this weekend i had a little time to kill so i went to the local dealerships and did some test driving. i drove a new ford, chevy and dodge. this was the first 6.4 i had drove and i have to say im not at all impressed. i figured with the twin turbo setup it would have more response off the line. acceleration wasnt that impressive. and it was only averaging 9mpg. i also thought it would handle a little better than it did. it seemed to wander around the road and it felt like i was always correcting it. as for the chevy and dodge. the chevy felt way under powered comparied to what the older ones ive dove were. the interior was butt ugly and of course it had the stupid bowtie on the grill. i was pretty impressed with the dodge though. it seemed to have the most power out of the three. the factory exhaust brake was pretty sweet. i wish the EBPV brake on my 7.3 would be that effective. i think if i were forced to get rid of my 7.3 tomarrow for one of the three i drove i would have to go with the dodge.

 

I have to say that when i take over the company and have to buy another vehicle in the next 5 years, it's probably going to be a dodge. The engine and looks are so much better on the 08's than the ford

 

Ok all for throwing kris off the fourm for saying thoes swear words say aye.

 

i kinda like the looks of the 08 superdutys but the mileage makes me want to stay away

 

I mileage on all of them are going to suck. Anything with a DPF and a regen cycle is going to suck. I havn't drove the dodge yet. . . but I drove the first ten miles on both a chevy and a ford and I though the off the line power of the ford was quite comendable. It was very similar to my compound setup where it was always boosting.
Timmy

 

I haven't owned my 7.3 very long but I have towed a bit with it now. Even when the trans was bad I still got better milleage and I tend to tow like I'm trying to get somewhere quick. You'd think they'd be better than they were almost 10 yrs ago.

 

Newer doesn't mean it's better!
I am driving my 7.3 until the doors rot off of the frame.

 

There is already software for the 6.4 that dynoed at around 500/900. Not sure what they can do for mileage, but I'm guessing it can be improved as well. Last time I talked to someone with a 6.4, he was looking at exhaust options. Been a while, so I don't know where that went. Might troll around in the 6.4 forum and see what kind of tidbits you can dig up.

 

Hah, good morning Joe. How are things? Sucks to be you but I been there soooo many times. Hope all is well. How come you cannot see pics? I am having a problem with my Firefox browser and have to use IE to post and see my own pics. Any ideas?

 

Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back. Job is still keeping me busy here, but it's like that "Groundhog Day" movie. Get up at 5am, eat breakfast (or workout then eat, depending on what day it is), got to work, eat lunch, back to work, eat dinner, back to the dorm, clean up, read, sleep. Start over. 6-7 days a week, 12 hours a day, except on Sundays, which is usually my day off, but I always end up doing something work related.

Because I'm using the military internet, it's locked down pretty tight. Lots of sites blocked, especially picture posting and forum sites. I'm VERY surprized that this one isn't, frankly. Glad as heck though!! Oddly enough, Flickr isn't blocked either. Go figure. We all use IE here, so I don't know what's going on with FF. That's what I run at home as you know, so I hope it's not something serious.

Gotta run... 3-Star dog & pony show coming up....

 

I hear ya. Nothing was better than when I hit 18years. I could pretty much tell them what I thought. Once I hit 20, it was over. Funny thing was, the more I told them the truth, the more they wanted to hear. Most generals are not stupid. Just be careful. They are politicians too.

 

Roger that, Mike. I'm over 20 for pay, but have 3 years until I can "officially" retire from the Guard. Time in the IRR doesn't count...

But back on topic, something occurred to me a bit ago. I'm on an email list for local diesel events in North Texas, and there was just one two weekends ago I think it was. There were like 47 trucks entered. 43 were Dodges. Two Fords, one Chevy, and one GMC. That right there is enough for me NOT to get one. I'm not one to jump bandwagons, and I've been bleeding Ford Blue since the 80s.

That said, Kris is in a different situation. He'll be running a business and has to choose a work truck based on what makes sense business-wise. A big one is fuel cost and reliability. Maybe the 6.4 reliability will be proven by then (if it's even still around given the track record so far), and I'm sure they'll look different, too. But the point is that when you're running a business, the decisions you make should be based on sound financial factors, not emotion. Let's face it -- brand loyalty is really an emotional (and probably irrational) factor.

 

Thats what my wife tells me to....

 

I was pretty impressed with the '08 I test drove a few months ago. Guy at the dealer did lie though. 18MPG my butt. It was kinda hard to do any mileage comparisons in the short time I drove it cause I was running the crap out of it. I like them though and like the looks but I'm not buying one til IH can make one with better fuel mileage and one that I wouldnt have to take the cab off to work on it! I'm with Dan, I'm running this thing in the ground!

 

I have one here at work, Its nice and very quiet, decent power but MPG averages 14-15.
Rich