One ton diesel as a daily driver?

[fastfredracing]

I am thinking of tossing the fleet around again. I have a gas 2002 2500 hd, that I use as a work truck , tow vehicle, and long distance cruiser. I have been daily driving a 2003 Tacoma, but after hauling a fridge, and a few other things, I quickly realized that this is just a cute little toy truck, and I may as well be driving a car.
I have also been toying with the idea of buying a travel trailer. We love to travel, and now that the kid is a little older, we are thinking of spending a little more time on the road. My current truck will tow it just fine, but fuel mileage will be atrocious .
Also , considering simplifying my life, slimming down the fleet, and trading off both trucks ( I am also going to get rid of the dump truck ) for a 2005 ish extended, or quad cab 3500 hd diesel, maybe a dually , but most likely just a single rear wheel truck.
I should be able to average about 15 mpg locally , and 18 to 20 ish, empty on the interstate for long hauls, all the while, I can use this truck to commute, and it will do anything that I ask of it for business, or recreational purposes.
I commute about 15 miles a day, round trip to work so fuel mileage is not of the utmost concern, and when I am working at my side job, I am always loaded down with a truck full of tools, / supplies, and debris on the return trip. My past daily driver ( grand cherokee) was lucky to see about 15 mpg under the best of circumstances anyhow.
So, other than its size, fuel cost, and the extra cost of maintenance for the diesel, can you guys see any other big negatives to daily driving a big diesel pick up ?

[Seahawk]

Fred,

Where I live, they are the Official State Vehicle...don't leave home unless you're in one, Ford, Chevy or Dodge, duallys included

The only reason I have a company commuter car is parking in DC, particularly parking garages. I do a lot of work at DARPA and the garage that serves the building is key-ramped.

If you don't have parking issues, enjoy.

[Joe Bob]

Have you priced a space for a trailer? For the inconvenience and the towing.....unless you camp in the wild.....a motel is sometimes cheaper....just sayin'

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Have you priced a space for a trailer? For the inconvenience and the towing.....unless you camp in the wild.....a motel is sometimes cheaper....just sayin'

I have all the space in the world to store the trailer at my house, and at the shop.
We just whacked down almost 4 k to stay in a condo at the beach for a week, and while there, I shopped around , KOA is about $65.00 a night with hookups, and the private campgrounds are a little less. We can stay at our favorite campground without hookups at the beach for $20.00 a night. I have already done the math.
I would rather stay home than spend a weeks vacation , or even a weekend in a hotel room. We are more the outdoors type .

[VINMAN]

My Dodge is basically one of my daily drivers. I gets way better mileage than my Grand Cherokee. I usually alternate them . Only thing that sucks, is parking at times.

[TimT]

I daily drove my F250 PSD for years (I know not one tone, but close enough). Just always planned ahead for parking etc...

[rfuerst911sc]

I daily drive my 2001 GMC 3500 diesel dually no big deal. My drive is only 6 miles each way.

[Rick V]

Not a duelie but I drove Peggy for about a year as my daily. Parking sucks, gas bill sucks, other than that, no problems.
Oh and the deer population was reduced when I was driving it as well

[motion]

I don't know how you guys drive 3/4 and 1 tons. I had a PSD F250 for a couple years and was just sick and tired of getting my teeth rattled out everywhere. Not to mention that I couldn't even talk on the cell phone. I'll drive a F150 at 9MPG towing any day of the week, if just for the smooth, quiet ride. We have a section of battered concrete I-5 in south OC that will practically put you in the hospital in a big truck. I-5 in central CA is nearly as bad.

[fastfredracing]

They ride nice when they are all loaded down.

[johnsjmc]

I drove a 2005 F250 SD as a daily for 3 yrs. fuel mileage was disappointing empty or loaded. then I bought a 2004 Dodge diesel much better mileage empty and still better than the Ford loaded too.
total cost is still higher than say an F150 Diesels are more expensive for oil changes ,brakes,tires etc even if the fuel costs might be a little lower. Diesel fuel costs less than gas here

[id10t]

Friends have a big dooley dodge truck, need it to pull their house.

Even when not pulling the house, the female half isn't a big fan due to tight drive thrus, small parking spaces, etc. Then, she's not a fantastic handler of such a large beast... I have to take down 24 feet of fence to get her in my back yard... The male half is better, but he still says there are a lot of areas where he says screw it and parks way out away from folks, just to make it easier to get out wihtout worrying about damaging something

[Zeke]

I drove a crew cab dually for 4 years in the early 80's. It was a gasser, not a diesel. Like Seahawk says, I wore the thing like a badge. Way cool for a construction guy. And like Motion says, it beat me pretty good. He has his sections of frwy, mine was the 405 in Westminster/Seal Beach. It was a washboard, somehow they managed to build it that way. I think they've recently ground it smoother.

