diesel trucks

trailrider325 · July 5, 2004

can you plow with a deisel truck i have a freind who says you cant i just cant beleive him. so i thought i would ask here

apache sierra · July 5, 2004

Sure you can plow with a diesel . There are several advantages and disadvantages like anything else. If you are going to plow a lot you would probably want to get a stick instead of an auto as the foward and reverse on the auto is a pain to use constantly. Also the weight on the front suspension is a concern if you are going to use a heavy V type plow. other than that the diesel is a competent unit for plowing.

snoman · July 5, 2004

Sure you can plow with a diesel . There are several advantages and disadvantages like anything else. If you are going to plow a lot you would probably want to get a stick instead of an auto as the foward and reverse on the auto is a pain to use constantly. Also the weight on the front suspension is a concern if you are going to use a heavy V type plow. other than that the diesel is a competent unit for plowing.

First of all a automatic is the preferred tranny for plowing (I have done it for 18+ years and I have never lost a tranny doing) not a stick as it would suck and would be hard to feather in tight places but it would be doable in big lots and street removal. On the Diesel engine, it is a yes and a no (I know this will raise some hairs) and I will try to explain. First off, diesel in P/U's are very heavy and put extra load on front end before you even add a plow to it (Dodge has had so much problem with D60 ball joints wearing out in front axle with plows that they are using a whole new front axle starting in 2004.) You can stiffen springs but ball joints and street still has to carry load too. This makes it harder to balance truck as ldealy you want to keep your truck as light as possible up front because a plow really loads it big time. I ballast mine to where truck is heavier in rear when plowing and about even front to back when not. Power is not a issue as my 2000 K3500 SRW has never had a lack of it plowing with a 8 ft fisher in the worst of conditions (and I rarely use low range too) so you do not need a 8.1 or 6.6 to do it. My final reservation is that a Diesel is not the friendlest thing to start in extreme cold sometimes and while yes you can plug it in but get a real cold snap below zero and get so fuel not fix proper that waxs or gels in your filter or lose your plugged in heat and you will have a real bad day "fixing" it. Every year I go to dealer on a the coldest day and test start new diesels of all brands and a -5 a new cummins actually started and idled fairly well which surprized me and I have to beg the Duramax to run (it took several minutes and tries) and when it did if was very ruff and noisy for a while and the Power Stroke was not any better. Yes this is maybe not fair because they had all sat over a weekend but it give you a idea of how they do. When I lived in SW Montana in the mid 90's nobody plowed with a diesel P/U and the few diesel P/U's if town were parked during cold weather.

GlennRMK · July 6, 2004

Mixed bag sorta.

Like snoman said, the plow will be extra weight and harder on the front end. But it will be harder on the front of end of a gasser too.

You don't really need a ton of power to plow, the 6.0 would be sufficient.

The diesel will get you a lot better fuel economy though, and the low end torque would be nice.

As far as stick vs auto. You will probably go though clutches with a stick, but the granny low is nice. Plowing is hard on a auto though, or at least a torque converter.

There are valid arguments for both. I say get what ever you want for the rest of the time when you aren't plowing. Do you need a diesel for towing or driving a lot of miles? Or what?

snoman · July 6, 2004

Mixed bag sorta.

Like snoman said, the plow will be extra weight and harder on the front end. But it will be harder on the front of end of a gasser too.

You don't really need a ton of power to plow, the 6.0 would be sufficient.

The diesel will get you a lot better fuel economy though, and the low end torque would be nice.

As far as stick vs auto. You will probably go though clutches with a stick, but the granny low is nice. Plowing is hard on a auto though, or at least a torque converter.

There are valid arguments for both. I say get what ever you want for the rest of the time when you aren't plowing. Do you need a diesel for towing or driving a lot of miles? Or what?

