Gasser guys and gals ...why not a diesel ?

[LandYacht35dies]

....I’ve seen some people state that they have avoided a diesel .... why so ?

[LandYacht35dies]

pFish ... 235$ oil changes ? ... how many nights of lodging in Hawaii do you get with that ?

Two transmissions? You only need THE ONE that came with it ! The Allison transmission is virtually BULLETPROOF..... the only thing that stresses them is way WAY overloading them.

[GeeWillakers]

For us a 32’ works. Looked at diesels in the 32-34 range and they had less storage than our gasser.

[RLS7201]

LandYacht35diesel wrote:

RLS7201 wrote:
I'm going to go with cost. Right now my gasser transmission is sitting on my garage floor waiting for the replacement to arrive. $3K for the HP tranny and I'm doing the R&R. Couldn't do that at home with a diesel.


Richard

Richard .... my man .... 3k$ for a Fix Or Repair Daily transmission......

Sounds to me you got ...... DICKED !

I’ve done HUNDREDS of transmissions over the years .... just Mopars .... you should have gone on a Ford site before spending that kind of coin.

Bottom line .... the transmission biz is a HUGE RACKET

Well I didn't tell the whole story. I have a stroked 460/528 engine with RV cam, compression raised from 8.4 to 9.0, Banks complete power pack and a little porting.
All that took out the stock transmission. I could find no one in the Midwest willing to build a high performance E4OD with low stall converter and triple disc clutches in the converter. Steel baskets and 6 planetary gear sets. Plus some other nice little touches the shop offered.
The converter alone is a $800 item. For the package I wanted, I found pricing ranging from $8K to $4.5K. + freight.
I am well pleased with $3K, which includes shipping both ways.
Tell me how much you could build such transmission for and maybe we can do business next time.


Richard

[Lantley]

pianotuna wrote:

LandYacht35diesel wrote:
To add ... people saying diesel maintenance is too high ?

Like what ?

LandYacht35diesel My 1987 was on a Ford 350 chassis and was a FRED.

1. additives to every tank of fuel

2. oil changes at $235.00

3. 3 sets of fan belts

4. 2 transmissions

5. having to have shore power or a generator for starting in cold weather.

6. failed glow plugs 2 x

7. failed power steering 2 x

8. failed house isolator

9. failed grounding wire to dash

10. failed starter

11. front tires needing to be rotated every 6 thousand miles

12. failed fuel line. I had to have them cut out the heater and use generic fuel line.

13. failed starter solenoid

14. failed transmission cooler

These are a few of the many problems I and my brother had.

Only a couple of those items are exclusive to diesel.
Fan belts, transmissions,starters can fail on any engine even the gas powered ones.;)

[pianotuna]

LandYacht35diesel wrote:
To add ... people saying diesel maintenance is too high ?

Like what ?

LandYacht35diesel My 1987 was on a Ford 350 chassis and was a FRED.

1. additives to every tank of fuel

2. oil changes at $235.00

3. 3 sets of fan belts

4. 2 transmissions

5. having to have shore power or a generator for starting in cold weather.

6. failed glow plugs 2 x

7. failed power steering 2 x

8. failed house isolator

9. failed grounding wire to dash

10. failed starter

11. front tires needing to be rotated every 6 thousand miles

12. failed fuel line. I had to have them cut out the heater and use generic fuel line.

13. failed starter solenoid

14. failed transmission cooler

These are a few of the many problems I and my brother had.

[Alex_and_Tee]

Copy and Pasty

[LandYacht35dies]

Linky no worky ...

[Alex_and_Tee]

https://rvblogger.com/blog/gas-vs-diesel-rvs-which-are-best-in-terms-of-fuel-maintenance-longevity-and-insurance/

[LandYacht35dies]

To add ... people saying diesel maintenance is too high ?

Like what ?

[LandYacht35dies]

RLS7201 wrote:
I'm going to go with cost. Right now my gasser transmission is sitting on my garage floor waiting for the replacement to arrive. $3K for the HP tranny and I'm doing the R&R. Couldn't do that at home with a diesel.


