There is indeed a lot of truth to that article. Today’s vehicles are very complicated where special tools are not only needed to diagnose them as well as to repair them. Many sensors require a scan tool to reset after replacement before the new one will even work properly (cam, crank, etc.). The days of an average guy being able to cobble his junk together on the side of the trail is getting more difficult. Case in point, my brother in-law has a 2014 RAM with a Cummins to run around the oil fields up in ND. Last week they were driving home to CO and the lower radiator hose chaffed on the Ranchhand front bumper bracket and lost most of the coolant. In order to replace the hose the rest of the cooling system must be drained but to fill it back up you must use a vacuum fill tool to draw a vacuum through the coolant recovery tank and suck the coolant back in through the drain plug. The purpose of the vacuum fill is to prevent bubbles from forming in the top of the engine that can cause damage to EGR coolers, etc. when the bubble passes and the hot coolant shoots into them. So there is a guy who made an installation error (and who doesn’t make those errors in the real world…we all do) and now lost all of the coolant and can’t even fix it himself on the side of the road and had to pay a wrecker bill and repair cost for something that isn’t warranty. Who in the hell would have a vacuum fill tool in their truck if this happened in the middle of the Outback, Canyonlands, Alaska, etc.?
As many of you know, I work in the truck manufacturing business and where we use GM gasoline engines as well as our own in-house diesel engines (Navistar). The package delivery account I support runs both GM gas and Navistar diesels in our trucks. Every day it blows me away how these new modern diesel engines have turned into an absolute nightmare. The durability and reliability of them is right down there with a tool from Harbor Freight. Not only are they difficult to diagnose but the repair process and parts procurement is very time consuming and expensive plus there aren’t enough good techs in the world to fix these complicated things (we need more young guys to get into working on cars and trucks again). And, it is not just our diesels but our competitors (including the overhyped Cummins) are having issues with their engines as well all in the name of making the dirtiest type of engine in the world run clean to meet emissions meanwhile, the gas engines just start and run and go like a Swiss watch for hundreds of thousands of miles with only changing oil, plugs and wires with an occasional starter motor. Diesels can’t even make it to 50K without needing some major costly and time consuming warranty repair. When using one of these modern diesels off road like a lot of the “Expo” crowd does in their huge campers and Sportsmobiles there is no way they could make these repairs in the bush and it would be near impossible to tow them out of some of the areas I’ve been into in Canyonlands. It would suck to have one of those several hundred thousand dollar Earthromers with a PowerJoke that broke down in the middle of nowhere.
All in all, modern gasoline vehicles are far more superior and reliable than old tech vehicles that run carburetors and distributors (I wouldn’t own modern day diesel!). It is just when the new ones do break, the average guy can’t fix them with a tooth pick, nail file and pliers. When I did my 8.1L swap I had knew up front there were some key things that I needed to carry if something went wrong in the backcountry that would leave me stranded, which isn’t much. I took off electronic throttle and carry a crank, cam sensor, several Delphi connectors, wire, crimping tools as well as a fuel pump with me along with my Tech 2 scan tool. Funny thing is outside of two trailside breakdowns where the fuel pump circuit came unplugged (fixed that after the second time by adding 6” to the circuit to account for frame flex) the problems that always pop up with this old truck are the old 1978 technology BS rather than the modern bits and pieces I added to it. It is always something with this old truck but most of the time it is just annoying stuff rather than stuff that would leave you walking. For example, I hadn’t driven it since we got back from our desert trip in May until yesterday. Get in it to go gas it up for a fishing trip next weekend and the damn blower motor won’t work. Why?? It worked fine when I parked it. Turned out the fuse blew. It didn’t even blow in the middle of the fuse, it blow at the base near the aluminum cup where you couldn’t see it was blown. Why did it blow? Fuses don’t die on their own….they are murdered. What killed the fuse? Dunno, can’t find any chaffing or issues in the circuit. Ah, the glory of loving an old truck! Then there is the constant adjustment of the doors, steering wheel, fixing the never ending leaks on the old technology NP205 and corp 14 bolt. Same crap with the Suburban. Every few thousand miles it needs an hour or two of love because something else quit, broke, leaks, etc. It if is not the brake lights that stop working out of the blue it is the headlights or the power windows or the rear A/C blower motor that only works when it feels like it or a pinion seal that is pissing on the floor again. It is a real toss-up between old junk and new junk. A new 2015 RAM Power Wagon with a 6.4L Hemi looks more and more appealing every day, which is a box stock truck ready to use rather than years to build. I don’t feel modern gas engines are that bad, it is the modern day diesel engines like so many think they need that really create a lot of problems for back country use.
