Diesel Question for truck campers

[Bigfootchevy]

I believe a diesel engine is the best for hauling a truck camper.

With the price of diesel going up more each week is it still worth it?

Just looking for opinions.

Today in Canada a gallon of diesel is worth about 75 cents more than gas!

With the extra cost of the diesel engine and extra cost at the pump, I am starting to rethink my decision to order my new truck with a diesel!

I cannot see me not ordering a diesel, but I just got back from vacation and drove pass the gas station and saw the new diesel price of $1.39 per litre cost, was a bit of a shock. Gas was $1.20 per litre. I believe their are 3.7 litres in a gallon.

Thanks

Paul

[Bigfootchevy]

Finding diesel anywhere in Canada or Alaska was no problem that I can remember.

Paul

[Mike_Hohnstein]

F-250 w/new, really a new 460 engine not a rebuilt, with head work done. Gibson headers and 4" single exhaust, 4:11 auto trans with triple lock converter 31" tires, problem was with the Lance 1040 I was stopping too much for fuel, barely get 250 miles between stops, frequently less. Great power and sweet sound, but short range. Replaced with F-350 dually 7.3 with 5 sp manual, same rear gear ratio, slightly shorter tires. Routinely see 400 miles between stops, I'm better with that.

[Bedlam]

I've owned diesels since 1982 and never had trouble finding fuel on either coast or anywhere between. On highways and rural areas diesel is common - Suburbs and cities is the most scarce but still easily available between fill ups. My wife has driven a diesel for over ten years and never complained about fuel availability.

[Farmerjon]

We have also traveled thousands of miles and I do check our route for diesel stations just to be prepared but it's never been a problem.There are areas that we make sure our tank is full before heading thru but if we are traveling in a gasser we take the same precaution.
If the only thing I ever hauled was our TC I wouldn't need a diesel, but I don't need a diesel for the heaviest loads I pull either. I can pull a trailer grossing out at 25,000lbs with a straight 6 gas engine if it's geared low enough. but I don't want to. It's not a matter of need, it's a matter of want, and I feel a diesel is a nicer truck for the job.
Jon

[stickbowjoe]

Spent as much time planning diesel fuel stops as...???

That's just plumb silly. I've been everywhere, man. All 50, but no TC in Hawaii. I gravitate toward the loneliest places.

35 gallon tank. 10-14 mpg.

I very much doubt if there is a spot in our great nation which is >100 miles from a diesel pump.

Relax, brother. Fill up when you can, and enjoy the great wide-open.

Joe

[Redsky]

I find that gasbuddy it the first source to go to for information on where to find fuel. If that fails then I can go to Google Maps and for each small town on the route do a search for gas stations. I can then phone the stations and see if they sell diesel. I had to do this for a trip last fall through NM and AZ and it took a great deal of time. I would not have had to do this if my truck burned gas instead of diesel.

The Alcan is hardly a typical route for 99% of the people hauling truck campers but I would expect closer to 90% will at some time visit the western USA to go to places like Yellowstone and Zion. Why not stick to what is the real world for most people using a truck to carry a camper.

If you felt the need or desire to have a diesel engine then go for it. Lots of people feel the need to have a Jeep or a Hummer when they never venture off the pavement or wear cowboy boots but will never get on the back of a horse. The OP in case anyone can remember was asking about the value of a diesel engine for a truck camper rig. But unless someone is planning to tow a 10,000 trailer behind their camper a gas engine is more than enough and it is being silly to say that they NEED a diesel.

I was used to large trucks pulling horse trailers with a dozen horses and the diesel made a big difference on the grades. The trucks also had large tanks and could go 500 plus miles between fuel stops. I bought a diesel truck in 2011 to haul a camper and my thinking at the time was that I would have 20% more range per tankful with the greater fuel economy of the diesel engine.

It was a rude awakening to find that on our trips over the last three years that I spend as much time planning fuel stops where I can buy diesel as any other aspect and often the locations of stations selling diesel determines our route. Having driven many thousands of miles with the diesel truck all over California, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, and Arizona, and going to scenic areas and that is seldom along the Interstates (compare I-5 in California to Hwy 101 or Hwy 1 for example), diesel has been a negative element most of the time.

