Diesel more sluggish than gas?

Diesel vs gas discussions could go on for pages and not reach a definite conclusion because there are so many variables and are not apples to apples comparison. Op I would suggest reading Johnny T's diesel vs gas under frequently asked questions he goes into much detail and you will learn a lot from his Sticky Post. I would start with what size MH to you want. If you want a 40 ft MH to fulltime or travel in get a diesel. If you want a shorter MH to frequent SP's, NP's, or NFS CG's a shorter gas MH would be more appropriate because you will find many more spots where you MH will fit. A 40 ft MH would fit in some NP's but have much fewer spaces that will accommodate them. As far as your performance question if the MH's were the same size, HP and weight I would choose the diesel but that is not the case. DP's usually weight much more for the same HP so it is not a fair comparison. Most of these discussions provide no performance metrics that one can use to determine which MH will perform better, but a simple test is to measure the time it takes to get from 40-60 mph. If folks would post these times,HP and the MH's weight you would have meaningful data to make a decision based on performance. I have tested a number of MHs and have found that lighter gas MH's in the 30-32 ft range will take about 12-14 secs, 33-36 will be about 14-16 secs, several 40 ft DP's I test drove were 17-22 secs. You will find a DP with 330-350 HP that weights 30k lbs or more will have less performance than a 340 or 362 HP gas MH that weights 15k lbs. For a more detailed explanation read Johnny T's Sticky.