I'd never own another beast like that. I'd get 1/2T with an air bagged assist and a brake package.

[Jim Sims]

I'm amazed that anyone would want to use these as a daily driver - what's next, a Freightliner "bobtail"? Fifteen years ago in Beijing, China I marveled at the number of medium and heavy trucks (mostly copies of Russian designs) running around the city empty but with one or two people in the cab ("daily drivers") but that's what the planned economy produced (along with millions of bicycles) I smugly thought. Two years ago in China the big trucks and bicycles were mostly gone - replaced with small trucks, cars and motorcycles. It would appear many parts of the US are regressing in these matters (including northern New Mexico) - or at least until gas is at $6/gallon and diesel at $8/gallon.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

...I should be able to average about 15 mpg locally , and 18 to 20 ish, empty on the interstate for long hauls...

You are fooling yourself

Having owned all three late model trucks, those numbers are best case scenario at best. Knock three mpg off local and long haul and you won't be disappointed.

If you need it for the power/capacity, buy a diesel.

If you're buying it for better fuel economy, that's an old wives' tale that was true at one time, not anymore. Diesels have gotten worse. Gassers have gotten better. Both have gotten more powerful.

A Ford F150 EcoBoost pulls more, and gets better fuel economy, than a F250 Powerstroke of just 15 years ago. And rides nicer. And is quieter. Etc, etc.

Be honest with yourself about what you're doing and why you're doing it and you'l be happy. If you want to drive a big truck like a badge of honor, that's great and you'll like it. But you may not need it.

That said, I'm quite happy with the ride and overall comfort of modern 3/4 tons. There's little to no difference between a SRW 3/4 and SRW 1 ton, neither in terms of how they ride, or what they'll do.

If you're doing a 4WD it's my opinion that the GMs ride nicest, compared to the solid axle Ford and Ram offerings.

YMMV

[on2wheels52]

For me, it seems a waste to use a 4000 pound vehicle to haul around my 150 pound body.
3-400 pound bikes work fine.
Jim

[John Rogers]

My 2000 F350 dually Ford gets about 18 MPG w/o the 5th wheel trailer and 12 or so with it. Some things to note are: it has the International 7.3L engine w/o a cat, it has a 4 inch straight through SS exhaust, high flow intake and Edge /attitude programmer unit run mostly on "economy" which helps a bunch. To help it stop I have a "Jake Brake". If I run it up to custom/race, the 10,500 pound truck will shock most rice burner owners getting away from the light! I found mine has a F550 running gear setup which is why the wheel sizes are different than in the manual and in 6 years have not used up a set of front brake pads yet! Those calipers are monsters!

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

My Dodge is basically one of my daily drivers. I gets way better mileage than my Grand Cherokee. I usually alternate them . Only thing that sucks, is parking at times.

Same as Vinny. Believe his is a dually and mine is a straight two wheel drive 2500 Cummins.

Just checked my mileage with A/C on all the time full blast and its still 22 mpg in town... I cannot do much better with a car.

[Cajundaddy]

I need a PU for work and I DD a 3/4 T Silverado. I actually feel a bit foolish dragging around 5000 lbs of vehicle most of the time but when towing is required, there is no substitute. I won't haul a 5k load with a Toy. 16mpg is about average for me with mixed driving. Not terrible for a pig from Detroit.

[Evans, Marv]

My '03 F350 SRW PSD is fine with me. I don't drive it every day anymore, but it's there if I want it or need it. I would listen to some of the others about looking at the specs for a modern gas pickup like the F150 EcoBoost Eric talks about. I can give you some fairly specific numbers you can expect, at least from a truck like mine. Unloaded mileage on a 90 mile round trip up to 3,500 ft. & back to around sea level is around 15 mpg. Freeway mileage runs between 18 & 19 mpg unloaded. I don't care about mileage loaded because most loaded trips aren't too far for me. Tires make a big difference. The numbers I quoted are with a tire like the Michelin LTX mud & snow tread, which is mostly like a highway tread. If you use a more agressive tread, it will be 14 mpg & 17+ mpg. Oil & filter change every 5K miles will be about $65 if you do it yourself. I changed my pads & rotors at about 120K miles. During the time I've had mine I've also changed out the water pump, alternator, & fuel valve behind the fuel filter housing. To me the truck rides fine on the freeway loaded or unloaded, but better loaded obviously. If I were to buy a new or almost new diesel, I'd probably consider a Chevy first now. Back when I bought mine diesel fuel was cheaper, the premium for a diesel was around $3K and the break even point was around 100K miles. Now I undestand it's more than double that. So with the premium for a diesel truck being $7K to $9K and diesel fuel costing between regular & premium, there is no payback point as far as I can see. If the new gas trucks do the job, go the that.