Mostly GM work trucks, mix of gas and diesel.
What’s a reliable choice that won’t break the bank?

F350, you won't need a code scanner.

because it will be dead most of the time

Because it will run forever throwing every code known to man.

Foxwell

Get a bluetooth OBD scanner that'll connect to your smartphone and use the phone as a scanner. I've got one from Carista but there's a bunch out there on amazon. It'll do everything you need.

Every truck I own has a check engine light on, and most have 200,000+, but my Fugkin C4500 Kodiak keeps going in limp mode though. Intermittent, but gotta figure out why.
Changed the $178 fuel filter and $52 “water in fuel” sensor today. Hopefully takes care of it.

I need to swap the duramax out of it and swap it for the NAVSTAR T444E in my international 4300

I have no idea why there’s so many 7.3l fan boys. They might go forever, but power sucks and they’re cold natured as hell.

Mine is an Autel 906

Haverluk lent me an Autel MD805 for my Fuso FE180... did not work on the Fuso, BUT overall a good unit.

Best opinion I have is to do a bunch of Google to figure which ones do and do not work on your stuff... Software and protocols can vary between trucks brands... so I learned.

I have one of these, it takes a little getting used to.
You can cancel out 'service engine' type warnings and download graphs into the scanner and see what it is doing.
My truck has a slight miss and a strong fuel fume smell but no check engine warnings.
It powers up off the vehicles 12V system, no batteries needed.

Blue driver

The bluetooth OBD2 readers are pretty interchangeable, from 20-35 dollars. The app or program that you read it with is more important.

Reading and deleting codes is easy, making the codes stop is not as easy as reading and deleting them.

No experience with GM products, Toyota and Ferd here.

Depending on your budget, the innovia 5610 is an upper end home owner OBD2 scanner. This one is bi-directional. It can be found used for $250ish

This is the one I use - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00652G4T...8NZR3&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

tag