This is my first deisel and first post. I don't know anything about deisels so I've read all of these posts with interest.
I bought mine because I wanted better gas mileage and to pull a 5th wheel. I bugged a lot of campers who towed with the duramax about how they liked theirs. One camper even let me drive his around the campground. I was impressed with how quiet and smooth it was .
However I'm not a happy camper, My 2005 has 2500 miles on it and I'm not getting very good mileage out of it.
My first problem was smoke coming out of the exhaust in clouds while driving solo on the freeway and also a rattling noise from under the hood.
The dealer flushed it out and tweaked the software and since then the engine has sounded much louder.
My latest problem has been a tendency to stall when going up a slight incline solo while trying to keep the speed at around 5 mpg. It won't actually stall but will recover and jerk forward which keeps me busy feathering the accellerator pedal.
The same problem manifests itself when I'm trying to back my 5th wheel up my driveway. It can get pretty scary as I don't have much room and it's like threading a needle and I don't like it jerking ahead like it does.
The dealer's answer is to tell me to put the 4 wheel drive into the Low, Low gear when backing up with the trailer.
I had a 2001 Sierra HD 2500 vortec 8100 before this truck and I never had any problems backing up my driveway. My trailer only weighs about 8,000 lbs. max.
Also when I'm pulling the trailer hard up a hill the engine sounds like a threshing machine. If it was a gas engine I'd say the tappets were rattling but I'm not sure just what a deisel is supposed to sound like.
If anyone has any advice or suggestions I'd surely like to hear them.
Thanks everyone it's nice to be able to share experiences with fellow deisel truckers.