Guess I got to chime in too....First off, glad you are ok...I have had a couple of near misses in that same spot as well....I have an 05 Dodge with the Cummins. AS far as I am concerned, the next truck I buy will be the same thing. I have had it 1 year, added a Quadzilla chip, Quadzilla air intake, and had Performance Diesel in Emory did a muffler delete. In town I get around 21mpg, and on the highway, if driven right, around 24- 24.5mpg. Pulling my boat gets me around 17mpg...I have 3 other friends who have the same truck, the oldest is an 03, and none of us have had any problems at all...Ford and Chevy make good trucks, but I don't think you will regret going with a 03 or later Dodge...

Several of my buddies have Ford diesels and none of them are getting 28 miles per gallon even with a tail wind.

I have a 2004 Dodge Diesel and love the truck, and I usually am a Ford man. Ford could not even come close to the price of the Dodge so I went with the Dodge diesel and couldn't be happier.
Check them out before you buy and decide which you think is the best value between the three.

I own an Air conditioning company i just purchased my 12th ford diesel I did own a 03 and i did have problems with it and ford purchased it back i personally drive a 05 f-250 no problems runs like a champ My cousin has a 05 dodge although a nice truck it does not have the pull or the speed my truck does. but he does get a couple more mpg than I do (the truck i just purchased is a 06 van diesel also)

Tom,

You have enough imformation now to go look at a Tundra

Dodge, they beat everybodys price by a mile. I've got a 2004 cummings 2500 6 speed of course and it pulls my Skeeter like a dream, long trips to as i live in centex and like to go down to amistad every year. Good mileage, quiet, comfortable, but most important cheaper. Sticker was $40,150, I got em to $32,000 with a spray in bedliner. Lampasas Benny Boyd, give em a call. The megas are higher, but it should drop the price on the 4-door.

This should tell you something 67ft long and 11mpg wouldn't trade it for nutting

Trent, That's more than my loaded out Crew Cab 4x4 Duramax Chevy cost. I thought Dodges were cheaper??? Not giving you a hard time but I thought you could get one for a few k less than that. bighead

RonH....I use to pull a 36' Prowler Regal and my boat with a 1 ton Chevy Dooley 454 and was getting just shy of 10 mpg....seems like an awful big drop in mpg from 25-28 to 11...

Thanks everyone for all of the feedback, it has been very helpful so far.

I have a 2005 F250 with the 6.0. I have 20,000 miles on it. so far zero problems. I work at a ford dealership part time and I see them in there all the time for all kinds of service issues. I will say this I love mine. it pulls my 2005 basscat cougar with no problems. if I could keep my foot out of the gas pedal, I would get better mileage I am sure. there are good ones and bad ones no matter what you buy. good fords, dodges and chevys. what I did was test drive them all towing my boat. luckily I have friends at the ford house who made the calls for me to get me the deals for the loaning of trucks.

I am running amsoil in it right now and it makes all the difference in the world. I am still not real sure of the biodiesel though.

just my .02

2001 F-250 4x4 Turbo-Diesel. 99K miles and no problems to report. I've had it since 29K miles.

Traded a 2x4 for it and lost some gas mileage, from 20-17 highway.

I have a 200ZX and can't even feel it.

A friend has the chevy and have never heard of any problems. Either one would be safe as far as I have heard.

Dan

Dan

I have a 2002 F250 7.3l with only 39K miles, Bought it new only for pulling my boat.Took a trip to Ohio when it was new and got 18mpg without the boat. Still gets 18+. Add the 20ft Champion and it drops to 14+.
It has oil changes every 5k miles and new air filters every other change.Great truck probably will take it to my grave.

Here's my 10 cents(long winded)

All three trucks have their plus's and first try them all. You are like the rest of us and will settle on the best to your likes/dislikes.

The Chevy is the quietest and the best ride, but not by much. The transmission in the 6sp and the 5sp Allison is nice. The motor had many injector problems in their first year with some of the problem being where the fuel lines were run(2001). They have had a 5.7, 6.2, 6.5 and the current 6.6 motors. I would stay away from the first two.

The Ford is the best selling. The 5sp auto is a good strong transmission in the 6 liter and the previous were good but just average for reliabilty. The fuel system may be the thing that I like least of this truck as it uses motor oil to power the injection pump. Some of the problems with both the 7.3 and 6 liter can be traced to this design in my opinion. Ford has until recently been the strongest truck of the lot and the Chevy may have overtaken it as well as the Dodge. They are all close. They have had 6.9, 7.3, 6.0 and soon to be 6.4 liter engines.

The Dodge is the simplest engine of the lot. It is the only inline and has plenty of room in the engine compartment to do maintenance. The oil filter and fuel filter are the easiest to change of the three. The Dodge has the same displacement as the original truck introduced back in the late 80's. It is also the most capable of high horsepower as the fastest drag trucks as well as the best pulling trucks are Dodge diesels.

My truck is a 2000 quad cab Dodge w/5sp. I love it. It gets 20-23 mpg hwy with one exception going to Galveston with 5 people and their luggage going on a cruise. We were late going and coming so we averaged 80 and got 19.8 mpg. Contrast this to a trip from Little Rock to home at 80 and in Friday traffic coming through Dallas got 20.2mpg. All this with almost double the original horsepower through mods. Pulling my 19' Ranger got 17@65 and my Allison is 18 at the same speed. I have 124k miles and 64+ thousand on the current oil(I do extended drains). I plan on keeping this truck for at least another 10 years.

Hey onebiggdaddy I only get 17 to 18 mpg emty. What did you get mt. When I had a 86 modle like yours I got 6 to 10 loaded or mt. Any time I can drive a 3/4 ton 4x4 and get 11 loaded or 17 mt I wouldn't trade it for nutting

CHEVY!!!!!!!!!!