If you’re about to buy your first motorhome or trailer, the one question that will come up is: “What’s better, gas or diesel RVs?” It seems like a straightforward question but when you dig a little deeper you’ll discover there really is no one answer that applies to everybody. Here’s why:
Stop asking yourself “What’s better, gas or diesel RVs?” Instead, consider your camping and recreation preferences. Photo courtesy aauummm iRV2.com member
Gas or Diesel RVs Each Have Pros and Cons
It doesn’t matter if your dream RV is a Class A motor coach or a tricked-out toy hauler. Trying to decide whether a gas or diesel RVs is better or worse is a losing battle. Toss aside the debate about which kind of fuel is better for RVs and you’ll still find many pros and cons for each engine type, such as:
The pros of gas-powered RV engines include:
- The RV costs less to buy, whether new or used.
- They usually have less expensive maintenance costs.
- Finding fuel on the road is easier.
But a few cons of gas-powered RV engines include:
- They can’t tow as much cargo as a diesel engine RV.
- They simply don’t last as long as a diesel engine before major overhauls are needed.
- Recouping costs is much more difficult when you decide to sell.
RV diesel-powered engines have advantages that include:
- Higher engine torque to conquer steep passes.
- Better fuel economy, whether towing or not.
- Higher resale values, thanks partly to diesel engine longevity.
But, diesel-powered engines have their share of challenges for RVers, such as:
- They cost more money to buy and maintain.
- Finding capable diesel mechanics is a bit harder.
- Protecting your diesel engine from cold weather is neccessary.
lifestyle is the biggest factor in choosing your perfect rig. Photo courtesy Scarab0088 iRV2.com member
Your Lifestyle is the Biggest Factor
Stop asking yourself “What’s better, gas or diesel RVs?” Instead, take a careful look at your camping and recreation preferences. Let’s start with how you want to use the RV.
Are you drafting plans for a full-time RVing lifestyle? Do your toys go everywhere with you? If so, then a diesel engine might be your best choice. The towing capacity and fuel economy of a diesel engine can’t be beat.
Do you live for weekend excursions to nearby campgrounds? Is a full-time RVing lifestyle a faraway dream? If so, a more cost-effective choice would be a gas-powered RV. Whether towing a trailer or driving a snappy little Class C motorhome, you’ll find gas-powered RVs friendly to your wallet and lifestyle.
You can research all day long and discover that RVers endlessly debate the gas or diesel RVs question in RV Discussion Forums. But more than anything else, lifestyle is the biggest factor in choosing your perfect rig. This wise iRV2 Discussion Forum member put it best when he said:
IMHO, too many focus on the wrong things (gas versus diesel). I’d suggest deciding how you are going to use your motorhome and then picking the appropriate rig. IMHO, this is not just frequency and distance. It is also the weight and volume of stuff you plan to haul (bodies, toys, toad, clothes, junk, hobbies, etc…) and the mode you plan to “camp” (always full hookup versus weeks of boondocking). – iRV2 Member JFNM
Many RVers find it takes a few tries before getting their choice right. In the end, RV ownership is just like a road trip as it’s all about the adventure.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
I have one thought. The part over overhauling the engine should not come into play. Most RV’s are not driven 15K a year like a car, probably more loke 5K and the engine should last than the shell of the motor home. I was looking last year and i found most motor homes around 10 years old had had 50k or less. I found a 2004 Winnebago Sightseer 30B with 44k on it. I will drive less than 2000 miles a year with it . Before the engine ever needs to be rebuilt the transmission will probably go first, which could happen just as often with a diesel, it will be 25 years old. Unless you tow, save your money and get a gas engine.
I agree about the rebuilding thing. It’s pretty rare to rebuild an engine these days. My first car that I bought with my own money was a ’70 Challenger with a 383 Magnum. It had 86,000 miles and was pretty much ready for a rebuild (so naturally, I rebuilt a 440 and put that in it 😀 ). Today, passenger car and pickup truck engines can be reasonably expected to go well over 200,000 miles without a rebuild. Even in an RV, which counts as a severe service application, a modern gasoline engine should go 200K or more.
Our ’08 Bounder has almost 95,000 miles on it, but it came with 90K of those when we bought it. That’s extraordinarily high for a motorhome, but it was used very regularly and always professionally maintained (I have its full service record since new), which allowed it to avoid one of the other threats to motorhome engines: underuse; it’s not really good for an engine to sit for months at a time. Even the generator, although it has very high hours, is in excellent shape because it was always professionally maintained on schedule.
