If you do not need a pickup then you should find a 3/4 ton Suburban or excursion. You can pick up a 2000 to 2006 Suburban pretty cheap actually and they pull great. I pulled my 2000 29 Powerquest with twin 454's with a 2000 Suburban with a 6.0 down to the Ozarks all the time and it did a great job doing it. Once I picked up the 38 I pulled it a couple of times with the sub but then ordered a brand new 2005 Duramax crew cab. If you are going to stay under 34 feet a gas 6.0 litre will do you fine.

The 2006 Duramax was the last of the good ones from what I was told. Not sure just going by what i have heard. Less government crap on them.

I have tried to justify the Diesel engine because they are just sweet, but here in Illinois it cost 30 cents more per gal. I did the math to justify it, the funny part is i could not justify it. A 2011 Duramax gets 18 mpg and a new 6.0 litre gets 14 MPG so it is a just want to have to get the diesel unless you actually need the power.

The 7.3's on in the Fords, are they all turbos or is that a completely different package?

Yes. I have never seen one with 500k on the original engine....
I have seen a lot of 250+k dmaxes and 7.3 Fords though...

The DPF bs started in 07.5 GMs... If you're lucky you can find an old body style '07 with the LBZ engine...
I missed buying a sweet one awhile back and am kicking myself.

catmando your definitely right on that, it was just that the deal was just too good to pass up the guy didn't need the truck and he dropped the price from what he was originally asking for it quite a bit so it basically ended up costing me only $500 dollars more after I sold the ram so to me it was a deal I couldn't say no to, too good to pass up. I basically upgraded to a pretty good 3/4 ton for only $500 more and it even has the nice leather interior and all the bells and whistles but boy does that gas engine eat at the pump. Your definitley right though the duramax would of been better or even a cummins but I know I would have had to come out of pocket quite a bit. I do have to give gmc credit though that things rides like an airplane on the highway.

All 7.3 motors are turbo. The old 6.9(I used to own one) was non turbo IDI(Indirect Injection). It was a dog.

I suggest you spend more time in the Cummins world...

So I guess all the 7.3's Powerstrokes all have turbos?

Yes, all 7.3's are turbo's. In 1999 with the introduction of the SuperDuty, they all were intercooled. The intercooler cools the engines intake air after being compressed by the turbo, increasing air density and power (this is the year IMHO, where it has all the makings of a modern truck).

I'll second some previous comments about 7.3 noise. I was just in my friends' '04 dMax and I was blown away at how quiet it was. Nevertheless, 7.3 noise isn't unpleasant or intrusive, it's just there. My wife would rather take long drives in the truck than the Infiniti, so it can't be that bad. Mine tracks well, has great brake pedal feel, and the cruise works flawlessly.

Actually ALL the 7.3's used in Ford trucks did not have turbos but all the 7.3 "Powerstrokes" did have turbos. First there was the 6.9 IDI in the earliest diesel trucks followed by the 7.3 IDI up until '93. In '94 Ford had the 7.3 IDI turbo engine for just that one year. All the IDI engines where reliable work truck engines but weak as far as power. In '95 they came out with the 7.3 Powerstroke turbo engine with the big change being the electronic controlled hydraulic injectors.................lots more power and this engine went until '97. There was no '98 Powerstroke but they had an early '99 that was similar to the '97 but with an intercooler added. Then they had the '99.5 thru '03 7.3 Powerstroke which was intercooled. Not sure on all the differences between early 99 vs 99.5 and later 7.3's but I think it was mostly related to further upgraded injectors and electronics. Most people consider the 99.5 thru early '01 Powerstrokes to be the more desirable because they had forged rods compared the the '02 and '03 engines powdered metal rods but unless you are trying to make over 400 RWHP it probably won't be an issue anyway. In early '03 they switched to the 6.0 engine.