[stickbowjoe]

Good info, Butch.

Thanks.

Joe

[Butch50]

elkhornsun,

You can not use Gasbuddy for the gospel that there is no diesel in the town. It relies on people reporting the prices their not that there is fuel there. If there is only one station in town and you have to go some distance for another station what good is it to report it, you are just going to buy it. I looked across the back route from Flagstaff to Taos and the longest distance I showed using Gasbuddy was 172 miles from Tuba City, AZ to Shiprock NM of 172 miles. This was taking Hwy 89 to 160 to 84 into Taos. A total distance of 452 miles.

I looked at Google Earth and it showed a station in Jenner, CA on Hwy 1 with diesel but guess what Gasbuddy didn't show any diesel and in fact it didn't show any gas either. :E

On the hwy route 1 Gasbuddy isn't showing any gas stations for regular either so I guess there isn't any gas on that road or diesel. No it just means nobody is reporting it.

Now if you take a drive and report to Gasbuddy all the stations on the route that has gas and diesel and then we well have good updated Gasbuddy for all of us to follow along behind you.

Use something that has some concrete facts whether there is fuel there or not. I know there are stations where I live that have diesel but Gasbuddy doesn't show them having it either.

Also when I went to Alaska last year along the Alaska highway there were some places that had diesel but they did have any regular gas. I was sweating a little coming into Watson Lake on fumes in my gas truck (not really I was carrying 7 gallons of fuel along with me in case of emergency). 🙂

Sorry everybody for the long post.

[work2fish]

For what it's worth, my F-350 4X4 SRW 6.7L CrewCab Shortbox with 20" wheels has a payload capacity of 3418lbs...

[brholt]

Mello Mike wrote:

brholt wrote:

Mello Mike wrote:

Bigfootchevy wrote:
The Pros & Cons of why we love our diesels:

- Too bad it comes with a $10k premium on the purchase, fuel costs 15-20% higher per gallon and when it does break it's going to be expensive.

- payload penalty of almost 1000 lbs.

- For a Cummins 6.7L diesel, the cost is $7,995.

- The payload penalty is actually more like 500 lbs.

Maybe for Ram. For Ford it depends on the configuration but for the F350 DRW 4x4 CC it is 950 lbs.

I was actually using the new Ford engine weights. The 6.7L Scorpion weighs in at 1,100 lbs while the 6.2L gasser comes in a hair under 600 lbs.

6.7L Scorpion Specs

I was using the actual payload capacity Ford gives. Remember you have to add in other weight for the Diesel besides the core engine. For example, two batteries instead of one, DEF tank, etc

[Mello_Mike]

brholt wrote:

Mello Mike wrote:

Bigfootchevy wrote:
The Pros & Cons of why we love our diesels:

- Too bad it comes with a $10k premium on the purchase, fuel costs 15-20% higher per gallon and when it does break it's going to be expensive.

- payload penalty of almost 1000 lbs.

- For a Cummins 6.7L diesel, the cost is $7,995.

- The payload penalty is actually more like 500 lbs.

Maybe for Ram. For Ford it depends on the configuration but for the F350 DRW 4x4 CC it is 950 lbs.

I was actually using the new Ford engine weights. The 6.7L Scorpion weighs in at 1,100 lbs while the 6.2L gasser comes in a hair under 600 lbs.

6.7L Scorpion Specs

[elkhornsun]

I have been driving diesel trucks for decades but with large saddle tanks. Pickups are another story and if fuel was so easy to find then one has to question the sanity of people spending $1100 or more to put larger tanks in their pickup trucks. How stupid they must be when there is a diesel station every 150 miles!

My truck has a 30 gallon fuel tank and that translates to less than 300 miles with a heavy load going through the mountains or when it is windy and the truck has to overcome the air drag of the camper. I don't want to run out of fuel with a diesel (some may not understand why but it is a factor) so I will fuel up when I have a quarter of a tank left and often much sooner to make it to the next place that actually sells diesel - in the area I am traveling which by the way is not Arkansas oddly enough. Last time I checked Arkansas was in the east.

