Dually Question/Opinion

[Pachanga]

This might be slightly off topic. But, What is the difference between a 2500 and a 3500SRW? Is just extra springs are there bigger brakes and stuff as well?

I am actually now considering going the 3/4ton route and just adding airbags in the back.

At the least a 3500 is going to have a stonger rear axle, and possibly transmission. Suspension is defiantely stronger as well as the brakes.

[ZBODaytona]

This might be slightly off topic. But, What is the difference between a 2500 and a 3500SRW? Is just extra springs are there bigger brakes and stuff as well?

I am actually now considering going the 3/4ton route and just adding airbags in the back.

As pachanga said..but the trannies are the same...usually a bigger front axle, well on the 4x4's....Sometimes the frames are bigger, but i think with the modern ones they are the same..just the springs and axles are different.

[Quinlan]

This might be slightly off topic. But, What is the difference between a 2500 and a 3500SRW? Is just extra springs are there bigger brakes and stuff as well?

I am actually now considering going the 3/4ton route and just adding airbags in the back.

I moved from a 2500 to a 3500 SRW Chevy and the only diff I can tell is 1 more leaf in the springs. Added Air bags and it tows the 38 quite well.
Not sure about Trany and rear should be the same. OH and the DURAMAX helps out TOO!! over the 8100

I put well over 100k miles on the 2500 w the factory brakes.

[Birdog]

On SRW trucks it is only springs...Duallys have bigger brakes and Diffs.

[NOMOGOFAST]

I have an 04 Dodge 3500 SRW w/ 55k on it. I went through the same dilemma. I ended up with the SRW for my daily driver. The only difference between the dually and the SRW when I bought mine was the rear axle ratio. Same size brakes, tranny etc. I get 15-6 mpg city and about 20 hwy. Towing 10k I get 10-14 mpg hwy depending on the terrain. I have had not one complaint about my 04 3500 SRW. Changed all the fluids to synthetic and put front brakes on once and tires. I went with 20" tires w/ 35's with just the leveler kit. Towed 388 Slingshot and now 36' Concept....no problem anywhere. My wife drives my truck once in a while and would never put her in a dually. She already scuffed both mirrors just going in my garage.

[jmoore32fever]

Warlock if you don't need to be in the truck everyday just get you a dually & buy yourself a Lil Honda civic or a car of that nature that's what I did, eventually pays for it's self, thing I've also noticed the fords take a 40 acre field to turn around n my doodge does it n prolly half of what my buddies ford does

[catmando]

Warlock if you don't need to be in the truck everyday just get you a dually & buy yourself a Lil Honda civic or a car of that nature that's what I did, eventually pays for it's self, thing I've also noticed the fords take a 40 acre field to turn around n my doodge does it n prolly half of what my buddies ford does

doodge I agree with the small car you used to be able to buy one pretty cheap but with the Big 3 on the ropes used car prices are skyrocketing.

Warlock how goes the battle? Have you bought something yet? Like I said mine is for sale with less than 60k miles. I drive it every day and love the power of the 325/610 motor. I let my sister drive it(she drives a 15 year old Cherokee 5 speed manual) and she was blown away by the power and ease of driving around Raleigh. We got on the Loop and she took it up to 2500rpm in 5th gear. The look on her face and her smile was priceless!

[catmando]

With that plow hanging off the front, it's called mo money.

Haha snappy comeback!

[Warlock28SXT]

doodge I agree with the small car you used to be able to buy one pretty cheap but with the Big 3 on the ropes used car prices are skyrocketing.

Warlock how goes the battle? Have you bought something yet? Like I said mine is for sale with less than 60k miles. I drive it every day and love the power of the 325/610 motor. I let my sister drive it(she drives a 15 year old Cherokee 5 speed manual) and she was blown away by the power and ease of driving around Raleigh. We got on the Loop and she took it up to 2500rpm in 5th gear. The look on her face and her smile was priceless!

