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I bought a 2002 Silverado dually all wheel drive, has an Allison tranny and the now scarce 8.2 Vortec gas engine.

Best darn truck I have ever owned, only issues was a fuel pump and a crank position sensor, oh and yes the shift selector switch on the tranny. Fuel pump actually did not go out it failed during a dealer injection cleaning, I think it was a mechanics screwup. The crank sensor was an issue and I replaced it before it failed. The tranny switch did fail and left me with low range only, easy fix.

The engine does suck fuel but being a diesel mechanic I actually prefer it to a diesel up here in Alaska during the winter, more reliable starting with a gas engine. The Fords are arguably built stronger but are not aesthetically pleasing to me. The Ram trucks are eye candy but the Silverado has a lot of aftermarket options.

Mine has every front light plus drivings all converted to HID, every other light including the dash is now LED. Mine was pretty much fully loaded, heated seats etc. And now its 10 years old people still rave at how it looks, no rust at all thank god, I have a yard full of older Chevy trucks, all of them rusted out, not the newer ones, they finally figured it out about using galvanized metal.

And the running gear is super strong, the all wheel disc brakes are awesome, and I have pulled fully loaded concrete mixers at over 50,000lbs with this truck. I really cannot complain about it except for its gas addiction, but I may think about a natural gas conversion in the future for it.

Must be my morning for typos, it has an 8.1 not 8.2 and its a 3500 extended cab. I run a slightly larger set of tires all the way around. And in the winter I’ll load up the bed with concrete block to help with traction. My ABS works faster and better when I flushed it and went with synthetic brake fluid, same with all the fluids, went synthetic for the arctic weather and I use a dry cell engine battery.

I have a fleet of concrete mixers I maintain, its a friggin nightmare trying to operate them below freezing, batteries get sluggish, have to keep them plugged in all the time, alcohol in the air sysstem and of course number 1 diesel so it won’t gel up, not as many btus from winter diesel. Owners with diesels including my employer also have a lot of fuel related issues, more finicky about fuel with the diesels, but the Duramax is a kick ass engine. He has a 2001 Silverado 2500 Duramax, almost identical to my truck except for the engine and tires, I have two extra in the rear.