Originally posted by Kingmissle:
.....but as of now, in my mind there is still nothing sexy about a diesel.......
I feel the same way. But if you want to tow something heavy at speed its worth thinking about.
My co-worker with a new Duramax dually gets about 12 mpg carrying a camper and pulling a horse trailer. My 454 powered 1-ton four-wheel-drive pickup pulling a load never does better than 8 mpg and has done less than 6 mpg.
If I ran that truck more than a few thousand miles a year I'd be tempted to go Diesel. Last time I ran the numbers best case if I towed with it 28,000 miles annually I'd save $10,000 a year on fuel. That would acually be enough to make the payments on a new one.
Since my actual usage is about one-tenth of that the potential savings haven't changed my mind. You might want to think through what those numbers would be in your case. Starting from scratch the Diesel option could start to make lots of sense.
As unpopular as the idea is with many, I'd probably run a V-8 if I were building a truck to tow a trailer. Oh, wait a minute, I'm doing just that... I'm putting a Cadillac 500 in a 1-ton '54 GMC to replace the old Chevy 4x4.
I like the sound of a big V-8 working hard.
