Diesel Question for truck campers

My first thought is that if you live in / travel around the bigger mountain areas....YES, it's still worth it. But I have to admit that I haven't experienced the newer big v-8 gas engines with a heavy load so perhaps I am wrong??

Diesel ain't going up around here, it is coming down. Reg gas fluctuates all over the board. Diesel is more, but remains somewhat constant, down a little from a month ago. $3.79/gal a month ago. $3.65/gallon today.

Diesel fuel in Indiana has been 50 - 95 cents more than gas for several years now. The day after we bought our diesel truck, diesel prices went higher than gas ... and it's never flipped back since.

Am I glad I have the diesel? I'm not hauling a truck camper, but am towing a pretty substantial trailer now. My previous tow vehicle was a 3500 gas Chevy dually and the current truck is a 3500 diesel Chevy dually. The difference was as much as night and day! Expensive to drive? Well, it gets about 15 mph empty and the current camper about 11 mph towing. At fuel prices nearly $4.00 a gallon, .... you do the math! Is it worth it ... absolutely! The primary purpose for our truck is to tow the camper, although we use it for a lot more than that. And I think that's the secret to reconciling in your mind why anyone would tolerate diesel prices ... keep focused WHY you want the truck .... to haul your camper and the price of fuel really becomes "irrelevant!"

You will not regret going with diesel, especially when your truck is really under a load! Keep focused ... get the truck to haul the camper! get the truck to haul the camper! get the truck to haul the camper! AH.... I get it now!

Gas versus Diesel? It all depends on who you are and what you will be doing with it. Personally I like diesel because its not as explosive, and its shelf life. Its a nice feeling to have several hundred gallons of fuel stored away that you can keep for years and it will burn in my pickup, freightliner, tractors ect. Top that off with increased power and torque and its an easy decision for me. Then I have a little tiny gas car that gets almost 40 mpg that fits behind my camper and that helps offset the higher cost of diesel.

Our diesel price is always up this time of year as the oil companys claim the high demand for heating oil limits supply. It will drop in spring to around 5 cents more than gas. For pulling or carrying any load I would not hesitate to get the diesel.If you are using it as a daily driver,then the gas engine may be better. IMHO I would never go back to a gasser.

I love hauling my Lance 1010 with my 7.3 power stroke! I expect to get 500k miles or more out of the engine.

I agree with the above statements. I prefer the diesel for its towing power. My silverado gets 20 mpg mty and running 75 mph on the interstate. Around town, I get around 15-16. With the camper on, I average 11-13 mpg depending on the wind and other variables . That is with me cruising at 60 mph.

I really like the power with the camper on the truck. It will move right with traffic, All I have to do is step on that right pedal.

Simple fact: if you compare a gas engine with a diesel engine that has similar performance, the diesel will get 30 to 50 % better fuel mileage. This is inherent in the thermal efficiency of the diesel vs gas engine, and of course, you can sacrifice some of that mileage advantage to get better performance.

So if you take the lower figure of 30%, it means that if gas costs you $3.00 per gallon, diesel has to cost $3.90 to work out to the same cost per mile. Put another way, the OP would pay 15.8% more per gallon to go 30% farther.

I have two diesels, a VW Jetta that gets just under 50 miles per gallon. It was offered with a gas engine that was pretty well matched for performance, and fell close to the 50% better mileage range. I also have a Jeep Libby diesel that is substantially stronger than the alternate gas engine that was offered. 295 ft-lbs torque, compared to 210 for the gasser, and it gets closer to the 30% better mileage mark. (I've since chipped it to get 335 ft-lbs, and curiously it gets better mileage now too.)

It appears that this thread addresses only a few aspects of the diesel vs gasser discussion: fuel mileage and performance. What about all the other factors? Long term cost of ownership. Reliability. Durability. Buying new vs buying used. Hauling a heavy camper vs hauling a light one.

For some, it seems that the performance characteristics of a diesel outweigh all other considerations. "Would you buy that vehicle again" surveys seem to show a higher percentage of yeses for diesels, regardless of brand, than for gassers. I'm not speaking in favor of one or the other. Just reporting what I've observed.

The extra cost of diesel can easily be discounted if the fuel is purchased for off-road (less taxes) use or written off as farm equipment fuel. Not anyone on these forums would do this, but I have heard the old guys talking about it. I purchased a gasser for the 500 plus extra pounds of payload.