6.2 Gas Vs 6.7 Diesel Opinions...

Preparing to buy a new pickup, and I need some advice. I am looking at new Super Duties, but I'm torn between gas and diesel. I tow my 26' car trailer that weighs about 8500# fully loaded and my bass boat and that's about the extent of the towing that I do. The truck will also be my daily driver. My father has an F250 with the 6.2 and I have used it to tow my trailer some and it has plenty of power and does great. The only reason I am thinking about diesel is if I ever get a bigger trailer (28'-32') I want to be sure that I will be able to tow no problem. But then there is also the 8K price difference that makes me hesitant. So, I guess my question for those of you who know much more than I do, if you were in my shoes, what would you do? Also, I am a little worried about reliability on the diesel vs the gas, what are your opinions on that. Thanks for the advice folks...

dfree383 wrote:I wouldn't waste the money on the new diesel stuff based on all the problems people I know have had.

I have a 6.2 F250 and a 26' enclosed and it does fine, only thing I would do different is get a 350 for the heavier suspension

Thanks for the input...kinda what I'm thinking too. Diesel seems to be the "cool" choice, but gas is the more practical choice it looks like, at least for what I'm doing...keep the input coming gents

Gas is super cheap right now and diesel is still .60 a gallon more, even when the price goes up it will still be cheaper. You can buy a lot of gas for $8 grand. And to second Dave, the new diesel's are still an expensive problem waiting to happen.

Don't buy a new Ford diesel. Get the 6.2 and save the aggravation.

2012 F350 DRW Super Cab 6.2L Gas with 3.73 gears.  

I tow my 28' enclosed with car, tools etc...  (Not sure how much the total weight is) and it works GREAT but It sure likes the gas.  I ran the numbers and in order to break even if I were to get a diesel, I would need to put about 200,000 miles on the truck.  Not including any maintenance.  It's not my daily driver so I couldn't justify the diesel.

If you plan on towing more weight, order the truck with a 4.30 gear.  It's highly unlikely you will find one on the lot with 4.30 gears.

I did a lot of research, mostly on
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/index.php
before making my decision.  I then searched for about 2 months before I found the truck I wanted.  Had to travel a bit to get it but it was well worth it.  I bought it about this time last year with 28K miles on the truck.

Previous thread on the 6.2L trucks that Allen started.

https://www.429-460.com/t22336-any-2011-2015-super-duty-6-2-owners-here

D. Sea wrote:2012 F350 DRW Super Cab 6.2L Gas with 3.73 gears.  

I tow my 28' enclosed with car, tools etc...  (Not sure how much the total weight is) and it works GREAT but It sure likes the gas.  I ran the numbers and in order to break even if I were to get a diesel, I would need to put about 200,000 miles on the truck.  Not including any maintenance.  It's not my daily driver so I couldn't justify the diesel.

If you plan on towing more weight, order the truck with a 4.30 gear.  It's highly unlikely you will find one on the lot with 4.30 gears.

I did a lot of research, mostly on
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/index.php
before making my decision.  I then searched for about 2 months before I found the truck I wanted.  Had to travel a bit to get it but it was well worth it.  I bought it about this time last year with 28K miles on the truck.

Previous thread on the 6.2L trucks that Allen started.

https://www.429-460.com/t22336-any-2011-2015-super-duty-6-2-owners-here

Thanks for the info. I will check out that other thread as well. Appreciate the info guys...

I weighed it back and forth when I bought my diesel and it does not make financial sense to buy a diesel. You buy one because you want gobs of power/ torque and usually better fuel mileage. It depends on how many times a year you are going to tow. Just get used to single digit fuel mileage.

jasonf wrote:You buy a diesel because you want gobs of power/ torque and usually better fuel mileage.  

^^^ This ^^^

6.2 is the wiser choice for personal use, IMO
As posted above, go diesel if you want to pay more up front and more for maintenance and repairs.

Diesels are great for commercial use where they can justify the cost and maintenance hassles.

I have a 2011 F250 with the 6.2 and am very pleased with it.
I bought it when it was 4 years old and had 106K miles on it.
Got it for less than half of what the truck sold for new. I feel confident the truck is not half worn out.

It gets 9.5 mpg towing my 7500 lb. trailer and over 17 mpg highway empty. ( 2wd and 3.73 gears)
Very happy with it so far.

