I was going to buy a new Chevy before buying my Ford. The one thing that stopped me from doing so is looking at the Chevy from the side. You see nothing but frame and that made me wonder about clearance issues, etc. Other than that the Chevy is a good looking truck. Do what you want to do, just do your homework first.

 

Beano,I own 6 '04 f-350's. They are used to transport fifth wheel campers across country to various dealers then backhaul utility trailers.These trucks see over 100000 miles per year,most of which is under load.The reason I along with about 90 percent of the other hot shotters use fords comes down to 2 things. Durability and comfort. Dodge has a good thing with the cummins engine but the tranny is junk. G.M. has a decent engine and the allison is ok but the rears are junk. If you are going to depend on something for a living you learn very fast what you can bank on. My money shall stay with Ford. Good luck in your decision.

 

The new Chevy's grill is horribly ugly. It would be more at home on a mini van. The model it replaced was a much better looking truck. A couple of my Chevy loyal friends that usually trade every other year or so for a new truck are holding on to their old trucks in hope that Chevy will give the new truck a face lift soon.

 

How do you figure the 11.5" AAM axle is junk? It is used in the 01 and up GM HD's with the Duramax and 8.1 BB. It is also used in the 03 and up Dodge HD's with the Cummins. I've beat the living SNIP out of mine for 100000+ miles of truckpulling, dragracing, towing heavy trailers, playing in the sand dunes and daily driving and I haven't had a bit of problems with the AAM 11.5" axle.

 

My suggestion to you would be take your time and test drive both trucks, there's dealer's that let there customer's take a ride in there trucks on the lot, and being this is a ford site you'll get alot of biased comments saying go with ford or go with you know who, thats my suggestion, practically its your money so go with whatever you decide is best for you.

 

Good Luck truck shopping.

 

<TABLE class=tborder cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=4 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR title="Post 2347102" vAlign=top><TD class=alt1 align=middle width=125>beano</TD><TD class=alt2>
chevy trucks like a car? i dont think so.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
GM/Chevy Trucks in general have always had more of a cars ride than either Ford or Dodge. Drive both the Ford or the Dodge are stiffer you can feel the suspension more. GM/Chevy have always had a ride that was similar to that of a car.

 

I agree with Chevy Racing and a few others drive both do your homework then pick what YOU like the most and will do the job you need done. Talk to the service departments/managers of both you are looking at. They are not trying to make a sale but will tell you what they have seen come into the shop and problems they have encountered.

 

I talked to my other neighbor (he is a chevy fan) that is a mechanic for a local construction company. They run both the Chevy and the Ford for their service trucks and foreman trucks. He says both are great trucks and you wouldn't be dissapointed with either. He also says the Duramax is a heck of an engine, especially once they have had a tuner put to them. When I asked which he would buy, he said go with the Ford.

His reasoning is he feels the braking system is better on the Fords and feels the Ford is a better all around truck for everyday towing of heavy loads and feels they handle better when loaded.

I will admit the interior is nice on the new chevys. The neighbors avalanche has nice interior and has a very nice ride and is great for longer trips.

This is the best unbiase opinion I could get for you. I still suggest you drive both. See if the dealer will let you hook up your trailer to the truck you are test driving and try them both with the loaded trailer. You are the one that is spending the money (quite a bit with the new trucks) so make sure you are happy with it and who cares what anyone else thinks.

Here is a link that has some comparisons. Hope this helps a bit.

http://autos.msn.com/research/compar...99309&v=t99768

 

All these replys are opinions, but I have such a hard time hearing someone say that the GM interiors are nicer "looking" than the 05 SD. Everyone that has seen my truck (especially at fill-ups) can not believe how incredible the interior is on the 05 SD! The GM interior is so incredibly "plastic" looking. The materials used in the SD look and feel thicher and more substantial to me, and I was an unbiased truck buyer last month testing driving all three brands. I do like the Duramax/Allison combo, but after asking dozens of GM owners about their trucks over the past year, the overwhelming concern was the aluminum heads and that non-work truck like IFS suspension. The GM has more gadgets and gizmos and definetely has better sterring feel. Other than that, I do not think it holds any other edge over the SD. Also, I have seen numerous towing/hauling comparisons and the 05 SD flat out performs the other two trucks.
We can argue durability amounst the three, but very few will argue the performance advantage of the Ford-that is why ultimately bought mine!

