[speediq99]

Hello,

I have seen several people on this forum that had Titans and wen't w/ a Diesel. If we had to trade, there is probably no shame in going that route. It took a diesel to replace a Titan

A couple of questions:

If you are one of those who traded, why did you do it?
If not, what would you consider as an option for more HP/Torque?
If you are one of those who traded, what did you trade up to?

I am thinking, only thinking at this time. I tow a relatively heavy trailer (7500-8000) in the mountains and my Titan struggles a bit. The tranny heats up in the summers and the engine works very hard up those hills. I have put several mods in (air intake, exhaust, PML tranny, RAS, BD GT...) and it is much better but 'not natural'.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[rtc1184]

i got a 97 dodge dually cummins 12v. its 6" on 37s. have it turned up to about 350hp and about 700-750ft lbs of tq. it pulls my 8600lb tt like it isnt even back there. the problem with the titan is it makes all its hp at like 3500-4k rpms so you are out of the tq curve by then. i wouldnt drive anything other then the cummins, but that is just me.

 

[HudsonValleyTitan]

Hello,

I have seen several people on this forum that had Titans and wen't w/ a Diesel. If we had to trade, there is probably no shame in going that route. It took a diesel to replace a Titan

A couple of questions:

If you are one of those who traded, why did you do it?
If not, what would you consider as an option for more HP/Torque?
If you are one of those who traded, what did you trade up to?

I am thinking, only thinking at this time. I tow a relatively heavy trailer (7500-8000) in the mountains and my Titan struggles a bit. The tranny heats up in the summers and the engine works very hard up those hills. I have put several mods in (air intake, exhaust, PML tranny, RAS, BD GT...) and it is much better but 'not natural'.

Thanks,

Mike

What year truck do you have that it's heating up in the summer? Mods schmods....simple add-ons don't do much for towing...in fact a freer flowing exhaust with an intake will add higher RPM power but takes away from grunt down low. That may explain it struggling a bit in the mountains.
I tow a large TT weighing around 8-8500 LBS and have no issues. I also pulled it with my old 04 Titan with no problems.
I don't know much about Diesels but I've heard a lot of horror stories about Fords Diesels. If you really want to pull and not know your pulling, a Diesel swap is probably your best bet IMO. Nothing wrong with trading up to a Diesel if you feel you need it.

 

[speediq99]

It is a 2006 4x4 Crew Cab w/ Big tow pkg. The truck is not heating up, the tranny fluid is.
There are enough threads on the heating tranny issue that it makes you wonder.

It is my understanding that all the mods I listed make a difference. You do notice the difference.
Several people in this board recommended a Gibson exhaust for towing.
It is also my understanding that w/ a single free-flowing catback system you don't lose HP and Torque.
The freer, the more HP and Torque at the expense of noise. It is a modest gain but you don't lose.

Mike

 

[honda250xtitan]

It is a 2006 4x4 Crew Cab w/ Big tow pkg. The truck is not heating up, the tranny fluid is.
There are enough threads on the heating tranny issue that it makes you wonder.

It is my understanding that all the mods I listed make a difference. You do notice the difference.
Several people in this board recommended a Gibson exhaust for towing.
It is also my understanding that w/ a single free-flowing catback system you don't lose HP and Torque.
The freer, the more HP and Torque at the expense of noise. It is a modest gain but you don't lose.

Mike

My tranny on my 06 started heating up just on normal driving, it had good fluids too, and plenty of air flow. I'd go with a duramax or cummins if i switched. i love the white 4 door leveled gm's.

 

[rtc1184]

My tranny on my 06 started heating up just on normal driving, it had good fluids too, and plenty of air flow. I'd go with a duramax or cummins if i switched. i love the white 4 door leveled gm's.

i do not advise going to a duracrap. gm just took the motor from isuzu. there are some serious issue with the duramax right now and now gm doesnt have any help trying to figure out. a buddy of mine a chevy mechanic. i would buy the new 6.4 ford or the 6.7 cummins. the 6.4 powerstroke is pretty beastly

 

[AZPRO4X]

The Ford is a 6.7L now with there new Scorpion motor. Stay away from the older 6.4L international made motor & the 6.0L in the oler fords. The question you need to ask yourself is how often do you tow that trailer? If its not every weekend then you might be better off keeping your T. Diesels require more money in maintenance, fuel costs ect.

