Duramax vs. Cummins- Need some feedback

[greg fulk]

I have an 03 Dodge with a Cummins & a 6-speed I drove it to work all week last week it took 19.4 gals to fill & had 399.7 miles on the odometer...The thing will/can pull my 24' box with a 3500# Cutlass in it 85Mph! The only thing I've had to fix was a U-joint...but I guess 600 foot Lbs of torque will do that!

[Rob Petrie E395]

There seems to be alot of guys on here with dodges. Have any of you guys had high gear go out of your truck (manual trans here) We saw several including one we had that would be towing down the interstate and all the sudden it was like it jumped out of gear and goto the rev limiter. When you tried to put it back in gear it was gone although if you jumped down a gear you could still get home or to shop to get fixed. Most were covered under warranty still so we never fixed one at my place but I am wondering if the later models are fixed with a update from the factory or is this still happening? Sorry to sidetrack but I thought it might be seen by more guys here rather than start a new thread. We were seeing this regularlly in the 98,99 model years maybe others cant remember back that far.
Rob

[Ron Brown]

I had a 2006 Duramax Dually and it did great, no problems. I would say that you might avoid the new body style GMs because of some of the changes made in those two years have seen alot of issues. If you go GM i would say 2006 or older. However alot of Dodges seem to have manual trans. in them. The allison trans is a awsome trans and I would suggest you go with that trans no matter what you buy.

[Stock 608]

I have a 2006 Duramax duallie with allision trans. I've had it since new and is a great truck. I tow a 43 ft gooseneck and it gets around 11mpg. Has great power towing hills.I went to indy in '08 with an open tralier and it got about 14 mpg, from seattle to indy. We added a 100 fuel tank, and we can make it from seattle to pomona on 1 tank. I would recomend a auxiliary fuel tank, especially if your are towing a bigger tralier. Its nice to be able to go a long ways and not stop.

[John Lang]

Rob Petrie, I Have a 96 Dodge Cummins Duallie with a 5 speed, and 312,000 mi and in the first 100K I lost 5th gear just the way you did! What happens is there is a waverly?, washer held with a locking nut! when that washer destroys its self, the gear will ride fore and aft and bang on the lock nut, and then there will be times when the gear will only be engaged with half it's gear depth and fail! I had this happen 5 times, and the fifth time they (Chrysler) replaced the entire trans, drive shaft, flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, and all labor under warrenty at 98.000 mi. They Bitched, but my dealer got it taken care of! Its still in there and working great! The pump has been screwed with, on there nickel, and empty it gets 24 MPG w/3.55 Gear. Pulling a 28 Pace Big Foot loaded at 65MPH 13-14MPG. Cant get rid of it yet ,the rings are just seating. ........... Later, Merry Christmas To all, John & Ginny Lang

[Rob Petrie E395]

John
Thanks for the reply. Have you heard how long this went on before they fixed the problem. I know the 99 and I think some into 00 did it but not sure if it went on after that but curious to know. The newer trucks have 6 speeds not sure how many model years had that 5 speed.

[Gordie Kissner]

I've towed a bunch of miles with both and would take the Cummins over the Duramax everytime especially for durability..As far as automatics go the allison is as good as it gets(though not indestructable),Dodge's automatic is definately better than it used to be with the exhaust brake etc..and the 6-spd manuals are both comparable. The other differences between the two would be a toss up IMO.

[Shawn Blair]

Dodge,Cummins,6-speed,Mileage,it's really an easy choice. Besides do you really want to buy an Izusu engine?