Guys I have been lurking around here for several years and the is a ton of good advice here, but I am at a new crossroads and one like some input. I currently have a 06 cc 5.3l and I am currently thinking of upgrading to a ext cab duramax. I have a 84 k5 blazer I would like to be able to tow to trails and maybe moab sometime in the future, and i have also been looking into getting a tt for awhile but i am currently limited by 6600 tow rating. I am just afraid if i buy the 2500hd duramax I am putting my wagon before the horse. I would just like some opinions.

Well, you realize you are asking this on a forum with a bunch of people who have purcahsed the truck you are looking for, of course we are going to tell you to GO FOR IT!! At the same time, if you don't need it...don't buy it. It's ultimately up to you. I love mine...wouldn't trade it for anything; but again, you are talking to a group of 70,000 people that are looking for an excuse to brag about the DMAX and the GM truck and you can't make a $50,000 decision based on what we've done. Read through all of the info, and make sure you can decipher what's bullshit and what's good, true info. I would buy another in a heartbeat, as well as probably 80% of the guys on here, but you've got to decide what's good for you. :)

Get the duramax ... you won't be sorry...I used to have the anemic 5.3 in a 01 ext cab 1500. The LMM is GREAT!!!!!!! You need the horse to tow the wagon and buddy the DMax will tow....even stock. Just my $.02

I started out with a Z71 EXT Cab with the 5.3L to tow a TT. I bought a 31' ultralite that all the literature said could "easily" be pulled by a half ton truck. Maybe on flat ground with a tail wind. I upgraded to a 3/4 ton Ext Cab with the 6.0. It really was only marginally better than the 1/2 ton as far as power. I finally decided to cut my losses with the gas engines and invest in a diesel. Best towing related decision I've ever made. I just had my rig on the scales, and without any of our personal gear and empty tanks, it was about 6900 pounds. This is under the 1/2 ton tow rating on my old truck (7500 lbs) and well within the 10,000 lb limit on the 2500HD I had. The reality is the manufacturer tow ratings may let you safely tow a trailer on flat ground, but it doesn't mean you'll be comfortable doing it in busy highway traffic or in the mountains. If you think there's any chance you'll get a trailer more than about 5,000 lbs, and you're in the market for a truck, go diesel. You won't regret the flexibility it gives you.

Well this is the type of info I was looking for the trailers I have been looking at start out factory weight about 5000 or more and by the time you add the family and the gear its about topped out. I guess more than anything I am just gun shy.

You dont have to drop 50 grand to get into a duramax. I worked a dealer for almost a year & purchased an 08 in december. I ended up paying 34K for a reg. cab 3500 w/ stereo,ac,cloth seats,plow prep,hd trailering pkg,radiator cover & 3 months of XM service. Granted my ride is not a super luxury truck like many you see here, however, its a dual purpose truck, both for work & my personal use. My bride has the tahoe LT for her personal use. :D

You dont have to drop 50 grand to get into a duramax. I worked a dealer for almost a year & purchased an 08 in december. I ended up paying 34K for a reg. cab 3500 w/ stereo,ac,cloth seats,plow prep,hd trailering pkg,radiator cover & 3 months of XM service. Granted my ride is not a super luxury truck like many you see here, however, its a dual purpose truck, both for work & my personal use. My bride has the tahoe LT for her personal use. :D

No, you don't HAVE to spend 50k for a DMax, but if you do, it sure is nice :D:D

My wife's Suburban has a 5.3 gasser, and gets 15 MPG driving down the road. With the heavier DMax, I'm at 20 MPG, and that's with only 4000 miles on it. I fully expect it to get a little better

It's nice to have a vehicle that no matter what I need to tow or where, I can handle it

I am not going to spend 50 on a truck the one I am currently looking at has a MSRP of 45. We haven't really talked a price yet because I just ain't sure what I want to do. If I buy the duramax now then that puts the tt off a little while.

It still makes sense to have a capable tow vehicle before a bigger trailer. That's what I did. It is nice to know that my options are not too limited when it comes to shopping for a new trailer!

Yeah, but what good is the trailer if you can't safely pull it? I'm a Ford owner [DON"T SHOOT!] who's been on here a while to see how the guys like their trucks. I like mine, but am leaning towards a Dmax. My wife bought an F150 to pull our horse trailer and its useless. Oh, the salesman and the nomenclature for the truck says it can pull it, and it can, but with zero margin for error. My F350 diesel doesn't know its there, frankly. A 2500 HD Dmax would be the way to go from what you've posted. IMHO folks look at tow ratings and put too much stock in that number for a small truck. Safety should also enter the equation. You want more truck than you might need, not less. Brakes and transmissions and towing options is what you want. BTW, I see a GMC in the driveway real soon. :D

Get the diesel and offer them no more then $36,900; this is for a 45k MSRP. If you get the diesel you will never regret it. The gasser will always leave you wondering if you should have got the diesel.

