F-2 Speedy

iTrader: (6)

4k just buy it, drive it for a yr. and if you don't like it, sell it and get your money back, whats book on the truck ?

MINK

Reliability, parts availability and most of all lack of power and maintaining any kind of highway speed if you are towing a 33' boat.

cmattj

Thats a good Tow vehicle for stability and plus the differential will hold up due to a heavy duty pinion bearing set up in the rear end. 3/4 style axle . 10 ply tires make a difference as you know as well.

Escalade uses a crush sleeve in the pinion so be careful when towing. one hill and you can wipe out a gear set.


1994 Transmissions where a weak point more than injector pumps as overheating during towing was a common failure.

Add a cooler to the existing tow package. keep your fuel filter clean. and you should be fine.

Or keep searching for Duramax Allison version.

If they only made a 3/4 ton Escalade!..

92nsx

All good post! Thank you. I like what 33 is saying at 4k i wont loose money, so if i dont like it move it down the road. The price and how clean it is, what sells thia truck. Duramax, or even a 7.3 they all want outrageous money for them and most have rotted fenders.

Like cmattj says, the esky one pull up the ramp might puke its guts. I pulled the 33 with it and 55 mph was the most she was comfortable at, and that was a white knuckling. The sway/whip she had, was a white knuckling.

One good thing about the 6.5TD is most the problems have been found the the fix for them are fairly cheap along with the parts.
Complete set of Marine injectors alone for the 6.5 is cheaper then 2 injectors for the duramax.

Brandonb_05

I think those were also bad for blown head gaskets

30ftpanther

iTrader: (1)

NADA..Low retail $3,000.00 high retail $10,000.00

gmgearhead454

6.5td are awesome reliable trucks. Not **** for power but you can do some mods here and there to get another 40-60 hp out of them which is fairly cheap and would help a ton. Hard to maintain 65mph towing a 30' boat on Highway depending on gears. I had one and other then those issues it was more reliable then any piece of junk ass diesel made today. I drive a 2001 3/4 ton 4wd Suburban with a vortec 8.1 with some mods & built 4l85e trans now & will NEVER go back to anything else! Best tow vehicle I've owned ever and drives so damn good

bigboat28

I had a 97 crew cab 6.5 2 wheel drive, pulled a twin engine 28 Pantera all over the place. Not crazy power but never had any
problems maintaining speed other than through mountains. No problems till turbo went at like 130000 miles.

class6

Buy it, Just think next winter we could watch you throw a 5.9 12v Cummins stand alone in it ( for cheap!) That would be a awesome truck

needavdub

I use my 1994 2500 SRW 6.5 turbo 2 wheeler to tow my boat any time I have to go any kind of longer distance. The truck has been my tow machine for the last 10 years and it's been rock solid reliable for me, 6.5 turbo is definitely a dog compared to the modern diesels but it doesn't really seem to get much slower with a load if that makes sense. My 24 outlaw and steel trailer aren't terribly heavy (6000 lbs or so) but I've had heavier loads on the truck plenty of times before. $4000 is pretty damn cheap for any clean running truck, I'd say go for it and you should be able to sell it for what you payed down the road. I don't know how much truth there is to it, but I've heard the 6.5's will die an early death if you try increasing the power so I always just stuck to general maintenance. And I'm not sure if they all do as well as mine, but I average 21 MPG empty (70mph on the hiway) and between 15-17MPG towing my Baja.