I don’t drive it nearly as much; we’ve had it for 14 months and have put a little over 4,000 miles on it, so I expect the Ford V10 to last for as long as I have the RV, barring any atypical catastrophic failure.. It might even outlast me and go to my kids 🙂
I ended up with a 38 foot gasser. Probably $20,000.00 cheaper than a comparable dp. I can put that in my pocket and smile when I gas it up. Never will be full time and not in a hurry when I’m on the road. In fact I have a sign on the back of the rig that says “Retired, Go Around Me “!!
you may have saved 20K but the all around better quality of everything involved in a diesel pusher also comes into play and the safer towing limits and superior braking powers etc made me go diesel pusher
Most of Class A owners do not drive a lot of miles per year. From what i see on RV trader for used RVs 3 to 4 thousand miles seem to be the average miles driven. For that kind of use gas engines and saving 20K is the best decision to make.
I would differ on one point in the article. It is not easier to actually fuel larger gas motor homes with toads. The length of such rigs makes it difficult to get into and out of many gas fuel lanes. Diesels, on the other hand can always go to the truck lanes. We have to plan in advance where we will fuel our 37 footer plus toad. It can be done and we have gotten pretty good at scoping out fuel stops with Google maps, sat view etc. But it’s not like fueling your car at any gas station you come to. And the price is often higher at the places we can get into.
Please don’t minimize this issue.
Grumpy, have you considered using Pilot/FlyingJ Travel centers, where there are frequently RV lanes which offer both gas and diesel? Also, you can get their RV Plus charge card. It’s not a credit card, it’s a charge card, and must be paid in full each month, but it gives you 6¢/gallon discount at the pump. Good access, plus the discount equals a win for me! I’m diesel, so I get 8¢ off the CASH price, but when towing my 24ft. TT, I use the RV lanes. It works well for me!
We ;use the Good Sam card at the pumps for our discount and use an AMEX card which gets us most of the discount of the RV Plus card. I didn’t want yet another card to carry. We use them where available, but they often are not where we need them for fuel.
But yes, they are part of our planning for fuel. It is best to check ahead however, as not all locations have RV fuel lanes and the Pilot/Flying J web site and Android app are not always accurate on whether they have rv fuel lanes.
We just completed a cross country trip and Pilot/Flying J diesel prices were always higher then competitors even with the Good Sams or RV plus. Use GAS Buddy and your standard credit card with gas points. You’ll save lots.
My first RV was a gas puller (Gulfstream Supreme 35 with Triton V10 gas engine in the front), and my now RV is a diesel pusher (Fleetwood Expedition 38B with 360 cummins diesel), and I have to conclude that I much prefer the diesel RV. All pros and cons considered, my Fleetwood performs better in all respects, and I’ve never encountered any difficulties in service, fuel (finding on the road), or general performance issues. Just the additional pulling and torque for hills is the biggest seller for me; my old gas unit would slow to 25MPH on moderate hills, while my diesel rig maintains a pretty steady speed (I cruise at 60-65mph on generally level roads) even while climbing moderate grades (might slow to 55). On the straight and level, in cruise control, the Fleetwood is like driving a dream; I’d never buy anything else!
Funny thing about torque (or to be more precise, torque:weight ratio, and final drive ratio comes into play here as well). In the fall of 2015, we bought a 2008 Bounder 35H on the Ford platform. We did our first major trip with it this summer, to the Black Hills, Little Bighorn Battlefield, and Yellowstone. There were some pretty good grades on that trip (not Colorado big, but pretty big). I was towing a 2009 Honda Odyssey, and the load was 2 adults, 2 teenagers, one younger kid, and our stuff.
I was generally keeping up with diesel pushers on those hills, and doing better than some of them, which kind of surprised me. The strongest ones could out-pull me pretty handily, but most of them seemed to be in the same torque:weight ballpark I am. While the diesels put out far more torque than my Ford V10, they are also in far heavier vehicles which erase most of the torque advantage.
That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather have a diesel, of course, but a gasser was in budget and I looked at a lot of floor plans before settling on the Bounder 35H. There are certainly advantages to diesels, in terms of both driver comfort, quietness (a V10 in third gear, pedal to the metal, is LOUD), layout (door at the front is good), and fueling. My overall length when towing is 58 feet, and like Grumpy said, you have to plan your gas stops. Even at Pilots and Flying Js, not all pumps are easily accessible with a rig that long. It pays to stop and size them up before committing to an island, since you can’t back up with a toad.
