Personally I think the Ram and Ford trucks are a lot more heavy duty.
I'd get either the Dodge Ram 3500 or 6.7 Powerstroke F350. Both are nice. Both will last a long time. The suspension and axles will outlast the IFS in the GM platform.
I have a 6.0, but at 192K miles, it been broken the last two months. After I delete all the emissions crap and upgrade all the known weak points, it should be good for another 200K. The transmission is rock solid. The motor can tow, no joke, its strong. I like the interior, the seats are comfy.
I'm way interested to see how your truck goes long term. I hear your arguments a lot from the guys that have them. It seems like they all sell them about a year or so later after doing $5k in motor work. The truck itself is great. Hard to find flaws and the chassis just keeps getting better as the Super Duty platform matures. I like the interiors in the '07 older trucks more than the '08-up Super Duty. The 6.0L and the 6.4L are pretty suspect in my opinion. I'll let other people deal with those for my $. After having my '99 V10, I'd be REALLY interested in a later model V10 (esp. a stickshift
) crew, long bed truck. I think the 5r100 auto is a pretty decent trans.
As far as the Dodge.... It'd have to be a SCREAMING deal for me to consider another one of those. I pretty much gave mine away after a $10k repair year. What a pile of shit my '04 was. I still hadn't put injectors or a turbo in it. I'm cool with some things wearing out, but the amount of shit going wrong with that truck was pretty alarming. I hope it's been the best truck ever for the guy that bought it, but I won't get another unless it's incredibly cheap. Cummins is great. Truck is a pile of dung. I even had issue with the front axle. Just everything about that truck was to cheaply built.
I can't imagine the GM being worse and you have a solid motor/trans at worst in that platform (the Dodge just has a solid motor). I've not heard wonderful things about the gauge cluster and some other interior things. I don't think the IFS is the worst part of that truck. I don't care for the IFS but some people LOVE it. The front is kind of soft and spongy and the rear is pretty heavily sprung. Just seems unbalanced to me. I'm not sure why they haven't went to a 4-link and airbags in the rear to match the IFS front on the GM?
A newer diesel has lost a lot of appeal for me. WAY expensive, VERY complex emissions and such, LOTS of sensors, I thought I'd be invited to my Service Writer's home for Christmas if I bought one.... the K.I.S.S. method is LONG gone for a diesel pickup. They do have 800-850 lb of torque. New XLT diesels are WAY north of $40k sticker.... Just seems like a stupid thing to buy to me (so I stupidly bought a 4 dr Jeep).