Catmando I'm still looking. It would be nice if you could order the used truck you want. I thought I was going to have an answer for you guys this week. I found a truck, I saw it in the internet monday, I called tuesday moring to find out it sold monday night. Oh well. I'll keep looking. I decided I'm going to go back to what I had, a 2500, possibly a 3500 SRW. The 2500 is more than enogh truck for what I need. I thought about the dually/car approach and would probably end up driving the truck all the time anyway. The search continues...I will let you guys know when I find something.

[catmando]

If you can find a quad cab 3500 SRW take the overload springs off and put Firestone air bags on it. Perfect truck.

[catastrophe]

My new 08 F350 Diesel was stolen 2 days ago. Ford doesnt make shortbox duallys anymore so I have to go Dodge to get the 6.5 ft box 4 door.

Can anyone help with comparison of the 2 vehicles? I've never owned a Dodge.

[baywatch]

Catmando I'm still looking. It would be nice if you could order the used truck you want. I thought I was going to have an answer for you guys this week. I found a truck, I saw it in the internet monday, I called tuesday moring to find out it sold monday night. Oh well. I'll keep looking. I decided I'm going to go back to what I had, a 2500, possibly a 3500 SRW. The 2500 is more than enogh truck for what I need. I thought about the dually/car approach and would probably end up driving the truck all the time anyway. The search continues...I will let you guys know when I find something.

I had two different trucks that were sold before I could get there to look at them. One of them I talked to the sales guy at 9:00 AM and when I showed up at 10:30 the guy that walked in before me and bought the truck was still there filling out the paperwork.

The one thing I determined was that a low mile 05-06 was selling for nearly the same price as a barely used 08. I ended up getting an 08 Laramie with
5k miles on it for $3k more than an 06 SLT with 27kmiles on it. Needless to say the sunroof, electric running boards, heated leather, navigation, Infinity sound, etc. etc. made it an easy decision to take the leep to the 6.7litre Diesel.

Best of luck with your search. I am glad I am done shopping

[smittyseng]

I guess the biggest thing is that have never been in one. I loved my 2500 a bit stiff but fine in my book. I am mainly the only one in it. With the exception of going to the lake or up north with the sleds. I really need to drive/ride in one to see for myself. I can give up a bit of ride quality for ability.

Something to keep in mind as I see you mentioning going up north with the sleds,duallys are about the worse thing to drive on snowy highways especially towing. I tow sleds about just as much as I tow my boat and one dually was enough,it was unnerving when the rear tires would climb up on the snow rut edges and throw you around,you had to keep it in 4wd and keep the speed down plus put super aggressive tires on it. I know a few guys who are dyed in the wool dually guys who claim they ride as good on snow covered roads but they don't travel north in the bad stuff either.I been more than happy with a srw hd truck,Smitty

[Warlock28SXT]

I had two different trucks that were sold before I could get there to look at them. One of them I talked to the sales guy at 9:00 AM and when I showed up at 10:30 the guy that walked in before me and bought the truck was still there filling out the paperwork.

The one thing I determined was that a low mile 05-06 was selling for nearly the same price as a barely used 08. I ended up getting an 08 Laramie with
5k miles on it for $3k more than an 06 SLT with 27kmiles on it. Needless to say the sunroof, electric running boards, heated leather, navigation, Infinity sound, etc. etc. made it an easy decision to take the leep to the 6.7litre Diesel.

Best of luck with your search. I am glad I am done shopping

Well that sucks. I guess I've got at least one more to slip between my fingers to look forwaed to I really havent looked at the price diff between the two but I do belive I will. Glad to hear you found/bought something you like. Thanks Jason

[Warlock28SXT]

Something to keep in mind as I see you mentioning going up north with the sleds,duallys are about the worse thing to drive on snowy highways especially towing. I tow sleds about just as much as I tow my boat and one dually was enough,it was unnerving when the rear tires would climb up on the snow rut edges and throw you around,you had to keep it in 4wd and keep the speed down plus put super aggressive tires on it. I know a few guys who are dyed in the wool dually guys who claim they ride as good on snow covered roads but they don't travel north in the bad stuff either.I been more than happy with a srw hd truck,Smitty

Smitty I never even considered the snow rutted roads being an issue. I have narrowed it down to a SWR truck just not having any luck as of yet finding one, well finding yes looking at no. Thanks for the input Jason

[Warlock28SXT]

If you can find a quad cab 3500 SRW take the overload springs off and put Firestone air bags on it. Perfect truck.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks catmando

[Sydwayz]

You can always take the outer two dually wheels off if the deep snow ruts are a problem.

