Almost time for a new truck

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,569]

The original plan was to get rid of the Hemi Durango and buy a used F350 CrewCab diesel. That was until I saw the cost of diesel at $4.67 / gallon. So I am looking for real life experiences with Diesel pickup trucks.

Here's the scenario. I have a rather large travel trailer (34') weighing in at about 8,000# loaded. The thought was to get an F-350 6.0 Turbo Diesel with the primary job to pull the trailer, or maybe get a bigger one

Anyway, the Durango pulls it just fine, but only gets about 9MPG while doing it. I had thought that the Diesel would get about 15 pulling the trailer, but I am guessing mostly.

With the price of fuel, I am wondering which will really be more economical? What are your thoughts?

[CasualObserver 3,410]

Ditch the camper and the truck idea, get a Yugo ( did he really just say Yugo? ) and stay in a hotel whenever you want to go anywhere! Just kidding Karl... I don't have first hand experience with the diesel, but I know my brother in law keeps saying he is glad he got rid of his F250 diesel before this price spike. Look on the bright side though... I bet you'll be able to get the diesel cheaper than you would have a few months ago.

[C-Series14 15]

I bought a 2006 Chevy K2500HD Diesel a couple months ago. It is the best truck I have ever owned. Has unbelieveable power. I put a 4" exhaust on it and a programmer set at 65hp and I get 22mpg on the interstate and near 20 in town. I have not towed anything heavy yet but I will never let the truck go, especially for a Yugo! I have read were some of the same trucks pulling a load get anywhere from 10 to 15 mpg. I am feeling the diesel price believe me but I like this truck enuf to not let the 'man" get me down. I always have the Harley for backup, it gets 50 mpg!!! :thumbs:

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,569]

:thumbs: You know Yugo's have rear window defrosters right? So your hands don't get cold pushing the darn thing..... :thumbs:

[Jim_M 179]

I haven't heard of anybody getting 15 out of 6 litre Ford towing a trailer, but you should get 12.

I have a Dodge with a Cummins, it has incredible torque and pulling power, but my best mpg ever was 20.

I had a GMC before this Dodge and it did better on fuel. I got 27 out of it once, but 22 was more of a good average. It had less horsepower, but I never ran into a situation where it didn't have enough power.

The manufacturers are going the wrong way with diesel engines. Every year they have more power. My Cummins has 325 horsepower from the factory with 621 lb.ft. of torque. I would rather have about 250 horsepower and get 25 or more mpg.

After all it's just a pickup truck, there's no need for it to have as much horsepower as a Kenworth.

The way they have diesel fuel priced right now, you would have to get 30 mpg pulling your camper to make it worth the cost of buying and owning a diesel truck.

Unless you plan to put a lot of miles on it towing the trailer, or keep it for 20 years, you're probably better off with a gas engine.

[wesley 32]

OHHHHHHHHHH l wish we got our gas at your prices, they charge us around $1 a pint here and its still going up , when lan an l row over the pond to get more horses we better bring some gas back to lol, but your jeeps are a big seller here thou.

wes

[Jim_M 179]

OHHHHHHHHHH l wish we got our gas at your prices, they charge us around $1 a pint here and its still going up , when lan an l row over the pond to get more horses we better bring some gas back to lol, but your jeeps are a big seller here thou.

wes

The Jeeps that they ship over there get better gas mileage than the same Jeep sold over here gets.

My wife had a Grand Cherokee that got 15 mpg around town. I ran into a guy in Ireland that had the identical Jeep other than being right hand drive and he was getting 24 mpg. Later that day I saw another one with a 4 cyl. turbocharged diesel and a 5 speed manual transmission. I talked to the man driving it and he was getting from 38 to 45 mpg out of it. They're not even available here

The rental car ( Toyota)I was driving was getting 38 to 41 mpg. A friend of mine over here has the exact same car and he is happy when he gets 30 mpg.

I've found the same to be true on every make and model of car that we share with Europe, the European version will get much better mpg.

If you don't mind....when you row over, bring me one of those Nissan Micras and I'll pay you for it with cans of gas. They're not much of a car, but it would get me back and forth to work for a week on what it costs me to drive my truck for 1 day.

[baerpath 517]

I have two Ford F250's with 7.3's in them. One is a 96 with over 470,000 miles on it the other is a 03 with 51,000 on it. Mileage is 20 to 22 with the 96, the 03 gets around 18-20. But when they are pulling trailers they both run around 17-18 Thats a 28ft enclosed loaded to just under 8000lb or more <_< I've also had a V10 Ford pulling a 22ft 6500lb trailer it got 7mpg It didn't stay long. Nothing I own is stock though I woudn't own a 6.0hno or a new 6.4 for that matter. A Ford with a Cummins Oh ya..

If you gonna keep it and use it then I'd go diesel otherwise probobly stay with a gasser

Look here http://www.competitiondiesel.com/forums/index.php or http://www.thedieselstop.com/ for some good info

[Nick 13]

Wow! Karl I thought our diesel was high. We just hit the high of $4.09 for diesel and regular gas was still at $3.25 a gallon. Thats also the largest gap Ive seen in this area between gas and diesel.

Have you ever pulled over the scales with that 34' trailer loaded down? it might be nearly over the limit of your Durangos GCVW.

