Diesel or petrol truck?

biggles001, Feb 13, 11:43pm
If a truck is only going to be used for generally 5 months of the year and for relatively short trips (up to half an hour!) would I be better to get a petrol truck! Ihave been told that petrol trucks dont suffer so much from lack of use like the diesel ones. Any info appreciated

hopie, Feb 13, 11:46pm
depends on rego requirements I guess. I.E can you rego it as a farm truck.

biggles001, Feb 13, 11:51pm
was thinking more along the lines of maintenance for a truck that isnt getting a lot of use but has to be road worthy :-)

mram, Feb 13, 11:57pm
What size truck are you looking at! I worked out the landrover 110 I have,with the current usage it gets(short infrequent trips) that I would be better with a v8 petrol than the v8 diesel it currently has,plus quicker warm up,easier cold starts and not having to put up with a smelly smoky diesel when it is cold!

biggles001, Feb 14, 12:09am
a 3.9Litre petrol. And that is what I am wondering as well. The truck would be siting around doing nothing for half the year pretty much so thought maintenance wise a petrol truck may keep better . as I believe that diesel engines really need the work or you start running into trouble with them

mram, Feb 14, 12:21am
If your not doing stuff all k's in a year I would just have a petrol, depending on what sort of engine it is! Some of the old perkins diesels and ford dover engines didn't really dgive any troubles in the old trucks and ran off the smell of an oily rag

pdc1, Feb 14, 2:48am
What's your idea of a truck, and age! I don't see anything about the maintenance thing. If anything I think the diesel would be better off sitting around than a petrol.

pdc1, Feb 14, 2:57am
ok, just read the other thread that you are looking at a D series ford. As a maintenence thing, I don't see much in it. Petrol is probably more likely to stick valves and rust up contact breaker points in the distributor.
If you go petrol leave the fuel tank empty, as petrol goes off.
If diesel leave it full, to help prevent condensation, as diesel bug will thrive.
Good precaution would be to plug exhaust and aircleaner while sitting if outside stored.
More of an issue will be hydraulic brake system, cable hand brakes, and rusty cabs.
With petrol you maybe able to claim the tax back on the petrol. Check with NZTA.

biggles001, Feb 14, 3:46am
thanks for comments :-)