Working for a heavy highway contractor for over 15 years I will try to sum up my experience without bashing each manufacturer. Every company has their pros and big cons. Let me start by saying I drive a company truck, so I don't have a say as to what manufacturer truck I drive.
Ford: I have seen many Ford F150s drop engines before 100k miles and for that reason I wouldn't go that route.
Chevy: I considered myself more of a Chevy guy than any other brand, but really I'm not brand loyal as I don't purchase the truck (company does). I am currently driving a 2017 Chevy 1500 and the fuel mileage is good when unloaded. The towing capacity is adequate. I have a crew cab which reduces the box of the truck by quite a bit, but the extended cab just doesn't have enough room in the back seat. The negative for this truck is the rumors about their transmissions. The transmission in my truck will clunk every once in a while, which the GM says is normal. Was talking with a foreman on my site that is driving a 2014 Silverado and he had the same clunk in his truck. The next day the transmission went out on him. He found out through talking with repair shops, this seems to be a problem with 2014 to 2018 chevy trucks. Something to research if you want to go with GM.
Dodge: Not much experience here, I have a few friends that have both diesel and gas engines. They don't tow much but they do like them a lot. I have a tough time getting over the transmission problems they had about 10 years ago, but have not researched if they are still a problem now.
Tundra: By far the best truck I have had. The company I work for bought a fairly basic model with the smaller 4.7 engine, but I was able to tow anything I needed with this truck. When I passed this truck on to the next person, it had 165k and ran like it was new. No issues with it while I drove it for 5 years. Biggest problem with the tundra as mentioned above, is the fuel mileage. I probably averaged around 16 mpg with the smaller engine on this one. Also the tundra was by far the less expensive truck. If I was buying a truck for myself I would buy a Tundra.
Also I would not buy anything less than a 1/2 ton as the capacity drops of drastically compared to the price difference between midsize and full size trucks.
Good luck as your head will spin as you get in the middle of your research.