When I bought my last truck, I actually would have bought a stick if I did not plow as I like them better in a 4x4 but they really suck at plowing and auto's feather so nicely. Several years ago I talked to the owner of a bussiness that out fitted a lot of trucks for plowing and he claimed that GM trannies were the best at plowing reliabilty wise (from the feedback he heard) and fords were the worst with dodge in the middle somewhere. And again on the weight it is hard on any truck but gassers have the same front axle and frame as a diesel so they can carry the weight better because they have a much lighter engine. I have a old 79 J20 that I retired from plowing last year that pushed snow for many years and it has a THM400 in it. It is 100% stock and it still works like new and smooth as silk and I cannot begin to guess how many tens of thousands of times it has been shifted from forward to reverse in its life. You want a aux cooler on your truck in that duty too. On engine size, even a 6 can do a great job pushing snow if truck is heavy enough as you are traction limited 99% of the time any on how hard you can push. In Montana , I knew this guy that had a old chevy with a straight 6 in it and a nice heavy homemade stake bed on it and he used to push a lot of snow with it and held his own against bigger and fancier rigs. You want deepest gears you can find too as it adds traction and minimized chassis windup and hop when you push really hard. It used to be that GM used same frame on 1/2 and 3/4 tons so a half ton would do fine but these days they are not strenght wise so I would suggest at least a 3/4 if you are serious about it.

Bart2500HD · July 12, 2004

Every year I go to dealer on a the coldest day and test start new diesels

Don't you have anything better to do?

Exactly how cold are you talking about? Here in ND t gets wayyy colder than in OH. You should have been here last winter. For two weeks it never got above ZERO degrees F and it was below -25F most of those nights.

snoman · July 12, 2004

Every year I go to dealer on a the coldest day and test start new diesels

Don't you have anything better to do?

Exactly how cold are you talking about? Here in ND t gets wayyy colder than in OH. You should have been here last winter. For two weeks it never got above ZERO degrees F and it was below -25F most of those nights.

We have seen 28 below here as a record here a few times and 20 below more than once. It is rare that we do not have a winter with some below zero weather. I remeber one freak year we set a day time record high of -15 (that is rare here for a high but minus 15 or so at night is not) One winter we went about 45 days without even getting up to freezing. (though a milder climate than yours on the average, we have our days) Also I lived in SW Montana for a while in the mid 90's at 7000 ft above MSL and I saw daytime highs of minus 25 on occasion and as cold as around -50 at night a few times while I was there. They did not close school until it got a bit below -40 and they could no longer keep the busses running reliably. Minus 30 was nothing unusual and fairly common in January and parts of early Feburary. I can remember many times getting into a car or truck and have the foam seat feel like cement as it freeze like that around 25 to 30 below. At minus 50 I used double block heaters for a quicker warm up and a battery heater too and thinned automatics with a bit of kerosene too (sticks also) Front wheel bearings on RWD cars and trucks can start to freeze around minus 50 too. One time I forgot to plug in my plow truck at the time, a 79 J20 Jeep (which a normally did below minus 15 or 20 to speed heatup when started) and it got to minus 38 that night. For grins I tried to start it even though I did not need it that day and it lit in about 10 seconds and stayed lit too and was smoothed out in about a minute. There were no diesel P/U's pushing snow in that area. It was the coldest place I have ever lived or visited for that fact except for one time in SD when it was minus 30 with 50 MPH+ winds and that was very bad. I remember driving through SD one winter in a near whiteout for almost 7 hours and stopping in rapid city heading west and it was minus 15 when I started into the state and close to -30 when I got to Rapid City with the winds. When I went to pump gas I had on thermal underwear, jeans and a heavy sweatshirt and a set of one piece insulated coveralls and heavy gloves, warm boots and thick hat. It felt like I had no clothes at all in in that cold wind, man that was something!!!! At least with a 40 gallon tank I did not have to do that often.

Machine · July 13, 2004

Snoman - Funny that you should mention S. Dakota. Once my F-350 PS arrives, my Duramax's new home will be in Mobridge, S. Dakota - about an hour South of N. Dakota. Hope that engine will start on those cold, cold days. The new owner doesn't seem to be concerned seeing that he has 4 diesel HD's on his ranch.

snoman · July 13, 2004

Snoman - Funny that you should mention S. Dakota. Once my F-350 PS arrives, my Duramax's new home will be in Mobridge, S. Dakota - about an hour South of N. Dakota. Hope that engine will start on those cold, cold days. The new owner doesn't seem to be concerned seeing that he has 4 diesel HD's on his ranch.

