Enablers unite! Do I want a diesel?

I just bought a diesel, so you should probably ask future me in a year or two if it was a dumb decision.

I bought a former farm truck 1st gen Dodge Cummins.  My intention is to put a little bit of money into it up front getting it sorted, then use it for towing and put a topper with a pop up tent on it for longer adventures.

I picked the Cummins for simplicity, parts availability, and lack of emissions requirements.

I paid $7500 for the truck and am spending another ~$4k or so painting it and buying parts.  

Relatively cheap and I can almost certainly get most of my money back out if it annoys me in a year or two.

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: yes.

Pre 07/08 is the diesel "answer". The addition of dpf and scr's are just problematic in the early implementation. Dpf's still plug up because they can only hold so much soot and therefore requiring cleaning.

I love our Cayenne Diesel.  It's been pretty much trouble free, averages 27-28mpg in mixed use, with 32mpg on freeway jaunts.  Diesel is the same cost as regular unleaded right now.  I wish Toyota had brought over the diesel motor in my Land Cruiser like they do in the rest of the world. 

In reply to Kendall Frederick :

If I were to get another diesel truck, I would probably look for something similar.  Buy-in won't be cheap and I'd probably have to spend that much again sorting it out, but if kept up it should retain value, going by what I've seen clean examples sell for.  These trucks definitely have a following and are worth putting some money into.

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

That's my hope.  To the OP, do you live in the rust belt or somewhere more kind to older trucks?  

Toyman! said:

Driven5 said:

Some vehicles towing are limited by the rated towing capacity, while others are limited by the payload. It pays to know which yours is. 

The Sedona we had was the former. The Toureg looks to be the latter. I believe the 3500 pound rated Sedona actually has a higher payload than the 7700 pound rated Toureg TDI. 

2014 Touareg payload is 1462 and towing is 7714. 

2014 Sedona payload is 1397 and towing is 1000. The Sedona got a bump to 3500# towing a few years later. 

Edit to add. The later Sedona got a 1600# payload and 3500# towing. 

Perhaps I was seeing earlier models, but some were even under 1k actual (door sticker) payload. Advertised payloads can be significantly higher than actual payloads. What does the door sticker in your specific Toureg list for the  "occupants and should never exceed" weight? My 2017 Sedona was 1323.

The tongue limit was 350, leaving a substantial 973 pounds remaining for myself, passengers, and cargo at max towing. I believe the Toureg has a 772 tongue limit. How much payload does your Toureg leave for you at max towing?

Which entirely neglects that the use of 10% of 'max tow rating' for determining max tongue weight, or vice versa, when a 'safe' 10%-15% tongue weight places 10% as the minimum. This effectively forces a lower than advertised max towing capacity when the max tongue weight is reached... Especially if being at all conservative when loading due to not knowing exact actual weight and percentage on the trailer.

In reply to Driven5 :

GVWR is 6305. 

GCWR is 14210.

Payload according to the door sticker is 1180.

I still have more payload capacity than I need. I just have to pay attention to where I load it.

The Mustang and the car trailer is 4900. That's around 500 pounds of tongue weight. Leaving me with almost 700 pounds of payload in the car. The Abomination and little trailer are 2800 pounds leaving me 900 pounds of payload in the car. That's more than enough for a couple of people and a cooler for a day at the track. 

My boat and trailer are 4400 pounds so again I have 740 pounds of payload in the car.

The trick is, when I need more payload, I don't load the car, I load the trailer. With the trailer maxed out at 7700 pounds, that equals around 770 pounds of tongue weight. I can still load over 400 pounds of payload in the car, which is enough for 2 people. 

If I'm hauling the boat, I can haul another 3500 pounds of crap before I exceed the 14210 pound GCWR of the rig. I'm pretty sure I'll never need to haul that much stuff for a day in the boat. 

Even if I'm hauling the Mustang to the track, I still have 2800 pounds of unused payload before I max out the rig. I don't think I own 2800 pounds of tools. Besides, I'll probably be driving the EndOver and it can handle 10k pounds without even knowing it's back there. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Sounds like a good fit for you. Working through the individual real-world constraints not covered by the advertised numbers, the way you have there, is really all I was getting at.

