ChrisLol

Those Futura trailers are badass. Made in NZ though so not cost effective to get in the US. USD$10,000+tax for the tandem axle. Looks like an amazing setup though.

My personal tow vehicle and borrowed trailer:

'09 Nissan Frontier LE. 4.0L V6 Quad Cab, 5' bed, RWD.

black bandit

After finding out that my Silverado 1500 has the 3.08 rear end, and with my future plans of buying an enclosed trailer, I've started to look at getting a 2500HD. There are a few local to me I'm going to look at and test drive. Anything in particular to look out for in a used diesel. These are 2015 year models and some are CPO.

Roda

If you're looking at 2015 diesels, also look at new... you may find there's not a lot of difference in price, especially with year-end deals on '17s.

When I was shopping in August, I couldn't find a low mile '15-16 truck that was enough cheaper than a new one to be a good deal. I was looking at Dodge 3500 duallys, so YMMV...

k24madness

iTrader: (6)

I know I'll catch hell for this but here goes.....
Tow capacity 5k
Car weight 2k and trailer sub 1k.
Need to jack the back up a bit for more suspension travel. I know a guy with the same setup towing a 4k boat so I think I'll be good.

jpreston

iTrader: (4)

When do you start working at Harry's?

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Buy new. The Silverado HD was facelifted for 2015 and the 2015-2016 LMLs are still way north of $40k for trucks with half the warranty used up. It seems delusional to me to pay 80% of MSRP for a truck that has 2-3 years and 30-40k miles on it. There are some smoking deals available on off-the-lot 2017s right now, so you can easily get an L5P (445hp/910tq) and a brand new truck with a warranty for under $50k.

k24madness

iTrader: (6)

LOL....Kinda saw that coming. I bought one new off the showroom floor back in 2003. One of the few cars I kept for 5+ years. While not a HD hauler it sure was fun to daily drive. After playing around with various options I opted to get another carbon copy of what I had.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Cargurus and Autotrader were the best.

codrus

I love Lightnings.

--Ian

dleavitt

iTrader: (1)

Hey, at least it's a truck. I'm starting to consider buying a big-*** transmission cooler and using my minivan.

jpreston

iTrader: (4)

I traded my 2016 Ram V8 single cab on a 2017 Titan crew cab (non-XD, gas V8) last month. It was awesome on all the test drives I did and it’s great as a daily, but it sucks for towing. My biggest reason for buying a new-ish truck with big power is so I can set the cruise and tow my 20ft enclosed with minimal stress, but the cruise control in this thing is useless while towing. As soon as you start up any kind of slight hill, it downshifts from 7th to 3rd and just holds 3rd gear at 5000rpm all the way up the hill until you get over the crest. It does it with or without tow haul mode. I don’t really understand why it does it… the engine definitely has enough power to hold a higher gear at a lower rpm. I can cancel the cruise, wait for it to upshift to 5th gear at <3000rpm, and then roll back in the throttle, and it will still accelerate up the hill to 80mph with very little effort. It’s just something weird with the transmission and/or cruise programming, and it’s the opposite of stress-free towing. On top of that, it’s 5mpg worse in all conditions than the Hemi Ram. 6-7mpg towing, 12 on my daily route to work, and 15 on the highway with the cruise set at 82.

I worked pretty hard to get a good deal on this Titan, and right now the KBB and NADA trade-in values are higher than what I paid. I think I’m going to trade the Titan on a 17 or 18 F150 3.5 Ecoboost/10 speed before I get too many miles on it and the value starts dropping. I did a ton of test drives and debated really hard between F150 or Titan before buying, and settled on the Titan because it had all of the comfort options I wanted at a lower price. I should have just spent the extra on the F150 up front.

JoshEE

I got a new Titan XD crew cab base model w/ the gas motor a few months back and have loved it towing an open 16 foot trailer. The base model of this truck was quite a bit less spartan than the Chevy/Ford offerings. It was ~$27.5k before TTL and the 5 year 100k warranty was also a pretty big plus. Downsides are that the transmission programming is not the best (like you mention above), it's got some strange behavior occasionally but nothing that bugs me too much. The gas mileage is also not great, but it is a giant truck w/ a gas motor so it's in line with what I was expecting. I'd like to move up to a ~24 foot enclosed long term although I'm not sure how well it'd handle that based on the above post and other stuff I've seen. At that point I'll probably start considering 3/4 ton diesels if it's not getting the job done.

