Been looking at a Chevrolet 4X4 with a Duramax for some 3-4 years now. Been picking up "other" trucks to try to feed my desire for the truck I really wanted. I've owned Chevrolet 3 doors, 4 doors and a couple of Dodge vehicles with as well. One of them was the 1500 with the Hemi and the other was a 2500 with the Hemi. I really liked my last truck which was the 2004 Dodge Ram 2500HD. However, I then picked up a 30' travel trailer about 3 months ago. I had the opportunity to pull it with the Dodge about 4 times over the last few months. It pulled it OK, but it was almost as if it was laboring, especially at take off or going up a hill or even a slight grade.
So, then I recently decided I'm going to get my dream truck. I started to research the options and I was very fortunate to come across a GREAT dealership in St.Cloud, MN. They had a 2006 Chevrolet 2500HD crew cab with the 6.6 Duramax LBZ engine and the 6 speed Allison transmission. It was beautiful with its navy blue exterior and charcoal grey interior. It had 79,000 miles on it and I figured it wasn't even broke in yet.
I took it out for a test ride and I was impressed. I told the sales guy I wanted to compare apples to apples though the Chevrolet to my Dodge when pulling a big trailer. Well, this dealership was also an RV dealer as well. The salesman had me drive up to a comparable sized trailer, hook up to it and drive it down the road.
NOW -THIS- was where I was most impressed. See, I have NEVER driven a Chevrolet Duramax equipped truck prior to that. I had to have it. I negotiated for about 10 mintues and I ended up buying it right then and there.
I love this truck. It is a dream come true. I am happy I found this site as it is a wealth of information. Any thoughts/input as to what I should do or what I should try to avoid doing to my truck would be appreciated.
I'm pretty much a stock truck kind of guy. There doesn't appear to be any aftermarket stuff put on this truck. Even the air filter is OEM. I'm thinking why mess with what works, right?

Thanks for reading.

Welcome to the forum and a sounds like a nice truck. It should serve you well pulling that trailer. Yes lots of great info here. Be sure to use the search tool and read many of the sticky post at the tops of many of the forum sections here. Also using google to search points many results back to this site too. Enjoy the new ride.

Brian

Welcome.

Some basic mods are fine such as gauges and exhaust. Avoid the temptation for a programmer. A programmer really wakes the truck up and is a blast to drive, but the temptation for more power is overwhelming and sooner or later something will happen. I know as it happened to my 2005.

When my 2011 Denali Duramax arrives next week is staying stock for two reasons. 1 I don't want to risk any problems. 2 there is not a programmer available yet:)