Id say stick with gas.  I'm always afraid that I'm going to have some expensive problem that I won't know how to fix and will have to start weeding through YouTube videos

jfryjfry said:

Id say stick with gas.  I'm always afraid that I'm going to have some expensive problem that I won't know how to fix and will have to start weeding through YouTube videos

When I started at the dealership, outside of some glow plug relays and filters, I really had never touched a diesel heavily. When I finally got out, I had done several injectors, injection pumps, and turbos. They aren't hard to fix. The wrapper they get shoved into is the problem.

In reply to jfryjfry :

One of my best friends has a 2000 F250 with the 7.3 he bought in 2002 with 30k on it. Earlier this year it turned over 500k miles. He has had to put a starter on it, an alternator, and an ac compressor. We did have to pulled the engine at 425k to take care of several oil leaks but that's it. It's on the original transmission, turbocharger, injector pump, and injectors. It has been a very good vehicle and is still his daily driver. The old ones just don't quit if you leave them stock. 

Run like absolute hell from GMT400 diesels even in their best trim I think an LQ4 is better. 

The solution is obvious boosty LQ4 

I'd love another 7.3 or 6.0 Ford. So, yes get one simply because you want one. If you find yourself not liking it, sell it. I will say the ecoboost fords do have diesel like torque. I'm sure other turbo gas trucks feel the same.

FYI Dieselgate VWs were 2009-2015. 

The vehicles affected by the recall in the US include the following model years:

• 2009–2015 Audi A3 2.0 L TDI
• 2009–2015 Volkswagen Beetle 2.0 L TDI
• 2009–2015 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible 2.0 L TDI
• 2009–2015 Volkswagen Golf 2.0 L TDI
• 2015 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen 2.0 L TDI
• 2009–2015 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 L TDI
• 2009–2014 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen 2.0 L TDI
• 2012–2015 Volkswagen Passat 2.0 L TDI

While the Toureq was effected, it didnt land on the recall list for some reason. Not sure why. 

Okay, no hijack intended but I stumbled onto a '99 Suburban with the 6.5 diesel for sale local to me for what seems to be a reasonable price. I know it's "underpowered" but, my goal with it would be longevity, lots of range per tank, and road trips.


What do you guys think of the 6.5 Detroit?



Edit: Despite the fact that I was a diesel mechanic 20 years ago I have zero first-hand experience with automotive diesel; I've been elbow-deep in N14 Cummins, 3126 Cats, 3406 Cats (along with the later variants), and 60-Series Detroits. I have never owned a diesel-powered vehicle.

In reply to The_Jed :

They run like any other style chevy, horrible forever. The one module on the engine is always the main failure when it doesn't fire. Biggest problem is no intercooler and on long boosted runs it drops power until you're crawling along. I used to have to drive them for the local newspaper I was employed with at the time. It had no problem pulling a 10k load in a 1ton chassis.

In reply to Ranger50 :

The driver control for the electronic injector pump would overheat. IIRC someone made a kit to relocate it to the inner fender instead of on the injector pump in the V of the engine. That was supposed to solve most of the problems with them. 

Edit: Yep, and they still make them. $55 on Amazon

In reply to The_Jed :

Dad had a 93 c3500 with the 6.5 and 5 speed that he put about 250k on. He averaged 20 mpg and never had to do much of anything to it. It had plenty enough power. I think they were a lot better engine option than the wheezy 350 and the very thirsty 454.

Glad to hear there are a couple of Diesel Cayenne owners among us, as I picked up this one last night.  I was looking at 958.1 Turbos when my local dealer took this on trade for a new one. I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to have enough low end to make it enjoyable. Not Turbo fun to drive, but for a daily and 5-6 times a year tow pig for the Vintage FF it should do.  Far less cool options, no PTV, PSSM, PDDC, etc., but should be less things to break long term.  We bought my wife a near new / CPO base Macan last fall.  That was my first PDK car, what a marvelous transmission.

Picture share to show off the cool GRM  t-shirt :-)

Another thing I've learned due to this thread is the Touareg seems to be built like a friggin' tank! It looks like an over-built, serious SUV in soccer mom guise that has somehow flown under the radar for a while though it seems like people (like myself) are now catching on and buying them for road trips/towing/overlanding rigs.