What final drive ratios do DPs typically have? Mine is a 5.38, which may also have something to do with my ability to keep up with the DPs on hills. I put a 5 Star tune on recently, can’t wait to get it out next summer and see how that does. Have taken it on a couple short local trips (one with toad, one without, total distance about 200 miles) and shifting has definitely improved. I think it feels stronger, but that’s kind of subjective. Would like to put on a Banks cat-back exhaust, but that probably won’t happen this year.
Hi,
I used to be a diesel snob. Until diesel down the road is $1 more per gallon. Now.. it’s a wash for me. iMHO😀
I had 2 gas m.h. 1. 1995 bounder on a p30 chassis almost impossible to drive and impossible to tow with. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever drove and I drive drag cars@ 135 mph much easier to control. 2. gas on a 2000 ford chassis v10 much better to drive but lacks power to tow a trailer up hills. 3. 1995 diesel pusher it’s like driving a cady rides beautiful don’t get blown out of the lane by t.t. and fuel mileage at least doubled getting 13 mpg. feel safe in it and it drives great I love it.
What is the brand and model of the diesel pusher? 13 mpg is really attractive.
Just bought a Winnebago Ellipse DP…..traded in our Bounder. We love the Ellipse…it not only rides and pulls nice but the quietness adds to my feeling of “no stress”. I never realized how much the screaming gas engine actually impacted my peacefulness. I haven’t seent that said anywhere.
I’m not in the category of Class A land yacht, but I do own a diesel ( my second one).
I have a 2008 Ram 3500 Cummins powered dually carrying a 9’6 Bigfoot camper. We load the truck very close to the GVWR of the dually.
The pluses of the diesel are described well in the article. I don’t ever think about slowing down up a hill, I can pass anything. TORQUE.
However, if I had to it again, I would probably decide in favour of a gasser.
Reasons are:
1. EPA mandated Diesel Particulate Filter ( since late 2007) has ruined mileage and reliability. I don’t just say this, I have lived it. I bought my truck brand new and it now has only 94,000 km (58,750 miles) on it, pretty much all highway and barely broken in. The truck is utterly stock with no programmers or mods of any kind.
On every single long trip this truck has let me down. Except for the failure of the water pump, ALL problems have been DPF system related.
FIrst, the DPF restricts the flow of exhaust gasses and causes a reduction in torque. Cummins compensated for that by increasing the displacement of the motor from 5.9 litres to 6.7 litres with an accompanying loss of fuel economy.
I bought the truck because a guy I worked with had purchased a 2006 truck with the Cummins 5.9 in it. He was getting around 20+ miles per US gallon fuel economy and loved the thing to death. The best I have seen with the 6.7 is 17 mpg(US) unloaded. (3:73 axle).
Second, the DPF system is attached to the equivalent of an on board environmental testing lab. When your truck fails the lab test, as it will if there is any problem with the DPF or the sensors, then it will warn you, tell you to go see a dealer ( $$$) and eventually, shut your truck down to limp mode.
This happened to me heading East over the Cascade mountain range just before the summit where we had no cell service and guys were coming down off the mountain with ice crampons . We were lucky to limp over the summit. 1 week later, the dealership in Omak Wa had replaced 2 temp sensors, a diff pressure sensor and the DPF filter under warranty.( That’s maybe $3500 or more parts and labour if out of warranty). Great.
At least 2 more times in the next year, the light came on indicating that the filter can’t regen( clear the soot it is filtering out). 2 times different dealerships replaced temp or pressure sensors under warranty.
So ok, now we were running on the second DPF and head for Yukon and Alaska. Half way there, the damn light comes on again. 1 dealership replaced a temp sensor ( again ) but that didn’t fix the problem, a non-dealer mechanic scanned the engine and didn’t fix it so I decided to drive with the light on. We made it to Whitehorse Yukon and waited for 3 weeks ( that is correct, 3 weeks) to have the truck repaired at the Dodge dealership. They determined the DPF was shot (again) and under warranty replaced it. That means we were driving on the third DPF this truck had seen in barely 50,000 miles.
Still under warranty, thank goodness.
