Hey Everyone,

I am down to the wire in my first diesel truck purchase and the two choices are chevy and the dodge, different salesman at dodge and other forums always say chevy front ends give out, however I can not seem to find out any information regarding this. Do you know if the extended warrantys would cover anything that breaks in the front end?

All help is very appreciated.:cool:

The front ends are strong if you leave it stock.Lifts,big tires and a bunch of power will break any front end.Bigger tie rods and steering braces are a good and fairly inexpensive choice for a modified IFS front axle.Warranty will cover anything that hasn't been modified or misused.

I have the 2 of them and say chevy

if you buy a chevy or a dodge, your gonna be replacing pitman arms and other random things from time to time. Gm's have lame ass tie rods, those are an easy fix, you can do sleeves or bigger tie rods all together. Now dodges go through trac bars like crazy and both gm and dodge eat pitman arms. Now my experience with both brands has been with lifted ones. Like said earlier, stock height and tire size, you really dont have anything to worry about either choice you make. When you start going taller, the weaknesses will show.

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ball joints are ball joints whether its a live axle or ifs.

If you grease it with good synthetic grease and leave it stock, you will have no problems. If you play, raise the height, bigger tires, or do not maintain, you will pay.

The 2000 Silverado I traded for the one I have now didn't need any front end work until 300,000 miles. Almost all highway miles and serviced regularly and all stock. I take good care of my stuff!!!:driver:

two wheel bearings,less than 50,000 miles
the shop that did them said the steering components are right behind them
i guess 33" tire is big (tacoma comes with about that size)
steering is a weak link to an otherwise great truck

i remember something a member said awhile back "they are all junk,just depends on which one you want to work on".

junk may be a bit harsh

If the Chevy's have a weak link it is the steering. But like everybody else above me has said if you stay stock you will be okay...if you lift it or put larger tires on it you will want to upgrade the steering components which isn't a big deal IMO.

Go with the Chevy, you will be more than happy! I was a Ford guy for a long time, still think they are great trucks but my Duramax is the baddest truck I've ever owned. :D

I ran 285's on my 99 GMC over 100K with no front end parts needed. I even plowed with it.

Tell the salesman at Dodge if he has to bash a GM to sell a Dodge that bad salesmanship. Bub-By

If he said I'll guarantee this Dodge front end goes X miles that all you want him to inform you of.

Another opinion. First, I do not think heigth of a tire (within reason) has as much to do with suspension wear as width of tire. Have had no problems with 245X19.5 (33 tall) and had lots of problems with 285 & 305 X 16's. 19.5 is a much narrower tire (gets better fuel mileage as well).
Second on all 3 of my D/A's, totallying over 250,000 miles, I have had no suspension problems except after I put a lift on my 02. No problems on my 05 or 06 (65,000 hard miles on 06) neither which have lift kits.
Thirdly, there are better tie rods, and suspension parts around now that solve any problem for all but the most extreme lifted trucks.
One opinion.

I ran 285's on my 99 GMC over 100K with no front end parts needed. I even plowed with it.

Tell the salesman at Dodge if he has to bash a GM to sell a Dodge that bad salesmanship. Bub-By

If he said I'll guarantee this Dodge front end goes X miles that all you want him to inform you of.


I agree! Salesmen that bash look stupid. Ones that make outlandish claims look worse. Had a Dodge salesman tell me that the 1/2 ton could tow as much or more than the Chev 1/2 ton. The specs had the Dodge at 5000# and the Chev at 8800#. I told him to include that guarantee in the purchase agreement and I'd buy it right there instantly.

Let's just say the Chev was a good 1/2 ton truck....

jb

Ive had a Dodge and 3 new Chevys. Dodge gave me the most problems in the front end. Buy a Chevy. Oh by the way, I work for Chrysler!

I owned a 96'& 99' Dodges both trucks have to have brakes at 30,000mi and new steering linkage at 35,000(the hole cross link has to be replaced @ $800.oo parts).
My 2002 Duramax went over 80,000mi before needing brakes, idlerarm, pitman and tierods. The Chevy brakes are twice as good as my Dodges, matter of fact the hole Chevy truck is twice as good!

IMO Dodge has better brakes by a longshot,but my last 2 GM's the brakes sucked on. My 03 is better. GM is just a better truck overall but I've replaced almost everthing in my front end in 180K :(.

I have 2 05's, both around 80K, both dually's, both stock tires, I've had to replace tie rods and drag links on both, I think the new front ends are weak...

i have had all three brands and always end up going back to GM. The IFS just bolts the truck down to the road. I can not stand the bump steer in a solid.

why don't the ford and dodge's offer IFS...that is the question of the day?

You just cant beat the duramax / allison combo and the glued to the road IFS. If you buy the dodge make sure you buy the extended warranty to cover the cost of installing the transmissions that thing will need. A friend of mine is on his 4th trans.

keep it maintained and ifs will last just as good otherwise alot of half ton owners would be complaining alot

IMO Dodge has better brakes by a longshot,but my last 2 GM's the brakes sucked on. My 03 is better. ...
For whatever it's worth, I'm very impressed with the brakes on the LMM. They seem vastly better than my '03 Sierra half-ton, even though they gotta stop 3.5 tons!

I personally owned four Ford Super Dutys and a dodge ram 2500 diesel and i can say that my new chevrolet duramax is the best imo! The chevy rides better than both by far and is more quiet!The interior on the chevy is more comfortable! I had lots of problems with my dodge as far as the body and interior were poorly made!The engine had no trouble but i would never own another dodge!

Yeah ive owned a couple mopar products and for some reason I keep coming back to gm

On every mopar Ive had they just seem to be cheaply made from the interior to the mirrors to the key fob remote Its ALL half ass made stuff. I personally agree with and see the logic behind most of GMs engineering. As for ford all I can say is "bassackwards" engineering

I'd just like to add that the discussion here seems to be centered around the steering linkage.....which is arguably not related to the front end design that the salesman was pointing out. I've always heard the "complicated" chevy frond end is nothing but trouble and weaker than the dodge or ford solid axle.

I've yet to see or hear of a front driveline failure on any chevy....no twisted axles no cv joints needing replaced. Heck even the ball joints seem to hold up which have historically been a problem for chevy on other platforms.

There are quite a few guys competition pulling with their chevy's and even they haven't found the weak link in front driveline.

The steering linkage debate is a viable one but I don't see a clear winner on either side of the fence. It's a wear item and with a 100k mile warrantee I'm not too worried about it.

IFS seems to work for the army in the ALPHA!

If ride quality weighs in at all it would be IFS.........

do you want 2WD or 4WD. because if it is only 2WD then they ar both the same. only in 4WD is there a difference. i have owned a dodge 4x4 and now a chevy 4x4. i had more issues with the dodge than i have with the chevy.

What is so freakin weak? Do you see torsion bars breaking? NO Do you hear of upper or lower control arms breaking or wearing out? NO The only issue is weak tie rods breaking if you abuse your truck or wheel your lifted truck. With $230 you can fix that problem. Lets be real here, what all the beef? I wheel mine and it still drives like a cadillac.