I have been towing my boat a little while now and it seems to do okay. I put an external trans cooler on it, upgraded the rotors, did trans/diff services. all of this with my 2013 Chevy Silverado 1500. It is rated for 9500 lbs towing capacity.

I buy all my vehicles from a friend of mine and he just had a 2005 GMC sierra LLY duramax come onto his lot. It appears to be rust free, and I am thinking about going to take it for a test drive. Before I go and get truck/diesel fever I wanted to ask some people who have actual experience. Trucks are below.

2013 chevy silverado 1500
132k miles
external trans cooler, upgraded rotors. towing capacity 9500 lbs, boat definitely feels heavy back there and am nervous about the trans when towing in the heat of summer.

2005 GMC sierra Duramax
175k miles
6 inch lift
FASS fuel system
appears to be in good running order
no rust
LLY Duramax

Boat is a 29 Fountain Fever with an aluminum I beam trailer, I am guessing loaded the combo weights 8000-8500 Lbs. I dont tow it cross country or anything like that, but go to the ozarks 2-3 times a year. Let me know your thoughts please. Thanks in advance!

Unless you feel like your current truck isn’t cutting it then I don’t think I’d make the switch. Towing cap of a 2005 can’t be much more than 9500lbs of your current truck, then the lift and probably bigger wheels and tires? If you really want a diesel/ 3/4 ton I’d try to find a newer one.

The 2005 2500HD Duramax truck is probably rated for 12k-13K lbs, but if you don't need the capacity, why take on the maintenance and repair costs of a diesel? For 2-3 hauls a year, a gasser with adequate tow capacity will serve you just fine.

Also, it's got a 6" lift, which is always a deal breaker for me when buying a truck. Good chance that it had a tuner on it at one point too, and you have no way of knowing how mercilessly it was beat on by the Bro that owned it.

Lly with a lift, lift pump and other mods with 175k, hard pass.
Without knowing it’s history or previous owner you could easily invest the purchase price back into the truck. If it needed a trans, or injectors, or a pump in the near future $$$$$$ nevermind the head gaskets are probably weeping out the back corners of the heads.

Thanks everyone for putting my truck fever at Bay. I was out at a large horse farm this past weekend and eyeballing all of the these insane diesels out there and it got me wanting a new truck. I just dont want to spend 60k. So ill just have to wait.