I've got an 01 2500hd with the 8.1L & Allison and I love it for pulling. I pull a 26' Gooseneck with it and I've pulled 14,000+ lbs with it often and it never feels underpowered. Feels super stable going down the road too.
Also the HD pickup came with the Allison the 2500 suburban came with a 4L80E which is also a great transmission but the Allison was only for the pickup models
I have the same suburban 8.1 4.10s. pulled a large triple axle sailboat 10 hours OKC to MI (8500 pounds) . Held it at 65mph locked in cruise and would only down shift once I hit 6% or more grades. then it just climes back up there . sounds like a monster when it loads up and drops to 3rd
I have the 8.1 2500 HD with the Allison transmission. I absolutely love this truck. I have had it for the last 15 years. It is a dream to work on. It only has 136000.
I got a 2001 2500HD 8.1 Allison. 217K on the truck. Stock. 2nd owner I bought it in 2007 with 85K on it. I love the truck. I also have a 2020 3500HD SRW High Country Duramax. Like your channel.
You must have a 3.72 diff ratio on this baby! Incredible low rpm in towing mode at 60mph!!! This was a great engine! Keep this baby as long as you can. You will never have another truck as reliable, as performant and gorgeous design as this one!!
Love the truck Paul. I had a 2003 2500 6.0 with the quadrasteer. I gave it to my son with 190,000 on it and it now has over 258,000. We’ve had to replace the backend in it and I would do all the necessary maintenance to keep it running. The thing is a beast. GM does make great gas engines.
I almost bought a low mileage (65k) rust free 06’ 3500HD Ex cab long bed with an 8.1 and a ZF-6 (that’s right they made them with 6 speed manuals for those not in the know) for $14k in 2018. Man I wish I hadn’t passed on it, I could sell that truck for $25,000 right now with the absolutely outrageous market.
Love this platform! Never trade my 04 ESV ! Towing 7000 pounds with it and it do it's thing easy. Im like you, not over push my engine on the Europian roads , handles the load great ! Keep that 496 alive ! 👌
Gm did have the best gas truck engines…once they starting with the cylinder shut off afm crap ford passed them in the gasser truck world. Anything pre 07 was great
I bought a brand new Yukon XL 2500 back in 2001. It was the same color as yours inside and out. Mine had 4.10 gears. Towed a 7,000 LB boat with it. Later in 2005 I bought a new 2500 Avalanche. It had 3.73 gearing. About 11-12 MPG average. Towed the same trailer/boat as well. I had the Avalanche for 10 years, almost 80k miles. Really miss it. Sold it back in 2014 for a RAM 2500 Laramie Cummins. Loved the RAM, and it averaged 16-18 and over 20 on Highway roadtrips.
That’s an awesome ride, Paul. Wouldn’t mind seeing more of it. I just picked up a 99 burb with the 5.7. Not as stout as yours, but still a pretty nice old truck.
I’d take a GMT-400 pickup or suburban every day of the week over the 00-06 GNT800’s. They’re just better built and far easier to work on. I love the 5.7 vortec engines, they have just as much low end grunt as a 6.0 and once you do intake gaskets and charge over to green coolant they’ll run 300k or more without an issue. I don’t much care for the LS 5.3 engines, Ive seen a lot of catastrophic failures in them around the 150k mile mark, usually it’ll be either a random Con rod snapping for no reason or a dropped valve that seems to kill then. The weirdest part with the LS’s, especially the 5.3 is the ones that make a ton of noise from piston slap on cold start and have noisy lifters seem to hold up really well but every one I’ve ever worked on that ended up having an engine failure was quiet as a could be.
I was looking at getting one with the 8.1 because it's a beast and found one cheap but I went with a 5.3 just because I currently don't have the need for that much so I'd feel bad for not fully using it
Growing up going to silver lake sand dunes with a camper or a loaded trailer with a dune toy on it my parents had a 2003 suburban 2500, I dont think it had the big boy 8.1 however that thing was a beast. For its size and weight itself, its amazing how much it can give. awesome rig, it looks mint
The 8.1 Vortec has stock 330 HP & 450 Torque. Not bad for that Era! My 2021 F-350 with 10 speed trans & 4.30 gears makes 435 HP & 475 Torque . I’d rather have my 7.3 any day & gets better MPG’s.
@Roadglide 114 you also forgot to mention you have a 10spd transmission compared to the 4spd in the video. It’s still rather impressive that a decade older engine has 25 less torque than your modern V8
I have a 05 2500 suburban 8.1 ive swapped in a allison 6 speed and have a psi 8.8 liter mild cammed and ported heads to go in it with a t6 s475 turbo on it. Should tow real good 😁 I have lbz cooling stack along with intercooler in it already as well . 4.10's 4wd
The single best part of that truck being a 8.1 is the trans. 4l85! As far as fuel mileage, BSFC is the determining factor. A 8.1 is so much more efficient at making 200-300lbs of torque vs a 6.0 or a 5.3 that needs to downshift all the time, runs less timing at higher loads and is often out of its optimized airflow range. And I would put a different thermostat in the trans. It’s like the bypass valves on 68RFE it’s a bad bandaide that can cause problems. You want a trans up to temp. If it’s over heating something is wrong or you need a bigger cooler.
Japanese known to build not just tires, look at their vehicles like tundra that is known for 1 milion miles. Look at the Toyota aisin Transmission in ram best transmission in HD trucks.
I have always wanted to know how these towed, I owned a 99 2500 burban with 454 vortec. It had 4.10 gears but it couldn't get out of its own way towing 8k. It towed the same as my superduty 5.4l 2v
Also what is funny is I have seen many of your videos with the Cummins trucks & powerstroke. Didn’t realize until I was a few minutes in on this video, after searching 8.1 reviews, it was you. Always good reviews although a WOT run towards the end would be appreciated lol!. I am actually gonna sell my 6.7 powerstroke & buy an 8.1 for a tow pig. I want something that is inexpensive to work on, reliable, & don’t have to be paranoid about having to drop 12k on a fuel system or 20k on an engine out of warranty if something were to happen. IIRC you can get a long block 8.1 for under $4k worse case scenario..
I agree nobody talks about these 2500 suburbans/Yukon XLs. The 8.1 is a badass motor. They do consume some oil by design and are horrible on fuel but who cares! I just picked up a 2000 2500 suburban, it's a 6.0 though. With a tune, the 6.0 makes more power but will never make 8.1 torque. I don't really tow a lot, I just didn't want to roll the dice with a 4l60e and the coil spring ride was never my favorite. The hydro boost brakes and rear leafs make these so much better in all situations than a 1500 imo even unloaded
Allison is a solid transmission and I don’t understand why people rebuild them with nothing wrong with the transmission 🤷🏼♂️ but mostly want to get more power of the engine!