Ive never towed with a regular diesel truck just driven the brothers big 99 F-450 7.3l stock diesel. She is a big girl at around 10,000 pounds empty. It also has 4.88 gears so empty, loaded or hauling it gets around 10 to maybe 12 mpg with 200K miles on it.

[Stigian 1,234]

Not wanting to hijack this thread, but as the chatter is about diesel pick-ups i thought id drop this in here

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the new member of the family.

Meet Bessie (my Wifes name for her) a 1991 Ford P100 1.8TD

No 4x4 and no power steering, but 45-ish mpg and a bed big enough to take my 312 with duels and the snowplow she cant be all bad

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,569]

Ian,

That is one cool looking truck. And 45 mph to boot. Man, that's good even for a small car. Is that a 8 foot bed on it? I take it that it has a 1.8 L Diesel engine, and I'm assuming 5 speed? The bed looks sort of like the beds from the Japanese imports of the 70's and early 80's with the tie down hooks outside under the rail and the 2 clamp down tail gate . Cool. :thumbs:

[Jim_M 179]

Ian,

That's another one that's not available over here. If it was I would have one. Is that a Mazda diesel under the hood?

Is your diesel fuel still cheaper than gas over there? My last time over, diesel was about 20 cents a litre cheaper than gas, the way it used to be over here.

Jim

[CasualObserver 3,410]

:thumbs: Now WHY can't anybody make a 45 mpg truck over here? :thumbs:

[Brrly1 1,146]

They used too make a pickup over here. Past Tense it was called a VW, It even had a diesel motor. John

[TT-(Moderator) 1,147]

Lot of resemblance to a Courier bed and a Merkur front section on that little truck....

Would that make it a MerCourier? :thumbs:

[Stigian 1,234]

Ian,

That is one cool looking truck. And 45 mph to boot. Man, that's good even for a small car. Is that a 8 foot bed on it? I take it that it has a 1.8 L Diesel engine, and I'm assuming 5 speed? The bed looks sort of like the beds from the Japanese imports of the 70's and early 80's with the tie down hooks outside under the rail and the 2 clamp down tail gate . Cool.

Your right Terry, she has a 5 speed box and a 1.8L diesel engine with quite a small in size turbo..

HHMMm wonder if i can find one to put on a WH

Im not quite sure how big the bed is, it was measured up using the long bit of wood and thumb in the right place method

Is that a Mazda diesel under the hood

I think its a Ford lump under the hood Jim M

I say "think", as Mazda produced the 121 ( i think it was called) thats a Ford Fiesta with different badges, so anything is possable

Not sure on the price of diesel, will let you know when we fill her up

Oh, and my Wife has given me the up for a flamed paint job

Not sure i will ever find the time to do it, but you never know.

Sometime during the summer maybe :D

[Nick 13]

Back in the 80s Ford sold a diesel Ranger and diesel Escort. A friend that had an Escort said he got up around 40 to 50 mpg. A local cement plant had a couple of the Turbo Diesel Rangers that they used for years and beat the heck out of those trucks. Today in South america and over seas Ford not only sells a turbo diesel Ranger but also a 4 door crew cab that we can not get.

Ian, very nice truck. I had the big boat version here, a Ranchero 302 v8 that might have only hit 15 to 17 mpg on a good day. I like those but the truck/car machines just never caught on much here. Ford Australia makes some real nice trucks today. They build models all the way from a work Flat bed Cab Chassis model up to a V8 sport model with around 350hp.

Ford Falcon AU site

Edit:

Whats the odds. Just minutes after I posted about Austrlian trucks I see at the NY auto show Pontiac is showing one they will import from down under.

Pontiac truck

Ok now Ive gone more :P

[Jim_M 179]

Back in the 80s Ford sold a diesel Ranger and diesel

I had one of those diesel escorts. It was an 85 with a 1.8 mazda 4 cyl. normally aspirated diesel. I drove it back and forth to work. I could go about 6 weeks on a tank of fuel, the best I ever got was 58 mpg. I loved that car, but the rear strut towers finally got so rusty that they were dangerous and I had to part it out.

The ranger used the same 1.8 Mazda diesel, but had a turbocharger.

[mrfixit82852 3]

Go for the Dodge 1500 Quad Cab Hemi, has the pulling capacity you need, plus with 0 % financing you could use that to buy your fuel :thumbs:

I get 11 mpg towing a 8000 pound trailer. And about 19 mpg highway without towing

Joe

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,569]

I'm gonna upgrade the trailer to a big fifth and a 1500 isn't going to do it. With my Hemi Durango and 3.92 gears, I get about 9 with the trailer and 19 highway without it. The 5.7 has plenty of power, but I want to be ready when I get the fifth I'm gonna need a F-350 or F-450

http://www.glendalerv.com/2008/Titanium/36e41.html

[CasualObserver 3,410]

:thumbs: Karl, that's not a camper... it's a portable hotel room! (at a NICE hotel!)

[Jim_M 179]

Karl,

That's a nice trailer! With that kind of weight I would buy a diesel truck, the low end torque will help you out considerably. It doesn't matter what you pull that one with, you'll get bad fuel mileage, but I think a diesel will hold up a lot better.

Jim