Diesel vs. gasser truck as a daily driver/business truck

Blaze

Blaze

The Jeeper Reaper
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
What say you peeps? I am starting a business and need a truck. I plan on doing it on the side to see if it takes off, so right now my main use of the truck will be driving back and forth to work. I drive a little over 10 miles to work, mostly highway but with rush hour traffic it might as well be city driving.

Eventually I will be towing a flatbed car trailer with a car/truck on it. I will also be hauling a lot of larger car parts along with receiving pallets of materials.

Need four doors because of kids.

I've owned a 2000 Sierra extended cab with the 5.3L and it towed great and got good gas mileage, but was a bit small inside for my two boys. I also rarely towed with it, and the biggest thing I towed was an open deck 16' trailer with a stripped down Camaro on it.

On the other hand, I love diesel trucks and know it will do over and above what I need it for, and it would be good if my business took off I wouldn't have to upgrade my truck.

The other thing is that I am looking to spend around $12k on a truck. This puts me into an older higer mileage diesel, right?

So what do you guys think?
 
You can get a much nicer gasser for 12k than a diesel. A 12 k diesel is probably going to be a problem. I tow with a 200k 2500burb and it is dead reliable. I won't win any races but I always get there and it only get 3 or so mpg less than any diesel I have fooled with. Add in the cheaper purchase price, cheaper fuel, and cheaper maintenance and it was an easy choice.
 
You have kids, don't tow and only 12k to spend...buy a nice newer gas truck. 12k won't get you anything diesel that isn't going to soon require another 3k in maintenance.
And depending on how you're financing, you might have a hard time getting a loan for a 13 year old truck with 200k miles.
 
why not buy a dedicated reg-cab long bed diesel for the work truck, and just maintain your current family hauler?

No sense in trying to have a "one truck does it all" scenario, plus you have a back-up if somethign happens.


And I'm sure a 2wd 12V dually can be had with <$3k worth of necessary maintenance. A stock trans rebuild and converter would be <$1k
 
How far will you be towing? Towing on the highway for multi hour trips, or just around town?

Something else to consider is the cost of diesel fuel:

Gas around here: $3.17/gal
Diesel around here: $3.95/gal
 
I don't have the room to have a truck and a family hauler. Plus need some of the cash from selling my car to pay for the truck. I currently have my wife and my daily drivers, my Trans Am and my Blazer in the driveway and my project/parts cars in the garage. No room for any more cars in my tiny yard/driveway.

Most of the towing will be an hour at most, possibly more but that would be rare. I'll probably be towing at least once a month.

Financing won't be too big of a problem. I go through the credit union, they'll loan you money on anything. Plus I'll have a good chunk to put down after selling my car.

Diesel price is definitely something to consider, too. I have thought about that, and that is definitely a detractor.
 
Im gonna say diesel regardles of what the options are but thats just me.One other thing to consider is maint cost,it cost me about $60 to change the oil in my 7.3 versus $20 or so in a gasser.Everything is about twice what a gas coss,two batteries,higher prices on starters/atl's,ect but in most cases you get twice the service.Depending on how you will be doin your taxes you could probably write most of that off.My old 7.3 had a 398K on it when I sold it and still ran good.

What you think is hi-mileage will affect what your options are in a diesel.My F350 had 164K on it when we left to go out west and never gave a mins trouble pulling a 32 foot camper.We were gone a month and drove a little over 6200 miles.
ai720.photobucket.com_albums_ww201_tonyaandjake_Vacation_202012_001_5.jpg

Cheap(er) diesels can be found but you really have to look and be a little lucky.I got mine for $5800 w 142 K on it.You might start out just towing once a month but if things work out and you have something that can tow you will be open to towing more.I honestly dont see how I got by as long as I did w/o a good truck and trailer.
 
Hurley said:
And I'm sure a 2wd 12V dually can be had with <$3k worth of necessary maintenance. A stock trans rebuild and converter would be <$1k
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Yeah but you're talking about pretty much the least desired truck out there with at best only a 3rd rear door, which would suck with kids. Any cummins for under 10k is generally going to be pretty ragged out, any ford under 10k is going to be a 6.0 or ragged out. There is a lot to be said for practicality when it is your only all around vehicle with a family, and when you can buy a quad cab 04-07 truck for the same price as a late 90's truck...why not? For some black smoke?
 
Yeah, gotta be a 4ws and gotta have four doors. Back when I had my 2000 Sierra with the 3 doors it was horrible getting the kids in and out.

I did find a nice 1500HD Sierra with the 6.0L in it. I am seriously considering it.
 
If you could maybe bump up your price range you are looking at around 14 to 15k and start searching online you can find a decent f-250 powerstroke but it is very hard to come by. I have 5 diesel trucks and 4 of those is the 7.3 and is a 6.0. Use caution when looking at a 6.0. Some people praise them but most have more problems then you could ever imagine. I have a 7.3 diesel and i pull with it everyday. When we got it , the truck had 160,000 miles, I paid around 10 for it, it is two wheel drive but the motor now has almost 300,000 and is still strong as it was the day we bought it. If you can find a 7.3 in your price range, specially if an older man that is retired owned it and pulled his camper or boat with it you will be in business. Don't buy one from a younger person because it is probably been rode hard, and when i say younger i mean just got his license to early 20's. It is worth the while to search for one and test drive them out. If you did run across a deal on the 6.0 as long as the EGR Valve has been replace with a delete kit, and the oil cooler has been replaced you should have no problems. I have a 2005 f-450 dump truck and it is an awesome truck but it has the 6.0. After getting the upgraded parts that i needed i have not had one problem out of it. If you know a good Mechanic he will probably tell you the same thing. The older model 6.0's as in the 2003-2004 had more issues then the 2005. It took ford a few years to get it halfway right. Good Luck!
 
