Towing for Landscaping Startup

We have a fleet of 800 trucks at the utility company I work for. Across the board, 85% of these trucks are gas powered. The 15% that are diesel powered are Ram/Ford 4500/5500 series trucks that have man lifts attached to them.

Diesels have there place, and I had to learn the hard way on several of them from daily driving and short trips. I now rock a commuter car and only crank over my Dmax when work needs to be done or I have a few feet of snow.

 

One more thing that I forgot.

Load capacity. Once you start a business, get all your licenses (DOT), and business logo on the truck, you now fall under DOT regulations. Now you need to pull into all DOT safety check points, get weighed, etc.

So I have a buddy with a 2011 F250 CC Lariat 6.7L short bed and his load capacity is 1984 lbs. that really isn’t a whole lot for a 3/4 ton diesel. You can see how quickly one could be overweight rather quickly. When he is pulling the toys and I’m pulling the mobile living arrangements, he is definitely over. With both crawlers and the 28’ gooseneck, his pin weight is ~2700-2800 lbs.


My work truck is the same exact truck except it has a 6.2L gas motor and three years newer. The load capacity on this truck is 3108 lbs. So by going with the gas option, you get way more capacity. Less trouble with being overloaded, and less maintenance.

 

Lighter. Simple as that. Diesel motors and associated drivetrains are usually a bit heavier.

My truck weighs 7690 lbs empty, and has a GVWR 11500 lbs. My same truck with the gas motor, since it’s lighter can haul more. I’m ok with that though. Hell, right now I have 3200 lbs of gravel in the bed of my truck and it isn’t even leveled yet.