New wood hauler!

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rdust

rdust

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Feb 9, 2009
4,604
Michigan
I bought this to replace my 04 extended cab Z71, it's an 04.5 2500HD crew cab with a Duramax(LLY)/Allison combo with 70K on it. Our roads are a mess right now since we've been melting away so she's a little dirty. I bought it for more than just hauling wood but it will do a fine job doing that also. ::-) Can't say it was a need, I've wanted a big stupid diesel for a long time. ;lol The kids are growing and the extended cab just wasn't cutting it anymore.
 

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Reactions: Pallet Pete, Backwoods Savage, ScotO and 2 others
Nice truck. I see it has wheels from the newer body style, they look good.
 
Looks like a awesome wood hauler!

My brother in law has one just like it and I talked him into a set of HMMV take off wheel/tires because he was getting third of all if the flats from all of the construction near his house.
 
Halligan said:
Nice truck. I see it has wheels from the newer body style, they look good.
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Good eye, the mirrors and wheels are from an 08. The previous owner also put newer style z71 stickers on it which I think will be coming off since it's not a z71, they may stay though since they look better than the plain 4x4 stickers.

loadstarken said:
Looks like a awesome wood hauler!
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It should do a fine job, my 1500 managed but struggled plenty of times. Being capable of pulling the car trailer, travel trailer or trailer full of wood safely at highway speeds will be a bonus.
 
sweet:cool:
 
Love it!! I have been known to borrow my buddy's truck that is very similar. My 1/2 ton 2 wheel isn't quite up to hauling in the mud.

I got the WHEEL BARROW stuck at a church yesterday!! I was using it to haul wood across a church lawn and all was well. I cut for an hour or so and resumed hauling but the sod had thawed enogh that the wheel barrow tire sliced right though and wouldn't go! No more hauling til it gets colder or warmer!
 
Nice dirtymax. Looks nice but is old enough that you don't feel guilty if you bang it up a little hauling wood.
 
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rdust said:
The kids are growing and the extended cab just wasn't cutting it anymore.
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Good to know. Was thinking about making my next one ext cab instead of a CC but I guess I'll stay in a CC, especially if there isn't a penalty on the box size.

LLY is diesel nirvana IMO. Gobs of power, still gets great mileage. Better reliability than one competitor of the era, much better transmission than the other. ;)
 
I like the newer trucks, but I'm partial to my ol' 1997 GMC K-2500 5.7 Vortec......
Got the truck for next to nothing (sat for years with some drivetrain problems), but the body was in perfect shape, had a Flowmaster dual exhaust on it, and does a great job hauling/towing/getting in the woods. I'll keep her til she totally rots out (no rust at all on her, yet). She's got 161,000 on the odometer and still purrs like a kitten......
 
MasterMech said:
LLY is diesel nirvana IMO. Gobs of power, still gets great mileage. Better reliability than one competitor of the era, much better transmission than the other. ;)
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I work in the diesel field so I see the pro's and cons of all of them. I really wanted a low mileage F250 with a 7.3, too bad those come with a premium due to their reliability, the 6.0 was never on the table due to it's issues which bums me out since I like the truck. I probably like the Cummins engines the best out of all of them but not a fan of the skin wrapped around the engine. The LLY engines seem to have a pretty good track record with their injectors when compared to the LB7's BUT once you get an LB7 figured out it's nice not to have to deal with any of the emission items.(EGR, Catalytic Converter)

Hopefully this one treats me well, I have a GM Tech 2 and this one checked out before buying it but that can all change at the drop of a hat. Lord knows I could've picked from a bunch of different new cars for what I paid for a lower mileage duramax. ;lol
 
rdust said:
the 6.0 was never on the table due to it's issues which bums me out since I like the truck.
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The "Sick-Leaker" (6.0L) isn't unworkable if you really like the truck it's in. There is a laundry list of stuff to replace/fix/upgrade tho.

My dad has an '03 2500HD with the LB7. Love that truck.
 
