Roperteacher

Diesel actually dropped here 20 cents yesterday!!! For the first time it went from 5.19 back down to 4.99. 4.99 is CRAP, but for the first time in MONTHS it has gone DOWN

matego

I really dont know where my point will be. I went the bio route a little while ago and got rooted out. Big business came to my sources and told them that giving oil to a non HAZMAT hauler could result in them receiving fines if I spill the oil transporting it. Now they all have contracts within any reasonable driving distance.

I dont foresee getting rid of my CTD but probably driving it a lot less.

Patriot2500

I think I am at the point now where I am weighing my options as far as keeping the truck or selling. I don't really need to have it as I don't tow very often and use the truck as my daily driver. My sole purpose in buying the truck was to throw a plow on it, which I did and we have had 3 winters with no snow so the plow is off and being sold. I have went and test drove new Hemi's and even looked at a pre-owned Nissan Maxima that gets 21mpg city/28mpg hwy. It is coming down to want and need, and with the costs to run my truck and what I need it for, its overkill.

newfy

As long as I have work, I will use the truck, try to bill the customers more just to cover the price of the fuel. It just seems that in the past year, the jobs I am booking are less than 8 miles from home. My truck is used for work, so to get to the job it is used every week, no parking it here.

Rednax

As I began looking last year for a new truck (used) I specifically went for high mpg in a post-2002 CTD. This calendar year I am averaging 19.3 mpg. I paid a low price for the truck (below book value even a year later) and my insurance, tax and other costs are low. It isn't just fuel (except for dummies who think vehicle ownership is payments plus fuel cost). Depreciation hits harder than fuel.

On that alone, there is no "break point" for me, I can't replace the truck with, say, a Ford Fusion as the depreciation there combined with putative "fuel savings" makes it the more expensive vehicle. And I doubt it would last 300,000 or 15 years. And it cannot replace the trucks utility.

I recently compared with another owner of an otherwise similar truck and trailer his fuel costs with mine. Were I to switch over to his 12/17 tow/solo truck gasoline would have to remain MORE than 50-cents cheaper for the gasser to look better. Combined with his purchase price and current book value, I'm still ahead on mine. Ahead, significantly, as the diesel will likely last 100,000 more miles.

I've always driven for economy, and am only pushing it harder now. I've cut down an any frivolous trips so as to have the margin for when something comes up (today, for example, some short trips to visit a friend in hospital for serious post-op complications).

As we also use our truck for business, the mileage deduction can make a serious dent in the operational costs. Also, as we live on the Gulf Coast, this cap-covered long-bed may be stuffed to the gills after hook up our travel trailer. Most folks I've talked with who had major home damage or complete destruction had to live elsewhere for 14-18 months. I'd rather be in my own trailer than in an apartment somewhere as I can move it at will.

Same thinking went into buying a TT. My fuel mileage is as much as 30% better than a number of fifth wheel owners. In a season of towing (5,000 miles), at $5/gl at 15 mpg = 330 gallons, or $1,650. At 12, it is 416 gls, or $2,080. My "savings" is $430 or 86-gallons (20%). I give up nothing in RV capability, in fact my rig is more stable (safer) and will outlast the other ESPECIALLY in depreciation, those fifth wheels lose value like a gut shot hog. Mine, old as it is, is appreciating in value. Repairs, upgrades and the rest only make it more valuable. And any business use I can put it to is another advantage.

Highway, my truck is 22 mpg at 63 mph. If the competing truck is 12 towing and 17 highway, with 5,000 towing and 15,000 solo, then my overall advantage is about 500-gals annually, or, $2,500 in fuel alone.

That's $12,500 in "savings" in five years. Or, in seven years the truck has "paid" for itself is fuel savings alone versus a lesser truck and big junker of a fifth wheel. And that is before I apply the IRS mileage deduction (which brings it down rapidly to only a few years) OR factor fifth wheel depreciation (the clincher).

A truck needs to have a use that is income-producing for it to be economical; or, a use that forestalls or offsets other out-of-pocket expenses.

My actual cost to operate is .56-cents per mile prior to any deduction. If one does not know this number for one's vehicle, then one is blowing hot air about actual, or, true ownership costs which consider ALL expenditures.

Of course, somewhere on up there comes a point that it is heavily expensive to own this truck. But until something else can beat the 56-cpm cost AND replace the utility, that is a ways off.

No, something MORE important to consider is fuel shortages. Commercial carriers, home heating oil, etc, will have greater call on diesel-level refining than consumer use. There will be spot shortages. I am looking at some of the replacement tanks that will allow me to carry 60 gallons or so to improve my margin. At stop-and-go mpg (evacuating the Gulf Coast with another 4-5 million people) I am estimating 3-5 mpg, so that 60 gallons with a ten gallon reserve will be 150 to 250 mile range (at 15 it would be 750 miles).

