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

As I said, horsepower is a fictitious number derived at one specific rpm, and is only a measurement on the ABILITY TO DO WORK. In the real world, only torque matters.
Comparing a 3.0 litre diesel to a 360 cube v-8 gas engine is apples to oranges.
At what rpm does your hemi make its 360hp?
What is its torque output at 240hp, and at what rpm?

This is high school stuff- Simple Engines and physics 101.

Exactly,HP is the ability to do work. The more HP an engine (any engine) has the faster it can do that work.

These two engines have similar torque,one has way more HP. You're kidding yourself if you think this diesel has any chance of keeping up with a Hemi towing similar loads.

No, towing there's no comparison. The hemi torque curve is completely different nowhere near as good towing. And hemi's aren't real fast anyway.

Ford says that they will offer a 3.2 liter diesel in the F-150 in 2014. (Couldn't retrieve the link from Car and Driver--must have to be a subscriber.)

With the durability of newer gas engines, and the government screwing with diesels (plus the added fuel cost and expense to work on), I really don't see the point in buying a diesel unless you are almost strictly towing. If that's the case, buy a 3/4 or 1 ton.

For the most part, I agree (buy a 3/4 or 1 ton if you are buying it for a tow rig).

However, if you have a decent transmission behind it, I think the little diesel would be a good thing in a half-ton. If you drive in town a lot your mileage gains won't be much. But on the highway, I'd expect to see some pretty impressive numbers. That sounds like a motor that is pretty well matched to a half-ton truck. 420lb-ft will tow anything I'd want to tow with a half ton.



Somewhere north of 5000, but I don't have an exact number.

I have a buddy that has a Hemi ram. He tows an aluminum enclosed trailer with a couple snow machines (pretty light load) about 120 miles one way and back every weekend. He absolutely hates that motor. Sucks fuel in a big way, and gutless with a load behind it. I could see this new diesel working out for folks in that situation.

I know which motor I'd rather tow with, and it wouldn't have spark plugs.

Obviously, you've never towed anything with a diesel. The diesel will pull better because it produces its max torque within a usable rpm range. Your hemi has to turn north of 5K RPM to get in that torque range. So much for your mileage. If gas motors were better for towing, they'd put them in semis...

I can see the diesel 1/2 ton being a good solution for folks like that. The thing is, correct gearing and a transmission with the correct shift points (or a manual) would most likely cure a lot of the Hemi's ills there also.

If this happens, bet diesel prices inch up some more. mtmuley

Max torque with the Dmax and Allison is 17-1800.

Wrong on both counts. Keep guessing

oooooohhhh, the chance to buy another Ford Diesel! Am I the only one just a bit more than a little skeptical of Ford and diesels right now?

I would too..............but the one I drive at work every day (belongs to the boss) only gets 10mpg. Loads of HP, and enough torque to tow well, but SUCK for fuel economy.

I'm not saying that a gas engine will always perform with a diesel. I'm saying that between these two engines the Hemi will be the towing performance winner hands down.

And thats only comparing the Jeeps HP/torque numbers listed in the article. The Hemi in the Rams is rated at 390HP and 407lb-ft of torque.

That'll be an even bigger ass kicking for the diesel.

No, it wont.

Probably not. The Hemi will really suck fuel under load, and the diesel, like most electronically managed modern diesels, will be easy to turn up the wick from stock. I bet 350hp and 600+ lb/ft wouldn't be hard to achieve.

Put that in your Hemi and smoke it

No dog in the fight here, but if you took a couple grand and sunk it into the Hemi, you'd also see some gains wouldn't you? Not the same, I'm sure, but apples to apples is stock to stock. Or, worked over to worked over.

I see it both ways, boys.
I have a Hemi.
TONS of power. Not good MPG.
I also have 2 buddies with Cummins 1 tons.
They will tow a huge amount anywhere and seamlessly.
They also suck, big time in the MPG dept. to do it.

They can tow more, easier than mine........but their fuel costs alot more and they use just as much as a gas rig.

Like they say, You can't fix stupid, so I'm not going to bother arguing with you. Have a nice day...

A couple friends HAD 1/2T 4wd hemi Dodge trucks. One guy sold his because it was a terrible gas hog. The other guy sold his 2004 because at 100k miles things were starting to fail. And he always thought the power curve was wrong for a truck. Now.....my 1994 beater 4WD GMC gas truck has 235K miles on a 350 engine.....started as 200hp but it's getting tired and feels like a slow pig to me. So my friend drove that old GMC up a long mountain grade and said it was faster, felt more powerful, than his 100k mile hemi. That surprised me. I don't know how the new hemis are but there've been late model hemi rams on Pass Time. The owners thought they really had something.....but those things were slow.