I have an ’03 Duramax 3500 crew cab with the Allison
transmission. It was a demo truck when I bought it so it had about 13,000 miles
on it. Today it has over 182,000 miles on it.
It is a super comfortable truck to travel in. I haul a
4-horse LQ and find that on steep grades the Allison tranny is not able to
compensate for the weight of the trailer pushing the truck. I did red-line the
tach several times so I finally put an exhaust brake on and since then the
issue is resolved.
I also added a Bully Dog performance chip to up my fuel
economy (after the warranty period had expired). I drove from MissoulaMT to PortlandOR (not hauling) and got almost
28 mpg! Usually when hauling I get about 12-14 mpg.
I would buy the truck again, but I would also re-buy the exhaust
brake.
The main mechanical problem I’ve had was with the injectors.
I’ve had them replaced twice (ugh!). Fortunately the first time the truck
was under the 100,000 mile warranty. The second time (at 165,000 miles) I was
pretty nervous but GM had extended the warranty on the injectors in this year
of truck to 10 years or 200,000 miles. I’m impressed that they did that
(and my pocket book was really happy too!).
…S
Susan Favro
Healthy As A Horse Network
“Innovative effective products for horse and rider”
Official Sponsor: AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference)
Voice – 406.864.8000
Fax – 559.272.6093 Mobile –
406.370.6399
E-mail – Susan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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