Diesel vs gas......................

Travis1963 wrote:
I have read a large amount of this forum and have enjoyed most of it, for it's great info and sometimes humor. I do understand this is almost impossible but i would like to hear comments on my current situation. I am looking at a 2500 Ram 6.4liter gas and a 2500 Ram 6.7. Both new. I will buy one of these. I have a small one man lawn service. 16' work trailer, 5000 lbs. I will also load the bed with sand, dirt or mulch to its over flow many times a summer. It will also be my daily driver, 20,000 miles a year. My wife and I are looking for our third camper, a fifth wheel this time. I guess 10K to 12K weight. We live in flats of west Tn. but will go through Smokies regularly and over the Rockies a few times and plan for one trip to Alaska or Alberta. I think diesel fuel here is about .80 over gasoline. I am 50 and would like this to be my last new truck. I am truly on the fence and don't like being there. I have had an 8.1 Chevy with Allison, 95 cummins, 08 cummins lemon-lawed that one. The above info about usage of the new truck is as accurate as I can make it. I feel like I am right at the flipping point from one or the other. Thank you very much for any info on this very debated subject. I do appreciate it.

That's a tough decision but it sounds like you have all the important facts on the table. If there's any chance your new 5th wheel or any future RV will exceed the weights you mentioned I'd go with the diesel. I think a gas powered truck would be a better fit for your one man landscape business but when you mention towing larger RV's on a regular basis on grades like those in the smokies or rockies, more torque and better fuel mileage while towing point to a diesel.

I had a similar choice to make and moved on it two months ago when we found the right truck for the right price. With retirement roughly five years away I wanted to upgrade our TV (from a 1/2 ton extended cab to a 3/4 ton crew cab) and go into retirement with no vehicle payments. I do not use the TV for daily commuting and do not anticipate towing more than 10k lbs. Towing on steep mountain grades or at oxygen lean elevations will be a rare event.
For us a gas engine made more sense. I ended up with a slightly used F250 V10 CC. I've towed our toy hauler once with it and was very pleased with the difference over the 1/2 ton. The family loves the extra room of the CC. Mileage while towing is the same 8-10 I saw with the 1/2 ton. Otherwise we get 13-14 mpg vs 17-18 mpg we used to get but I fully expected that.