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It's funny, diesel engines in light trucks were originally meant to be a simple/practical option. And somehow they've morphed into gargantuan status symbols priced on par with a BMW... with electronics and emissions systems complexity on par with the Space Shuttle.
Sure, they tow really nice. But any advantage in fuel mileage has long since been negated by increased purchase price, increased maintenance, DEF fluid, higher fuel prices than gas (until recently). Gas engines are now the cheap/practical option.
Emissions systems added over the past 15-20 years have added YUGE costs in repairs, down time, decreased service life, etc. Sure individual fan-boys can bypass some of this with aftermarket junk... but that's not a practical option for most commercial operations.
Makes me wonder if there will be a point at which gas engines start to make sense for semis, tractors, etc. Other than the fact that most commercial infrastructure is already set up for diesel engines... I'm not sure that there's a cost advantage to diesel anymore.
It's funny, diesel engines in light trucks were originally meant to be a simple/practical option. And somehow they've morphed into gargantuan status symbols priced on par with a BMW... with electronics and emissions systems complexity on par with the Space Shuttle.
Sure, they tow really nice. But any advantage in fuel mileage has long since been negated by increased purchase price, increased maintenance, DEF fluid, higher fuel prices than gas (until recently). Gas engines are now the cheap/practical option.
Emissions systems added over the past 15-20 years have added YUGE costs in repairs, down time, decreased service life, etc. Sure individual fan-boys can bypass some of this with aftermarket junk... but that's not a practical option for most commercial operations.
Makes me wonder if there will be a point at which gas engines start to make sense for semis, tractors, etc. Other than the fact that most commercial infrastructure is already set up for diesel engines... I'm not sure that there's a cost advantage to diesel anymore.
My next truck is gonna be a F350 with the 7.3 gasser. I’ll still keep my 7.3 diesel but it’s gonna be a fun weekend truck.
I'll address the "higher cost" of maintenance on a diesel versus a gasser. There is only a partial truth to this and people tend to run with the part that they don't understand. Since the question has arose as if a gasser would make sense economically over a diesel, let's do the math and find out.
I'll compare a 2016 Ram 3500 6.7 Cummins (my personal experience) to a 2016 Ram 2500 6.4 Hemi.
Assumptions that must be made:
- Fuel prices will remain static (my local area price today, though we know they fluctuate)
- We will follow the maintenance manual intervals
- We are only comparing fuel prices and general maintenance. We will not factor in maintenance that will be the same on both vehicles (brakes, transmission fluid, tires, etc... as those will be identical)
Note - The assumption was made that the complete emissions system would fail ($4,500) @ 200k miles as well as requiring an injector replacement @ $3,500. This is unlikely, but factored in as a worst case scenario. Cost without those replacements is $33,452.96.
As you can see, the likely result is that the gasser will cost more in the long run to operate than a diesel. (Exponentially as mileage increases.) The potential savings are listed below:
100k miles - $2,259.80
200k miles - (-$3,480.40) *if the systems mentioned above fail
200k miles - $4,519.60 *if the systems mentioned above do not fail
300k miles - $6,779.40
The B50 life of a 6.7 Cummins is 550k miles. The average life span of a gasser "might" stretch to 300k miles so I stopped there.
Considering you also lose about 1/2 the torque with the gasser for someone who intends to use the truck to tow heavy it doesn't make a lot of sense to switch to a gasser even with the perception that the cost of ownership in a diesel is higher (which it really isn't)
I'll address the "higher cost" of maintenance on a diesel versus a gasser. There is only a partial truth to this and people tend to run with the part that they don't understand. Since the question has arose as if a gasser would make sense economically over a diesel, let's do the math and find out.
I'll compare a 2016 Ram 3500 6.7 Cummins (my personal experience) to a 2016 Ram 2500 6.4 Hemi.
Assumptions that must be made:
- Fuel prices will remain static (my local area price today, though we know they fluctuate)
- We will follow the maintenance manual intervals
- We are only comparing fuel prices and general maintenance. We will not factor in maintenance that will be the same on both vehicles (brakes, transmission fluid, tires, etc... as those will be identical)
Note - The assumption was made that the complete emissions system would fail ($4,500) @ 200k miles as well as requiring an injector replacement @ $3,500. This is unlikely, but factored in as a worst case scenario. Cost without those replacements is $33,452.96.
