Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives 1/2 ton diesel truck becomes reality

Looks like Dodge is stepping up to the plate and building a v-6 diesel engine for their Ram pickups with 3rd quarter release date. I've always wanted a 1/2 ton diesel truck.

Ram 1500 diesel

well, in fairness, GM had a 1/2 ton diesel truck in 1978. The engine (5.7L) was crap tho!!

There were also 6.2 Liter half ton GM pickups and Blazers in the 80s.

I'd like a current-style 4dr Tacoma 4x4 with a stout 4cyl TD and 6spd auto please. Light-colored rubber floors and faux-leather interior would be great. I'll take one in white or tan.

"............... 54.5 mpg by 2025 .......".

6.5L Turbos in mid-90's. They had them in full-size blazers too, I'd like to have one of them.

3 liter and 420 ft/lb torque, sounds like a winner! The biggest question is how much will the emissions choke it and cut into the mileage? If they can get mileage in the the high 20's, it'll be a game changer, even at mid 20's it would be a nice rig.

No, I won't be trading in my 2500 5.9 cummins, but I'm glad to see somebody finally is doing what consumers have been asking for years.

Game changer is an understatement! The market for this type of truck is pretty big and they shouldn't have any trouble selling them IF they are designed the right way. I really hate buying first year models of anything but this new Ram is very tempting.

That's great, now if they would offer the bigger bed and bigger cab together, it would be a pretty versatile truck.

about time, now to remove all the emissons crap and have an efficient engine

Hilux with a d4d would be the cat's azz, but we can't have them.

With 1/2 ton V8 gas engine pickups getting around 20 MPG's (HWY) these days. What kind of MPG's would you consider acceptable for this new diesel engine considering diesel is $.60-.70 more a gallon?

Jeep is considering a new Wrangler diesel also. I'm just not sold on the idea yet.

I'll take the 360HP Hemi at 20mpg over a 240HP diesel at 25mpg anyday.

The Hemi is gonna smoke this diesel in towing performance.

Not likely. The EPA has been flexing its muscle in the past few months regarding removing diesel emissions (i.e. DPF, CAT) and are going after the companies that sell the tuning necessary to remove the DPF. Edge just receved a $500K fine and H&S was forced to pull their tuning products that could be used to delete the DPF. The LML Dmax (latest model w/DPF and urea injection) has the ECM "locked" meaning programing such as EFILive can no longer load tunes on the truck's computer. It has gotton to the point where the air leaving these modern diesels is cleaner that the air going in and at the expense of using more fuel. Removing the DPF yields an instant 4-5 mpg gain, a cooler running engine and is no longer a depriment to the longevity of the engine.

what if a company produced and sold old school diesels and refused to pay any fine, imposed by the EPA what could they do? Could said company sell only "under the table" in some State, you can title a "homemade" and curb the whole EPA problem, or couldn't you simply just build old school diesels and retro fit kits for older, EPA exempt vehicles. I would buy a 1976 Ford F250 with a 5.9 diesel

Horsepower means nothing but the ability to do work. The only number that matters in towing or actual force to the rear wheels (or all four) is torque, and a gasoline engine will never match a diesel in torque or torque curve at various rpms.

The price of diesel obviously is a detriment. However, if you were to get rid of the EPA, you would see diesels as common here as you do in Europe, Asia, and Australia. They are far more efficient in fuel used and power produced. Keeping the Toyota Hilux out of the USA makes as much sense as all of our plywood and black pipe being labeled 'Made in China'.

America has needed such a truck for a long time. I am surprised by all the discussion but no action, until now. Congratulations to Dodge for stepping up. My Ford has a way to go, but my next truck will likely by a 1/2 ton diesel.

Well, Banks says the motor has a 600HP potential after they get through with it.

Banks 3.0 VM motori up close.

Pretty cool stuff.

The Hemi makes 360HP and 390lb-ft of torque.

The 3.0 liter diesel will be 240 and 420.

Like I said,the Hemi will smoke this diesel in towing performance.

If you think that 30lb-ft of torque advantage of the diesel is enough to overcome the 120HP advatnage the Hemi has you're nuts.