Intro

Welcome from CO. @ColoradoTJ

 

Here is my take on your situation:

Wouldn’t happen to be in Colorado are you? I offer my camper which is 7200 empty or my flatbed (up to 14k) to any CO member that wants to see “what’s it like in a Tundra” towing experience. Sounds like you have some pretty good weight to tow and could test that out before purchase nonetheless.

Another idea, is keep the DM truck you have now. The truck is not worth a whole lot anyway regardless of condition, use it for work only, buy a Tundra for the lighter duty stuff. Don’t be fooled, the Tundra was built for work, and does it well.The only downfall is towing 9K+ at over 9000 feet of elevation. It will be breathing pretty hard at the top of a pass.

I wouldn’t be looking at anything but Limited or higher trim packages. Have you looked at the 1794 Tundra packages? Sounds like you have a LT in that generation of GM (leather upgraded). If you don't like the interiors of the Tundra, you will have to come to terms with that. I loved my interior of my SR5, and with the higher grade packages available, something should fit your needs. This is where you spend all your time. Interiors are important to me.

Towing, I would limit that to no more than 75-80% of the max GVWR. So in other words, not the 10000 lbs every so often probably isn’t the best plan, especially if you have passes to go over. With your HD truck now, going to max GCWR isn't an issue.

Newer diesels are pretty nice. You definitely do not have the “diesel” smell when driving (and know exactly what you're talking about). They are expensive, and maybe I am a better negotiator than what I thought. Almost everyone I have talked to have been in the 65-75k range. I was under 60k for a nicely loaded SLT.

Now you can't do the short trip crap with newer diesels. You will be in regeneration hell forever. I do not daily drive mine, and would never recommend it anyway on any common rail diesel. I have a co-worker that has an 01' CC LB DM with 160K on it. He has had his fair share of issues, but in the overall picture, not bad. He has done head gaskets (that was his fault though), belt tension pulley assembly broke (which caused the truck to overheat...head gasket time), and the idler arm, which I told him to go with an aftermarket set up to have the solid steering. I am doing after my warranty is up, and he did injectors at 145K miles.

Would I buy another Tundra? Honestly, in my current situation, no. I tow a lot. Last year was almost 14K miles alone. My heaviest load has been 17200 lbs. The DM pulled like a dream, and more impressively, stopped and controlled the load like a boss.

SD outside Sturgis. TT loaded up to 8200 lbs. We were coming back from a CO-ID-MT-ND-SD-WY-CO trip.





Would I buy another Tundra if I didn't tow as often, daily driver, needed a top performer in the 1/2 ton market? Damn right I would...in a NY minute. That is what I did for 89K miles on my 12' CM, and enjoyed most of the miles. Don't be fooled, they can work. Here are some of my honorable mentions:

NM trip, up in the norther mountains. Some very hard towing. I was surprised. So. Beautiful. Trailer loaded to 8500 lbs. We had full water and the homestead bathroom sink. I dipped into the 6 mpg.



Jeep and trailer, depending on what I bring, 9K lbs plus



02 TA, no motor or trans in this pic. I had a oops at the track at 95 mph with traction and RPM went where I didn't want it to at full pin. Car like this was 3000 and trailer was 2650 lbs. Rather light load.



Hauling a Rock Buggy over from the SW part of CO. Ended up in one of the worst blizzard conditions in my life, except in Montana and Wyoming. This Crawler is 4475 lbs and my buddies 18" trailer is 2550lbs



This was the heaviest load with the Tundra. I have no idea what the weighed, and said I would never tow this weight again with a vehicle not rated for this load..it was dumb. I bent the L brackets on my Load Distribution Hitch, and I have the 1200 lb bars. I'm sure my trailer was maxed out, and It can handle 11000 lbs. I towed this up to the mountains from the mountains (my mountain property) to his property. We loaded these logs with a tractor, and three guys couldn't roll them off. We had to cut in place to get off my trailer. I have a picture of the logs, but Photobucket has my pics in lockdown (pig fuckers). You can see on the back, the rather large log sticking out, there are several of them at full trailer length you can't see. This was the last day for my Equalizer brand LDH. Had a lot of good miles with it.

I had to go up several rather steep dirt roads to get to his property, and this load in 4Lo was dragging my truck backwards. Only thing that saved my ass was the rather large 12" trailer brakes and a NFG attitude. The traction control did its job, but the brakes were hot.



I was hauling crushed concrete to the recycling center. I had so much in this dump trailer, it overloaded the hydraulics. I had to hand shovel a good portion out cussing like a sailor the whole time.



Small skid steer. This was the biggest one that I could rent with a 1/2 ton. It is 4100 lbs and 3K for trailer.



In closing, good luck with your search. Trucks are expensive now from the last time you purchased the 01 DM. Do your research like you have been doing, and I'm pretty sure we will be seeing a new Platinum DC Tundra in White (fastest color) soon. I would also just keep the 01 DM if you have the room. It really isn't costing that much in the big scheme of things, and you can use that for the 10K loads.

 

Ha I remember those conversations.

The Tundra doesn't disappoint if you remember it is a 1/2 ton truck. I struggled coming from built diesels that could pull Vail Pass at whatever speed I wanted. Once you realize you don't have a diesel 1 ton anymore (or the damn headaches of owning a diesel), the Tundra experience is awesome.

 

You can still get the supercharger, just not through TRD.

 

Yepper.

Someone just got wood....

 

It’s the same supercharger. I’m confused?
Sparks is an awesome dealership from what I’ve heard.

 

More of a warranty issue then for you. Totally understandable. That’s one big chunk of cash if something goes wrong.