Jumping off the Diesel Bandwagon - UPDATED

transamz9 wrote:

Redsky wrote:
Smart move ib516 though your logic is not going to persuade die-hard diesel fanatics.

You wisely decided to put more emphasis on the 90% of the time the truck is not used to tow a trailer. We and our friends have downsized our RV's to make it easier to travel and to be able to go more places and camp at more locations.

The new gas engines may put out as much horsepower and are usually more than adequate with the 4.10 gears as you mentioned, but the diesel engines do still provide nearly double the lb ft of torque which affects acceleration times merging into traffic on freeways, passing times on the highway and even the ability to safely pass on long mountain grades, and the gas engines do not provide nearly the engine braking of most diesel engines.

Another aspect of diesel is having biodiesel forced on us by the big corn ag corporations. As MPG improves the same amount of corn is going into ethanol and gas and into biodiesel and neither ethanol or biodiesel is good for engines. Biodiesel is much more likely to gel in cold weather and only new engines have the fuel heaters to deal with this fuel and even they have trouble with B20 fuels.

I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud but here goes....

The gas engines today in the HD trucks are capable of putting as much torque to the rear wheels while pulling the hills as the diesels are through gearing. The main difference is the RPM's at which they do it.

If one is going to tow a few times a year but mostly use their truck as a DD then the gas motors are more than capable to tow the biggest of RV's. They are just going to have to run in their power range (upper RPM range) to do it. Some people can live with that and there's nothing wrong with it. I believe that it shortens the gas motors life buy doing this towing a lot.

LOL! :h

My 01 Cummins with a small chip would be rated at Max (stock+Chip gains) at 285hp and 560 lb. ft. of torque. The stock 410# is more than a lot of current gas engines. I tow 11,000# (19,000#+ GCVW) with 3.55's and a 5 speed. Hills on the highway are taken at speed, hills in the small coastal towns with their hill are pulled without shifting from 3rd, while staying with traffic. Yes this is 14 year old engine.