Im gonna chime in here. I have been riding in an 11 3/4ton dmax for about a week and a half and its NICE. Much better than the 07,08, and 09 Ive been in. The 'new' brakes are worlds better than the other setup they've used for ten years. I had the displeasure of doing a rear brakejob on an 07 dmax wed of last week. What a pisspoor design. I realize you can loosen the bottom caliper bracket mounting bolt and rotate the whole caliper up on the top bolt. Bollocks at any rate. duratothemax, aka ben, said the brakes on the 'older' trucks work good if you adjust them right. I didnt see how the brake function is susceptible to being compromised when looking at it apart. Ill not do another service on one so its not going to be learned either.

Onto the original topic, Id say the new gm is better than the one its superceding. Yesterday and today Ive been driving an 11 ford scab 4x4 superduty 6.7(I know I said only crews for this guy) its a dark red/tan at the bottom. Its an xlt with navigation. The interior is RIDICULOUS in this thing. I love the blue needles too. Easier on the eyeballs than red. The seats are comfy. This one has a black and tan(pb colored) interior. The front seat flips down in the middle and has a real nice/generous armrest/console much like the gm does. The 6.7 is quiet but Im used to a straight piped 7.3. This thing has balls on top of balls. Good god! They(ford dealer) said they reflashed the computer for a hp/torque increase. It runs niiiiice. I was inspired to do this because of the new dmax we got at work. Ive obviously spent more time in the gm but the new ford made a BIG impression on me right away. Im trying to scrape up the cash to buy a new one now.....the ford that is...the interior alone is reason enough to opt for the ford over the gm. Sorry chevy guys but trailers still impose their will on the front end of the dmax truck. Pushes it around. Empty or lightly loaded the chevy stops really f'n good.

I dont think Id even go for a tuner right away. The scorpion diesel has gobs of power. If only this one was a cc Id just keep it..lol...oh and the sync feature is nice too.

well said well said, sounds good to come from a guy who has been around duramaxes alot

dont get me wrong 07strokerftw, the new gm is a NIIIICE truck but its not playing at the same level, imo, as the blue ovaled truck. The brakes in my truck feel pretty vague today after driving the new one. The power and smoothness of the motor is astonishing. You wouldnt believe it unless you drive one. It is so damn quiet though.

My hat is off to the design team. This should shut up the 7.3 diehards, such as myself. Hopefully it doesnt turn into a service whore like the 6.0l(I know people around here have eliminated the 6.0l woes).

Id say they are both awesome trucks but the Chevy isnt awesome enough to convince me of a change in brands.

i understand what you were saying and sounds great, i hope for the same thing.. im looking more towards shutting up the dmax and cummins owners haha

New the Ford does drive nice When its new, but the truth is that measley spindley junky garbage front suspension and steering setup on the chevy will drive with 200,000 miles like it did when it was new. I cannot say the same for the setup Ford uses, they just get so sloppy with miles on them. Ive driven both 2011 trucks and even the new Ford had just a small amount of play in the steering and my coworker said the same thing about a different 2011 ford that he drove. In my line of work that is not acceptable. I know some guys get a big ego boost by swinging the steering wheel from side to side, but I dont.

My truck has 246k on it and its not sloppy or showing huge amounts of play. Tie rod ends, balljoints and alignment work wonders I suppose.

I didnt detect anything that resembled play in the truck I drove. The steering was quick and crisp. I also noticed that it was pretty hard to turn the wheel if the truck is stationary. I highly doubt that the sawing back and forth of the steering wheel that you described above was happening on a brand new truck. Lift, 37's, and a ton of miles and mine doesnt even do that. If that was your experience so be it but Ive not heard anyone else say that.

Do you know what causes the steering wander in trucks, the way you described above 99f250blows? It isnt the design itself. Id like to hear your explanation of what causes that.

I have had diesels from chev 6.2,turbo 6.5, 6.6, the old ford 6.9, idi 7.3, 99 7.3, and my current 02 7.3. I thought i would never depart from my 7.3 but after driving an 2011 6.7, there is no contest in ride, look, and power in my opinion. But each to his own.

The truck at work just had a very recent complete overhaul of the entire steering and front suspension. It doesn't take long at all for that stuff to just get loose. It actually has something clunking around under it again inspite of the easy life it gets compared to the other trucks.

I know ford and dodge front setup are a little different, but I know my dodge with the front fresh rebuilt balljoints, tierods,track bar,and alignment was ok,and tracked very good, but I would always pucker up when loaded heavy on a turn, because that steering setup does not pull back to center. What did dodge do? Put a tighter ratio in the steering box, and made the problem way worse.I talked to people that said theirs doesn't do it,so I drive them to discover they just dont notice it anymore.

A guy I sub out to and he subs out to me has an 07 6.7 2500 and he complains about that exact steering issue. My truck always recenters itself about 75%. I know the front end in the solid axle(monobeam seems to be the trendy name) have archaic, simple steering componentry. Why try to reinvent the wheel?