I previously had a Frontier Pro-4X, and while it was a great truck it just didn't have the space or payload capacity to haul all the crap I wanted to bring with me to the track, and it really needed a weight distribution setup to be safe. With the Titan I don't have to worry about any of that and can just toss in whatever i want.

Neversatisfied

Thought you guys might get a kick out of this one... 80" wide 17' long. Tool box, 8 fuel jugs and tire rack. Clearance to load with a supermiata type air dam. Fits through my narrow single bay garage door at my house

vtjballeng

iTrader: (1)

Gotta watch those payloads on the Titan, Titan XD & F150. Specifically, the Titan XD with the 5.0 has less payload than my minivan iirc. This is why I ended up with a RAM 3500 with the 6.4L. New it was CHEAP when purchased at end of model year with all the factory discounting ($34,5000 OTD). Cheaper than the used diesels I was looking at and my amortization cost was ~10+ years once you calculate maintenance, etc to justify the diesel over gas.

I'd advice hitting the scales and looking carefully at your rear GAWR.

JoshEE

Ya that's definitely a concern with the diesel and the base titan. One of the reasons I went for the gas XD (besides cost) is that the payload is quite a bit better than the diesel at 2,590 lb vs 2080 lb, with the base Titan at only 1580 lb. These are all 2WD CC with a bumper pull hitch. Assuming ~600 lbs tongue weight (2000 lb trailer + 2500 lb miata + fudge factor), 170 for me, leaves ~1500 lb conservatively for gear/spares/etc... which is way more than I'll need for just myself. The idea was to have enough capacity if I want to haul two other guys, a race car, and gear for chump car or something like that. If I do end up moving to a larger enclosed and hauling people to races I'll probably have to look at a true 3/4 or 1 ton for me to be comfortable w/ the weight ratings.

That's a great price on the 3500. How do you like the 6.4L? What are you pulling with it?

vtjballeng

iTrader: (1)

I've gone through too many trucks because of payload / rear GAWR even with an equalizer WD hitch. I kept thinking I was good then hit the scales and found that GAWR creeps up FAST once you add the tongue weight, fuel, people, gear, etc.

6.4L with 4.10 and single rear axle can tow:
GVWR 11,100
Payload 4,500 (as much as a dually in my 2000 F250/350 charts)
Curb Weight 6,601
Tow Rating 15,830
GCWR 22,900
Front GAWR 5,500
Rear GAWR 7,000

I pulled a 32' Featherlite and we put a LOT of gear and heavy spares in for our endurance racing.




Did the same camera setup as Emilio, though if I did it again I'd go cheaper and wired instead of wireless as I had to run antennas and power wiring throughout the trailer anyway.

Only issue I've had is ride harshness in the rear to get said payload and a stupid high rear ride height despite being 4x2. Truck bros love that jacked up look i guess. Chevy rides better in current gen form. I put on Sulastic shackles to deal with harshness. I had to cut the gooseneck shaft to shorten it and the rear is still so high, it cantilevers the front of the trailer up some, dumping excessive weight on the bed. So now it's onto lowering the truck rear and/or raising the trailer.

As far as towing, it is as good as a 2008 F350 Dually 6.4L I towed with which was awesome. Tows like a dream at 20,500lbs GCWR across the scales.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Did you factor in resale value? The $9k extra for the diesel option doesn't just evaporate, you recoup most/all of it when you sell the truck.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

^ this, ESPECIALLY with the Dodge. That gas truck will be a $10k truck in 10 years, the diesel will still be worth $25k.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Really? Any links to a listing for a 2006-2008 SRW 3500 Crew Cab with acceptable mileage for $10k? Any brand.

I can't find these trucks...maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.


Note, I'm not arguing that a comparable diesel truck won't hold its value better than a gas truck. But if I could find a truck like above for $10k I'd be seriously interested.

Roda

I don't know about SRW, but I got $9k trade in on my '04 CC DRW 3500 Ram w/ 245k miles. Local advertised prices for similar trucks were $13-16k.