What NEW truck should I buy?

They dip tanks in New England too. My buddy in PA had his dipped as well.

 

I had a tan colored 1978 VW Rabbit diesel, BEST car I ever owned! It was a 48hp motor, but the car was one of the very first unibody vehicles ever made from mostly aluminum and weighed almost nothing. I got 49 to 51 MPG!! The car had a 10 gallon diesel tank, and diesel fuel was something like 79 cents a gallon at the time (early 80's). So for 8 or 9 bucks, I could drive 4 people 500 friggin miles!! My school was 250 miles from my house, so I would come home for a weekend and take 3 other people (riders) with me, and charge then $25 bucks for the round trip. I collected $75 bucks, and the trip cost me less that $10. Can you say BEER MONEY!!!!!

I've posted this story before, and I still can't understand why the hell in 1978 they could get 50 MPG, and now almost 40 years later we can't even get 20 MPG!!

 

I have a Mini CooperS and a Range Rover both with digital eco calculators in them, they are both dead on. There is a display of current MPG, that one goes all over the place, when ya step on the gas it goes down, and vice versa... but the AVERAGE one is dead on long term. It's simple math based off a flow meter (which are very accurate) and speed.

These same "worries" were around when Yanmar started making small, light-weight high RPM, low weight to HP ratio diesel engines. The old school diesel world was scared to death of this things, and laughed at them stating "They are all going to blow up...!". Well, of course most now know Yanmar is one of the most respected manf'ers in the industry, and all the other companies ended up copying much of their technology. I have a pair of Yanmar 6LPA-STP motors in my boat, and they are known to be one of the best, if not the most reliable marine motors ever made. And I still get some guys who give me the "Whooooa, you have those lightweight things in there?" cracks me up.

Now I'm not saying this will be the case here, cause I know nothing about these new trucks and motors... but just pointing out folks always seem nervous about new tech in motors. More times than not, it works out.

If I recall correctly, the Avalanche is one of the ugliest, weirdest vehicles on the road, right? Is that the thing your referring to? I do need a serious 4WD system though, not an AWD type system since it will go on the beach (deep sand) from time to time.

FYI: The 4.2 A8 Audi does indeed have a timing belt. Just changed mine before selling that car....

 

That is REALLY cool!

 

Why, what don't you like about it?? (ps-NICE bike!!)

 

Here is the truck we are talking about, pic from yesterday. What is she worth? Who wants it?

 

A guy I work with has the same drivetrain combo I do and gets about 3 mpg more than me once he deleted all of the emissions. Go figure..

 

Can Mastermind PORT a new F150 5.4 l motor??

 

Avalanche was available at first only with the ugly grey cladding, then almost immediately Chevy offered a normal truck re cladded option, which sold a lot more. The later ones had a lot of Tahoe body panels and IMHO were the best looking ones.

 

This was a pretty normal drive of about 90% secondary highway driving of around 55MPH and in the summer with high test fuel. Lots of hills on this ride but I do my own version of hyper-mileage. Turbo's don't usually engage until 1700 RPM so keeping it under that while driving helps. This isn't a major or busy highway so I'm able to play around a little. I speed up going down hills and coast up hills. The Ecoboost is Eco or Boost. If you drive it conservatively you'll get good mileage. I'm sure 23 MPG with a 3.73 rear end is doable but I'm thinking this is definitely not the norm and he's working extra hard to get there.

 

[QUOTE="Machria, post: 273346, member: 68"

FYI: The 4.2 A8 Audi does indeed have a timing belt. Just changed mine before selling that car....[/QUOTE]

Not the c5 allroad. The only allroad with a v8. The 4.2 40v in the allroad was in fact timing chain. Basically a totally different motor, shared with the RS twin turbo v8 Audi's. Otherwise more run of the mill Audi's with the 4.2 had timing belts.

Good on ya for doing the right thing and changing the belt on your a8 when it needed it. All the 2.7t allroads I was looking at needed the timing belt changed. Walk away...... Its 2 grand give or take and a pita to change them. Nobody was willing to take 2k less, even though they failed to do routine maintenance, which makes you wonder what else they didn't do properly on a fussy German car.

 

Yeah, I run a lot of shorter trips so I regen a lot.. Frequency goes down when I'm on constant long trips which we do a lot of.. I'm getting close to ditching the entire system.. At work, I get to see our class 8 trucks run 200k a year and the problems that arise with the emissions system.. Last Monday a bunch of def tanks that were topped off Saturday morning froze and exploded..lol..

 

My friend has a towing company and Loves the new class 8 trucks. Money makers! $500 or more for a 30 mile tow.

 

The Chevy version had the pushbutton 2WD/AWD/4Hi/4Lo like the higher level pickups whereas the Cadillac and Denali were full time AWD (dumb IMO). Early ones had that nasty look but last few years are like this:

 

Hey, I had one of those too..lol.. Bought a new one in 04 without the plastic on the sides - only the rear cover.. It was a red one that I put some big 24" rims on..lol.. What a dope I was..

 

Years ago I remember hearing about them popping in at the local Case IH dealership...

 

My '15 Volvo often stays running for my whole two day route, including my 12-14 hour hotel layover. Nice how that super clean burning emissions system makes me burn an extra 20+ gallons of fuel so I'm not sitting somewhere waiting for road service. My 8ish mpg in the summer turns into high 4s in the winter.

My employer was really big on eliminating idle time, until last winter. With all of our new equipment having so much trouble in cold weather, they decided it was better to pay for extra fuel instead of tow bills, sub rentals, and late deliveries. Idle timers are now shut off, and some trucks run for days at a time.

I'm not gonna lie. It's nice getting in a warm truck in the morning