smlobx
Adventurist
I do not have diesel experience outside of my 2 tractors... but... if the diesels we were allowed to have in vehicles were like the tractors.. (damn... always run... always.) so simple and easy to maintain, run, etc.... I would be in for the long haul. The complexity of the modern engine that gives it so many convenient features is nice, but the simple "1 wire" diesel in my tractors is hard to argue with. Seems like the diesels in street vehicles are almost not related to the tractor engines...
And, I agree... it is all about gearing (and strength in the drivetrain) for crawling.
I can't argue with the hassles with modern diesels. If we could import modern 70 Series Land Cruisers to the US without all the EPA nonsense it would be a fantastic vehicle..
Like many things in life it's a trade off. On this trip the vehicles were equiped with long range fuel tanks and we still had to carry 80 L of additional diesel. We ended up transferring the fuel twice while on the trip while still in the bush. A gas engine would not have had the range to go where we did. In the US we're lucky in that we're rarely more than 150 miles or so from a gas station but that's not the case in many parts of the world.