Also, the gas mileage rating with the 8.1 and the 6.0 gasser is only a difference of 1 mpg for all of the extra torque and power. The 8.1 towing is night and day compared to the 6.0. Hold out and find one, not to mention the allison transmission is way better, and if wanted you can add a programmer and upgrades to the 8.1. Find One

^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^^

The 8.1L is FUN to drive. You know you are driving a Big Block Chevy, especially when you have a custom exhaust on it. I have a Dodge 2500 with the 360 as my beater truck right now, but if I found a deal on an 8.1L 2500 Silverado/GMC or a 2500 Avalanche; I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

I am sort of in the same situation, may spend a little more for mine after the 1st.. $20kish

What would be the best application for putting a lot of miles?? I would think a diesel as I put 26-28k miles a year and fuel is paid. So 4 years would be over 100k..
Am a ford fan, but wouldn't rule out any truck.....

Wife's Expedition is doing the work on my 33ol so we stay fairly close to home.

I have a 2500 avalanche with 3.73 gears and the 8100 and absoultey love it!! Tows my 311 with no problems. I recently added a cat back, thermostat, headers, cold air kit, and computer tune. The truck was awsome stock, but now it's a beast!!! Picked up mine with a little over a 100k in the low teens.

03 Ram hemi 2500 4x4 85k miles new leather wheels tires etc. $14k come and get it I'm 2 hours north of you. 2172464411 Tyler

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...59356818&Log=0

FYI have seen numerous 8.1 with 200k miles, without issue. Only problem with the 8.1 in the avalanche is the lack of the allison tranny

I can speak very well to this ,,,,I owned a 2500 6.0 to tow my 36 outlaw 12,600lbs on the trailer. It did "OK" if you end up with one,,, you need to let them rev ( its ok ) and they do shift a lot

Drunk driver took that truck from me and I stepped into a 3500 8100,,,,,night and day difference, and it just grunts up inclines without downshifting.

we used it on a 1800 mile tow with a 42 Fountain from Chicago to New Orleans and back and averaged over 8 mpg,,,, ran 70-80 mostly.

Its now towing a 38 flatdeck around quite well im hearing

I also went with the gas because my truck will sit when not towing the boat,,,, lower initial cost way makes up for fuel savings,,,,,, and I can work on them easily myself.... not to mention the 6.0 Fords,,,, and the Duramaxs in my price range for a tow vehicle have issues so it was a no brainer for me.

FYI, probably 5 years ago I bought a 03 2500hd crew cab shortbox, 8.1, 4x4. LTZ packaged truck with 80,000 miles for $15,000. It was absoloutley beautiful, fully loaded leather interior, dvd player, cowl hood, you name it, it had it. My buddy bought the same truck only a d-max, he paid 25,000 for it. In my eyes 10k buys alot of fuel.

I sold the truck and blew it off for 9,500. Within 2 days I had people calling as far from 2 states away. One guy even said he already lined up plane tickets, and hotel when I told him it was sold. (my wife talked to him the first time and said it was still in the driveway, not realizing I had taken a deposit 1 hour earlier over the phone from someone else.) I'd hold out for one, keep shopping but have you ducks in a row, and be ready to pull the trigger at a moments notice, they dont last long.

Mild Thunder, I've gathered you like the vortec 454's. Are they pretty responsive? I tested out a 94 tbi 454 dually the other day and it was a pooch. The last tbi 454 Ihad had a stick behind it and it was ok, but the auto made it seem poochy. I've never had nor drivin a vortec 454.

I've been thinking about building my next tow rig out of a early 80's crew cab dually and I'm trying to figure drivetrain. But if I can avoid and engine/trans swap and straight axle a vortec truck like I did a previous tow rig I had....I'd be pretty happy.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2zf0e3p.jpg

TBI vs. Vortec (1995&earlier vs. 1996&later) GM engines are night and day difference when it comes to power. They are all pretty reliable, but the 350 and 454 with the Vortec heads and intakes were much, much stronger.

For safety, 1996 trucks only had driver side airbags. 1997 and later have both driver and passenger airbags.

very nice truck but i at least need the club cab but would prefer a 4-door.

FWIW I was happy with how the Ram pulled my 311. They have some steering issues that need dealt with but the powertrain is great....for a gas.

Just an idea and I dont know how often you tow. but what about renting a truck to haul the boat on the weekeds. Just thinking if you rented a truck for 100 bucks a weekend, that 150 times worth at $15 grand of buying a vehicle, then you have insurance and upkeep etc.