And lot of extension cords too or they would never even try to start in very cold weather. When I lived in SW Montana, deisel owners parked their truck during the coldest months. My nieghbor was a OTR truck driver and had his own tractor and he would be gone for a week at a time. He had heated tanks and fuel lines and he never shut it off when he came home for a few days. He left it run all the time as it would not start if it frozed up at minus 30 and colder even with a 2500 watt 230 heater in it. Good luck to you but strange things happen to diesels and diesel fuel at very cold temps. D1 (kerosene) is a must when it is very cold unless you have heated tanks. One winter in Ohio I was helping my in laws during record cold with there farm feeding cattle when it was hitting -25 for a few days in a row. He had a big JD diesel that he ketp plug in on the time in winter and while it started, the filters were pugging up with wax as you watched them gelling too and it would not go above a fast idle. He bought a big JD gas tractor that following summer as a spare backup for winter use and did not run the diesel anymore in winter after that. It was a truck or a big gas tractor when it got too bad for truck to feed with.

Machine · July 13, 2004

I don't doubt that he keeps them plugged-in during the really cold months but that doesn't seem to deter him. To each his own.

snoman · July 13, 2004

I don't doubt that he keeps them plugged-in during the really cold months but that doesn't seem to deter him. To each his own.

Yeah when you work a ranch and truck does not start on a cold day, it is not like being late for a regular job.

Bart2500HD · July 13, 2004

It felt like I had no clothes at all in in that cold wind, man that was something!!!!

Yeah, I didn't even mention the wind chill before! It gets brutal here in ND. I had my chance to get out othis part of the country, but the summer and fall are AWESOME!

snoman · July 13, 2004

It felt like I had no clothes at all in in that cold wind, man that was something!!!!

Yeah, I didn't even mention the wind chill before! It gets brutal here in ND. I had my chance to get out othis part of the country, but the summer and fall are AWESOME!

I have never been to ND but I know that you can get some awesome wind chills. We have had wind chils of -60 here a few times but I know you have seen it a lot lower. That time I mentioned in SD the wind chill was around -80 that day. I do not ever want to see that again!! We were lucky when we lived in SW Montana in that the bottom would fall out of the thermometer a lot but there was rarely any wind with it in the high valley we lived in. It never even got very windy in summer either and mid 80's was hot for there too. I never saw 90 there but I beat you see 100 up there sometimes

Machine · July 13, 2004

I don't doubt that he keeps them plugged-in during the really cold months but that doesn't seem to deter him. To each his own.

Yeah when you work a ranch and truck does not start on a cold day, it is not like being late for a regular job.

I would really like for you to please explain that ideology to my wife's family in SD, because their business of ranching would be so less demanding and even more successful if that were the real case or the actual approach they took to run their business. Too funny, amigo.

snoman · July 13, 2004

I don't doubt that he keeps them plugged-in during the really cold months but that doesn't seem to deter him. To each his own.

Yeah when you work a ranch and truck does not start on a cold day, it is not like being late for a regular job.

I would really like for you to please explain that ideology to my wife's family in SD, because their business of ranching would be so less demanding and even more successful if that were the real case or the actual approach they took to run their business. Too funny, amigo.

Amigo? My wife grew up on a farm and she is the first in many generations to move off the farm so to speak though we have always lived in the country here and have had horses for many years in the past. It is not that a farmers or ranchers "Job" is more or less important, it is that since they do not have to be in town to "work", transportation takes on a different meaning and priority. When my wife was a kid she was lucky to get to town one a week if that. If truck did not run, you used something else. If my truck does not start and run in any weather with no if's or but's, I lose clients and money. I cannot reschedule it. Different life, different clock too.