What gets better mileage..... Gas or Diesel ??

[Bkcloud114]

OK, the Lease is up soon on my Dodge Dakota Quad cab and I am looking for a new truck.. before this truck I owned a Dodge Ram 1500.... Now I am looking to go back to the Ram.... this is the one I am looking at...Dodge Ram Mega Cab...

I was wondering what you guys preferred.... Gas or Diesel ??

I do alot of driving back and forth to NYC and will be taking a x-country trip again in the Summer of 2007.... towing a trailer..... so I need the towing capacity...

Is the gas mileage better with diesel fuel ??

[dpenix76]

Hey,I think it will depend on the weight of your trailer.Diesel will do better with a heavy load than gas because of the extra torque.My dad gets around 14 in his Ford Powerstroke,which is the same as my V6 Ford truck,but he can obviously pull a hell of a lot more than me.On a recent trip to the beach,my wifes Suburban got right at 20 pulling our popup camper.

[MCsommerreid]

Yes, because it's a non-waste fuel system. It fires off compression, not off heat initiated combustion. So what goes in the cylinder burns in the cylinder, unlike gas which regularly runs rich and wastes fuel through incomplete burning.

[heftysmokes]

One thing to take into account is the fact that diesel prices are rising faster than gasoline prices. New federal pollution standards are going into effect that has a lot of refineries scrambling to build new units which will refine diesel to a much cleaner burning fuel. And of course, the oil companies aren't going to dip into their record profits to pay for this upgrade, they are passing it on to good old Joe Diesel. Fuel economy is kinda negated when you're paying $.30 more per gallon (at least that's what it is here in MT)

The positive about the diesel powerplant, imho, is the fact that a cummins, or a powerstroke or what have you, isn't really broken in until it rolls 100k on the odometer. 300k is, in most cases, pretty easily attainable, and the rest of the truck is usually falling apart well before the engine.

On the flip side, diesels stink. And they run a lot louder than their gasoline counterparts (although the newer model years are a lot quieter than they used to be). And occasionaly, in extreme cases, diesel will freeze (or gel) and that REALLY sucks. I know this from experience.

That being said, if I were in your shoes, with the same plans for my truck, I'd get the mega cab 3/4 ton with a 5.7L Hemi. Plenty of hauling power, good powerplant.

[WOXOF]

You gotta go with the Cummins engines that come in the rams. You'll never know the trailer is back there.

[nhcigarfan]

I go with the deisel. More bio-fuels will be coming to market, certainly during the life of the engine, if not the whole truck. If you ever get down to, I think a place in texas has it, you can get willie nelson's bio fuel or a conversion kit from canada that allows you to burn fryolater oil, which you can generally get for free.

[Cabaiguan Juan]

I go with the deisel. More bio-fuels will be coming to market, certainly during the life of the engine, if not the whole truck. If you ever get down to, I think a place in texas has it, you can get willie nelson's bio fuel or a conversion kit from canada that allows you to burn fryolater oil, which you can generally get for free.

Bio-fuel is the way to go. Go deisel and make freinds with the MacDonalds chain owner in your area.

[kevin7]

Remember that some whacko polution laws are in effect for the 07 diesels. I have heard that the cummings and others are so computer controlled now that they are a hellish nightmare to work on.

Pick up truck diesels are ok but I get a kick out of people boasting how whicked bad as there powerstroke cummings duramax are BFD. The old POS dump truck we had at work had a DTA466 that cranked out 275 HP and somewhere around 700 ft lb of torque . Funny thing is that torque was made at 1500 rpm and HP was made at 2200 rpm that thing made 6 times more noise and smoke that a pick up diesel putting out more HP. It was deafning with a straight stack right next to an open window . Pickup diesels remind me of 2 stroke dirt bikes,ya gotta wind em up hard to get anything out of them. Get one if you wanna be a pretend trucker but I drive an f700 diesel everyday and I don't wanna hear some rattly smokey bastard of a motor in my nice pickup truck.

You young girls prolly dont remember when HD pickup trucks had big assed gas burners, Long live the old Ford 390, 460, 429 and Chevy's 454

[SuperChuck]

I want to say gas gets better MPG, but diesel is cheaper...

Biodiesel is an interesting proposition. From what I hear, the conversion is very simple and uses a renewable resource.

A lot of trucks are also available with an E85 (or FlexFuel) option. That's my personal favorite for consumer vehicles, but it's not going to save you any $$$ now.

[cls515]

I'd go with Chevy, and I can say that because I drive a Ram. I heard diesel is the future, and if I had the chance I'd buy a diesel truck now. I'd really like to have a Chevy extended cab. I've wanted a Chevy since like the 6th grade. One day...

[bard]

Because diesel is more expensive than gas and as little towing as you do, I would go the gas route. You might get worse mileage during your occassional towing trips, but $.50/gal less for every day driving will be more economical in the end. Of course we are talking a 3500 series truck, right? Neither one will get much mpg so it comes down to do you like the smell of diesel, do you have plans for building a biodiesel 'cooker' or do you like knowing you can get gas any where?