Re: What type of truck do you use?
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The ultimate tow rig IMO is the Dodge Cummins with the 5.9 liter (pre- 6.7 liter) and the later 48RE automatic transmission (post- 47RE). The year range should be around 2004-2007 I believe. I have worked on a LOT of the different diesels. My distant second choice would be a Ford with the 7.3 liter only.
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Dodge detuned the Cummins when the automatic trans was picked up until '04 I believe, so that should tell you how much confidence ChryCo had in their automatic transmissions up to that point! The 48re trans was indeed better, but it ain't no Allison, either.
Some things to ponder are, how often will you be pulling a trailer, and is it gonna be a daily driver? The earlier diesels (LB7 Dmax, 7.3 Fords, pre-'04 Cummins) are gonna be your mileage leaders but sacrifice a little power & grunt to get there. If you're just an occasional tower, then any of them will be fine, and you're wallet will thank you for the lower initial buy-in cost & fuel savings...as the newer diesels added power, they sacrificed mileage...and the EPA has made things significantly worse due to all the cat/dpf/egr mumbo-jumbo the diesels have to carry around now.
We've covered a large portion of the GM spectrum...in 3/4 & 1-tons we've had 454s, 454 w/supercharger, an 8.1/4L80e and 8.1/Ally, a Dmax/Ally, even a 3116 Cat (ok, that was a C4500 chassis!)...our LB7 Dmax has been a wonderful truck, and has pulled 2car+junk trailer whenever/wherever we want...only minus has been the LB7 injector fiasco (which was covered under the 7yr/200k warranty) and I smoked a ring gear once as well (which I think was due to improper service). I know the 8.1L gets a lot of grief, but it truly is a good engine...won't get the empty mileage of our Dmax, but loaded it's nearly the same...it has more grunt off the line, is a lot less complicated & finicky, and was a HECK of a lot cheaper! And it's got the same Ally trans...
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