Gasoline vs. Diesel

Gasoline vs. Diesel

There are any number of variables in choosing a Bug Out Vehicle (BOV) including capacity (people or cargo), whether the vehicle is intended to simply get you to your Bug Out Location (BOL) or continue to provide transportation in the post-apocalyptic world (PAW), distance to be traveled, reliability, fuel storage, etc.

Today I would like to discuss just one variable, choice of fuel, specifically diesel, as opposed to gasoline, as a fuel choice. There are factors in choosing one fuel over another, such as the perceived environmental friendliness of each fuel, but I am going to ignore these unless they are compelling from a Bug Out Vehicle standpoint.

Mileage vs. Range

The first major advantage to diesel is range, given the same vehicle and same size fuel tank. Many vehicles do not have a diesel option, and many of the vehicles where you have a choice do not have the same size fuel tank. Diesel will give you better mileage in a given vehicle, but if the diesel engine comes with a smaller fuel tank, you may not have an advantage in range. In a BOV range is an advantage. Mileage is nice but range can make the difference between getting to your BOL, or not, when fuel becomes unobtainable.

As an example, you have a BOV and are evacuating in advance of a hurricane, due to a mandatory evacuation. Fuel stations are closed along your route because they are out of fuel, or don’t have power to the pumps. With a gasoline vehicle that gets 15 mpg and a 20 gallon fuel tank you can travel 300 miles. With a diesel vehicle that gets 20 mpg and has the same 20 gallon tank you can travel 400 miles. However, if the diesel option comes with a 15 gallon tank you are back to a 300 mile range.

If your BOL is 350 miles away, only one of these choices gets you to your destination. The point is that diesel has a mileage advantage, but it only has a range advantage if you have an adequately sized fuel tank. You can solve this problem with some jerry cans of fuel, but you may not have those handy when you need them.

Fuel Storage

Gasoline and diesel each have a shelf life, and the shelf life for each can be extended with a Fuel Stabilizer. If you are going to store fuel for an emergency at your BOL, Diesel has a longer shelf-life, especially if it has fuel stabilizer added. Diesel with stabilizer can be stored for up to 10 years.

Without stabilizer, diesel still has an advantage over unstabilized gasoline, but if you compare stabilized gasoline to unstabilized diesel, the advantage disappears. Whatever fuel you choose to store, use stabilizer to get the longest shelf life possible.

Reliability

In the past diesel vehicles were thought to be more reliable than gasoline vehicles. The engines definitely last longer between rebuilds and there were fewer engine electronic parts to worry about. With newer gasoline vehicles reliability has become so good that reliability is not a compelling advantage. If you are acquiring a vehicle that will be your BOV, does it matter whether your engine life is 200,000 miles or 500,000 miles? Not really. Reliability is always a good thing, but new vehicles are reliable.

Age of vehicle

If you are looking for a BOV and concerned about an EMP, as many preppers are, then you are probably going to choose an older vehicle with fewer electronics. There is a lot of contradictory literature on what will, and what won’t, work after an EMP or CME. I won’t claim to be an expert on EMPs and I suspect that even the experts can’t say definitely what will work post-EMP.

However, it is safe to say that a vehicle with fewer electronics will be more likely to work. With a gasoline vehicle you need to go pre-1980 to be looking at a pre-computer, pre-electronic fuel injection vehicle. You are looking at a 40 year old vehicle at this point in time.

With diesel there were relatively few models pre-1980. At that point diesel was primarily a fuel for tractor trailers.

However, the same environmental factors that pushed electronics into gasoline vehicles also caused some consumer vehicles with diesel engines to be introduced about 1980. The electronics didn’t become a problem for about another 10 years.

That’s still 30 years old, as opposed to 40, but 1980s diesels have not become collector cars, where almost any pre-1980 gasoline vehicle now has some collectible value. With a little looking they can be found and restored with less difficulty than older gasoline cars. The diesels of the era also tend to be more utilitarian, pick up trucks and SUVS as opposed to sports cars.

Summary

Diesel fuel has a few advantages over gasoline but they are important from a prepper perspective. Range is usually a diesel advantage and is often compelling. Diesel fuel with stabilizer can be stored for a relatively long time. Finally, if you are trying to restore an older vehicle for EMP protection you can go with a slightly newer and less expensive project vehicle vs. gasoline.