Hi Guys, I just did some rough calculations on the fuel savings with a diesel vs. gas truck. Take a read and feel free to comment!  

youre lucky man.
diesel up here is near 4.75 and regular gas is 3.93
my pickup now gets 7mpg, with the diesel swap it could get 25-30 by my math it would still only cost half as much  

that price was as of march of this year.  

a good gas truck with a v-8 averages about 16 mpg on highway.
my 1999 dodge averaged 21 mpg on the highway.
in a 1000 mile trip with the national gas average at $3.93 you would spend $236.87 in fuel
in a 1000 mile trip with the national diesel average at $4.49 you would spend 213.80 in fuel
these were the averages were from 5/19/08

213.80  

It's getting harder and harder to make the economic case for diesel anymore. Prices are between $5.03-5.19 around where I am now.

I think a lot of the fence-sitters that only got a diesel because they think it's "cool" and don't tow or haul with them at all are going to start selling them. If there's any upside, it'll make for a good time to buy if you're looking for a used diesel truck.  

Unfortunately, unless you absolutely NEED the pulling power of a diesel engine, you're just pissing money away to buy a diesel truck today. I'm still satisfied with buying my truck back in 2004, but only because the fuel mileage is higher than most diesel trucks. There's no way in hell I'd ever sign the papers on ANY NEW diesel truck. I don't care if it was a Ford, GM or Dodge, the EPA has totally corn-holed these new trucks by saddling them with 150 pounds (quite literally) of bullschit emissions crap! Sure the engines may burn a little cleaner, but when they burn 2-3 times the fuel as the older engines, where the hell's the environmental benefit?

All the automobile manufacturers are blowing their horns about the new diesel engines they are bringing out for the light trucks and cars. Guess what guys? Yer about 10 years too friggin late! All the money these huge corporations have spent on light-duty diesel R&D has been totally pissed away because they aren't going to get diddly-shit for fuel mileage! At least not when compaired to what they should be getting.

Here's the grim reality of it all. Diesel is DEAD! The EPA and the oil industry have done what they set out to do, and that is to strangle the life out of diesel vehicles. People can't afford to buy the damn things anymore, and for those of us who already have 'em, our trucks are slowly being poisoned to death with the shidt USLD fuels and equally shidt  low-ash engine oil they are trying to force up our ass.

I have made up my mind concerning the cost of fuel. If I'm going to be buying $5.00+ a gallon fuel then I'm going to be buying it as infrequently as possible. I told my wife I'm gonna do everything I can to make my truck as fuel efficient as possible. I'm going to throw every mod I can think of on my ride to stretch every mile I can out of a gallon of fuel. I don't care if I put another $10,000 in it. I'd sure as hell rather put my $$$ into my truck to make it more efficient, then give it to the crooked *** at the other end of the fuel pump!

My guess is that sales of Diesel Power Magazine, along with the other "copy-cat" mags out there are falling just as fast as the sales of the diesel trucks featured in their pages. I have another 2 years left on my subscription to Diesel Power. Unfortunately when those 2 years are up, there may not be a magazine left to re-new my subscription to.

 

The crappiest part of everything is that they're already talking about changing up the refineries to yield more diesel fuel relative to gasoline, but I've heard it'll take as long as 5 years for that transition to fully take place, and by that time, who knows where the diesel market will be?  

I'm trying to find out mpg on the new 6.7L Dodge. Can I get a little help? I'm looking to buy a diesel but am unsure of the mileage.

Also unure how to check for a reply since I'm new to this.  

There are no "official" fuel economy ratings on 3/4 or 1-ton trucks, just anecdotal observations. I've heard anywhere from 12-20 on the new Cummins. A lot of it will depend on driving habits, as well as how efficiently the DPF is working. If it's getting clogged, you'll see economy and performance suffer.  

What area are you from?  I'm new to the diesel idea but my hemi is getting around 9mpg towing my trailer and that's just crazy. I'd like to get an idea if diesels usually get better mpg day to day as well as towing!  

For sure you'll get better than 9 mpg, but possibly not a whole lot more. Towing, diesels will get somewhere between 11-14. I'm in California. All the pumps out here supposedly are selling ULSD, but I'm hearing there are some stations that aren't selling it yet. You have to run all the new diesels on ULSD.

Honestly, if you're willing to look at slightly used trucks, I'd consider taking a look at '07 and earlier models, as they don't have DPFs, and will probably be a little more economical and reliable than '08 and newer models for now.  

I'm in Ontario, Canada across from Michigan and  diesel here is roughly the same as gas/ liter. It seems that diesel is more in certain areas of the U.S.

I've been reading up on the DPF and they are already making kits to delete it without alerting engine codes.
I think most of the front runners for aftermarket parts are more out your way or so it seems in the Diesel magazines.  

Buy an older 12 Valve Dodge Ram 2500 they get 20-25 or more miles per gallon. the 12 valve Cummins will run on 7 types of fuel. gas motors suck.  

OK it will take a lifetime to re-coup the $8,000 you pay up front for the diesel engine & tranny, BUT you can get big HP & TQ out of the DIESEL just by chipping it !!! And diesel is not flammable like gas, you don't have to worry about burning up in an accident.  

Diesel at the closest station to me was 3.89 and gas was 3.90, which sounds funny cause the news keeps telling us that here in N.GA we are paying some of the highest prices in the country, which is the opposite of how it used to be.