Guys,

In the next year, I will be purchasing a new 3/4 or 1 ton Truck for my business use. Both a gas engine and diesel engine will perform the duties I ask it to do.
What I am evaluating is whether it makes sense to pay the price delta for a diesel engine. I typically put around 250,000 to 300,000 miles on my business vehicles over 7 to 10 years.Mostly highway use - towing a handful times a month just under 10k pounds. I have owned 2 Cummins trucks, and am familiar with the power and long mile reliability of these engines, but also the costs. (I still have a 2004 Cummins 1 ton with 320,000 miles). I have no experience with the Hemi engines that are available in these trucks.


I am also considering the Chevy / GMC trucks, both Diesel and Gas versions - as my father in law uses these on his farming operation with success.

Will a Hemi or Chevy gas truck go 250,000 miles with regular maintenance? I know resale after those miles will be pretty much nothing from a gasser. However, a diesel truck at those miles (if in decent overall shape) will still be worth a couple bux.

Conundrum for sure….. I’d pretty much convinced myself a 6.4 equipped 2500/3500srw would suit our needs just fine. You look up their job ratings and they’re quite impressive. I’d even seen a lot of snowbirds make the switch in the last 4-5 years. Of course talking with them they did admit they were stopping for gas….. a lot. One pickup that really caught my eye was a customers new 3500srw, 50gal factory gas tank 4.10 gear….. that would be a great tow rig. Gas is cheaper, no fuel filters every 15k, fewer air filters, less expensive emissions related items to worry about and of course way less initial cost. Haven’t seen enough engine/trans issues at work to make me leery of them. Only 6.4 issues I’ve noted were gas company trucks that they let idle incredibly long times. All of that said a little over 2yrs ago I showed up to work on a Monday and there was a 17 3500srw CTD crew long bed with a trade in sticker. Kicker was only 17k miles. Choked on the $59k price and brought it home.

Thanks for the input!

Yes, it's not uncommon to see 6.4 Hemis with 200,000+ miles on them. The worst that could happen is having to get a $3500.00 engine from the Wreckers to replace yours if you blow it up. I don't think you can even get a Cummins in the Shop Door for less than $5000?

Dealers have demos, take one for the weekend and see how you like it? Better yet, find a Rental with unlimited miles and use it for a week.

A different engine could be coming: either the Octane 6.7 Cummins Gas engine or maybe a version of the twin turbo Hurricane engine, maybe you might want to wait for bit?

The only input i have is 2nd hand.

My wife's brother bought a new off road edition of a Ram truck with the 6.4 Hemi. He bought a tow a camper trailer, in the 8,000lbs range. He said the Hemi was hungry, and lacked some power pulling long hill climbs. He traded the Hemi truck for a new diesel Ram, said it was the best thing he has done in a while. The diesel cruises along and the long hill climbs don't faze it in the least. Says he is getting 5-6 mpg better with the diesel dragging around the same camping trailer.

For the record, he is not new to Mopar, he has a Hellcat, and has owned Dodge trucks for years. The Hemi Off Road was purchased to specifically pull the camping trailer.

I watched a youtube video recently about Hurricane issue with the thermostat not lasting more than 30k , what have you been seeing with the Hurricane so far ?

Interesting…… we had to replace one on a grand wagoneer a few weeks back. Kind of a biotch!! I’m very leery of the new engine. It’s very busy!

Just had a customer show up with his brand new 6.4 2500. Traded in his 14 2500 diesel. In the last year he’s had to replace an injector, a NoX sensor, and was needing a turbo actuator. That cost drove him to dump it. Only 130k miles too.

Don’t get me wrong….. I love my diesel. With the 55 gal Titan tank I installed we can drive from western AZ to the Black Hills of SoDak and stop for fuel once towing our RZR on an open 14’ trailer. Even the race trailer (28ft 11k lb) we can knock down 600 miles. It’s an absolute pleasure to drive. My wife even likes it better than our previous 01…… but working on these things I HATE the thought of the 100’s more things that “could” go wrong over our old pickup.