Chevy 3.0 diesel in half ton

Anybody have one ?

Yes

After having a Ram Ecodiesel, which I had literally zero problems with, I'd never again own a half ton diesel. The chances of expensive repairs are too high, maintenance/fuel/DEF costs add up too much, and the towing capability on a small diesel is too weak.

I now own a 2500 Duramax. Before that I owned a Ram 1500 Hemi. Both good trucks, and both pulled better than the Ecodiesel, and have less risk of expensive repairs.

If you need good mpg, buy a beater Camry/Accord. But the regular gas motor just makes more sense in a light duty pickup.

I currently own a ram 1/2 ton with the ecodiesel. About to hit 96,000 miles on it. I still have yet to have any issues with the truck at all.

My Father in law recently bought a Chevy with the 3.0 in it. So far he likes it a lot. I think if I had the pick between the Ram and the GM i would lean towards the GM. The zf 8 speed has been great, but i read nothing but rave reviews of the GM 10 speed and from my experiences with it, it has been very nice and while some say no need for more than 8 gears, i find the gear split of the 10 speed better. The GM warms up to operating temp much faster which to me is a big plus because all the new fangled emissions bs operates better on a hot engine and the economy is also better warm.

Curious patriot, what drove you to the HD duramax? Is it a new one with EGR DPF and SCR or an older pre emission model? I know you already know the modern duramax etc. has the same emissions heartaches as the smaller diesels, just a lot more umph to go with it.

I ended up meeting a guy who is a diesel tech for a pretty big shop around here and his recommendation was a Cummins if you're gonna delete and a Duramax if you're not. He says Chevy's end up with weird electrical problems from time to time, but the expensive emissions fixes are pretty rare. On the flip side, the emissions stuff on the Ram tends to go out a lot more often in his experience and it's often $2k-$4k repair bills to fix it. But if you are gonna delete, he says the Cummins can't be beat.

Also, my towing is quite often cross-country type stuff. High winds are frequent and stability makes a world of difference in towing comfort, and the 2500 just gives a lot more stability when towing a travel trailer than a half ton does.

I should qualify my statement about half ton diesels - it's really for folks like me who are going to be putting 30k+ miles per year on a vehicle. You're just better off buying a Camry and being done with it. Diesel emissions are too problematic, tires, DEF, fuel filters all add up as hefty expenses pretty quickly compared to a sedan, and depreciation on a $30k+ truck happens a lot quicker than a $10k Camry. So I'm really speaking more about my situation which is 97% commuting to work or kids soccer practice or tournaments and 3% towing long distances.

I was pretty disappointed in the Hemi mpg towing, and mine started developing a pretty bad knock right before I sold it. So maybe the half ton gassers are just as problematic as the diesels...who knows. But I think in general, repairs on the gassers are much less expensive. Hopefully that explains my thoughts. I just saw too many threads on the ED forum with crazy expensive repairs and it just doesn't make sense to live with that and the expensive maintenance, and the heavy depreciation, when you can buy a $10k Camry and avoid all of that, and have a heavy duty truck that tows much better. With my Duramax, I have to keep an eye on the speedo or I'll be doing 80 with my 30' TT behind me and not even know it.

I'm tired of swapping trucks though. I had my 2004 Silverado until 2016. I had a 2016 Ram 1500 ED (sold because I realized I needed 4x4 and it was 2WD), then a 2018 Ram 1500 Hemi (sold because it smelled like smoke and I couldn't get it out, and a 2500 just made more sense for a pure towing vehicle), and now the 2019 Silverado 2500, which I plan on keeping for the next 10-15 years like my old 2004.

07 , how is the resale on a diesel , i've only had one , it was a pain.

After spending some time in and driving my dad's 2018 cummins I can sure agree with the new HD's put down some insane power. I look at my dads and drool over the get up and go which i dont need and he looks at my ecodiesel and drools over 30mpg.

One other thing about ALL emissions style diesels. Unless you rack up a lot of highway miles on them, buy a tuner that lets you run a manual exhaust cleaning cycle. I don't drive much highway miles with my diesel, but when I need a diesel, I need it. Whoever's idea it was to limit the manual regen cycle abilities to only the lower end trucks (at least in the case of Fords) needs to be knocked upside the head. Dumbest idea ever.

I agree. I dont know why they do, but I feel like the manufacturers dont want you to know anything about when or why your truck is doing what it needs to. I would love a light that came on and said it was running a regen or a button i could push or select in a menu that would allow me to manually start a regen when i got on the hwy.

On Saturday I drove about 150 miles and 5 miles from home right before we pulled off to grab lunch it started a regen. I can hear/feel a difference in how my ecodiesel runs when it is regenerating and the fuel mileage falls significantly. I do not like interrupting a regen but I'm not gonna drive around the world with the wife and kids in tow just to complete it either.

I traded it in. I got a fair price. I'm a cheapskate, so I didn't trade it until I found someone to give me a fair number.

In January of last year, I got $22k trade-in for a 2016 Lone Star Crew Cab 2x4 with 68k miles, if I recall. That was pre-covid. I know the truck market has gone up since then. I bought a 2018 1500 Hemi. Unfortunately that truck had a smoke smell (I worked the deal on the phone and didn't realize it til I got there) that I thought I could get out but couldn't. I paid $25k ($3k after the $22k Ecodisel trade) and then traded it in for $30k when I got my 2019 Duramax 2500, which I paid $42k for. So ultimately, I had a 2016 Ram 1500 ED 2x4 68k miles and paid $15k to upgrade to a 2019 Silverado 2500 LT Duramax 4x4 with 38k miles. I had also just recently cashed my $3k check from Ram for the EPA settlement, and I sold my tuned Green Diesel Engineering ECU for almost twice what I paid for it. So I came out ok.

