new member new cummins

Hey Everyone,

Glad to be a new member to the site. Just purchased a new 2011 3500 Laramie CCSB 4WD Cummins.

Little background info: I have been looking to purchase a diesel for around 6-12 months now. I owned two 1/2 tons before this. One a Chevy, one a FORD. I'm not biased towards a particular brand, and I drove all three brands of new diesel trucks before making a decision. They all have their strong points. When it came down to the nitty grity though, I felt the Dodge Laramie is the most well rounded truck.

Here are some of the things I looked at to make the decision

Chevy/GMC:
The Good:
In my opinion the Duramax/Allison is a very good motor/transmission combo and a well proven platform. One of the best things about the GM is the Allison automatic transmission behind the Duramax diesel. In my opinion, the GM trucks had the best steering and ride quality out of the three, the IFS on the GM platform makes for a very smooth ride, even in their 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

The bad:
Since the current GM platform has not really changed much, I found the interior features to be behind in features and styling of the other two brands. It was still a comfortable truck, but the LTZ (with just about every option) wasn't as feature rich as either the Lariat or Laramie. The suspension like I mentioned has great right quality and handling, but it's hard to lift a GM trucks without major modifications, and it can be very expensive. Most lifts involve modifications to the frame, with no real option to return to stock if you ever wanted to. You also need at least a 4" if not 6" lift to clear a decent set of 35's. A leveling kit will barely clear 33's and that's if you trim a little here and there. ( My Dad has a Duramax) Obviously as you guys probably already know, with Ford or Dodge all you need is a leveling kit, at about 1/20th or more the coast of a lift for the GM.

FORD:
The good:
The new motor in the 2011+ feels stronger and more on par with the GM and Dodge trucks. I found the 2010 6.4L I test drove early last year to be lacking, and behind the other two with a 5 speed auto instead of 6. The exterior styling of Fords is always good in my opinion, they always make a pretty decent looking truck. FORD always has been innovative, and the interior features and quality are top notch in my opinion, Ford always has those little things on their new trucks that are pretty cool.
The bad:
It's a new motor, again. So far I've heard good things about it, but it's really to early to tell. With the reputation of the 6.0L and the 6.4L, it was my least favorite motor of the three, mainly because of trust. The MSRP price of a F-350 Lariat with features matching the Dodge was quite a bit more than the other two, and the factory warranty is not as good as the other two brands of trucks.

Well thanks for reading, sorry if it's not 100% accurate, I'm not perfect. If anybody has any other questions, I'd be glad to answer them. I'll post pictures as soon as I get some taken.

- Josh