Work truck advice

I am needing to purchase two work trucks for a roofing company that I am starting. Ideally looking for gas trucks, but open to diesels however I would need some serious convincing. Trying to stay <$20k each, including ladder rack, tool box, wrap/logos. Needing them to be "bulletproof" and good on gas, but can still haul a payload when needed. 8' beds.

Would appreciate any recommendations on what specific used models to look for. Open to half ton and 3/4 ton trucks.

The 6.0 GM is a bulletproof monster. Ive read a lot of good about the 3.5/3.3 F150 base engines.

My dad has a '14 Silverado 2500 4x4 rclb with the 6.0 and has proven itself to be reliable. 100k+ miles with loaded bed, tool boxes, pipe racks that carry heavy 21 ft. lengths of pipe and some light towing. Total workhorse.

I have a 2018 Silverado with 70k miles. Love it.

Comfy, hauls a crap ton of oil stuff

Over 220.5K on my 00 Silverado 1500 Z71 5.3, wouldn’t trade it for the world. Original engine will be getting some service soon. Now we use the truck but let it been known it’s not beat on. I rarely go past 2400 rpms while driving it.


Pick your poison.

It appears that the 2011/12 Silverado/Sierra 2500 with the 6.0 vortec would be a good blend of functionality, reliability and cost effectiveness. Anyone say otherwise?

SADDLE said:

It appears that the 2011/12 Silverado/Sierra 2500 with the 6.0 vortec would be a good blend of functionality, reliability and cost effectiveness. Anyone say otherwise?

Click to expand...

It will check every box.

I have heard fuel economy can be horrendous though.

Avoid 4:10 rear gear like the plague or you will get 6mpg....all the time.

The dodge with 5.7/6.4 will get header tick and eventually eat lifters, fuel economy is not horrible though. I drove the 5.7 for 21/2 years.

Ford well.... v10 ...nah.

The 2016 6.2 I have is strong and pulls like a mother.
170,000kms now
Maintenance has been two fan clutch’s, fan belt, fan shroud(ford broke it which caused to run and take out second fan clutch), front brake pads,

Has hard use. Oilfield work. Carries 1000lbs in box daily’s s above max payload at least twice a month.

Use it to pull holiday trailer. Went across scales at 18xxxlbs with it.

Pulled good nice and straight , but generally stayed in 5th.

Trailer pull-8mpg
Normal-15mpg-17mpg.




Sent from my POFS iPhone in a rage cause this is the third try.

99 00 01 02 F150 or older 5.7 hemi

Where I used to work, most of our work trucks were 05/06 Chevy 2500s, then they started getting F150s. The Chevys were beat to absolute hell and back and still ran ridiculously strong at close to 300k miles when they auctioned them off. I can't say anything bad about the F150's, but they didn't take as much of a beating since they were newer and management didn't want them to turn into rolling ash trays like the 2500s.

I was sitting in traffic in one of the 2500s and some dumb kid rear ended the truck at about 25mph (texting in traffic, typical for SC). His front end was demolished, the truck didn't care whatsoever. I was impressed.

APM with a gov. general contractor here. Our fleet is like this:

5.3 / 6.0 Chevy 2500/3500 trucks. We use them in 2wd and 4wd trim on jobsites and have very little issues with them. Most last between 250k miles before they start to have major issues. Shop supervisor sells them right around that point and auctions them off to employees for around $1000. We had one, 4wd/6.0/2500 with a tick over 400k with the original engine before it finally let go due to valve guides. It was our shop foreman's truck and he cherished that thing.

I’ll agree with the rest GM 6.0 is probably your best bet in a 2500. They run forever, easy as hell to work on.

Talk to your accountant and see what they think about fleet leasing. I know of a few small companies who do it and they love it.


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