Gasser guys and gals ...why not a diesel ?

I know many of you are having fun beating each other over the head with your experiences and I too enjoy it. And I for one, still deciding, find it useful. Any additional detail or depth on cost related items would be great. Like is it really $235 for an oil change? They just tried to charge my daughter $75 for one on an older sedan, so maybe 235 isn't that far off? Can that job be done DIY? Again, this is helpful. Thanks

As others have said, my decision was cost. For the same floorplan, the diesels were $75,000 more than my gas Class A. For the amount of miles I put on the motorhome a year, that cost didn't make sense to me. I guess if I lived out west and was driving in the mountains all the time, I might have considered paying the extra cost.

I know the Smokey mountains are not the Rockys but I have driven a lot of miles in the Smokeys towing our Jeep and my gas Class A did just fine.

Burch

Hi LandYacht35diesel,

I have never been to Hawaii.

As far as I am aware I did not have an Allison transmission.

There were lots of other issues--but the log book is not in my possession.

I have had almost zero problems with my E-450 v10.

Richard ... what specifically failed ? Could you have adapted a Allison trans to a BBF ? I know they have adapters for a big block Mopar.

Now spending THREE LARGE on that upgrade would be money well spent !

pFish ... 235$ oil changes ? ... how many nights of lodging in Hawaii do you get with that ?

Two transmissions? You only need THE ONE that came with it ! The Allison transmission is virtually BULLETPROOF..... the only thing that stresses them is way WAY overloading them.

For us a 32’ works. Looked at diesels in the 32-34 range and they had less storage than our gasser.

LandYacht35diesel wrote:

RLS7201 wrote:
I'm going to go with cost. Right now my gasser transmission is sitting on my garage floor waiting for the replacement to arrive. $3K for the HP tranny and I'm doing the R&R. Couldn't do that at home with a diesel.


Richard

Richard .... my man .... 3k$ for a Fix Or Repair Daily transmission......

Sounds to me you got ...... DICKED !

I’ve done HUNDREDS of transmissions over the years .... just Mopars .... you should have gone on a Ford site before spending that kind of coin.

Bottom line .... the transmission biz is a HUGE RACKET

Well I didn't tell the whole story. I have a stroked 460/528 engine with RV cam, compression raised from 8.4 to 9.0, Banks complete power pack and a little porting.
All that took out the stock transmission. I could find no one in the Midwest willing to build a high performance E4OD with low stall converter and triple disc clutches in the converter. Steel baskets and 6 planetary gear sets. Plus some other nice little touches the shop offered.
The converter alone is a $800 item. For the package I wanted, I found pricing ranging from $8K to $4.5K. + freight.
I am well pleased with $3K, which includes shipping both ways.
Tell me how much you could build such transmission for and maybe we can do business next time.


Richard

pianotuna wrote:

LandYacht35diesel wrote:
To add ... people saying diesel maintenance is too high ?

Like what ?

LandYacht35diesel My 1987 was on a Ford 350 chassis and was a FRED.

1. additives to every tank of fuel

2. oil changes at $235.00

3. 3 sets of fan belts

4. 2 transmissions

5. having to have shore power or a generator for starting in cold weather.

6. failed glow plugs 2 x

7. failed power steering 2 x

8. failed house isolator

9. failed grounding wire to dash

10. failed starter

11. front tires needing to be rotated every 6 thousand miles

12. failed fuel line. I had to have them cut out the heater and use generic fuel line.

13. failed starter solenoid

14. failed transmission cooler

These are a few of the many problems I and my brother had.

Only a couple of those items are exclusive to diesel.
Fan belts, transmissions,starters can fail on any engine even the gas powered ones.;)

LandYacht35diesel wrote:
To add ... people saying diesel maintenance is too high ?

Like what ?

LandYacht35diesel My 1987 was on a Ford 350 chassis and was a FRED.

1. additives to every tank of fuel

2. oil changes at $235.00

3. 3 sets of fan belts

4. 2 transmissions

5. having to have shore power or a generator for starting in cold weather.

6. failed glow plugs 2 x

7. failed power steering 2 x

8. failed house isolator

9. failed grounding wire to dash

10. failed starter

11. front tires needing to be rotated every 6 thousand miles

12. failed fuel line. I had to have them cut out the heater and use generic fuel line.

13. failed starter solenoid

14. failed transmission cooler

These are a few of the many problems I and my brother had.

Copy and Pasty