I'm not really sure why anyone would even consider a gas motor if they are going to be pulling. I bought an 08 Duramax 4 door loaded with 30K miles on it in 09 for $33K. I have had 2 offers for $33K this year and the truck has 65K miles on it. I have done regular maintenance and replaced 1 glow plug. Seems like a no brainer to me. The diesels hold their value. Why stick $3K in mods to a gas guzzler?? Find a nice clean diesel for $25-35. Just my thoughts.

I am choosing gas because you can pick up gas '04-'06 for $8000-$13,000. I have never owned a diesel before and I am afraid of the unknown. I heave done 6000-9000 mile oil changes on every gas motor for the last 20yrs. The least amount of miles has been 265,000 on an old beater Cutlass. 318,000 on the current truck (278,000 I put on). The increase $$ diesel prices (+) extra preventative maintenance ie. fuel, oil and injectors make it cost prohibitive when I run the #'s for the little driving it will see. I do not need a $33,000 truck. (would love one though) I have not had a loan (besides my mortgage) in 12 yrs. Boats, cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles and toys all paid cash in full. If I don't have the money I just don't need it.

Like I stated earlier, I know the pulling capabilities of the 2500 8.1 and it is a good engine.
Did I forget to mention that I'm Dutch...

I agree with ya Jason. When I was shopping for a tow rig for the boat, I wanted something that was obviously in my price range which was in the 10k range, bc I wanted to pay cash and be done with it. I looked at a bunch of trucks. At my price point, it was obviously a gasser, or possibly a 6.5L diesel or high mileage 7.3 ford.

One of the most important things I wanted, was a clean well kept older truck. I did not want some rust bucket or tired old work truck, that would plague me everytime I needed to do maintainance. I wanted a dually, as having towed with both, I felt the dually was by far the most stable pulling my boats down the freeway. Hands down, my old 1989 Chevy Dually Crew cab towed much more stable than my 2004 F250 diesel crew cab. Im not talking climbing hills, but just cruising along at 60-65mph, that old truck was stable and never felt the boat pulling the truck around. So anyhow, I found my low mile 97 K3500 Dually in Kentucky. You can eat off the underside of this truck. I have replaced many items on it as preventative maintainance, like brakes, belt, hoses, wires, plugs etc. Since ive had it, I did have the fuel pump go bad. A new Bosch pump ran me 80 bucks. My buddy and I had the truck in the garage, preparing to drop the tank. I figured, hey, its a 16 year old truck, better get the PB blaster, air tools, and stuff ready. My buddy said "'calm down, hand me that 3/8 ratchet.''. Both tank straps broke loose no problem. We had the truck running in an hour with a new pump, and 80 bucks. What I love about this truck, is it runs beautiful, comfortable, tows great, and best part, is EVERYTHING is cheap to replace, and fairly simple. I can go to rockauto.com and spend 500 bucks worth of replacement items for this thing, and have a giant mountain of parts on my doorstep. So it gets 13mpg empty, and 8 towing. Who cares. It doesn't wake the neighbors, it doesn't stink up the place, its starts when its 10 below, and it tows my 14k lb trailer just fine. The trans never exceeds 180* with the a/c cranking sitting in Chicago traffic when its 90+ degrees out. Works for me. The 8.1 Allison combo is even better, and had I had a little more headroom in my budget, i'd have a 8.1L 3500 dually in the garage.

Justin at blackbear is the man!!!! I had my computer tuned by him and what a difference!!! Best money I have spent on the truck...

I can tell you first hand as a diesel tech anything built after about 01 isn't worth it's weight in scrap. How many gas motors need injectors at 100k? And even if they did there not $240 each! Oil cooler, egr, head gaskets, cp3 pumps, injection pumps, lift pumps, oil pans, etc. etc. it's gross what they cost to keep running. I'm a huge diesel fan. Had 4 diesel trucks, one with 840 rwhp, another that was in diesel power challenge in 06. Yet I can't justify the expense. I have an 06 gmc with 330,000 miles on it with a 6.0 gas I paid $4,000 for. Find me a diesel you can buy like that and drive to Maryland to pick up a 38 top gun with no issues. It's become a sad day for diesels.

I put new injectors in my gasser when I bought it. They were working ok, but They were known on my engine to start going bad around 100k miles, they weren't the greatest design. However, I replaced them with injectors from a LS1. I picked up a set of 8 out of a vette that had under 30k orig miles. 50 bucks for all 8 and were a direct fit. Even if I replaced them with OEM Delphi injectors, they are only 50 bucks each.

Those LS motors with 6 Main Bearing Cap Bolts ARE TOUGH!!

Red..seems like every other Diesel Fire Pump I service is a Detroit with a broken rod or crank or had diapers under it to control the oil leaks!!!

I have several I take care of that have Cat 3208's...never a problem!!

I had a Sea Ray 40 EC that had twin 400 horse 3208's that ran great and used 30 GPH in a cruise...best marine propulsion system I ever had any thing to do with...God I miss that boat!!

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3208's are decent motors. Most of the series 60 failures are operator error. A common one I see is a dead ECM or crank sensor so the driver hoses it with 2 cans of ether then it runs away! Kaboom!!!

Now I wish I had diesels in my cruiser. The old 454 Crusaders are thirsty little devils for what they push it.

Did I just post a pic of a/my cruiser? I'm sorry...lol

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True. Rookie is the dutchest person i know.