Gas or Diesel

pnichols wrote:

rhagfo wrote:
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.

My V10 will easily do the same on the same grades at the same speeds and at 9000 foot altitudes pulling our 11,800 lb. motorhome's weight - I just have put up with (enjoy!) the gear changes and it's 4800 RPM so as to tap more of it's horsepower (305 HP maximum). It's crankshaft torque is probably only around 420 lbs. when doing this -> but proper overall vehicle gearing leverages-up this crankshaft torque to the drive axle torque needed to do this.

So ... it seems that it is unfortunately impossible to discuss diesel versus gasser performance comparisons without throwing away logic/physics/engineering and eventually reverting back to good old preference. This is assuming that one leaves turbo charging out of the discussion - because it's "completely unfair" to compare a turbo charged diesel engine of X horsepower to a non-turbo charged gas engine of the same X horsepower. Engine manufacturers of course nowadays seem to always include turbo charging to their modern diesel engine designs, thus giving diesel owners another explanation as to why, in at least mountain driving, they feel that their diesels pull better - as their engines should do when the air thins out. A turbo charged gas engine continues to put out better horsepower as the altitude increases, too ... but just try to get turbo charging in a truck gasser engine.