If you can find a 07.5 Duramax, you can choose straight up $5K off sticker, or zero financing. I went with the zero financing plus still got another $3K off... This seems to be in line with the suggestion from mnmleitch above. Additionally I got on the high end of trade in for my POS Titan so I'm pleased. (Don't rub it in too much if you got a better deal!)

The only thing questionable you'll find floating around here is the fuel filters vs winters, and some folks seem to be having troubles with rear mains. Do your research; I haven't had either problem but have only 500 miles now.

I had to take mine back in because the tires were incorrectly inflated by the dealer, and because I couldn't figure out why "recirculate" would not engage (Because in Auto mode, if Auto chooses defrost, then recirculate is not available).

Incidentally, I was down to the Dodge and my new LMM; Dodge has ridiculous incentives on 07s but no zero financing. Several things turned me off from the dodge, including non-transferrable warranty, interior/exterior looks, etc. Honestly, about 1 block in to the test drive I knew I wanted the chevy.

Anyway buy it, you won't regret it.

Blamkin 86: can answer 2 of your sig. questions. 911 power-service is a conditioner that can stop gelling or even loosen up fuel enough to get you running if it starts to wax up. If you have a diesel and drive in cold climates, you should have a bottle or 2 behind the seat. As far as block heater, your engine will have one, but you may need to buy a cord if it wasn't included with the truck.

Get the diesel and offer them no more then $36,900; this is for a 45k MSRP. If you get the diesel you will never regret it. The gasser will always leave you wondering if you should have got the diesel.

Are you including incentives in the number? 37k is way below invoice on a 45k MSRP

That was my assumption pknowles.

Get the diesel and offer them no more then $36,900; this is for a 45k MSRP. If you get the diesel you will never regret it. The gasser will always leave you wondering if you should have got the diesel.

That's insane, unless your going for a standard cab WT basic duramax.. I got an 07.5 ec/lb LT model and paid 42,000 from my brother at his chevy store so i dont see an 08 E/C like he's looking for atleast an LT model going for atleast 39,000 the duramax is almost a $9,000 option alone..

you just have to know how to deal with people if you buy late in the year the dealer wants the trucks off the lot so you can get a better price around August is the best time

you just have to know how to deal with people if you buy late in the year the dealer wants the trucks off the lot so you can get a better price around August is the best time

Exactly because the 09's would be coming in then..

'06 1/2 ton CC should certainly limit out at about 6600 lbs if you want to be smart. Eventually the tow rating of a 1/2 ton is limited not by the pulling weight but by the GVWR. You likely have about 1300 to 1500 lbs of payload and that gets eaten up fast by a 700 to 800 pound tongue weight. Hills of course stink but nobody wins any money for racing up or down them with a trailer. Honestly though a diesel is overkill for that weight trailer but sure is a nice option to have. At the end of the day I boil it down to 2 things. 1 is longevity and no 1/2 tons have a stout enough trans to talk about longevity when towing alot. 2 is safety. Nearly everytime out I'm pulling my 5'er so idiot wants to merge onto the highway and forget i'm there. The 3/4 ton has the backbone to help me out of those messes. If I'm you I get the trailer run the 1/2 ton into the ground and then see what you want from there.

It's easy to be gun-shy when you're talking about spending 50 grand on a truck. I've been camping forever it seems and I've never heard anyone complain about having too much truck for their needs. Chances are you will upgrade your camper at some point, so it's nice to have some room over the top with your truck. Take a look at what's available for campers and you'll find that a 3/4 ton diesel gives you a lot more to choose from than a 1/2 ton pickup.

Go for the Diesel, you will not regret it, shop around for the best deal and price for what you are looking for. I bought my 07 Silverado 2500 HD in November and got it for $31,980.00, that is $8000.00 off the sticker price, it was the last 07 HD on the lot and they had to move it, I traded my 06 1500 with the 5.3 and they gave me $17,000.00 for it, I could not pass up this deal and I have way more Truck then I did before, I do not regret it at all and have had no problems with the Truck at all. I do use fuel additives to help out when I fill up. I also stocked up on filters, I bought mine by the case.

