Diesel versus gas horsepower

[MossRoad]

I am looking at steiners and ventrac, both have kubota 25 hp diesel and kubota 31 hp gas available, both are liquid cooled


Thanks

I'd suggest you go over to the Ventrac forum and ask a bit over there. There's quite a few folks with detailed knowledge of those brands and they're happy to help. :thumbsup:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/ventrac/

 

[MossRoad]

I am looking at steiners and ventrac, both have kubota 25 hp diesel and kubota 31 hp gas available, both are liquid cooled


Thanks

I'd suggest you go over to the Ventrac forum and ask a bit over there. There's quite a few folks with detailed knowledge of those brands and they're happy to help. :thumbsup:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/ventrac/

 

[murphy1244]

I am looking at steiners and ventrac, both have kubota 25 hp diesel and kubota 31 hp gas available, both are liquid cooled


Thanks

I have the Ventrac 4500 with the kubota diesel. What do you want to know?

 

[Gary Fowler]

I want to give a comparison to something other than tractors. A few months back I took my motorhome on a 250 mile trip following my neighbor in his RV. Both RV's are identical in color, size, manufacturer with the exception that my neighbors has 330HP Cummins diesel (largest available engine in this size motorhome when built) and mine unfortunately is a V10 Ford gasser (don't know the HP). His diesel gets about 11 MPG average while my gasser at best is 10 MPG with average about 8 MPG.
We both travel with cruise control on and I noticed that on every hill, I had to tap the brake to disengage my cruise control because I was running up the arse end of my neighbor. Of course my engine was pushing 4000-5000 rpm in 2nd gear while I am sure his wasn't exceeding 2500 but still the gas engine was pulling the hills better than the diesel which was very surprising.
I noticed the same thing when travelling thru the Appalachians when pulling some long hills, I was able to maintain my speed better than many of the diesel pusher RV's that I encountered climbing these same hills. Even though I could pass them up on the hills, they always passed me back while I was fueling up.

 

[buickanddeere]

I use nothing but ethanol-free gas in my small engines, and it costs quite a bit more than diesel does right now....like $1 more per gallon.

Around here ethanol free gasoline is cheaper per liter than diesel .

 

[wcampbell47]

I want to give a comparison to something other than tractors. A few months back I took my motorhome on a 250 mile trip following my neighbor in his RV. Both RV's are identical in color, size, manufacturer with the exception that my neighbors has 330HP Cummins diesel (largest available engine in this size motorhome when built) and mine unfortunately is a V10 Ford gasser (don't know the HP). His diesel gets about 11 MPG average while my gasser at best is 10 MPG with average about 8 MPG.
We both travel with cruise control on and I noticed that on every hill, I had to tap the brake to disengage my cruise control because I was running up the arse end of my neighbor. Of course my engine was pushing 4000-5000 rpm in 2nd gear while I am sure his wasn't exceeding 2500 but still the gas engine was pulling the hills better than the diesel which was very surprising.
I noticed the same thing when travelling thru the Appalachians when pulling some long hills, I was able to maintain my speed better than many of the diesel pusher RV's that I encountered climbing these same hills. Even though I could pass them up on the hills, they always passed me back while I was fueling up.

My first encounter with a Ford V10 was in 2000. I rented a 27 foot RV powered by the V10 in Arizona. While fuel mileage never varied from 10 mpg I was quite amazed with the pulling power as compared to any of the V8's I had owned/driven. Fast forward to couple of years ago. I purchased a used F350 with V10. Assuming that it was a thirsty motor I purchased a programmer and employed it. I was getting 8 to 10 mpg before the programmer arrived. Afterwards I have seen 14 mpg - but of course that is driving very reasonably with cruise control engaged. The F350 is 4WD and sometimes I forget to lockout the hubs which shows up in the gas usage. Just dragging the tractor around on a trailer locally (I do a lot of that) brings me down to about 8 - but on distance runs with cruise engaged and towing almost 10,000 lbs I see 10 mpg. I have questioned some of the diesel owners with tow rigs at the pump. They are not doing much better. Think I will stick to the gas at the moment unless I could luck up on an old 7.3 liter in an F450 with not a lot of miles.

 

[GManBart]

Around here ethanol free gasoline is cheaper per liter than diesel .

Well, that's not true here, or many other places....must be a penalty for buying by the liter. :laughing:

 

[Egon]

Well, that's not true here, or many other places....must be a penalty for buying by the liter. :laughing:

Lots of places up here they switch back and forth on an indeterminate schedule.

 

[motownbrowne]

Well, that's not true here, or many other places....must be a penalty for buying by the liter. :laughing:

We're really lucky here and can buy ethanol free 89 octane from Fleet Farm. It's usually between 10-20 cents more than E10 87 octane. So that makes it about the same as diesel right now and cheaper for most of the last 2 years. I paid 1.95/gallon yesterday. Just a data point I thought I'd add.