my next truck will be a 4x4 crew cab DMAX... After this last camping/hiking trip seeing all the DMAXs everywhere, i pretty much sold the idea to the wife. But i will have to wait about 1-2 years

 

Im probably looking at about the same time frame too unfortunately. Ill prbably try and sell my truck after I get through with some stuff and drive the Jeep for a while, and keep my eye out for the right truck. There are damn good deals out there if youre willing to wait and look. It took me 8 months to find my dmax, Im sure it will take a while to find my next one.

When youre ready to find one let me know and I can tell you everything to look for on them that wears out.

 

They're pretty small inside compared to the other two hd trucks, they have the stupid ifs suspension that has tons of parts to break and replace, instead of having a different larger design they just put an ugly 2" bodylift on a 40k truck. They do have a solid engine/trans combo though.

 

Weve replaced more shortblocks, longblocks and complete engines (turbos and all) with less than 50K on these things than I care to count... stock with all the emissions, or tuned, with everything deleted... doesnt seem to matter. Bent rods, bearing issues, and coolers seem to be the culprits. Some of them are in company trucks with someone standing in them every day carrying lotss of weight, lots of miles, lots of abuse etc but the same amount of them are every day drivers than never see gravel much less mud, never have anything behind them, and the heaviest thing that goes in the bed is some groceries or a 2x4....

you should randomly stop by the shop some time and see what cabs are off of what and what work is being done. At any given time, were changing leaky up-pipes, crap HPFP's etc... all of which require the cabs to come off... hell. according to our book, you have to pull the cab just to pull the turbos... I personally like the 6L trucks. tune it, stud it, delete the EGR and cat, get rid of the factory oil cooler and drive it like you stole it...


and read what you want.... that Tqshift isnt what everyone thinks it is...

 

if you are so bent on space...get a megacab cummins

 

the Cummins is the good part.... the Dodge truck wrapped around it isnt....

 

I believe you since youre deep into it every day. Ive just been reading on powerstroke nation a lot and I honestly see less complaints about the 6.4s than I do the LMMs on dieselplace. Normally forums are where you see all the bitching and there is very little. Tons of guys running mid 500s to the wheels on stock transmissions for a long time. An allison would do it one time before it puked its guts. Hell my 375rwhp tune on 35s blew through the converter all the time. I loved my dmax I just wasnt that impressed with how far the stock parts took it.

Ive got plenty of time to think and research anyway so thats a good thing. Plus its sounds like youre REAL familiar with them. You take payment in Shiner?
If I wanted a midget bed Id buy me another S10 I like the space but I need a bed, I actually use my truck as a truck and the older style dodges are ugly. I cant afford the new 2011s. Depending on how long it takes me to get my crap together maybe the used prices will be down where I need them and then I may consider their full size crew cab.

 

I'll take some Ruby Redbird please

And I agree about not hearing a lot of issues on PSN about them... Go over to 'tech and see how terrible everyone over there tells you their LS1 is

You had an Allison 1000 in your truck right??? If I'm not mistaken the 6spds are a bit stronger.

Stock anything has it's limits... Bottom line is, if you're going to be harder on ANY VEHICLE than the manufacturer intended you'll have to upgrade some stuff. I'd personally rather throw some parts at something and make it what I want. I know you'll do your homework though.

 

Yeah but on any manufacturers website youre going to see threads about issues theyre having. Im fine with doing some external work on it to make it run well but I dont really care to dig into the engine. It just seems the torqshift lasts a lot longer than the allison with some power. I had the 6speed and I never limped it but Im pretty sure I was blowing through the converter because rpm would rise but speed wouldnt rise at the same rate. Im sure eventually Id need to get the torqshift rebuilt too with the way I drive. Hell I may get lucky and be able to afford a 6.7 if the wife gets a decent job here soon but me getting a new vehicle is still atleast a year away. Maybe by then you will have a recipe for the 6.4s like you do for the 6.0s

 

Possibly we've just worked on way more 6.0's than 6.4's as of right now not at the shop, and I'm sure that's got a lot to with them getting older and being out of warranty. There's more and more 6.4's getting miles and years on them so I'm sure we will have a chance to dig into more and see exactly how to remedy the problems that can be prevented.

Do yourself a favor, go to the dealer and drive a 6.7L I can assure you the traction control will be utilized not only are they extremely strong in stock form, the boost comes on like right now. The trans keeps the engine RPM and boost exactly where it needs to be for pretty much every condition. I haven personally driven one with a load behind it but I've been in one pulling a 30' gooseneck stock trailer with about 6-7000 lbs of beef in it and it didnt bat an eye. They're impressive trucks and the new interiors are pretty nice too as we've said in many other threads... GM really needs to take notes in more than one new vehicle category.