MasterMech said:
The "Sick-Leaker" (6.0L) isn't unworkable if you really like the truck it's in. There is a laundry list of stuff to replace/fix/upgrade tho.

My dad has an '03 2500HD with the LB7. Love that truck.
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To buy a "new" truck and have to stud it/replace the head gaskets, delete the egr and replace the oil cooler is a bit of a pain but as you said it's not unworkable. You can find a bunch that have already been done but overall I'm still not a big fan of the 6.0L.
 
Id rather swap in a 12v than rework a 6.0. Several of them running around here. Best of both worlds.
 
My BIL is getting ready to drop a 4BT in a V10 Excursion.
 
lukem said:
My BIL is getting ready to drop a 4BT in a V10 Excursion.
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Hmmm let us know how that goes, that's a big truck for that little diesel(3.9 right?). The guy I bought my duramax from also had an Excursion with a 7.3 in it, I missed a limited with low miles that I would've like to own. Of course that's not saying much there are a lot of different vehicles I'd like to own. ;lol
 
rdust said:
Hmmm let us know how that goes, that's a big truck for that little diesel(3.9 right?). The guy I bought my duramax from also had an Excursion with a 7.3 in it, I missed a limited with low miles that I would've like to own. Of course that's not saying much there are a lot of different vehicles I'd like to own. ;lol
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I would have preferred a 6BT but isn't going to be used for much more than getting groceries and hauling kids. The donor vehicle is a delivery van. Im just concerned that his gears will be too tall to move that bus.
 
MasterMech said:
The "Sick-Leaker" (6.0L) isn't unworkable if you really like the truck it's in. There is a laundry list of stuff to replace/fix/upgrade tho.

My dad has an '03 2500HD with the LB7. Love that truck.
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lol - I have the 6.0l turbo diesel in my F350. So far, only had to replace one item, but that was 4 years ago and I cannot remember what it was. Only know it took 6 hours to get it done and it required cutting a socket in half to get it into that tight area.

And, KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the stories I have heard about the 6.0 are horrifying. I need to keep this truck until it turns into a pile of rust. Doesn't mean I won't eventually get a new one, but no way am I selling this one.
 
fabsroman said:
Some of the stories I have heard about the 6.0 are horrifying. I need to keep this truck until it turns into a pile of rust.​
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If you have not had the EGR cooler/Oil Cooler issues addressed yet, I would do that ASAP. I believe there are factory recalls to do just that but I'm not up on the specifics anymore. It's not a matter of if, just when....
 
MasterMech said:
If you have not had the EGR cooler/Oil Cooler issues addressed yet, I would do that ASAP. I believe there are factory recalls to do just that but I'm not up on the specifics anymore. It's not a matter of if, just when....
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Everything is a matter of when. Nothing lasts forever. The semi good news is that I don't use the truck very much and I don't haul a lot with it either right now other than kids most of the time. Maybe when I finally get the stand alone garage built and/or we buy an Excursion I will do it all. No way am I taking it to a mechanic to get it done and right now it is the only vehicle we can use for the 3 kids. So, it cannot be in a state of disrepair for very long, if at all.
 
MasterMech said:
If you have not had the EGR cooler/Oil Cooler issues addressed yet, I would do that ASAP. I believe there are factory recalls to do just that but I'm not up on the specifics anymore. It's not a matter of if, just when....
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x2, fix those two things and leave it at the factory power levels and it "should" be happy for a long time.
 
rdust said:
I bought this to replace my 04 extended cab Z71, it's an 04.5 2500HD crew cab with a Duramax(LLY)/Allison combo with 70K on it. Our roads are a mess right now since we've been melting away so she's a little dirty. I bought it for more than just hauling wood but it will do a fine job doing that also. ::-) Can't say it was a need, I've wanted a big stupid diesel for a long time. ;lol The kids are growing and the extended cab just wasn't cutting it anymore.
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Sooo when to we get to have a number to bumper tug of war ? Nice truck !

Pete
 
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