Try and look at all the costs involved. If the truck is just a toy then get rid of it earlier than everyone else. Any loss won't hurt by comparison to those who can't sell theirs at any price. (Especially that high-price, low value fifth wheel.)

vwjunkie53

I'm already there. Diesel is 4.59 a gallon. My truck has never got the fabled 20 mpg, I average around 16-17. I can get a gas 1/2 ton truck that gets that kind of mileage and pay over .50 cents less a gallon. BTW, my truck is in the "for sale" section, if anyone is interested!!!

Jason

RD TRCTR

I don't have a breaking point... yet. I haven't even started thinking about it. I bought the truck for myself as a present for graduating college, getting the first job and turning 25. I've wanted a Cummins since 2003 and waited patiently to get it. I do drive the truck less, but I am not getting rid of it. I don't get to work the truck as much as I'd like, but I know when the chance arrives (when I get my own place), it'll be there to work as I need. I bought an '85 'Yota Straight axle to use as a DD (22 mpg), but it'll be leaving here soon (hopefully) so I can go buy a Honda that'll get in the 30+ mpg range.

patdaly

I would ask the businesses that were told that if they would mind giving a statement to the effect.

Then I would go to the state and start raising heck. Big business or not, lying through your teeth to squash your opponent is not something most states go for.

As for me? i am at my breaking point for a daily driver..........but nowhere near enough to make me sell her.

TxDiesel007

No breaking point here

fuel is high, we need it, i have a daily driver anyways, But i do use the cummins daily anyways, and it takes me four days to use a 1/4 tank on it, so i fill it frequently and not think about it too much. I love my truck too much to stop drivin it, and i do use it for towing and pulling still, even with diesel at 4.59 a gallon, i still haul hay with it and feed, just a slower speed and then park it when its done

thats what the truck is for...

Rick

rockcrawler304

I see no breaking point for myself. Only driving less. Fortunately I have started getting diesel in Mexico at just over $2.00 a gallon. Even if not, I still will not sell the truck. Besides, when people do hit their breaking point, who is gonna want to buy their truck???? If your truck is paid for you can take as big of a hit as you want. If it is not paid for, like so many, it will be very hard to get rid of it. I would suggest to anybody even thinking about it, to sell now while you can. But I for one will not sell no matter how hig the price goes.

BgBlkTrk

Exactly-if you are thinking about selling it, then do it now, because its only going to get worse as diesel prices go up. The market now for full size trucks/diesels already sucks, I can imagine how its going to be if prices hit $7/gallon. As for myself, the truck is almost paid for, so it doesn't hurt so bad to just park it and drive the wife's car or the motorcycle, but I will keep it as it serves a purpose that no other truck does as well, which is towing the camper and 4-wheeler.

Smkn600CTD

The breaking point was last Tuesday for me.

Picked up a 94 T-Bird with 31K miles on it from a grandma. Leather doesn't have a crease, and the paint doesn't have a ding or scratch. Car get been getting a consistent 21mpg, (truck getting 18mpg) and for a 4.6L v8, not to shabby, plus its just cushy for the long drive to work. 4mpg better and a buck a gallon less, the car pays itself off on its own.

Pretty much at this point, I drive the car to go to work and back. Use the truck for the lake and whenever I get diesel withdrawals.

Even if diesel got to $10 bucks a gallon, at some point and sometime we all needed a truck and hence why we bought our trucks. That's why I won't sell mine. Its just that at this point, most/some of us don't need to use them as daily drivers. Plus having almost 1000ft/lbs feels soooo nice

Jason Foster

I run approx. 22.5 mpg now give or take. I am averaging 13300 miles per year. That equates to approx. 49.25 gal a month. At $4.73 a gallon, as it is right now, that equals $233 a month. At $7.00 a gallon, that equals $344 per month. $111 per month is still good insurance for driving something that equates to a sherman tank on the highway, can pull almost anything that will hook up to the ball hitch and can haul almost anything in the back. Truck = happiness. However, my breaking point will probably set in around $15 a gallon. That will run me around $731 per gallon. I like my truck. That's not the real problem with rising diesel prices though. The cost of freight is the main issue. Rising diesel prices equal rising food and misc. prices. It's going to get worse.

Rednecktastic

Yeah I can "afford" it. But now I try to be on the motorcycle as much as possible.

I think I can dig up some receipts where I paid around $2.30 a little over a year ago... It's uncanny to see the price of a commodity double in a year.


I'm going to hang on to the truck... eventually the bottom will fall out of the oil market and prices will plumet like they always have.

Also thinking about buying a little Scion car from my friend.

Rednecktastic

Also, a vegtable oil conversion would be my route if it still wasn't under warranty. I think it's around $2 a gallon.