Once I realized that my daughter is all-in on club soccer, I knew I was going to be putting stupid miles on a vehicle. So a truck made no sense financially, and I was really gonna hate it when gas goes back up. So at the same time I traded to the Silverado 2500, I got a Camry Hybrid and now get 38-40 mpg on regular 87 octane with no DEF or anything like that. Cost me $450 to have Costco put new tires on it and they'll last 60k-70k miles. No risk of expensive repairs (other than they hybrid battery, which is $1500 to recondition and should be 4-5 years before I need that anyway), and the car only cost $8500, and now my Silverado 2500 and my wife's Acura MDX will hold their value much better by having low miles. I do have to pay for insurance on 3 vehicles, but I did the math and it's pretty clear that this made the most sense.

Got mine back in October, love it. 22mpg around town, 26-28 hwy at 78 mph. Towing is impressive, pulls a 21’ Skeeter and average 16.7mpg for several thousand miles now. I tow at 72-74mph...

Thanks

Thinking about getting a new pickup this year or next and looking at a diesel as most of the time it will be used will be pulling my boat. The last two Chevy V-8's I had didn't like highway speeds with the boat in tow. My wife wanted to upgrade her toy (Jeep Wrangler 2 Door) to a 4 door and they made us a deal on a 2020 Wrangler with the 3.0 turbo diesel in it with an 8 speed transmission. My 19' Champion makes it squat a little bit but it pulls it like it's not there. Driving it from the house to town and back it gets 25 MPG, doesn't get over 65 mph. On the highway from Longview, TX to Allen, Tx and back keeping up with traffic with just people on board it gets 28.9 MPG. I will be looking at a tuner to be able to do a manual regeneration as when my wife drives it she only puts 10 miles on it a day.

I bought my GMC with the 3.0 a little over a year ago and it’s like owning an El Camino. It is not as powerful as I expected for the diesel but it does better than a 5.3 and gets great mileage. I get 27 hwy, 20 in town, and 16 pulling a 21’ Skeeter. The ride is soft and bouncy, which is OK for a commuter truck but not great if you use it as a truck. As others have said the regen cycle is a pain if you do a lot of short distance driving. I just ordered a new AT4 HD with the 6.6 Duramax. It’s more than I need now, but when we get our travel trailer we will be ready.

Very seldom can you have your cake and eat it also!!! One or the other. I am curious, just what does say a 20 ft Ranger bass rig weigh and what is the ecodiesel rated to tow?

12,560# that'll get er done.

What's really crazy, has anyone looked at the specs for the 4 cyl turbo full size? the 5.3 has 375 lb/ft torque at like 4 grand. The little 4 banger has 350 at like 1400 rpm, two guys I know have one, and their only complaint was the mileage was nowhere near what they expected it to be with a 4 cylinder. Better than the V8, but not by much. Both said it has plenty of grunt, and would pull most boats easily. Still surprised they made the move to a turbo 4 in a full size.

I believe most of your tandem boat trailer come with 5,000 lb axles so I would assume most bass boats and bay boats of typical proportion weight less than 5000 lbs.

My ecodiesel with 3.55 gears is rated to tow 7,600 lbs, with 3.92's its around 9,000 lbs. The power isnt the limiting factor, it is their cooling capacity. I have towed over the rated capacity of mine several times with zero issues, but if you try to tow it up mountain passes with the pedal on the floor it will over heat and cut fuel to cool off.

The newer, 2020+ versions revised the cooling system and are rated a little higher capacity. They will tow a bas boat easily, i tow a 24-foot center console with mine regularly and it does great.

I towed my 17' Triton with my ED and often got over 20 mpg while towing it to Fork and back. For light towing (less than 5k lbs and relatively small wind profile) and hauling stuff around in the bed, the ED is just about unbeatable. If they fixed the cooling and upped the tow rating on the new ones, then that's a huge plus. My 2016 ED would absolutely get bogged down in Colorado with my 6k lbs TT behind it. Towed fine in Texas though.

Whats everbodys water temp run on this 3.0 ?

great info. I was curious about this engine. I have an 08 duramax in the 2500 GMC. I'll just keep on using it. 14 pulling the boat, 20 running down to Port A loaded with coolers. Got a commuter car for city driving.

Empty i run anywhere from 198-210 on coolant temp. Depending on what im towing and the out door temps usually between mid 200 teens and 230.

The oil temperature is what you really need to keep an eye on.

If you have one this mostly only applies to the 2014-2019 year models as the 2020+ have a different cooling system and im not familiar with the temps they run.

Bought mine in August….love it.
Better than all my old 5.3’s….

I drive 100 miles per day so the regen cycle is not too noticeable.

Best fuel mileage is 33.4

Usually average 27-29. Crew cab/short bed 4x4.
The real sweet spot for fuel mileage is 55-60 mph.

My 2018 hemi oil temp max is 220 pulling boat is this too hot?

Not even close.

so thanks Red Chevy