 

I agree with you...however different strokes for each of us....some folks really do like them Chevys.



and I am teasing

 

Hahahah, Easy guys. It's o.k. to like chevy.

 

I agree. The 05 SD has the nicest looking interior of any full sized truck IMO - and that includes the new F150 and Titan half tons. When my brother was shopping for a new truck, the F150 impressed me with it's build quality and the quality of materials used. I was also impressed with the user friendly layout. What I did'int like was what I percieved as an SUV looking interior
and I wasint too impressed with side to side spaciousness - or rather the
lack of it. It only seemed about as wide as a GM interior.

The Super Duty seems just as well fitted and finished as the F150 does - only it has a more attractive truck type dash / instrument panel layout and also has much more side to side space. GM interiors look plush and comfortable - but thats only the fabric - the plastic interior parts (though fitted well) are cheap - and that's not just my opinion - go see how the integrated plastic door map pockets stretch when you pull on them just a little bit.

Super Duties have the largest interiors. In a regular cab side to side space is more important than in a crew cab. The Super Duty gives you over 67 inches of hip room. With the Dodge Ram you take a 2 inch hit in hip room. Both have close to 68 inches in shoulder room. With the GM HD you take a 6 inch hit in hip room and 3 inch hit in shoulder room. This may not be a big deal in a crew cab, but will make a big difference in comfort when sitting three peeps across the bench seat of a regular cab.

In terms of overall fit and finish, quality of materials used, and total spaciousness - the Super Duty has no equal IMO. Not even The re-designed- larger - than - before Ram can compare to the Super Duties interior (as much as I like it) - much less the GM trucks.

Another area where I feel Ford deserves alot of credit - variable GVWR. As if they did'int offer enough configurations before, now you get just as many GVWR's for those different configurations - no more taking a hit in legal capacity for having a crew cab diesel with four wheel drive....nice. Cosider this - the F350 SRW is more versatile than it's GM counterpart.

It comes with 18" wheels - vs 16" wheels on GM trucks. These larger wheels make for better ride stability. Ford F350SRW's come with LT275/70R18E tires.
These have a capacity of 3640lbs each! That gives a 7,280lb rear axle capacity - which means you can accomodate a larger 5th wheel trailer pin weight than the GM can with it's 3040lb tires. The GM would need to be equipt as a dually to have a better capacity - and eventually the heaviest trailers do require duals anyway - they have better stability and the safety margin of having 4 tires as opposed to only two.

But this additional tire capacity as a SRW offers the advantage of being able to carry a heavier load than previously possible without DRW - that means you may be able to finally get by with a SRW truck which serves for carrying 5000lbs occasionally and is also a daily driver. The tires make a huge difference. With the Duramax the GM actually has more rear axle weight capacity - the AAM 11.5" axle is rated to 12,000lbs compared to 10,500 or
so for the Ford - but the tires allow a higher rating for the Ford.

6.0 as Duramax is a wash IMO - both got thier ups and downs.
TS vs Allison it's pretty much the same thing from what I've seen and heard.
Both use the same ZF manual transmission = wash
8.1 vs V10 = wash

But Ford clearly has some advantages. The Chevy is still uglyish to me - the GMC looks nice. If you was thinking of gas engines I'd put my money on the Ford (unless we're talking 5.4 vs 6.0). With diesels, it's a matter of which you would trust more - neither seems perfect- so my vote would go Ford there also since it has so many other advantages IMO.

 

And the FORD doesent have a factory body lift like the Chevy does. And the FORD looks flat out TOUGHER..GrRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

 

I would go buy a Cadillac - They look about the same as the Chevy truck.