One of the biggest issues with the 3/4 and 1-ton SRW offerings is the poor wheels/tires that they ship with when new. Ford has a bit of an edge with optional big tire packages. Dodge is a little better as they have 17" offerings, but GM is terrible--245/16 E rated tires on 6.5" wide steel wheels! The GM factory SRW "HD" setup is terrible for towing stability! It's like towing with 4 pizza cutters.

You can drastically, and I mean DRASTICALLY improve the towing stability of a SRW anything by moving to an E-rated 16, 17, 18" diameter/8, 9, 10" wide wheel; and an E-rated 265/285 width tire. You are NOT going to increase towing CAPACITY, buy you will increase towing STABILITY.

If you do the aforementioned, and add separate air chamber Air-Bags to a SRW truck, it is my humble opinion that you have drastically improved the towing stability of said truck; but it's still not as good as a dually.

[smittyseng]

You can always take the outer two dually wheels off if the deep snow ruts are a problem.

One of the biggest issues with the 3/4 and 1-ton SRW offerings is the poor wheels/tires that they ship with when new. Ford has a bit of an edge with optional big tire packages. Dodge is a little better as they have 17" offerings, but GM is terrible--245/16 E rated tires on 6.5" wide steel wheels! The GM factory SRW "HD" setup is terrible for towing stability! It's like towing with 4 pizza cutters.

You can drastically, and I mean DRASTICALLY improve the towing stability of a SRW anything by moving to an E-rated 16, 17, 18" diameter/8, 9, 10" wide wheel; and an E-rated 265/285 width tire. You are NOT going to increase towing CAPACITY, buy you will increase towing STABILITY.

If you do the aforementioned, and add separate air chamber Air-Bags to a SRW truck, it is my humble opinion that you have drastically improved the towing stability of said truck; but it's still not as good as a dually.

gm is finally getting away from the small tire combos though,my 08 2500 hd came factory w 265/70/r17's,the new gm 3500 srw comes with lt265/75/r16's,Smitty

[catmando]

You can always take the outer two dually wheels off if the deep snow ruts are a problem.

One of the biggest issues with the 3/4 and 1-ton SRW offerings is the poor wheels/tires that they ship with when new. Ford has a bit of an edge with optional big tire packages. Dodge is a little better as they have 17" offerings, but GM is terrible--245/16 E rated tires on 6.5" wide steel wheels! The GM factory SRW "HD" setup is terrible for towing stability! It's like towing with 4 pizza cutters.

You can drastically, and I mean DRASTICALLY improve the towing stability of a SRW anything by moving to an E-rated 16, 17, 18" diameter/8, 9, 10" wide wheel; and an E-rated 265/285 width tire. You are NOT going to increase towing CAPACITY, buy you will increase towing STABILITY.

If you do the aforementioned, and add separate air chamber Air-Bags to a SRW truck, it is my humble opinion that you have drastically improved the towing stability of said truck; but it's still not as good as a dually.

My Dodge came with 17x8 wheels and General tires. The Generals made lots of noise and were toast at 40,000, at which point I changed to Michelin LTX M&S rated at 75,000 miles and VERY quiet, great handling tires. If I could find steady work hauling cars again I would switch to 19.5 rims and 150,000 mile Hankook tires.

BTW Brian thank you for mentioning my boat on OSO. The handling between 50-90mph was simply phenomenal. Nothing I ever did made any difference in its stability in turns. It was like driving an F1 car. You had to drive it to understand.

[Warlock28SXT]

Well it's been a long time but it is what is. Being out of work for over two years puts a damper on a new truck,anyway, I bought an 06 Ram Mega cab 2500 with the 5.9 cummins. Thanks to everyone for their input. Pics to follow.

Jason