2007 Silverado 2500 HD LT Ext Cab SB/Black Ext/Ebony Int/ LMM Diesel

Also consider the cost of maintenance vs. the gasser engine, diesel is a bit higher, etc. but oh! boy! once you go diesel you never go back to a gasser I guarantee you that.:thumb: good luck finding a truck and please post a picture of it when you get it.:cool_shad

Guys I have been lurking around here for several years and the is a ton of good advice here, but I am at a new crossroads and one like some input. I currently have a 06 cc 5.3l and I am currently thinking of upgrading to a ext cab duramax. I have a 84 k5 blazer I would like to be able to tow to trails and maybe moab sometime in the future, and i have also been looking into getting a tt for awhile but i am currently limited by 6600 tow rating. I am just afraid if i buy the 2500hd duramax I am putting my wagon before the horse. I would just like some opinions.

One of the reasons I bought my truck..........was because lightly loaded I could really hammer it. For example, I just drove 650 miles each way to a race. I had the bed full of gear and a 16 ft trailer with 3 bikes on it plus gas and other stuff. I made the trip up in under 8 hours and around 9 coming back, with the cruise control on 92 mph virtually the whole trip and I averaged 13.2 mpg. No way I could have done that with a gasser. When I have my slide in camper on back (about 2000 lbs) and the trailer.......I stick around 75 and get about 17 mpg. I couldnt' do that with a gasser.

Your current rig will probably do the job......but it sure won't do the job as well.

Well after driving and cosideration and some great advice from you guys I am going to get a diesel but the one i was driving isn't going to cut it. They took the rebates of the MSRP and wouldn't budge but they did finally come up to 19500 on my 06. If they would have come down a little more on the truck I would have bought. I do not recommend this dealer to anyone.

I've never known dealers to dicker much on the Duramax. Some, but not the "great" deals you hear about here. I just don't believe them. They have an item that is in demand, and they know it.
You can, however, save a lot of money by not getting all the bells and whistles that these truck usually come with. Mine is a commercial vehicle, I was interested in the motor and transmission, ONLY.
You'll have to order it though.
I ordered my brand new cab and chassis one ton ,dually, LBZ, Reg. cab, vinyl seats (I always get comments about my "leather seats"). The only options I got were air conditioning and CD player. No power windows, no power mirrors, no cruise control, no fog lamps, no DIC. no nothing. Even got to pick my color, Silver Birch.
$28,000. I figured I saved $20,000 not getting stuff I didn't want anyway.
Love the truck. Check out my garage.

I came up with the number this way and it has worked for me. Take the MSRP and times it by 3% (this is the dealers holdback). This is the amount you take of the invoice. You can get the invoice from edmunds. Then take off incentives. This will give you the price the dealer is paying. Then add some to it. I added $750. The dealer needs to make money. With this formula you are cutting way into their holdback. It also helps if you go straight to the fleet manager. They know the #'s and this way you don't have to work with the middle man.
My truck MSRP was 48,750 MSRP and I got it for 40, 600. Incentives at the time were 3,250. I bought mine over the phone and it took 10min. I also told them I couldn’t come in and did the finance over the phone and that took another 15min. They drove the truck to my house and I singed the paper work. I am sure there are better prices out there but this is a good price and I didn’t haggle over 200 dollars. I hope this helps.

Buy a used one if you don't have anything against it. If you are really lucky like my friend, you might come across one thats only a year old and has 20k miles on it. 20k miles is nothing plus the previous owner took the big hit from depreciation. I believe he got his for $32k fully loaded/crew cab/ 4x4/ leather seats/etc

You could also buy a used trailer and after a year sell it for what you paid. That would give you an idea on what it tows like and what you want in the next trailer. :cool:

Mudeater

I can speak intelligent on this issue. I have owned 1 of each generation duramax and also own a 2006 ext cab WT with a 6 liter automatic. I have a 12k fifthwheel I currently tow. My 6.0 gets about 11~12 MPG in the mixed driving I do every day. I have a 2008 CC LMM Duramax with 2k on it now. This truck is only getting 13 avg MPG in Mixed driving. My mixed driving is 1/2 City 1/2 Expressway each day. Not towing anything. I think it regens about once or twice per tank. You also need to think about the beating you will take on trade. GM is basically trying everything they can to sell NEW cc 1/2 ton trucks. In my humble opinion you can look at it two ways.

1) If you are a guy that looks at the bottom line what you are wanting to do with a truck the 6.0 will do fine in a new 2500 and you will save about $8500.00 off MSRP. If you take the current mileage difference I stated above related to fuel cost here the Duramax will pay for it's self in about 400,000 miles. Again that number is based on current prices of fuel and current MPG. Of course the 6.0 will do worse towing but so will the duramax.

2) If you want a rig that will tow about anything you hook to it and consider a diesel engine to be Bad A** then get a Duramax. They are great trucks but not quite the cost saver they used to be just a few years ago. Remember YOU have to decide which truck is better for the driving you will be doing.