D. Sea wrote:2012 F350 DRW Super Cab 6.2L Gas with 3.73 gears.  

I tow my 28' enclosed with car, tools etc...  (Not sure how much the total weight is) and it works GREAT but It sure likes the gas.  I ran the numbers and in order to break even if I were to get a diesel, I would need to put about 200,000 miles on the truck.  Not including any maintenance.  It's not my daily driver so I couldn't justify the diesel.

If you plan on towing more weight, order the truck with a 4.30 gear.  It's highly unlikely you will find one on the lot with 4.30 gears.

I did a lot of research, mostly on
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/index.php
before making my decision.  I then searched for about 2 months before I found the truck I wanted.  Had to travel a bit to get it but it was well worth it.  I bought it about this time last year with 28K miles on the truck.

Previous thread on the 6.2L trucks that Allen started.

https://www.429-460.com/t22336-any-2011-2015-super-duty-6-2-owners-here

Seems like you could go with the 4.30's or even lower, put a Gear Venders overdrive on it and still have money left over from the diesel and fuel economy to.

Forgot to add that mine is also 4x4. If I were to order a new truck then yes I would go with a 4.30 gear however I don't really see the need with what I'm towing now. If I were to add a few more thousand pounds then perhaps a 4.30 gear would be needed IMO.

I used to tow the exact same setup with my 1995 F350 Crew 2x4 BBF automatic and it also towed find however the 6.2L tows MUCH better and maintains speed much better at highway speeds. I use the up/down gear lock out when preparing to tow up a hill.

The other thing I forgot to mention is the resale value. A diesel cost more upfront but the return value will be higher. Much higher. Just look at older trucks with the V10 vs a diesel. Gas jobs are worth nothing.

A lot of the decision factor (for me anyway), depends on how "heavy" you tow,.......AND,... the overall amount of steep grades & hills you encounter.

6.2 gas - 405lb ft TQ @ 4500
6.7 Diesel - 860lb ft TQ @ 1600


IMO,...
Flat Land guys,......OR,... open/light loads can get away with a gasser,......No problem

In the hills,....(where I live),.....you really need the Torque of a diesel,....especially if you're towing over 10k


FWIW,....
I can't afford a new truck,......so I'm building another OBS 7.3 Diesel that will make somewhere in the area of 950lb ft torque

A lot of good points have been brought up for your consideration. I have had both a 7.3 ford and a 5.9 cummins as my dd, but that was when I was towing 14000 lbs all summer and into fall. If you are just looking at 8-11,000lbs the F250 gas with 3.73's will serve you just fine. However as mentioned, the resale value is lower, but when you add up the up front savings and the maintenance cost savings, the resale value isn't a consideration. Basically you either simply WANT a diesel or you need one for the tow load or a lot of hills. One post was mentioned about going to the 350 for the extra suspension, keep in mind that a 350 srw has a lower tow rating than a 250 srw. What I did on my Dodge and now my F150 was to air bag it. Works great and no ride penalty.

Currently I am using an 11 F150 max tow EB with 3.73's and it pulls my 28ft enclosed trailer and my new-to-me 27ft 5th wheel camper just dandy fine. More importantly is that it has no problem stopping also. The camper has a dry weight of 7500 and the enclosed has a 10k gvw but will probably not weigh more then 8500 with the drag truck and a quad. I did upgrade the tires to E rated to get the stiffer sidewall, and as mentioned above put bags on it, but so far have not had to put more than 10 lbs in them. Eventually I'll go to an F250, but so far this f150 is doing a lot better then I expected.

Copperhead wrote:A lot of the decision factor (for me anyway), depends on how "heavy" you tow,.......AND,... the overall amount of steep grades & hills you encounter.

6.2 gas - 405lb ft TQ @ 4500
6.7 Diesel - 860lb ft TQ @ 1600


IMO,...
Flat Land guys,......OR,... open/light loads can get away with a gasser,......No problem

In the hills,....(where I live),.....you really need the Torque of a diesel,....especially if you're towing over 10k


FWIW,....
I can't afford a new truck,......so I'm building another OBS 7.3 Diesel that will make somewhere in the area of 950lb ft torque

Gall good points to consider. I'm in FL, so I don't see any hills at all to speak of. As far as diatance , probably the furthest I would tow would be South GA or southern AL to race and probably not much further.