As you can see, the likely result is that the gasser will cost more in the long run to operate than a diesel. (Exponentially as mileage increases.) The potential savings are listed below:
100k miles - $2,259.80
200k miles - (-$3,480.40) *if the systems mentioned above fail
200k miles - $4,519.60 *if the systems mentioned above do not fail
300k miles - $6,779.40
The B50 life of a 6.7 Cummins is 550k miles. The average life span of a gasser "might" stretch to 300k miles so I stopped there.
Considering you also lose about 1/2 the torque with the gasser for someone who intends to use the truck to tow heavy it doesn't make a lot of sense to switch to a gasser even with the perception that the cost of ownership in a diesel is higher (which it really isn't)
You'll also need to factor in the cost of down time for those repairs. In a commercial operation, that's Yuge.
You'd need a proper accountant and well-defined cost assumptions based on a particular truck's usage to come up with definite numbers. But even your own numbers not accounting for down-time costs show that a gas engine is the less expensive option at the 200k mark. And still competitive at the 300k mark.
Now, the Cummins is a great engine. Properly maintained, I readily agree that it's a half million mile engine (well, except for the emissions system and fuel system). But the truck that this engine is bolted into is *not* a half million mile truck. Most Dodges are trash by 200k miles. So for that rosy half million mile lifespan to be a useful point, we'd need to have numbers on what percentage of trucks are still reliable and in regular use at 200k, 300k, 400k, 500k, etc. Anything past 300k is likely in the single digits, and says more about the owner than the truck.
Now I'm no diesel-hater. I was a diesel mechanic for 16 years. Now I'm in engineering and work with diesel powered equipment. I have a project in my garage right now where I'm swapping a diesel engine into a chassis that was never intended to have a diesel in it. But every day I deal with the problems induced by modern fuel/emissions systems. Diesel engines are FAR more complex than they were 20 years ago, and that costs $$. IMO we've reached a point where any long-term cost advantage vs a gas engine is at best debatable. The industry is currently propped up by habit, infrastructure, and giant status-symbol pickups.
In many cases today's diesel pickups have more horsepower than a class 8 semi from 25 years ago. IMO that's ludicrous for anything that you can safely pull with a pickup. But they sure do tow nicely
You'll also need to factor in the cost of down time for those repairs. In a commercial operation, that's Yuge.
You'd need a proper accountant and well-defined cost assumptions based on a particular truck's usage to come up with definite numbers. But even your own numbers not accounting for down-time costs show that a gas engine is the less expensive option at the 200k mark. And still competitive at the 300k mark.
Now, the Cummins is a great engine. Properly maintained, I readily agree that it's a half million mile engine (well, except for the emissions system and fuel system). But the truck that this engine is bolted into is *not* a half million mile truck. Most Dodges are trash by 200k miles. So for that rosy half million mile lifespan to be a useful point, we'd need to have numbers on what percentage of trucks are still reliable and in regular use at 200k, 300k, 400k, 500k, etc. Anything past 300k is likely in the single digits, and says more about the owner than the truck.
Now I'm no diesel-hater. I was a diesel mechanic for 16 years. Now I'm in engineering and work with diesel powered equipment. I have a project in my garage right now where I'm swapping a diesel engine into a chassis that was never intended to have a diesel in it. But every day I deal with the problems induced by modern fuel/emissions systems. Diesel engines are FAR more complex than they were 20 years ago, and that costs $$. IMO we've reached a point where any long-term cost advantage vs a gas engine is at best debatable. The industry is currently propped up by habit, infrastructure, and giant status-symbol pickups.
In many cases today's diesel pickups have more horsepower than a class 8 semi from 25 years ago. IMO that's ludicrous for anything that you can safely pull with a pickup. But they sure do tow nicely
I agree that exact numbers would be hard to pinpoint since there are a lot of variables. But at the very base level, the diesel will win out in the long haul. My point was to try and put to rest the idea that a diesel is more expensive to maintain.
The only real down time impact is to the emissions system ("maybe" the injectors) and you might be talking once in 200k miles. That's fairly negligible in this specific instance of a Cummins, which is probably "the" most reliable engine on the market today. A set of injectors can be swapped in a day and are available almost anywhere, so I don't consider that one to be factored into any longer down time than perhaps a tune up of coils and spark plugs.
Ram has come a long way since the earlier days of falling apart. My 2016 has over 100k miles on the odometer and literally looks like it rolled off the showroom floor yesterday. I think that's more dependent upon the region of the country that you live in and the owner.... If you live in the rust belt, then it still isn't going to matter because all of them are going to be rusted out at about the same pace.
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