 

[StormTroopin]

I wouldn't worry about fuel costs with a diesel. My dads 07 cumminns gets 22-23 mpg... Its farrrrrr from stock though lol

 

[speediq99]

That is what I don't like about Diesels. It is all a big black hole when it come to MPG.
Why don't they post MPG on those vehicles. It sounds like a big automative industry scam.

There are people that claim 9mpg on Ford Diesels in town.
Others claims 12-13 mpg towing 5th wheels.
I have heard the 21-22mpg story as well.

Where is the truth? At $4-5/gallon, this is a very important answer to know.
The 'normal' range (no mods) can't be 9 - 22mpg

Mike

 

[StormTroopin]

Well in my exerience, the more mods the more mpgs... My dads rig has just about everything under the sun, laid down 1650 ftlbs at the wheel. So that might be a little skewed

 

[pro4alberta]

hehe I went the other way from a big diesel to the titan
but I still do have my diesel, its a 2002 F350 4x4 superduty with 7.3L 5speed manual v8 turbo diesel she's a beast. I pull it out of storage when and if I ever need to tow anything long and heavy but that doesn't happen to much anymore, I probably wont ever sell it because it has such a strong motor and drive. I have put over 400k on it and not had any major problems. I drove it really hard working in the oil patch too towing some really heavy equipment around. the Approximate towing capacity for that year and model is 19200 lb (8700 kg) max. I have towed a 15000lbs flarestack with it and forgot it was there at highway speeds. i think the capacities have dropped a little bit from that but not much I think they are around 14-16000lbs for the F350 now.

so If I HAD to pick a trade I would probably go back to the 350 just for the fact I know what abuse it can take and how strong it is towing. But I think any of the big 3's are pretty close in that aspect now adays.. there's my 2c

 

[rtc1184]

my 97 is turned up about 150hp over stock, 750hp rated dual disc ceramic clutch, 37 iroks, 3.55 gears and it gete 21-22 hwy. about 16-18mpg pulling between 12-15k. the new duramax's are rated to haul 22,500 or so they claim. the new diesel are nice. the MAJOR ISSUE WITH CHEVY AND FORD AND DODGE that is killing their mileage and the longevity of the diesel is the damn emmisions and dpf. dodge is the only one NOT running a urea induced exhaust. also ideling plays a big factor in my truck decision as i use it for work in the oil field and it has substantial idle time on it. my dodge will idle for about 5 days without turning off. my titan 2.5 days at only 12hrs a day. 28gal tank in the titan 32 in the dodge so not a big difference. this winter in pa, there were days on end i didnt turn my dodge off. i would of had to fill the titan up every day if that was the case. also by letting my t idle it cause condensation build up in my stacks and in 4 months rusted them out internally and they broke off! when you mix co'2 with water it becomes HIGHLY corrosive. diesels dont condensate for whatever reason.

 

[honda250xtitan]

the new emissions crap sucks. ^^^^^^^

 

[MarkD]

What is your budget? Are you thinking 4 wheel drive or 2wd? I have LOVED my 08 GMC 2500HD D-Max. Relatively stock...17.4 mpg over 22k miles empty. 12.5 mpg towing a 10k lb enclosed work trailer and occasionally a 14k flat trailer/escavator/block/sand/mortar. Repeatedly outran my bros 01 Lightning (stock). In a Titan right now for equity/payment reasons.

1.) of the 3, the GM is the "hotrod"
2.) 64k miles w/o a problem.
3.) Pulled an unloaded log truck out in 4wd (go ahead call BS, it did though.)
4.) Parking sucks, these things are huge.
5.) $80 oil changes (doing it yourself) every 10k miles
6.) $30 fuel filter changes every 15k miles

 

[HudsonValleyTitan]

My neighbor has an 09 Sierra 3/4 ton with the Diesel and allison tranny. He's bored with it now...lol (he never needed that truck anyhow..he tows nothing). He's had a lot of fuel filter problems with it having to be towed once. Turns out, the truck needs a $104 (dealer charge) fuel filter change every 15k miles. On the hwy though, he doesn't get enough of a mileage benefit IMO to counter the $6500 premium the dealers are getting for them over the gasser or the higher premium for Diesel fuel. But it'll tow like nobodys business if that's your goal apparently.

