OldSub,
At the risk of repeating someone else... Other than my big trucks, I'm on my second late-model dually (first was a Dodge 4WD with the V10, current one is a 2WD with the Cummins).
Everything else being equal (engine, tranny, etc) about all you gain with a dually is stability and more confidence with the really big loads (mine was primarilly four-horse trailers and now a large deck flat trailer.) They don't gain you much else for the added expenses associated with duallies (brakes, tires, gas being the big three). My 2WD Cummins dually is absolutely useless in snow -- almost lethal (I grew up in Northern New England, too)-- all the weight is up front. Duallys typically don't have the traction single rears do because with a dually, you have the same weight spread out over twice the number of tires resulting in less ground pressure. Thus, reduced traction, not greater. Which is why they suck in the snow, too. Duallys will tend to ride up on top of the snow and act like sleds (bad) rather than cut trough the snow down to the road surface (preferred).
And duallies are wider (factory ones, anyway) -- duh, that's why they have fender extensions
. And being wider, they are trickier to drive. Most older duallies you'll see (except for mine
) have busted fender extensions from folks who forget the truck is wider behind them then in front of them. You'll never park close to the front door at them fancy climate-controlled in-door lumber yards in a dually. Or ANYWHERE in the Walmart parking lot.
For a 2WD dually to be usable in the snow, you have to put a bunch of weight in the back. And once you do that, you've probably used up your cargo capacity. So you're paying all that extra gas to drive around in a vehicle you can't haul anything in ('cause you've used the space up loading it down for traction). So then what's the point? This time of year, my dually pickup pretty much stays in the garage. No shows to haul to anyway.
Most people with duallies don't really need them. If you want to upgrade because the ole 1/2-ton doesn't cut it (1/2-tons aren't really trucks, anyway -- just cars with no seating and big, open trunks), you probably ought to think about a 3/4-ton. Any decent 3/4-ton will do 100 percent of what you'll need (and 90 percent of what you want) and at a considerable savings over buying (and feeding) a dually.
Big duallies are manly, cool and all that so just remeber that there's a big difference between wanting a dually and needing one. My next modern truck (if I ever need one) will most likely be a 3/4-ton. And a crew cab? Forget that -- being a native Down East Yankee, I'm antisocial. I couldn't stand having that many people in the truck with me.
Just my 2 cents.
John
