Fuel prices have finally gotten the best of me. Going to sell the old rose for a daily driver I can afford to drive. 25 percent of my check a week for fuel is a bit crazy. I don't haul anything heavier than a 25 foot travel trailer, so I don't really need the truck anymore.

 

If you get a gas truck, you will be back.

 

I agree a gas truck may be chaeper to drive unloaded but with a trailer as large as you'res they'll suck down the gas.

 

i only haul the trailer once or twice a year

 

I still wouldn't make the swich with my luck gass prices would overtake diesel again much as diesel skyrocketed a month after I bought my truck. You may want to look into getting a little econo car and keeping the diesel. For me this wouldn't work because the price permonth of insurance would be more than I pay to feed my truck.

 

Wow George, thats the same thing that happened to my dad when he bought his '04 PSD. Diesel was always $0.30 cheaper than gas and so he bought a diesel, a week later, diesel was $0.30 MORE than gas and it has always been more, now WAY more.

I was up in N.Y this weekend and saw $4.25 diesel vs. 3.30 Gas........sucks

So last Thurs, he traded it in for a nice red '06 F-150 4x4 S/C...too bad it has a 5 1/2' bed.

Insurance is cheaper, fuel is cheaper, looks great.

 

Let's do a little figuring. Everyone check my math. I am going to assume that the same configuration of truck, new or old, the diesel will always get close to 5mpg more than a gas engine. By gas engine I mean a 460, 5.4, or that v10. I am thinking in the old days, a 460 might get 10mpg, while a diesel might get 15mpg. Possibly the new trucks, a gas engine would get 15mpg, and a new diesel may get 20 mpg. These numbers are all empty. Let's assume gas is $3.00 per gallon, and diesel is $4.00 per gallon. So let's drive 60 miles.

The gas engine getting 15mpg will use 4 gallons. The diesel getting 20mpg will use 3 gallons. The gas engine will cost 4gal x $3= $12 to go 60 miles.

The diesel engine will cost 3gal x $4= $12 to go 60 miles.

So you can see it will cost close to the same, or there will be very little difference. Mpg is a lot more important than the cost of the fuel. You can fudge the numbers around a little bit, and get different results, but it won't be too far off from what I got. A idi with no lift and stock tires should be able to get 15mpg unloaded correct? I don't think I have ever heard of a 460 getting over 12mpg.

Of course if you start comparing a new fuel injected engine to our idi's, then the fuel mileage would be closer. I am going to assume someone selling a certain year truck to switch fuel, will have enough money to buy close to the same year truck with the differently fueled engine. Of course someone switching from a idi to a new gas engine truck will have a lower fuel bill, but the pay off will be years with the taxes and the finance charges/payments.

 

From what I've heard you need alot of luck to get anything above 15mpg out of the "emissions" diesels. I hate to say it but gassers are beigng to look better.

 

The guys I have talked to say they regularly get 20mpg with the new diesels? Is this hype and wishful thinking on their part? I thought the computers tweaked the fuel and gave them way better mileage than a idi?

 

My IDI gets abot 17 average 20 highway and 14-17 city depending what mood I'm in. If you tune a 70s 460 in an f150 custom right you can get 17 average but the newer 460 are horible on gass. Also if you put a load behind a gasser it will go down alot more than a diesel wth a load although he doesn't tow much so this doesn't matter as much. My advise to any one thinking of makeing the swich is too find a cheap 4 banger car that gets good millage and call you're insurance company and see how much it would be to add it then see if it would be worth the fule savings for me it would cost the same with out puting fule in the car so I'll keep driving my Land yacht for now.

 

I will say this in my area it is hilly and gravel roads. They might pull 20mpg if driven nicely on the highway. But so will my 99 Dodge and my 6.9l used to get 18mpg when all I did was highway driving. I guess it depends on where they were driving when they checked it. I still think the emissions hurts them though. My dad 02 powerstroke will get around 20mpg around here 25mpg on the highway. I know another guy with a 97 stroke and he gets 22mpg going to Omaha ever day.

 

I am trying to compare apples to apples. The gas truck would be pulling the same hilly area with the gravel roads that your diesel is running on. I saw a ad about a year ago, where a new v10 was rated 15mpg highway. I might be stretching it to assume that a 5.4 gets 5mpg less than a new diesel.

 

My buddies V10 got 15 mpg going from Novato ca to Phoenix az unloaded and about 6 MPG and the return trip with my jeep on a car trailer.

 

i've got an 04 f-350 taht i get 21mpg out of

 

Figure in a payment, higher insurance and higher taxes as well as higher repair costs.

The newer truck will not be cheaper to operate when you figure it all in.

The only option that makes any sense is a small car or a motorcycle to drive or ride when you have nothing to haul or tow, keep the truck for towing the trailer.
Even those options would be hard pressed to break even when you consider taxes and insurance on top of the original purchase price.

Anything small enough to get that much better fuel mileage is not going to tow a 25 foot trailer anywhere.