Mudeater

I can speak intelligent on this issue. I have owned 1 of each generation duramax and also own a 2006 ext cab WT with a 6 liter automatic. I have a 12k fifthwheel I currently tow. My 6.0 gets about 11~12 MPG in the mixed driving I do every day. I have a 2008 CC LMM Duramax with 2k on it now. This truck is only getting 13 avg MPG in Mixed driving. My mixed driving is 1/2 City 1/2 Expressway each day. Not towing anything. I think it regens about once or twice per tank. You also need to think about the beating you will take on trade. GM is basically trying everything they can to sell NEW cc 1/2 ton trucks. In my humble opinion you can look at it two ways.

1) If you are a guy that looks at the bottom line what you are wanting to do with a truck the 6.0 will do fine in a new 2500 and you will save about $8500.00 off MSRP. If you take the current mileage difference I stated above related to fuel cost here the Duramax will pay for it's self in about 400,000 miles. Again that number is based on current prices of fuel and current MPG. Of course the 6.0 will do worse towing but so will the duramax.

2) If you want a rig that will tow about anything you hook to it and consider a diesel engine to be Bad A** then get a Duramax. They are great trucks but not quite the cost saver they used to be just a few years ago. Remember YOU have to decide which truck is better for the driving you will be doing.

Good post

Mudeater

I can speak intelligent on this issue. I have owned 1 of each generation duramax and also own a 2006 ext cab WT with a 6 liter automatic. I have a 12k fifthwheel I currently tow. My 6.0 gets about 11~12 MPG in the mixed driving I do every day. I have a 2008 CC LMM Duramax with 2k on it now. This truck is only getting 13 avg MPG in Mixed driving. My mixed driving is 1/2 City 1/2 Expressway each day. Not towing anything. I think it regens about once or twice per tank. You also need to think about the beating you will take on trade. GM is basically trying everything they can to sell NEW cc 1/2 ton trucks. In my humble opinion you can look at it two ways.

1) If you are a guy that looks at the bottom line what you are wanting to do with a truck the 6.0 will do fine in a new 2500 and you will save about $8500.00 off MSRP. If you take the current mileage difference I stated above related to fuel cost here the Duramax will pay for it's self in about 400,000 miles. Again that number is based on current prices of fuel and current MPG. Of course the 6.0 will do worse towing but so will the duramax.

2) If you want a rig that will tow about anything you hook to it and consider a diesel engine to be Bad A** then get a Duramax. They are great trucks but not quite the cost saver they used to be just a few years ago. Remember YOU have to decide which truck is better for the driving you will be doing.

I agree completely. I am actually considering selling my less than 3000 mile Dmax and getting a 6.0.

92 mph pulling a tt, I sure wouldn't want to be around that person when they have to do a panic stop:rolleyes:.

A GMC dealer around here still has an 07 I am going to look at monday hopefully it will work out for me. If they will do me right I will at least have an 07 white cc 2wd Dmax monday evening.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the gas engine may be fine if you only ever pull on flat ground, but it was inadequate with my 7000 lb TT in any kind of hilly terrain. Also, my mileage experience was somewhat different. Here in San Diego, I never saw over 10 MPG with my 2002 6.0. Towing, it was usually around 6-7, but I saw as low as 4.8 MPG driving through New Mexico with a headwind. By the way, the gas engine couldn't maintain 60 MPH with that headwind unless it was in 3rd with frequent kickdowns to 2nd. My diesel has been averaging about 15-16 in the same San Diego driving. I've yet to see 20, as some will claim, but I haven't done any long highway trips without the trailer. With the same TT, I've been getting 11-12 in the mountains around S.D. Maybe the newer 6.0s do much better with the extra HP (though torque was almost unchanged) but I will not go back as long as I have a trailer to pull. Good luck with your purchase.

I agree completely. I am actually considering selling my less than 3000 mile Dmax and getting a 6.0.

92 mph pulling a tt, I sure wouldn't want to be around that person when they have to do a panic stop:rolleyes:.

Bike trailer........not a TT. Very light, and with brakes. Besides........you ever been on I8 or I10 across the desert? At 92, I was on the slow end in the left lane, so had to keep getting over. Really, only time you have to panic brake is when some fudgepacker yankee is going 60 in the left lane and it takes everybody by surprise......during those times......I'm always glad I opted to spend money on good tie downs, and that I tied down everything in the trailer.

Only reason I want a tuner..........I hate bumping against the speed limiter. There's many times where 105 to 110 would be a comfortable speed on I8 or I10.