tcelano

Same here, USAA would not insure my 4500 Kodiak. I have a dump bed on it though. USAA would not insure my boats or jetskis either, all that stuff is through Progressive.

I don't mind driving the kodiak around, and it gets lots of use hauling other stuff besides the boat. It sees 10,000 miles a year, and it never goes more than 200 miles from home. It's below 9' tall, so we roll through drive-throughs in it all the time. I can roll up to Home Depot, shove 12' lumber in the back of it, and go on about my day. I have it tarped over with a really heavy rubberized tarp and ratchet blocks. After having it, I don't know how I could live without it. It makes my daily-driver 2500 look like a toy as far as usefulness.

Nobody talks about turning radius too much. The short-wheelbase medium duty can outmaneuver a regular pickup truck by a landslide. It really comes in handy maneuvering trailers. I can practically turn the truck around in its own length. I've been able to pull a U-turn with a 45' trailer in a 3-lane wide intersection.

As far as driveability, Mine has the 4:56 gears and upgraded Dana 130 rear axle. I have a hypertech tuner. It takes off like a shot (well as quick as a 12,000 lb truck could be expected to). The duramax has incredible throttle response compared to my Cummins truck. Fuel mileage runs 12-13 mpg no matter what you do hauling or towing light loads. It's obviously an aerodynamic brick. If you didn't have the dump bed, and streamlined the truck a bit, I'm willing to bet you could get 16-17. It gets 8 or 9 pulling a 14k boat+trailer.

I paid a lot less for my 4500, with the $10k dump bed upfit, brand new (a couple model years old though at the time), for less than I could have gotten any 3500 diesel off the lot. I drove it off the lot for $36k, and it had 50 miles on the clock, which was obviously over to the upfitter and back.

beertruck

insured mine with state farm, and had no issues.

As for it not being practical, I used mine as a daily driver for two years. First test was a drive thru starbucks, made it thru no problem, but had to reach out and down to get the coffee.
Found mine to have a better turning radios than a dually making backing into spots easy.

Catmando

I had a bad experience with Progressive(most people do for some reason) so now I insure everything with Farmer's and they have been very good to me.

tim brown

bz did you get the 650 ? lets here it and see it . there is one on craigs list here in cincinnati ohio Tim

gofastlvr

I insure mine with TN Farm Bureau and just emailed my agent and no issues... It does ride like a log wagon but the attention it draws is worth it!

Catmando

If you're gonna keep it, Kelderman makes a really nice airbag suspension.

gofastlvr

Whew... $4300 plus installation!

Catmando

Well I said it was really nice. There are other companies that build less expensive systems so do your due diligence and compare. If your truck has an owners' website I bet those guys will know the best suspension for it.

soldier4402

one must look at ones own pocket book, the weight of the load, distance of travel and frequency of towing. no doubt these big trucks are cool and nice, but im sure any 450 would do just as well or even 350. And if you go short distances and only boat may -sep no need to waste money unless you got money to piss

gofastlvr

We have powerboats... of course we have money to piss away!

I have had 2 450's and towing the boat on long trips I have had numerous problems with turbos and fuel pumps etc... They just don't like towing heavy loads over long distances! And it probably doesn't help that I tow at 75-80 mph... The other thing is I get about 5-6 mpg with them and now with that Cat C7 in my F650 I get 12-14 towing and about 16-17 with no load. Add to that the 80 gallon fuel tanks that allow longer between stops and it makes perfect sense!