 

[dwoelper]

If i ever had to get out of the titan it would be into a fuel saver. I do tow but i can tow with the company truck so its no big deal. I would get into either an STI or an EVO. Only problem with that is im 6' 7" and most cars are too small for me.

Sent from my DROIDX using AutoGuide App

 

[TurboDA6]

What is your budget? Are you thinking 4 wheel drive or 2wd? I have LOVED my 08 GMC 2500HD D-Max. Relatively stock...17.4 mpg over 22k miles empty. 12.5 mpg towing a 10k lb enclosed work trailer and occasionally a 14k flat trailer/escavator/block/sand/mortar. Repeatedly outran my bros 01 Lightning (stock). In a Titan right now for equity/payment reasons.

1.) of the 3, the GM is the "hotrod"
2.) 64k miles w/o a problem.
3.) Pulled an unloaded log truck out in 4wd (go ahead call BS, it did though.)
4.) Parking sucks, these things are huge.
5.) $80 oil changes (doing it yourself) every 10k miles
6.) $30 fuel filter changes every 15k miles

Wow, you outran a Lightning? My Maxima outruns my friend's Duramax pretty easily unless he has his tuner all the way up (I forget what tuner he has, I don't pay that much attention) then he can keep up for about oh, the first 100' . I never would think my Maxima could outrun a Lightning though...gonna have to give it a try.

As for my Buddy's DMax, he's put about 130K on it. Reliability has been excellent mechanically. The Isuzu motor and Allison drivetrain are reliable. The GM truck around them, not so good. Electrical gremlins (body related, never affected the driving) are pretty common. But overall I'd say he got his money out of the truck as the darn thing tows like crazy and he uses it a lot.

Besides a diesel, the other big thing to consider with a trade would be the heavier overall capacity. With the Titan only being half-ton, I can see why people would trade to a 3/4 or 1 ton, whichever engine they choose.

And has anyone considered if the newest diesels will be more expensive to maintain over the years? I've heard the newer Federally required emissions equipment is expensive to replace, and AdBlue or urea is another factor to consider....

 

[MarkD]

Wow, you outran a Lightning? My Maxima outruns my friend's Duramax pretty easily unless he's has his tuner all the way up (I forget what tuner he has, I don't pay that much attention) then he can keep up for about oh, the first 100' . I never would think my Maxima could outrun a Lightning though...gonna have to give it a try.

We ran 3 different times, with the same results. I would start on a boosted 4wd launch just before spinning. He tried 3 times to get a better launch. We have about 3/8 mile of straight road on our "family road" (in the country). I make no apologies for a boosted launch in a 4 ton crewcab with 34" mud tires. 60-90 mph acceleration is CRAZY.

That same Lightning ran a 13.8-14.2 at a local drag (just to find out). I never ran my truck. It has usually been pulling the trailer with the 98 Z28 on it (didn't want to risk breaking something).

 

[jdmartin]

If you pull all the time you'd probably be happier with a diesel. If you're only pulling once in a while diesels are really expensive luxuries, not to mention noisier and more costly fuel. I have both new F250 gas and diesels at work, and the diesels get about 1mpg better than the gas engines but cost thousands more when I bought them. I had to get a couple of diesels to pull some really heavy equipment when/if our dumps were down, but almost all the guys prefer driving the gas engines if given the choice when not towing.

 

[TurboDA6]

We ran 3 different times, with the same results. I would start on a boosted 4wd launch just before spinning. He tried 3 times to get a better launch. We have about 3/8 mile of straight road on our "family road" (in the country). I make no apologies for a boosted launch in a 4 ton crewcab with 34" mud tires. 60-90 mph acceleration is CRAZY.

That same Lightning ran a 13.8-14.2 at a local drag (just to find out). I never ran my truck. It has usually been pulling the trailer with the 98 Z28 on it (didn't want to risk breaking something).

I will admit by friend's Dmax is pretty quick for a basically totally stock truck. I think with his tuner turned all the way up, it's definitely quicker than my Titan. But then again, I don't think a Titan is very fast...