braxton357 said:
Yeah but you're talking about pretty much the least desired truck out there with at best only a 3rd rear door, which would suck with kids. Any cummins for under 10k is generally going to be pretty ragged out, any ford under 10k is going to be a 6.0 or ragged out. There is a lot to be said for practicality when it is your only all around vehicle with a family, and when you can buy a quad cab 04-07 truck for the same price as a late 90's truck...why not? For some black smoke?
Click to expand...

regular cab truck, get a kid hauler as a second vehicle - that's my point. he's got a yard full of cars anyway?

Either change your budget or change your requirements.
 
Hurley said:
regular cab truck, get a kid hauler as a second vehicle - that's my point. he's got a yard full of cars anyway?

Either change your budget or change your requirements.
Click to expand...
No, I have a driveway full of cars. :p
 
I'm Kinda with Hurley, I love my crew cab 250 6.oh but I hate driving it around by myself or just one other person its big and can be annoying in town. I can't wait to get my standard can back on the road for running around.
 
There are deals to be found, but you've got to be diligent about inspecting it before you buy it. A guy I work with got an 07 duramax 4wd Crewcab with about ~100k miles for $14k a couple months ago. I got my 03 Duramax (4wd/CC) for a little over half your budget, but it was high mileage. You could tell it had been very well taken care of, and everything was in good condition, other than the stupid hole in the bed from the gooseneck ball (why would you go to the trouble to pull that off?).

As far as diesel vs gas, in my opinion there is no comparison. I had a Chevy 6.0 gasser before the Duramax, and here are a few of my observations:
Gasser: 13mpg, good power unloaded, decent towing, quiet, 6qts of oil every 3-5k miles, 4L80E has way too high of a 1st gear
Diesel: 19mpg, tons of power, excellent towing, louder but still reasonably quiet, 10qts of oil every 5k-10k miles, Allison 5spd is geared perfectly

If you do the math, the diesel gets 46% better mileage, and diesel fuel is only 21% more expensive, so it still works out to be more fuel efficient (plus its nice to go almost 500 miles on a tank). That is hand calculated actual MPG, the in cab display says 20.7mpg. That was with a Hypertech 90hp programmer. Now I've got a PPE 225hp programmer, and the in cab has snuck up to 21.0mpg over the past tank, so it will be interesting if that is reflected in actual calculations.

Things are definitely more expensive on a diesel, but in my opinion, its completely worth it. I love being able to throw it sideways from a second gear roll on dry pavement, do 0-60 in under 7 seconds on a 7k pound truck, pull 10k pounds, and then hop in the truck and get 20mpg going down the interstate in comfort and quiet while carrying 4 people comfortably.
 
I got a clean 96 F350 crew cab with a 7.3 PS from a fellow member on here this year. Less than 200K miles, fresh trans, new BFG rubber, runs great, for $10 K. They are out there, you just have to be careful.
Today I towed a 7K plus load back from Greenville SC to Concord. Even with all those long rolling hills on 85 it got an honest 12 MPG running 5 to 10 mph over the limit (down the hills!). Thinking about installing propane injection for when it is pulling hard up hills. Had good luck in the past with it. Picked up 4-5 towing mpg on another power stroke.
 
My wife and I came up with a plan last night. We think for right now we will go ahead and buy like a 96 extended cab gasser. It will do what we need it for now, and we can probably pay for it with cash for right now. Then as the business grows and we get some money built up in there, if the situation warrants a bigger diesel truck we will hopefully be able to buy one with cash. We'd save on monthly payments, which would allow us to put more into the business at this point.

I think my endgame is a Duramax, but I'll start out with a cheaper gasser.

And yeah, the third door will be annoying with kids, but the lack of monthly payments will offset that.
 
What is your cash budget and do you need 4wd? 5k cash can get you into the late 90s or early 00s when 4 door ex cabs were more common, but most are 2wd.

Duane
 
For a 5k difference for the same quality of vehicle I have a hard time justifying it.
I have never had a problem hauling what I need to....
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1355545513.163897.jpg
 
I'm going to go against the grain here a tad.
I drive a diesel and wouldnt not want to tow heavy or frequently with a gas again.

That said, a 10 mile daily commute is not ideal for a diesel. You will not even get up to operating temp in the range and you will never get near top mpg on that short, in fact Id wager a gas would do better on that short of a commute.

And when you throw in that you are talking about towing 1-2/month at about an hour max...nah the extra expense wouldnt be worth it.
Based on your description and info provided, Id be looking for a early '00s 2500 chevy with a 6.0 or maybe an 8.1.
You want the 2500 for the weight and brake properties while towing.
The 6.0 will tow just fine and get decent mpg. The 8.1 is a beast, but it loves gas and the damn oil burn rate pisses me off. A (new engine shouldnt not be designed to consume oil...rant off) That said high mileage is a different discussion between diesel and gas. While I wouldnt hesitate to buy a 150k properly maintained diesel, Id be very wary of a 150k mile gas truck.
 
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