Keep looking for an 8.1/allison. They are kind of hard to find. Use the 8100 and 8.1 as search keywords on autotrader. The 8.1's were in 2001 through 2007 Classic's and were DC'd after that. I had to drive about 5hrs get my current one.
BTW, My 32 AT on a steel trailer wieighs over 10k and probably closer to 11.5k full of fuel.

I bought an 05 Dually 8.1 black LS 4x4. I love it despite it being thirsty. It rides great, and pulls the Top Gun with no problem. I have electric over Hydraulic brakes on the trailer also. I have the 16" Tires. Stock wheels.

Very stable, Allison Transmission Downshifts Great.

But as stated, had to drive 5 hours to find one. But it was worth it

Mine was even a little more difficult to find because I wanted a Regular Standard Cab. Makes it very easy to maneuver the 40+ Trailer.

This outfit rents new Ford F-350 PSDs, and such trucks have factory brake controllers. I've never rented one, but the idea does have merit.

http://www.trianglerentacar.com/inde...ent-a-car.html

This joint used to rent brand new PSD F-250s at the FLL and MIA airports, but all they list now are F-150s.

http://www.royalrentacar.com/VehiclesForRent.aspx

Stock exhaust was very restrictive back then,,,, headers and catback made a HUGE difference on my 1996

I might be convinced to sell my 2006 Chevy 2500 Avalanche with 4:10 gears and 98K miles......as i'm trying to talk myself into a 2014 Ram 2500 Mega cab even though the Avalanche pulls my boat fine and I think would handle whatever I may wanna get in the future.:whistle:

I have found several nice Avalanche with the 8.1 but how do i knowif it has the Allison Transmission? Seem to be quite a few more Avalanche on the market with 8.1's than just he standard Chevy/GMC 2500 wonder why that is?

Avalanche 8.1 will have a 4L80E...still a good trans

I'll give you $1500 AND I'll toss in my Dodge Ram 2500 for FREE. See you tomorrow. Have it washed. :drink:

One i found the service manager said 4L85E what does that mean any idea?

nothing wrong with the tbi's ..you just have to know what to do with them,,for one they retard the crap out of the timing..everyone i have worked on was 2* retarded.timing..next order a piggy back chip that plugs into your pcm,,next,,get a adjustable fuel pressure regulator and crank up the fuel pressure to 16 psi @ wot..gm has them set at 13 psi and they lean out when you stick it to the floor,next install a msd 6al2 box..mine rips still and it has 470,00 k on it...i get 10 around town and 14 pulling my 4 place enclosed low profile trailer on the hyw,,but i have to keep it unser 70..its a suburbas with 3.73 posi and 285/75/16 tires..ps i put the timing @ 4*..

clean 2500 HD 6.0 w/ under 100k miles for 8-12k. If the tranny bothers you... you can rebuild a 4l80e for 1500 bucks if you r/r yourself not to mention it is a very good tranny anyway

i really feel that the front of the frames on gmt400 trucks is too weak for a solid axle (over time it will crack), i would rather start with a clean k30 frame

4L85E is AKA the M32. Not a big deal. ALL of the 2500 Suburbans and Avalanches came with this transmission when mated with the 8.1L.
It's a 4-speed with Overdrive.

It's not the Allison 5 speed automatic, but it does fine.

I had a 2500 Avalanche back in the day, and posted a bunch of info here on OSO in the past.
The 4 Speed Automatic can't handle the torque the way the Allison can, so on the 2500 AV/Suburban it is electronically limited to reduce the torque by 30% until you get out of first gear (from a dead stop). You can use an aftermarket tuner (I like the Diablo Sport Predator) to get that torque back, but you do have to go easy on the go pedal. The 8.1L has a LOT of torque, and with a few mods it makes even more.

For the above reason, IF you can find a 8.1L in the 2500 Truck platform, it will have the Allison 5 speed auto, or the ZF 6 speed manual--AND you will have a bit better setup, but there is nothing wrong with the 4L85E in the Avalanche/Suburban 2500.

The vortec version is better than the tbi. They are 9:1 vs the tbi 7.9:1, roller camshaft, better heads, port injection runs much smoother and cleaner,obd ii pcm, the engine doesn't run out of steam at 3500rpm. Stock they have torque management like the 8.1 . I had mine tuned and torque management removed. With the tune it is quite a bit peppier.

