Henry Rifle Forums

during the last 70+ years I've come full circle several times on whether a gasoline or diesel powered tow vehicle best met my wants/needs .... one would think that after so long I'd of figured it out .... if you were in the market today, which would you go with and why ?

Depends on how many tons you are pulling. If you can get by with the lower priced gasoline do it. If you need more torque for heavier loads go diesel.

I love gas powered vehicles, but for towing give me a diesel powered truck. Way more torque.

RP

Since I drive without a trailer in tow far more often than when I do tow a trailer, it would be gasoline over diesel for me. The initial cost of a diesel engine powered truck is substantially higher than a gasoline powered truck and also, diesel is more expensive per gallon than gasoline.

About three years ago, I shopped for a 3/4 ton truck and wanted a Ram with a Cummins diesel. After some shopping, I ended up with an F250 with a gas powered engine. Since I have been downsizing tractors, implements and the equipment trailer, the F250 does fine.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

With all the issues Ford and Chevy are having with gas engines that are big enough to pull a lighter load Id still go diesel.

Do the pickup diesel engines last as long as the ones in a semi? My best friend was a truck driver for most of his life and he said with good maintenance and a good driver they could go close to a million miles (that may be an exaggeration, it's been a long time but I remember it was very large number of miles) before needing a complete overhaul.

dave77 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 24, 2025 11:55 pm

Do the pickup diesel engines last as long as the ones in a semi? My best friend was a truck driver for most of his life and he said with good maintenance and a good driver they could go close to a million miles (that may be an exaggeration, it's been a long time but I remember it was very large number of miles) before needing a complete overhaul.

A million miles is about the top although most go between 500 and 700 thousand. Few drivers ever shut them off so there is no cold starting.

I had a 1997 F250 with the 460 ci big block that was marginal when towing a heavy load. Upgraded to a 2011 with the 6.2 and that was a big improvement but still the typical gas engine towing limits. My motorhome (E450 chassis) has the new Ford 7.3 Godzilla engine in it and man what a difference. Motorhome is 12,000 dry and I tow a 5,000 lb Jeep. That motor gets me up and down these western mountains just fine.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Godzilla_engine

Hatchdog wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 25, 2025 8:54 am

I had a 1997 F250 with the 460 ci big block that was marginal when towing a heavy load. Upgraded to a 2011 with the 6.2 and that was a big improvement but still the typical gas engine towing limits. My motorhome (E450 chassis) has the new Ford 7.3 Godzilla engine in it and man what a difference. Motorhome is 12,000 dry and I tow a 5,000 lb Jeep. That motor gets me up and down these western mountains just fine.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Godzilla_engine

How many miles do you have on the 7.3 Hatch?

Ive got a 2006 Dodge 3rd gen 5.9 with 109000 on it. I see quite a few 3rd gens still on the road with more miles than I have. If you use your head and some common sense when towing these engines will last a long time. Flat floor take offs and pedal to the floor when towing on long grades isnt necessary. Why work something wide open all the time. Just because you shoot a 44 mag doesnt mean you need to shoot full house loads all the time. Do that on a older model S&W and see what happens

When I drove long-haul the Volvo had an exhaust temperature and you drove to keep the temperature down which usually meant 3/4 throttle acceleration and early down and up shifts. The power RPM was only around 600 RPM.

Ive got a pyrometer in the Dodge its exhaust temp right behind the turbo. I use it all the time when pulling making sure not to get things to hot. They had the same gauge on every truck I ever drove in 45 years of over the road driving. What it all boils down to IMHO is the guy behind the wheel running the show.

All my street vehicles use gasoline. All my yard equipment runs on Diesel. I once had a Honda riding gasoline mower. Took 2 tanks to mow everything. After it broke down I replaced it with a JD355D Diesel riding mower. I can mow everything twice over for the same size tank of fuel.

Drove F350 diesels for a lot of years hauling the stock trailer. Only way to haul in my opinion.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 25, 2025 9:27 am

Hatchdog wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 25, 2025 8:54 am

I had a 1997 F250 with the 460 ci big block that was marginal when towing a heavy load. Upgraded to a 2011 with the 6.2 and that was a big improvement but still the typical gas engine towing limits. My motorhome (E450 chassis) has the new Ford 7.3 Godzilla engine in it and man what a difference. Motorhome is 12,000 dry and I tow a 5,000 lb Jeep. That motor gets me up and down these western mountains just fine.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Godzilla_engine

How many miles do you have on the 7.3 Hatch?

6500 to date. Probably 25% were from the delivery from the factory. Just about time to start adding more miles.

My wife drives our 2005 F350 diesel and it has 530,000 kms on it now.

Mags wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 25, 2025 8:27 pm

All my street vehicles use gasoline. All my yard equipment runs on Diesel. I once had a Honda riding gasoline mower. Took 2 tanks to mow everything. After it broke down I replaced it with a JD355D Diesel riding mower. I can mow everything twice over for the same size tank of fuel.

I'm right here with you Mags.
I had no direct experience with anything diesel until we bought our place here. I negotiated with the seller to include his mower, which is a Deere 455, and has a 60" deck. What was immediately noticeable to me was that it almost never bogs down. Even long wet grass, it just powers through. Read up on it and joined some other forums to learn more about it, and it seems that the maximum torque on almost everything Deere makes, is slightly lower RPMs than the set RPM for running the PTO. That's genius to me. As soon as you hit an area that would otherwise slow down the engine RPMs, you're also moving higher in the torque curve by backing into it. It holds about 5 gallons of gas and I can mow my 5+ acres on about a half tank. Gotta love those little Yanmar diesels.

On another note, I had a friend that was a top level bullseye shooter that travelled a lot to matches all along the east coast. I remember talking to him about his trip to Perry, and how he took his work truck, one of those Ram diesels. He said the truck gave him gas mileage within a couple MPG no matter if he was driving it pulling a giant gooseneck trailer, or with no load at all. Like the truck didn't know or didn't care. Also knew a few friends that had the Ram trucks with the 6 cyl EcoDiesel, and they loved those trucks, getting low/mid 20s for MPG.

This was my last diesel before I retired. 565 Cummins dialed up to 620 hp with 18 speed transmission. GVW on this load would be 235,000 lb.
My tractor is a 31 horse diesel and the F150 is gas since I seldom pull a trailer with it.

That's a impressive load. What is it, some kind of a concrete I-beam? How far did you have to haul it?

Damn 5shot, that thing occupies two different zip codes.
Is there someone steering the rear part of that?