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QUESTION:I need to pull a mini excavator. It and the trailer will weigh almost
10,000 lbs. My '91 F250 diesel that I bought about a year ago, has a
cracked head - $3,000+ to fix. I may trade it in and get another, perhaps a
Chevy.
I'm wondering if a larger gas engine might be a better route to go? Any
opinions?
ANSWER: make that Ford buys a pretty good diesel... same with dodge... gm is
the only one that actually produces their diesel engine (through a
subsidiary). the excavating contractor my former employer used to use
had a finish grading crew that towed a 8,000+lbs tracked takeuchi skid
steer every day behind a '98 C3500 with a Vortec 350 in it... the guy
that drove the truck said it had enough pwer, but he wasn't racing it
either. this was in Maine.. fairly hilly counrty too.
I pull a Bobcat skidsteer pretty regularly with a '99 C2500 350 auto. No
more than enough power and the auto wants to shift a lot on hills. If it
were mine, I'd go for a C3500 and standard trans. 350cid would probably be
ok with this setup. Diesel would be better, just depends how much money you
have to spend. I've also used a Dodge 1 ton with V10, 5 speed which pulls it
nicely. Both trucks get real thirsty when pulling the Bobcat.
Get the Duramax with the Allison tranny, you'll be glad you did. Ford makes
a really tuff truck, but their diesel engine that they use (Navistar, read
International Harvester) is quite over rated.
A diesel should get half again, maybe close to twice the fuel mileage over a
gasser when towing 10k, if that's a factor. Diesel fuel simply has more
energy per gallon than gasoline.
Been there, done all that.
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