Hey guys, trying to get rid of my dodge V8 racecar hauler for a turbo diesel truck late model but used one. I have noticed that many affordable ones seem to have high mileage on ebay with alot of interested bidders ... so my question is would you consider a 100K mile turbo diesel truck to be reliable given that most miles are probably from highway travelling ? also spoke to couple people who are under the impression that a diesel motor takes 100k miles to break in anyway ... no idea on this stuff, any opinions ?

thanks
greg

 

Here's our theory......buy a late model truck with a ton of miles, but in great shape. If the motor goes, you have a lot of money to put into it before you get to a point where you would be at the price point for a low-mileage truck.

Here is the truck we just bought; http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...%3AIT

Similar trucks with 50-60K miles on them were 25K+, so even if the motor went the day I got it, I could replace it for about 6K and still be a few thousand ahead. But you have to assume that all the miles were highway miles spent cruising through the Texas roads, so they were most likely easy miles for the most part. Another pointer, Texas and Oklahoma trucks are the best due to weather and the people who drive them. In the North, trucks are for work only; in Texas, they are our babies

 

Peep this a guy rolls up to my buddy's shop trailering an evo he jumps out of a beat (body wise) like 96 ram turbo diesel i ask him "how many miles are on that bad boy?" he reply's "350k"

 

the dodge cummins will easily rack up more reliable engine miles than the ford powerstroke or the chevrolet duramax. Changing the oil and keeping up with the recommended maint you can get 500k out of the cummins bottom end.

 

it's not the motor you need to worry about, it's everything else. tranny, shocks, brakes, chassis, belts and hoses, etc. all get worn out even if the motor lasts forever.

 

With the Dodges if its a auto you want to ask if the seller if the trans had ever been rebuilt if it has alot of miles. If it hasnt run away. The auto trans are notoriuosly crappy in them and have had alot of problems. I bought mine with a manual,03 Ho 6spd. Love it to death. Other things that may go on high mileage ones are injector pumps and injectors. Other than that they run forever.

 

The Dodge used to have MAJOR trans problems, however if you get one of the 3/4 ton or larger trucks with the allison trans it is much less of a concern.

 

you can pick up some good deals on some used trucks the mileage on diesel is not htat important as long as it ws maintained with good oil. heck we drove our 01 for 40k miles across the country still sold it for a good price

 

E-bay is great, but to tell you the truth working at a new car dealer for the last 5 years has made me aware of a lot of things in the used car market.

Not one used car/truck is the same even though same milage and model. I would highly recomend touching and driving a truck you would buy, cause you can have an easy 50k miles or a hard 50k miles. Truck could be night or day difference. This maybe tough in the USA cause I know getting a Diesel truck is difficult due to availiblity issues and the fact that most people keep them forever and drive them till they drop. For the odd used one out there, ask yourself why did the previous owner sell? (don't always believe the sales guy, he'll tell you what you want to hear)

Don't take this wrong, just be careful when buy cause it isn't cheap and money is hard earned!

 

I can tell ya that if you got a leased TD...they may have skimped on the oil changes......it was around 80 bucks for my last oil change....01 E-350 work van.
I might sound biased toward ford they are the onlyones who make a diesel van..besides frieghtliner...any ways....the powerstrokes. have a 100,000 mile warranty, on the drive line and computer related stuff....it is nice as i had a new injector drive module put in with 95,000 on the clock.....there is a 100$ deductable.

The motors hold up, i would be more concerned about the electrial, computer related stuff more than anything...

check out some diesel forums.

 

http://www.ford-trucks.com

got a lot of good information there right before i bought my powerstroke excursion - my best piece of advice - be willing to travel for the right truck - i looked for about 2 months around florida for what i wanted with no luck - started looking further out and found exactly what I was looking for more quickly - had to drive 8 hours each way to get it but worth it in the end imo

james innes

 

f350's are awesome, the powerstroke was devoloped allong with international, the trannys are what you have to worry about. The power stroke is good to almost 250-300k without problems. Cost for replacments parts are very high but they are great trucks. The tranny and suspension is what you have to look into. . . . they aint cheap for replacment .

 

[QUOTE=kamira]f350's are awesome, the powerstroke was devoloped allong with international, the trannys are what you have to worry about. The power stroke is good to almost 250-300k without problems. Cost for replacments parts are very high but they are great trucks. The tranny and suspension is what you have to look into. . . . they aint cheap for replacment . Yeah what he said. All my freinds have 13 sec powerstrokes and there great. Last forever.