Out in the western United States where evidently many on this forum have not traveled it is a very different situation. Many small towns have only one gas station and it seldom has diesel at the pumps. Do a trip routing from Los Angeles to Taos, New Mexico and through the Canyonlands area and check gasbuddy.com and see how many places sell diesel along the scenic routes. Damn few. Check routes through the California gold country or along Highway 1. Take the time to see what you can find instead of talking about your town.

The question should be what does one gain with a 4,000 lb. camper load by spending an extra $9000 for the diesel engine option compared to the gas V-8 with low gears. Does a zero to 60 MPH time of 8 seconds instead of 10 seconds make that much of a difference and how often is this the case?

My truck has a diesel engine but I would be kidding myself to think for a second that I needed it to haul around my camper or tow my bass boat. It's like the old fart with the new Corvette that puts out 500 HP - it becomes more about bragging rights.

I put the best lubricants I can into the engine and transmission of my truck to protect my investment. I don't use a synthetic 5W40 oil as I don't live in an area with sub zero temperatures. A 15W40 gives me the best year round protection and I consider hauling a camper through the sierras a severe duty use of the truck and that means changing the oil more often and the theoretical longer life of a synthetic is not going to matter when the oil is drained. I use the top rated dino oil for diesels.

Seems like many of the people on this forum have their minds made up and heaven help anyone who brings up new information that contradicts their preconceived notions.

[brholt]

Mello Mike wrote:

Bigfootchevy wrote:
The Pros & Cons of why we love our diesels:

- Too bad it comes with a $10k premium on the purchase, fuel costs 15-20% higher per gallon and when it does break it's going to be expensive.

- payload penalty of almost 1000 lbs.

- For a Cummins 6.7L diesel, the cost is $7,995.

- The payload penalty is actually more like 500 lbs.

Maybe for Ram. For Ford it depends on the configuration but for the F350 DRW 4x4 CC it is 950 lbs.

[Bigfootchevy]

sky_free wrote:

Mello Mike wrote:

Bigfootchevy wrote:
The Pros & Cons of why we love our diesels:

- Too bad it comes with a $10k premium on the purchase, fuel costs 15-20% higher per gallon and when it does break it's going to be expensive.

- payload penalty of almost 1000 lbs.

- For a Cummins 6.7L diesel, the cost is $7,995.

- The payload penalty is actually more like 500 lbs.

I think those are Canadian prices, so $10,000 is possible.

I noticed the GVWR is higher on diesel's, which allows the payload to be similar in many cases. Most of the additional weight is on the front, and the increased GVWR makes up most of the rest.

Bigfootchevy wrote:


- Higher resale value.

Maybe, but as I said earlier, around here the difference is very small if you can somehow find a comparable gasser truck to what is typically available in diesel.

Yes, I am using Canadian prices. But the $10,000.00 includes the Allison transmission that comes with my diesel truck. In Canada there are lots of gas and diesel HD trucks, but there is also a big difference in the trade-in value with Diesel leading the way.

Paul

[sky_free]

Mello Mike wrote:

Bigfootchevy wrote:
The Pros & Cons of why we love our diesels:

- Too bad it comes with a $10k premium on the purchase, fuel costs 15-20% higher per gallon and when it does break it's going to be expensive.

- payload penalty of almost 1000 lbs.

- For a Cummins 6.7L diesel, the cost is $7,995.

- The payload penalty is actually more like 500 lbs.

I think those are Canadian prices, so $10,000 is possible.

I noticed the GVWR is higher on diesel's, which allows the payload to be similar in many cases. Most of the additional weight is on the front, and the increased GVWR makes up most of the rest.

Bigfootchevy wrote:


- Higher resale value.

Maybe, but as I said earlier, around here the difference is very small if you can somehow find a comparable gasser truck to what is typically available in diesel.