Test drove a 6 speed Duramax today

[Chris N5CWM]

And I'm definitely keeping my Cummins powered RAM.

For one thing, the Chevy was really nice. And it

was very quiet compared to the mighty Cummins; I

could easily converese with my wife and the sales-

man while standing right in front of the Duramax

while it was idling.

The clutch SUX! It is either on or off. No in-

between. Very hard to get a smooth start. The ZF

transmission (6 speed manual) was very notchy. I would

not like to drive this setup on a daily basis. In

comparison, my '01 ETC with 5 speed shifts like

a hot knife thru butter. And my clutch is a dream.

Power was not that awesome, like they lead us to

believe. It felt about the same as my stock ETC

235HP/460FT. LBS Cummins does.



I never had a doubt, but today while looking at

Tahoe's I found there were two Duramax 6 speeds

on their lot (Landmark Chevy in Houston) so I had

to "scope out" the competition.



Just my . 02 worth!



-Chris

 

[drawson]

I have just spent the last two days going to school at an ATE conferance. The GM training center portion of the center had a used (almost new) Duramax engine that come out of a manual truck. The tag on the engine said #2 piston 2nd ring broken.



The clutch is small, it measured 11 3/4". Whimpy Whimpy

 

[DHatfield]

Chris I know what you mean by the ZF 6-speed is junk as I test drove my friends Powerstoke with a 6-speed in it and it is definately harder to shift and it has a funky pattern too. I will take the NV5600 any day.

 

[C Schomer]

I bought some RP oil last week and the salesman was bragging up his brothers Duramax/6sp. He couldn't belive how awesome it pulls his trailer. When I told him I can pull mine up the big passes at 66mph, he didn't have anything else to say! He still had the same, long look on his face when I left. Craig

 

[CannonBall]

I finally got the chance to drive a Duramax six speed. The truck was a short bed quad cab 4x4. I have to admit this truck ran very smooth. I was also surprised as to how well it ran in overdrive. The 60-80 time was about 9-9. 5 seconds. This was accomplished without downshifting.



I am not sure as to how much this truck weighs in the above configuration but it did handle the overdrive gear fairly well empty. The clutch was definitely different than in a Dodge. The Dodge clutch engagement is alot smoother.



Running 70 mph the engine rpm was 2000. Overall the truck ran well but a ZF equipped truck would not even be a consideration.



Another thing that I noticed while checking out the engine was there was standing water laying in the airbox. we did have rain today and somehow it is making it into the airbox. The saleman and myself checked another Duramax equipped truck and it had water laying in the airbox as well.

 

[CUMINNTSTRKN]

cannonball



so after the ride i gave you in my truck you don't think i should be worried? did you do the thing from the overpass to the top of airport hill?was the truck up there in greatfalls? how are your fuel pressure guage kits coming?



jim