Most RELIABLE? Chevy 2500 vs Ford F250

Yaaaaas….

 

Yeah, the wood and laminate stuff is living on borrowed time and not usually off road friendly over time.

Before my slide in camper, I had a 22' Weekend Warrior Toyhauler. Although it fit the bill in being able to haul my ATVs and be able to set up camp with, we eventually grew tired of the overall size and the away from home storage space that it required to store ($$) each month.

My current camping rig is really light, extremely durable (I built it), and very versatile.

 

Sweet Lord

Early 2000’s dodge Cummins before they went to DEF and all the other emissions stuff. You can tune them for mileage and it’s pretty incredible.

 

Welcome to Canada! This wasn’t even a full tank.

 

Yeah, 66 bucks to put in 3/8ths of a tank in my Ram 1500 at the Shell in my Northwestern Ontario town. I have the bigger 121 litre tank, but still, these prices are out of hand.

 

This was my F-150 work truck. I think it’s 136 litre capacity.

 

You folks on the good side of the Rockies are seeing the very worst of it. We're expensive for Ontario, but $1.81 for 87 octane isn't as hard to swallow after seeing what you're paying at the pump.

 

Nice setups! Yeah all about finding that balance between capability and enough storage. Small rig for weekend/weeklong trips. Bigger for the extended couple weeks a month or so on the road. Just need one of each!

 

It’s the Ford quality that went down on the 6.2 starting in 2017, not Chevy.
Chevy 6.0 has 4.10 rear end standard and the Ford is 3.73

 

Im assuming the engine remained unchanged but the rest dwindled? I was looking at 2011-2016 F250/350s at this point. The Chevys seem more simple in the 2500-3500 differences than the 250 vs. 350. Keep the input coming! Thank you again!

 

Now, that's a truck. Is that an old Forest service rig?

 

Judging by the paint color, guessing yes. I drive past one of the heavy truck dealers here, they always have a bunch of brand new 4WD Internationals sitting in the yard…and think what a killer camper it would make. Of course where are you going to take it. I got our Chevy C70 Dump stuck once, that was a bitch to get out and we even had a backhoe to dig it out. Can’t imagine getting something that large stuck in the middle of nowhere.

 

Just an update FWIW:

I’m leaning toward a Chevy for a few reasons.

First off, the pros to the Ford. From everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve spoken to the Ford IS the heavier duty truck. If you’re going to work the thing hard almost everyone, including Chevy guys, agree it’s just more beefy. Heavier duty. The real “WORK” truck of the two.
The other pro is the engine (6.2) is more powerful than the Chevy (6.0) and returns better gas mileage by not all but almost all (most) reports.
The Fords typically have a little higher tow/payload capacity, although trim levels change that drastically.
Downsides to the Ford I’ve seen mentioned are that they don’t ride as well, have the infamous death wobble, while fixable it is still an issue that needs to be addressed, and for me (maybe it’s nothing) I just don’t like the idea of blocks in the rear to compensate for sag, as the final point the Fords are reported to sag more under load. Again, fixable, but a point nonetheless. Oh, I should add, the interior of the Fords, especially compared to the 2014 and before Chevy, are significantly better. Don’t care about accoutrements but I do care that they’re reported as more spacious inside. That I would very much like.

The main pro for the Chevy (for me) is at the end of the day almost all reports I saw that had any sort of data or numbers rather than just opinions ranked the Chevy as more reliable overall. Both are similar, but RELIABLE has been my main and almost only metric here, is that’s kind of the key winning point.

The downsides to the Chevy don’t really deter me, personally. They have less nice interior (non-issue for my taste), and they’re not as good for heavy duty hard work. But I’ll just be buying a truck for increased payload is all. Nothing crazy. The issues reported about electronics going out and transmissions failing do concern me greatly as neither of those are things I can fix myself in an afternoon, obviously. From what I’ve read this is still less common than the issues Fords have, but man needing a new tranny and chasing electrical gremlins would be horrible. About the only downside for me to be concerned about. One perk I like about the 2500-3500 difference is it’s just a gusset and some leaf springs. So if I need more payload in the 2500 at some point it’s pretty easy to make it a 3500 in an afternoon.. I’ll take the IFS for all my highway miles and a nicer ride, but at the end of the day I don’t care if a truck rides like a truck to be honest. I’ve never understood the desire to not feel or hear outside at all when driving anyway. I’ve read that the cylinder deactivation AFM garbage isn’t on the HD 2500s but need to make sure on that. Any confirmation would be helpful.


I also need to look at DCLB payload differences specifically still on door sills.

Still need to figure out if 2014 and older vs. 2015-2019 models have payload upgrades, or just interior goodies.

Still need to research any changes in the later years to avoid any new/less reliable features.

I’d still buy the right F250 to pop up, but I’ll be actually looking for 2500HD models more so, unless a test ride between the two sways me back the other way.

Thanks all for input and ideas of what to research more. Peace, love, puppies, or whatever.

 

I saw an F-250 Tremor work truck today that belonged to the local utility company. They usually use XL Fords, some of those are done up pretty nice with ranch hand grill gaurds and other things.

 

Looks like an off road package? Looks cool, but a lift and working off the truck don’t go hand in hand too well. A crew cab long bed F250/2500HD would be a work only truck for me. Would keep the 4Runner and dirt bikes for hitting trails

Ive seen grill guards and steel bumpers do a lot of damage as well as save from smaller impacts, so I’m kind of torn on them, but would likely go without just to save weight.

 

A lot of companies and pretty much all municipalities use Fords and do the same thing with spiffing them up and make them into what they need. If they were such bad vehicles they would buy from another manufacturer because we all know there are 3 other brands to choose from.

 

There are a lot more companies who choose Ford over Chevy for their heavy duty work horse trucks, for sure. I see a lot of both here in the Midwest, but usually more Fords. More “work” trucks and probably some other deals or incentives for government agencies and the like from time to time as well.

 

But even if there are incentives down time from repairs is down time from repair and money lost is money lost. I believe an incentive is once but the ownership of a vehicle is long term.

If the stuff about Ford being over built is true (I think so but I wouldn't assume) then I would guess that you would never approach the full capacity of your truck. So lets say if you have a task that's more than your normal haul you have that extra built in so you dont need to worry your going over your limit. Over built is better than good enough.

 

I’ve got a 2020 F-150 XL FX4. Gotta say it’s a nice comfy and powerful ride compared to the Tacoma.

 

I would agree. My dads F350 extended cab long bed 4x4 offroad rides much smoother than my Tacoma. Also MUCH quieter.