truck based vehicle for nearly all of my seat time with a legal drivers license. My 2016 F350 is currently the DD for me until I figure out what to get for a real DD. I don't like rack up miles on the truck as it was not intended to be a DD.

SUV- Pretty much a Ford product but my current Explorer has be thinking in another direction. Gen 3 or 2002-05 Explorers. Its been a money pit and in the last couple of years not as reliable. Owned 2 Explorers not interested in getting a third. The only reason why we got the second one was at the time, my first Explorer ended up in a telephone pole. Which is some ways was a mind bender for me since I worked for the local phone company at the time. So our reasoning was the 2 door sport model was nice and paid off but didn't handle the family. So we looked for another one with 4 doors. So we bought this one which as I said previously has been a money pit. But the wife does point out that it has lasted the longest of all of the vehicles we both owned over the years. Both in miles and age. So I cannot mock it.

Cars- Here is the interesting one. I was the one who encouraged my wife to ditch GM products for a Hyundai Sonata. Her last car was a Pontiac that died on me while driving to work. Literally cut out at 70 MPH! Luckily I was able to get to the side of the road to contact a tow truck. We sold it to a friend who understood it had a problem for really cheap. Turned out it needed a $1600 control module to fix the issue. When the car did run it was a POS. Oh and it died with only like 110K on the clock. My wife bought it with 30K. So for 80,ooo miles I was not impressed. However back to the story. My wife was going to use the Explorer for an event she needed to take my daughter to. It puked antifreeze all over the ground. We scrambled to get a rental car for the weekend which was a Hyundai Sonata. She said the car was really nice and handled better than anything she had driven in the past. After we dropped off the car off, we stopped at a dealer to get some pricing and wound up buying one. The wife has a 2016 Sonata Hybrid fully loaded. This car gets like 46 MPG. Rides really nice. I can fit into it unlike the other cars she owned. More importantly she likes it. When it comes time to replace the Explorer I am actually looking at buying a Hyundai CUV as the replacement due to our experience with her car.

So the vehicle compass is all over the place.

[Bamaman]

Change truck brands?

I've never even changed trucks. That's where the value in buying a diesel pickup comes in. My F250 SuperDuty is the last of the 7.3 engines, and it's barely broken in at 145K miles at 17 years old. At this pace, I'll be 93 years old when the engine wears out--or older.

[bigb56]

Change truck brands?

I've never even changed trucks. That's where the value in buying a diesel pickup comes in. My F250 SuperDuty is the last of the 7.3 engines, and it's barely broken in at 145K miles at 17 years old. At this pace, I'll be 93 years old when the engine wears out--or older.

Sounds like you have a 2002 also. Mine has 176K on it and still like new. Only thing I anticipate is injector orings as the rubber can't last forever.

[Dhuggs]

I’m on my 8th Silverado. From my 97 1/2T with the 5.7 to my current 15 1T SRW CC SB Diesel, from snow plowing to towing they have all treated me very well with little out of pocket expense. My last 06 3/4 CC Diesel had 200k and still going strong when we decided to move up to the 1T for the incoming Solitude. Awesome comfortable truck for long haul towing!!
Don

[Kings7248]

We were towing a Reflection 337 with an F-250 SRW 4x4 Power stroke with the 6’8” box. I had added the Timer overload bumpers to the truck. We could not get rid of the death wobbles. I did a bunch of reading and found that anything with a soloist front axel could be susceptible. After a warranty fix and $1K of of our own money didn’t fix the problem, I went with a GMC 3500 Duramax since GM products are the only HD truck that offer independent front suspension.

[Bamaman]

Mine is the very first 03 that came in--very last of the 7.3's. I've already changed my 0 rings in the injectors. They about drove me crazy as no local shops could diagnose the hot starting problem. The guy on the internet in Buford, GA diagnosed it in 30 seconds and also serviced the glow plugs.

The 0 rings in fuel bowl drain valve also went out recently, and I put new 0 rings in it. That thing was tough to get back in--with the truck being so high. Had to climb into the engine literally.

If you have not already done the job and if you're going to keep the truck, I'd go ahead and change them as a maintenance item. I also added a TruCool tranny cooler and changed the transmission fluid--clean as a pin.

Every other oil change, I take a pump and get all of the oil out of the fuel injection pump and replace it with clean oil. I drive it around and drain it 2 times. Then the last time I put a bottle of Prolong into the pump and top it off with diesel oil.

With an 80 hp econo tune from D-P, mine runs quite quick for an otherwise stock truck. It's night and day difference from stock.