Dear old dad and I went on a 1000 Km trip, to the same destination hauling roughly the same load. (slide in campers towing utility trailers with 12 ft aluminum boats)
To spare everyone the gory details of the calculations, we figure dear old dad spent roughly $100 more on fuel than I did.

while I realize there are many more variables like fuel cost, loaded and unloaded fuel economy etc. etc. My '93 dodge went 240,000 Km before I sold it, If I take the $100 dollar figure per 1000 Km, I estimate I saved $24,000 in fuel costs over the life of the old truck. Heck lets half that $100/1000 Km lets say $50/1000km that is still $12,000 less I have spent in fuel alone.
I then turned around and sold the truck for $11,000 where I would have been lucky to get $4000-$6000 on a gas engine.

diesel sure has treated me well.......

 

Not to mention that your load was easier for your engine to handle than his.

 

Yep, just shows to go ya. I have always maintained that the $ spent on the diesel option are recovered at resale. Majority of them anyway. So those fuel $ saved are directly in your (insert favorite recreational activity here) account. Gee honey, we saved enough in fuel costs taht I can get that new Lund Pro-V. . Hey its worth a shot.

 

my boat is a lund A12 and dear old dads is a lund wc12? (something like that) like most here, I never really realized the difference. until now.....

 

with diesel being .20 a gallon cheaper around here than gas, it's easy to remember why I bought a diesel everytime I pass a gas station

 

I always said I'd never buy a diesel - I hated those noisy, smelly, smoking things. A friend convinced me that the CTD was the way to go for towing. The Dodge gets better fuel mileage than my Jeep during day to day driving, and only slightly less when towing the Jeep. I averaged 16.3 MPG over a 3500+ mile trip with the cabover on and the truck loaded to ~7700 lbs.

Now I just say I'll never buy another gas truck.

 

Yes, it takes a lot of convincing to pull a gas-lover over to the Dark Side. But once they see the folly of towing w/ a gasser they wonder what they were thinking!