Stock injectors are known to leak along with the fuel psi regulator. Replaced my stock injectors with LS6 injectors out of a 02 vette. Needs to be tuned for these since they are larger. But stock ls1 injectors from a 98-00 ls1 can work without a tune.

I forget the specifics of the 4l80E but sometime in the 96-98 timeframe, they made some internal improvements. My dually has the 14 bolt GM rear axle.

As for the solid axle swap, I have no input. I am fine with the stock torsion bar independent front suspension. I only use 4x4 at the ramp. I actually think the truck rides pretty decent for 4x4 dually .

Yes that transmission is fine. It is the same family as the 4L80 , The 4L80 and 85 are based off the old GMT 400 which was a bulletproof tranny from the 60's and added an Overdrive gear and lockup. I have 135k on mine with no major issues.

You should get 11-12 mpg in town and 8-9 towing. If you get the Avalanche 8.1 I would tune it with a Hypertech tuner- it did wonders for mine- added another 500 rpm usuable range. Also gave me about 0.5 mpg

Wannabe

It didn't get that many miles from sitting broken....

I will never own another gas truck, its so much easier to get moving with a diesel, I have had all Ford diesels with well over 300,000 miles, my current has 391,000 and tows amazing, looking at a 304,000 mile 6.0 now that has all the mods done, no gasser will tow as easy as a diesel, gassers ok if you only gonna tow a little bit, but I love the fact that mine never kicks out of overdrive with a 35 Mistress behind it....we have gas toe vehicles at work, all they do is hunt for gears and takes a bit to get moving compared to diesel....

Oh yea, buy trucks from Texas, they are cheaper and look like brand new, my 391,000 mile truck looks and drives like it has 50,000.....paid 9000 for a LOADED 2002 Lariat...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]512571[/ATTACH]

Did you guys know that when GM introduced the 8100 Vortec, during their 200k miles durability testing program, the engine was held at WOT for 300 hours? If only Ford had done that with the 6.0L diesel. Probably woulda lasted a couple hours till the head gaskets blew out, egr coolers busted.....

The 8100 Vortec is a workhorse engine.

I'll give my $0.02... If towing heavy loads, the only reason to use a gas powered truck is if your budget wont allow you to use a diesel powered rig. I personally use a 2500 HD crew cab Duramax, but have owned several gas powered trucks along the way. At work we have 6.0 and 8.1 gasers as well as D-Max anld older 5.9 Cummins powered rigs. The 5.9 gets the best fuel economy, but are noisy and don't have the power of the D-Max's. I do a lot of towing (Formula 382, enclosed 4 place snowmobile trailer, and skid steer and trailer). I set the cruise at 75 mph and 10.5 mpg towing my boat. Truck is 100% stock (I know this because I bought it new) and has 95,000 miles on it. I will never go back to a gas powered truck (wish I could get a diesel in my wifes yukon denali)....

Plenty of great info here. I currently have a 610hp 08' Powerstroke that tows very nicely :) but will be going to something older very soon. I'm gonna stay with a Ford and a Diesel as I agree with many of the reason listed by others in this thread, diesels just cant be beat when towing!

[QUOTE=jriggs;4028966] I will never go back to a gas powered truck QUOTE]

I said the same thing when I BOUGHT my Brand new Ford 6.0L in 04. Then, when I sold it, I said "I'll never go back to a diesel pickup". I guess after having so many problems with that truck, egr coolers, head gaskets, rear main oil leak,, ball joints, HVAC problems, Front 4X4 hubs, and hub bearings, all going bad in the first 75k miles, plus less than steller MPG, I was turned off by diesels and Fords in general. Probably not a fair judgement, just how I felt after dropping 50k on a new truck that gave me more troubles than the previous 5,000 dollar beater trucks I had. I also owned a V10 Gas superduty, and a 5.4 gas. The 5.4 sucked. Total slug and pig on gas. The V10 was about the same on mpg as the 5.4, but at least had some power.

I am all Ford, all have been nothing but good to me, they all have issues, I have buds that had HD GM trucks and swear never again, its all relative, the 6.0 is not bad if you do the right things to it, I am loking at one right now that has 254,000 .... trucks get lots of miles in Texas...

I was hoping Ford would have done all the right things to it when I was signing the 50k dollar check. :eekdrop:

I look for deals all the time, I always browse CL and such, I see WAY more Fords with well over 200,000 miles then GM...just fact.... they don't suck...