Diesel more sluggish than gas?

Mr.Mark wrote:

hipower wrote:

gutfelt wrote:

hipower wrote:
This has been an interesting discussion and I can only offer my somewhat biased opinion based on many years of heavy vehicle operation as well as many years of RV ownership.

Our current coach is a 2003 Dutch Star with a Cummins ISC 350. It is no race car nor is it quick from a standing start. Does it do what I expect of it? Absolutely, and quite effectively. We have had numerous years where we traveled 10,000 plus miles and regardless of which coach we were driving they all did the job. Currently we are traveling about 2,500 miles per year and from a point of size and investment we could get by with less coach until we park for extended periods of time and the room is more important.

If I had the luxury of designing a coach chassis from scratch based on our use today it would have a 500+ c.i., turbocharged gas engine in a rear mounted configuration. Backed by a 8-10 speed automatic transmission with air ride suspension and air brakes. Obviously such an animal doesn't exist, and the closest thing to what I describe was the recent Workhorse rear engine chassis which had a short life and was overpriced, in my opinion with, very limited numbers of manufacturers offering them in their lineups.

Obviously this diatribe doesn't answer the OP's question, but my take on this whole thing is simple, if acceleration is a major factor in a buying decision maybe motorhomes aren't the best way for someone to travel.

BUT a 500++CID turbo diesel will still out perform your gas idea that's the point here based on the identical other ideals

I won't disagree with your thoughts, but believe what I described would fit our current usage of our motorhome at the lowest cost per mile for operation and should be less expensive in the initial purchase price. Both may be flawed opinions, but they are just that, opinions. Regardless, at 70 I don't see any changes from our current coach to anything else in our future.

Seems like a gas engine could not handle a large heavy motorhome.

MM.

If we expect to drive a heavy coach with carlike performance then you would be absolutely correct.

Based on my early years driving tandem and tri-axle dumptrucks with large gas engines, none of which had the benefit of today's technology or turbocharging I would disagree that a gas engine couldn't work. Those trucks moved loads up to 80,000 lbs quite well so with the advances in materials and engineering I believe it could work well, especially in lower mileage applications like RV's.