Buy my one ton! pics are on the post "Pics of my K3500 Beast" its for sale and pulls my 30' Scarab no problem at 75mph!

Best truck in those years for what you are doing is defianlty a Dodge with a Cummins. Good fuel economy, excellent pulling power and unarguable reliability and longevity. Buy a 5 spd if you can find one. Don't even think about a GM Diesel. The Ford diesels in that era would not be a bad choice. But They never had the fuel economy, reliability and longevity of a Cummins. Just my .02

I was told the Dodge trucks had bad Transmissions up until 1998?

AC

I would be carful of the Dodge auto trannys. I dont think they still have them fixed. 2 guys at work have them (1999 and a 2000) and have gone thru a tranny each. They dont even use them to tow anything. Good thing they were a warranty fix.

AC, I have a 1994 Ford F250 XCAB 4X4 with the 7.5L (460 ci) that I'm thinking about selling. Let me know if you're interested. It should be more than capable to do what you need done. I'm only selling it to upgrade to a crew cab (need more cab space, the kids keep growing!!).

The truck is in EXCELLENT condition!

Steve

How fast/quick do you want to pull the boat?
How far will you pull it?
Do you have to deal with many hills? Don't know much about your part of PA, but know there are a lot of hills there.
What else will you ask the truck to do?

If my experiences help, you're welcome to them. IMHO, more is better, but I decided to go with less a year ago when buying mine. It is my daily driver, and I log many miles down the highway with out a trailer. Did not want to pay for extra fuel and harsh ride for the 95% of the time it is a car.

Like Sydwayz, I have a 96 (suburban 1500 4x4 for me) with the vortex 350. Pull a 30' Formula on a Myco steal trailer; more weight than you are talking about. I can't win any races, but it does a suprisingly okay job. It may actually burn more fuel than a big block pulling a trailer, but not otherwise. Driving across IN and IL it does great; keeps up with traffic. In MO with the hills it slows down. AND, I don't run the A/C pulling because the engine is maxxed out with the trailer. If you are considering SBC, try to get the 96 for the vortex.

Also, consider the older style Dodge/Cummins/manual trans. While they don't have a strong following, and don't look that pretty, my experience is they are a reliable combo.

Whichever way you go, pay attention to the stopping parts, and the tracking parts. Add air bags if you need, and stronger breaks, and make sure the trailer is also equiped.

Hope this rambling helped you some. Good luck.

AC,
Your right on the money about dodge autos sucking big time. That's why I recomended a 5 spd. The 89-90 Autos are cheap to rebuild (under a grand) and I'd say you will average one every 80-100k miles. The never OD Autos are spendy to bebuild. Go with gears.

I run a Transmission Shop here and could find fault in all makes but as far as this side of the big three in this region We see more Ford\Powerstroke\E4OD transmissions in here than any other.Reason;Torque converter and planetary failures.Ford addressed the planetary and lube curcuit problems in '99 with the 4R100 transmission[one awesome unit now],The torque converter hasn't changed unfortunatly,The powerstroke was great in the early years,but due to competition kept increasing power/torque [now intercooled\now with chips available increasing another 100 hp and 100 lb.torque increase,still the torque converterhas yet to be beefed up in design,diameter,TCC clutch surface area.
Chevrolet has had comparingly fewer problems that evolution has made better by '98
Dodge,Electronic problems,Overdrive section durability concerns, still!
Least problems in this shop,the winner would be the...... Chevrolet 4L80E\Allison in the late.
Me,I have a 2001 Ford V-10,4R100 Motorhome we pull the race boat with.
Daily driver..2000 Ford V-10................................................ .......STICK!

I'm a Dodge /Cummins fan ,and I wouldn't own a pre-24 valve Cummins . Stock they were slugs, with very little work though they can be awesome. I have to admit the trans sucks too . I'm giving the 2001 a chance though. I just bought one and love it.
19 mpg and 15mpg towing (@80) and that is only with 2500 miles on it !

Clackster,

are the Dodge problems tow-related, or would normal every day driving result in problems as well? ...I'm currently looking at a 98 V10 Dodge 4x4..regular rear..no duals..