Towing in the real world. gas or diesel
I've been down the gas road in 04 and the diesel in 09. Looking to buy again. I had a lighter trailer in 04 but my siverado 6+ liter gas would just scream in a head wind. 4000 rpm was common. Bigge...
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I pulled a combined weight of just over 30K with my 3500 6.0 and it would scream (just check the spec sheet and see where on the RPM gauge these gas motors make their power). I was pulling equipment and not an RV so not near the wind resistance. It used fuel of course. I live at 5K feet and would climb to just over 8k in my area. The power ratings being what they are, all of the gas HD trucks are pretty close in performance based on what you see on the Ike pull offs.
The diesel trucks make pulling a lot more pleasant, they don't work as hard, get better mileage (for me it is about 3-4 mpg depending on how hard you worked it). What I really appreciate about the diesel aside from the power, is coming down off the passes. The exhaust brake is the sweetest thing since sliced bread. The gas truck would spin hard in grade braking and I would have to be more careful not to over rev. Like someone said you could not have had a worse motor to experience a diesel in. All three are much improved, with Ford being the most improved considering where they were and personally I don't think you can go wrong no matter which direction you went if you chose to go diesel. As for gas motors if you didn't like the high revving nature of the 6.0 your not going to like any of them since that is where they all make their power. Get over that and a properly speced gas truck can pull 12K. It will be slower, use more fuel, but in most cases the gas is cheaper so there is that, and you will need to be more careful going down hill since you wont have an exhaust brake.
The diesel trucks make pulling a lot more pleasant, they don't work as hard, get better mileage (for me it is about 3-4 mpg depending on how hard you worked it). What I really appreciate about the diesel aside from the power, is coming down off the passes. The exhaust brake is the sweetest thing since sliced bread. The gas truck would spin hard in grade braking and I would have to be more careful not to over rev. Like someone said you could not have had a worse motor to experience a diesel in. All three are much improved, with Ford being the most improved considering where they were and personally I don't think you can go wrong no matter which direction you went if you chose to go diesel. As for gas motors if you didn't like the high revving nature of the 6.0 your not going to like any of them since that is where they all make their power. Get over that and a properly speced gas truck can pull 12K. It will be slower, use more fuel, but in most cases the gas is cheaper so there is that, and you will need to be more careful going down hill since you wont have an exhaust brake.
