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Actually the Ford V10 is generally a very reliable engine. I am new to airstreams but at one time I owned half of a diesel repair (towboat & railroad) shop. We used 1 tons to hot-shot parts up and down the Mississippi. We got 480,000 miles out of a Ford 460. The gold standard was the Power Stroke 7.3. We had 2-4 of these running all the time. My ex-partner is still using a 95' we bought used in 98' and it has 400,000 HARD miles constantly pulling a trailer with 8000-15,000 pounds of parts. Ford 7.3s last a long time. That said, when Ford went to the 6.0 they had to put out 66 service bulletins betwwen 03' and 06' to cover problems that kept cropping up(that figure may be higher now). By comparison Chevy only had to put out 8 bulletins on the Duramax. However, Dodge didn't have to put out any. I pull with a Dodge Dually Long bed 2wd, 5.9 diesel, auto trans. with a camper shell and I get 21.5 mpg highway empty and 15-17 mpg pulling my 25' trailer. I calculate mpg the old fashioned way I divide miles traveled by gallons to fill-up. If you buy a Dodge diesel stick with the 5.9 and look for an 03'-05' model. I bought a 98' Dodge 2500 for my personal use because it was 5K less than a comparable Ford at the time and I got rid of it in 05' to get the quieter engine. It had 220,000 miles on it and no engine repairs except for good maintenance and new injectors at 180,000 or so. The older Dodges were bulletproof with a manual transmission and the automatic was their weak link but they fixed that around 04'. I use a 3.73 gear and its fine. Nice big breaks too. I have heard horror stories about the mileage of the new 6.4 Fords, ie 7-8 mpg but that could all be gloom & doom over the new diesel restrictions. If you drive a lot--go diesel. If you don't pull long distances and your tow vehicle isn't your daily driver like mine is then look at a Dodge V10 in 2500 or 3500 configuration. Silky smooth power and lots of it. 10 mpg empty or pulling 8 tons. These can be had on the cheap (like $10,000 cheaper)and the money saved buys lots of gas.
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