Gas or Diesel

Vulcaneer wrote:

pnichols wrote:

tdeal823 wrote:
Once you have the torque of a diesel at your foot anything else will be like pulling with a KIA.

That's purely a matter of preference and not based on the physics of horsepower conversion.

The only torque that matters is the torque actually being applied to the drive axle(s) ... and what it takes to make that is horsepower conversion by the proper overall vehicle gearing so as to transform that horsepower into drive axle torque.

Diesels pull different than gassers, not intrinsically better than gassers. Thoroughly read and absorb this discussion thread to understand what's really going on with the two different ways of pulling a load:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27698336/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1

Well....that is NOT the only thing that matters. Nor is the HP conversion. Another important thing is...at what RPM. If it makes the Torque (and HP) at a much lower RPM, then the comfort of towing is much better. And your seat of the pants feeling is much better. That is the biggest difference between diesel and gas towing capability and comfort.

Diesel produces the torque and HP at lower RPM. And the curves are much flatter...from bottom to top of the rpm range.

Vulcaneer, You are wasting your time and effort trying to explain the difference between towing with a lot of HP vs. a lot of Torque.
I move an 11,000# 5er without difficulty at highway speed on both interstates and two lane roads. I do this with about 270 hp and 530# of torque, and 3.55 gears. I can pull 6% and 7% grades at speed in 4th with my 5 speed manual.

You can do the math all you want, but not likely a 270hp gas engine with less torque could do that even with 4.10's or lower.

I rest my case.