Diesel more sluggish than gas?

[Mostovi]

New to the site, so hello to everyone. Will be moving into the motor home world soon. I had pretty much settled on DP or large super C, but I've read several posts here where some folks said some diesels are actually more sluggish than gas. Contrary to all I've ever heard. Can those of you with more experience than myself please explain? Thanks!

[jplante4]

Gear ratios in the popular Allison transmissions may make a DP seem sluggish, especially in first gear. It all comes down to torque, which in most cases the diesels win.

[gutfelt]

Mostovi wrote:
New to the site, so hello to everyone. Will be moving into the motor home world soon. I had pretty much settled on DP or large super C, but I've read several posts here where some folks said some diesels are actually more sluggish than gas. Contrary to all I've ever heard. Can those of you with more experience than myself please explain? Thanks!

as others have said size(weight) is what dictates what engine is used and best
Diesel pushers have diesel engines because they need the torque of diesels to push the heavy load; smaller lighter class C units gas engines are very effective I think most modern Super C units have diesel power; as far as sluggish? diesels are slower and lower reving
so u don't get the instant power shot off the line for sure

[DrewE]

I would not worry about what fuel the motorhome uses or what powerplant it has from a performance standpoint. It's going to be rather on the sluggish side compared to a car no matter what, but likewise it will get you where you need to go regardless. Some may be a little quicker than others going up a mountain, but that's relatively little of your travel time.

Acceleration off the line depends on how much power you can get to the wheels relative to the weight of the motorhome. Many diesel pushers are heavier than gas motorhomes, and don't have correspondingly more power, so they are slower in initial flat-out acceleration. For climbing a hill, again weight vs. power comes into play, but the power also has to overcome air resistance which is probably closer to equivalent across motorhomes. At altitude still another difference comes into play since gas motorhomes generally are not turbocharged while diesels are, and so the gas one will see power drop off more due to the thinner air.

The net of everything is that a lightweight gas motorhome may well accelerate faster than some diesel motorhomes that have higher weight or lower power output, while other diesel motorhomes will outperform them. None of that matters one bit when you're sitting in a campsite eating s'mores.

That being said, I would avoid the old four cylinder Toyota pickup-based class C's if you care about vehicle performance at all.

[Dutch_12078]

You're not likely to beat anyone "off the line" with any motorhome, no matter how it's powered. Low end "kick" would be a really foolish criteria for selecting an RV.

[DutchmenSport]

Don't know about motor homes, but my diesel 3500 duly pick-up truck ... well?? If I stomp on the "gas" peddle, the rear tires spin and if on gravel will throw gravel half a mile! When driving, if I stomp on the "peddle", it lunges like a jack rabbit. When towing, if I do jack-rabbit starts, I can get a pretty good edge on a lot of smaller cars.

I'm on my second diesel duly. I remember I was really shocked how much of a jack-rabbit kick-off my first one had, when I did that the first time. It whipped the socks off any gasoline auto I think I ever had.

Now ... a motor home can have 20-30 thousand pounds of weight the engine has to over come inertia. Even 18 wheelers, when driving just the tractor and no trailer, have phenomenal pick-up. Add the trailer loaded, and they lumber to get up speed.

Depending upon the size of engine and the weight of the motorhome, could account for a much slower "Jack rabbit" experience.

[ScottG]

Diesels dont have that instant response off the line like a fuel injected gas engine. Where they shine is once they get moving a little and in the hills.