Richard

Richard .... my man .... 3k$ for a Fix Or Repair Daily transmission......

Sounds to me you got ...... DICKED !

I’ve done HUNDREDS of transmissions over the years .... just Mopars .... you should have gone on a Ford site before spending that kind of coin.

Bottom line .... the transmission biz is a HUGE RACKET

[RLS7201]

I'm going to go with cost. Right now my gasser transmission is sitting on my garage floor waiting for the replacement to arrive. $3K for the HP tranny and I'm doing the R&R. Couldn't do that at home with a diesel.


Richard

[Oldtymeflyr]

We buy size and floor plan. In our case we wanted a unit less that 30 feet. We looked around for a 32-34 dp and did not see anything we liked. Our 30 foot length was important to us.

Frankly the DP's have a lot of fancy features installed that do not suit our taste.

We liked the Winnebago Vista 29V and bought one. Has everything we want, done simply and its well made. My wife likes it. It has the Ford V8 gas fuel engine. Works well does everything we ask of it or will ask of it.

I operate the motor home at a cruise speed of 65 mph. If we want to go faster, well, we would get in the airplane. In the big picture of motorhome travel, we get there at about the same time, give or take a little time, as those units going faster and even much faster. Its time moving, not the speed at which one moves that makes the difference.

[willald]

For us, it boils down to several things, most of which have already been stated:

1. Don't like the smell of diesel
2. Don't want the extra expense, both up front and ongoing
3. Don't like the typical diesel floorplans, with main door in front of front seat (makes RV feel like a school bus).
4. Feel more comfortable, familiar maintaining a gas engine than a diesel
5. Prefer engine up front, not underneath rear bedroom like it is with so many diesels
6. Don't want something so massive like many diesels are - 40' is way too long, prefer more like 32' or so (and almost no diesels are built that small)
7. Don't like how the diesel drives (yes I've driven both).

For some specifics around the last one (how a diesel drives vs gas), as I know some won't agree:

A few years ago I test drove a brand new, very powerful diesel pusher RV (had 8.3L Cummins diesel, 380 HP and around 1000 ft-lb of torque as I recall - no slouch). Was considering trading up to such. I remember walking away afterward totally disappointed with how it drove, and seriously wondering why anyone would pay soooo much more $$ for a diesel. I just couldn't see it.

Yes, air suspension and engine in back make it a quieter and smoother ride. However, I found that if you step on the accelerator on a diesel, it lugs, gurgles, and sloooowly gets up to speed. You do the same on a gasser, it drops down a gear, turns a few more RPMs, and it gets going, quickly. It just seemed the diesel had very little throttle response, and was very anemic compared to the gasser V10 I had at the time (and that was compared to a stout, very powerful diesel).

I much prefer the throttle response a gas engine has, even if that means its a little louder up front. When Ford came out a year or two ago with the new F53 chassis with improved handling, and the big 7.3 V8 with even more 'throat' and throttle response...It became even more of a no-brainer decision for us. Ford really narrowed the gap even more with diesel pusher based RVs, when they came out with the new F53.

All that said.....I hope the original poster's intention for this was to truly understand this matter, and not to just stir up yet another 100+ page debate on this subject.

[way2roll]

For me, cost and justification. If money was no object I'd be driving a Prevost. A lot of us probably would. But while still working and not full timing and the depth of my pockets, a gasser MH suited just fine. Fast forward to our new setup a FW with a diesel truck. It came down to math. I needed a new truck and I keep them for decades. I also knew that the diesel was more capable to the task (not that gas trucks aren't). I also know the diesel truck was more fuel efficient and will hold a higher value (of course you pay more so this may be a wash). I use it everyday, unlike a MH that could sit for weeks at time. So the diesel won in the truck category.

[Matt_Colie]

I have the simplest answer here..

The coach we wanted was never available with a diesel.

Not that I couldn't put one in, several have done so.

I have run the numbers and the mod would break even at about another 230K miles.

Thanks anyway

Matt