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Another DMax

Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
Welp, the Suburban wasn't up to the task of pulling a larger boat (wanted by the wife) and went down the road to Kuna Idaho on Tuesday. Seriously thought about Skippy's Chummins, but couldn't bring myself to drive a stick for a daily driver. Also wanted to drop payments, read bigger boat and a payment on the way. Ended up finding this sweet, one owner 2002 Chevy 2500HD Silverado DMax, loaded with full heated leather and all the options for that year. Owner had a log of every oil change, service, and maintenance ever done. All stock except for air bags on the rear and an Edge chip. Also has a 50 gallon fuel tank under a tool box in the rear with an internal pump that puts it straight into the main tank. It has 192k on the clicker but is tight and clean. My old 2003 had 227k and ran like a champ so the mileage didn't bother me. It's amazing the subtle but substantial upgrades they did to the 2003s because although they look similar, they are very different. Guess I'll find out soon if it's all I think it is, because we're heading to West Virginia this coming Thursday to pick up the new to us, used 10,000 lb boat. This is a pick of picking the truck up in Wyoming.
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Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
jeeper said:
Bigger boats are always the problem.

Sweet truck. Hope it does what you want!
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Me too, this trip will be a good indicator.

rholbrook said:
10,000 lbs. My experience says thats 30'. That wil be a long pull back from WVA. When its back and being used, it will all be worth it.
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Close, 29 with a 10' beam. I''ve pulled a heavier trailer a longer distance, but it will be an adventure.

Unimog said:
Sounds like the prev owner was ocd. What could be better?
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Yes he was and that was the selling point.
 
Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
The reason I gave up my kush Suburban ride for another Dmax was to get a bigger boat, and I found one, but it was in West Virginia. What better way to test out an older new ride with 193k on the ticker than to drive it 4000+ miles in 4.5 days, and half of those pulling 11,000 lbs. Besides a couple of trailer truck connections issues and a couple of truck issues the trip went amazing well.

Problems that happened with the truck were, it was smoking/hazing badly after running long periods of time, but it didn't burn any oil. Found out that is a key sign of injector failure. The injector remains open and sends in too much fuel. I'm very bummed about that because its not a cheap fix. Scheduled for Gillett Diesel in a couple of weeks to R&R. Other minor problems were it started a small leak out of the rear of the t-case and somewhere around Little America in Wyoming, on the way home, it started leaking a little fuel out of the sending unit. This put a film of fuel on the back of the truck and front of the boat. : ( Normally I wouldn't consider that small but compared to the injectors, it's tiny.

Still can't complain about the ride and the power. The truck did amazingly well and will be a good tow rig. I'll also be having Gillett add a BD tap shifter to manually shift the Allison when needed. I found that the truck searched for gears a lot on hills and it drove me crazy.
 

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Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
Well, it hasn't been a fun month of owning a used DMax. The transfer case leak turned out to be a bigger problem than originally thought. The shop pulled it to put a new seal in and reseal the case and found that an ear of the pump had broken inside. That caused the pump to wobble and it wore a tiny hole through the casing, which I found out was a common problem. New half a case and reseal was a quick $1000. The hazing/white smoke, fuel smell was more than I could deal with so into Gillett diesel it went. $4000 later I have a nice running truck again. Wish I would have known and I would have bought a newer a truck, but this one is still in pristine condition and I hope the repairs are done for a while.
 
L

LT.

Well-Known Member
Location
Los Alamos, New Mexico
I feel for ya on those repairs. I don't think it would matter what used diesel you bought you are gonna have problems. People don't buy a modern diesel truck and then not work it appropriately. These trucks are very expensive when new. I think you are still ahead purchasing your used d max.

On a side note, your truck looks kinda small and cute in front of that boat. Even though it is a bigger truck. That boat is massive.

LT.
 
I Lean

I Lean

Mbryson's hairdresser
Vendor
Location
Utah
LT. said:
People don't buy a modern diesel truck and then not work it appropriately.
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I'm gonna disagree partially here. While there are certainly plenty of people who tow a lot, or haul heavy junk around, I'd say the majority of diesel trucks running around are just doing daily-driver duty for soccer moms, or whatever. Which isn't necessarily good for the truck either--if you never put the engine under decent loads, it can cause problems as well. (just different issues)
 
Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
You guys are funny. Steve, yes, I would go back to Gillett. They know their stuff and they were competitively priced. I had to wait a bit for them to finish and I heard them talking to customers on the phone. One guy had dropped his truck off with a problem and they had told him they could only eliminate the symptoms part by part. The first thing they pulled (not sure what it was but fuel system related) they told him had a torn screen and a broken o ring. It fixed his problem and was much cheaper than what was expected. They are honest and that's big in my book.
 
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