Considering buying a 1/2 ton truck, gas or diesel?

There is a reason 90% of OTR trucks use diesel, better fuel economy and they perform better under load than gasoline engines.

Biggest drawbacks of diesel are it generally burns less cleanly than gas, and they can be tempermental in cold weather. If diesel fuel gets too cold it will turn into a gooey gel and not flow readily. They are also more expensive to work on.

@WestRiverrat Do you think the new trucks have solved some of the problems you mention? My husband says he had heard the new diesel are much better than the old ones.

Diesel fuel is still a nightmare in the COLD climates. And oil changes can cost a bundle. But for raw pulling power and pulling all day the diesel is the way go.
Or the Ford EcoBoost is a gas engine gets good to great gas mileage and is a top puller.

@JLeslie they have come a long way in correcting most of the problems with diesel power.

I didn’t know ½ ton trucks were available with diesel engines? Are they? I thought ¾ ton or One ton were the size heavy enough to take advantage of the power.

Ford Rangers come with an optional diesel. I believe Dodge and Chevy also have diesel options in their compact trucks.

We have a diesel Citroen, granted we do not use it to pull, but it is extremely economical. PRoblem here is that the initial cost of diesel engine is so much higher than for petrol that you must drive it forever before the economy equals the cost. And when you fill up here, diesel is now as expensive if not more than regular petrol.

Many have them here because they go through water better than petrol engines, but we don’t have to worry about the cold.

The land cruiser runs on lp gas and petrol. The lp gas is dirt cheap and clean burning. Don’t know how that would go for heavy hauling. It is fine with our small trailer.

Diesel engines have a better ability to work at low revs, which you need to tow (the word torque is coming to mind but I’m not exactly sure what it means).

We have a caravan which we tow with our diesel car and it’s great. We have a good match between the weight of the caravan and the weight of the car.

I’ve never had a problems in winter but it’s not too cold here