We are moving from a Ram 5500 to a F350. Insurance was too high on the "commercial truck" Considering a Gas over Diesel. More payload would be nice and the savings of a Gas vehicle over diesel is not small.
Anyone have thoughts on going the gas route and hauling a heavy truck camper. Probably a Arctic Fox 1150 wet bath.
Lol, only, and longest, interesting thread since they ruined this place. 2 thumbs up to y'all hanging on here.
Howdy Grit Dog..!
Only time we've ever seen anything North of 10mpg is empty, heading down hill. Most of our travels are at 50, maybe 60..small 2 lane roads. Almost always 25, 26k with the camper and trailer...and the average mpg is a staggering 7...maybe 8 on good weeks.
I'm starting to think some folks don't know how to calculate actual milage, or my last five 550's just all had chitty motors :) Makes no sense.
On the other subject... I'm not sold on the liquid springs from what I have read in following them. I wouldn't trade our Link suspension for anything.. but they aren't producing them any longer for small trucks, and that sucks. Air does work, we all know that.
Having Liquid spring suspension on the ram really made it much nicer to travel in, both empty and full. When empty on stock suspension a hill with washboard was sketchy, with LS it was easy driving. Its super expensive, but we planned to keep that truck for the long haul. Unfortunately not our decision to swap trucks. So We are going to do it again on the F450. Our 2019 F450 rode like a tank, and the new one is just the same.
Part of me wanted to go for gas and better possible mileage, but in the end, we wanted an up trim truck and stability. F450 is the most stable pickup truck out there for a larger camper IMO. Diesel it is again.
What would make you think a gas engine would get better mileage than a diesel?
Good you got a diesel for several reasons but another maybe not considered is, you don’t seem like someone who keeps a vehicle “forever”. You will lose way more on a gas dually on resale or trade, whether 3 years or 23 years from now.
You’d have to find the right buyer and when you do they would also likely realize what it’s worth.
Our Ram would get up to 12mpg with the camper on it. Sadly it was t-boned by an inattentive driver and totaled. Now we are arguing with insurance. Finding comps for a uptrim laramie 5500 is almost impossible. They only found two 4500's for comps.
Thanks, we have had diesels for over a decade. Going to a gas dually seems to enter unicorn territory. I think we are going to go F450 so the point is moot now. Diesel is the only option.
Your truck and camper look great btw.
You’re kinda all over the place here.
Agree finding a gas dually is rare especially if you don’t want the City Public works truck special!
But to answer your first question, any new HD gasser will haul that camper with ease as fast as you wanna push the skinny pedal.
Strange that Ford quit offering the 6.8 and Godzilla in F450/550 trucks. They did year or 2 ago. Must be trying to turn away business to the other 2 mfgs.
they don't sell. it is hard to find a f350 or f450 in a gas engine, the dealers up here just don't order them in as they will sit on the lot forever compared to the diesels. just like F250's up here, they are rare because depending where you live the luxery tax makes a f350 diesel cheeper than a f250 gass. (F350 and above are exempt) I imagin if you get out of the rural areas into the big city of Vancouver you might find more gassers but F150's are there if you want a gas engine up here haha
Gas trucks are all I've ever needed for my truck campers, I'm not sure where the gotta have diesel even came from. Modern fuel injected gas trucks have more than enough horsepower and torque to carry any truck camper. I swear everything about a diesel costs more, they think even windshield wipers and the air in the tires deserve special jacked up prices. My 2012 GMC 2500 has been carrying my camper all over Alaska, western Canada, and the western US since 2013 and has never had a trip to the shop for a repair, just basic maintenance (tires, air filters, & oil changes).
your a little out in the cost of a diesel. yes they cost 5 to 8K more to buy, but there is less than half the maintenance on them, and the fuel savings alone coverers that if you were disciplined enough to put those penny's away.
for example with my old trailer I had a gasser and I would get about 8mpg towing with it (trailer was 1500 lbs under the capacity of the truck) because you are towing you now go by the "extreme" category in the maintenance schedule. I switched to a 3/4 ton diesel and the only maintenance was filter and fluid changes. yes the oil change was three times the price but it was half the frequency so only a little more expensive, filters cost close to the same, but yes the diesel was a little more in filter costs, not much. the difference is I went from 8 MPG to 18 MPG toing that trailer AND diesel was $0.10/L cheaper than regular gas (37.8 cents a gal cheaper). now, its a little more than gas which is weird. I also do a lot of longer trips, so 1000 miles return with no extra driving but when we go see the older boy that turns into a 2500 mile trip we do ones a year over a couple weeks. so that would have been 312 gal of gas in the old truck in the old diesel it was about 138 gal of gas, plus the diesel was much nicer to drive. so up here out gas (cheapest price from Costco is 3.49 US for a US gal, and diesel is 3.84 US for a US gal. taking todays pricing I would have spent 1089 bucks US for that trip in gas. with the diesel the same trip would cost 530.00 US.
now with campers there is a difference also, not as big, but with my new diesel I get 14mpg (US) towing the 40 foot 5th wheel, with my truck camper in it driving at 65mph on average, am getting 19mpg. if I slow that down to 55 I jump into the 20mpg range. I do have it tuned with emission on tunes which helps, and when I finish the deletes and switch to emission off tunes (because I can do that where I live) I will probably jump 1 or 2 mpg more.
what is really nice is to be able to leave my house heading west. I have a 12 mile grade 8 climb, then I still climb over the next 50 miles, and the truck engine isn't screaming and I can easily maintain the 70mph speed limit if I want. also the convenience of using truck stop and high flow diesel nozzles is nice also. easy as pie when you are towing a trailer.
14 mpg pulling 14k 13’ tall brick and 20mpg with a 4klb 12’ tall brick?
cmon man….Ford should buy that one back from you so they can see what they did to make it get better mpgs than any truck in history!