Third reason I won’t buy another diesel is that in some places ( far north and remote) it is not the fuel of choice so there really are a lot fewer places to buy fuel. Sometimes that means NO place.
We had also planned a trip to Mexico and I contacted a company that runs camping caravans. These newer diesels in Canada and USA all require Ultra Low Sulfur diesel. (That isn’t the same as the old Low Sulfur Diesel). It’s a motor warranty breaker if you try running on the wrong fuel, so I asked about Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel availability in Mexico. The guy who ran the business replied that although it MAY be available in certain regions, it isn’t guaranteed although the country is moving to ULSD gradually.
Inciidentally, the Cummins is my second diesel which I bought because my first one ( Ford 6.0) was eating up warranty repairs like leaking CAC, leaking high pressure fuel system, and so on. It also let me down a number of times on warranty.
I’m pretty sure a gasser won’t pull as nicely as my rig but I can get gas anwhere I can drive and the EPA hasn’t yet ruined the system entirely and the repairs don’t require a skilled diesel tech which are sometimes hard to come by.n
I guess we are bit different. We have been running over 10K miles/year. We are retired and have criss crossed the country several times, both east/west and north/south. We are on our 6th motorhome, 2nd DP. My last gasser was very reliable, almost 100K miles with few problems, but, driving it on some of CA roads was an experience as it banged it way over the roads. Often amazed at how the windshield didn’t crack. It was also a white knuckle ride in winds which are common in the desert areas.
The point is, DP vs GAS is much more than engine choice. Its almost everything. Moving to a DP is like moving to another planet. The ride, the ease of driving, the lack of noise, the solid feel, windy areas are not nearly as much of a problem. Stepping inside and closing the door is like going into a vault. The outside noise just goes away.
True you can’t just pull into any gas station, but we have a large tank and can go over a 1,000 miles, but in practice if I see a FlyingJ or Pilot, I’ll stop. Usually long before I actually need to fill up.
In younger years, we have owned 4 gassers and they did the job and we had some wonderful
experiences. The choice then was a gasser or stay home. We did not think staying home was an option.
If the price difference were no object, we’d have purchased a DP. But for a DP comparable to our 37′ gasser, the cost was nearly double. So, while I see references to 20 grand difference between the two, we found it to be more like 80 grand. Sure, we could have gotten an older used DP but we weren’t interested in going that route. We got a great buy on the gasser and the spread was still 80 grand. Not to mention the higher operating and fuel costs. No thanks. We spent 4 grand on steering and handling enhancements for our gasser that literally removed all the sway/push issues. Also installed the UpFord tune and gained 56hp and 73 ft-lb of torque. So we have plenty of power. Yes, on 6%+ grades, the engine rages a bit but it’s only for a couple of minutes. I imagine the DP does too but the engine is in the back and you don’t hear it. We live our West and just drove 3,400 mile cross country to our winter destination and our gasser performed very well. On average, we saw diesel fuel to be about 50 cents more per gallon. More than that along the Gulf Coast on I10 where we bought gas for $1.69. In SW Florida, we’re surrounded by beautiful and expensive DP’s and I admire them. I admire the 80 grand in our pocket more. The couple next to us just put their coach up for sale and buying a home. They’re older and it’s just time for change they say. They’ve got a 2012 Newmar Essex 45’er. They said it cost over $700k new and they’re selling it for under $300k. This thing is gorgeous and meticulously maintained. Holler if you want their contact info. Carry on.
I have owned two motorhomes in my life. The first was a 32 ft Tiffin Allegro Bay gasser. While a solid motorhome, it weighed about 18000 pounds. Semi-trucks on the interstate would pass me and push me all over the road. Push you away when they were beside you, then pull you back as they cleared you. I definitely drove with both hands on the wheel. Plus I had a safety steer stabilizer on this rig. Windy days also pushed me around. Fueling up while towing was always stressful. As mentioned by many, you have to plan ahead. My second and current motorhome is a 40 ft Monaco Dynasty diesel pusher.. The wind and semi-trucks are dramatically less of a concern because it weighs 33,000 pounds. Heck, I can eat a sandwich while driving down the road. I also fuel up where the big rigs fuel up. Lots of room to manuver at a diesel truck stop.. My fuel tank is 133 gallons so my range is dramatically more than the gasser.. Ease of fueling and driving safety were my must haves. As mentioned, the mileage is better in a diesel, but the maintenance costs are more. You have to decide what is most important for your situation. Happy trails!.