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Letter Re: Advice on Diesel Vehicles–Motorcycles and ATVs?

Dear Mr. Rawles:
I already had a diesel Ford tractor, so I took your advice and got a diesel pickup, and I’m shopping for a used [diesel] Mercedes. Those things run forever. And as my budget allows, I’ll also plan to buy a diesel generator to replace my gasoline backup generator. So now I have logistics problem: I have two types of fuel to store, since my motorcycle, Polaris ATV [1], and my Husqvarna chainsaw all use gasoline. Diesel stores way longer than gas. But I guess that there is no way to avoid having some gas vehicles and tools.

JWR Replies: If you do some searching, you can find diesel-powered dirt bikes [2]. Last year, Arctic Cat introduced a diesel ATV [3], and Roush Industries has developed an interesting variant of the diesel Arctic Cat [4]. But I suppose that the jury is still out on reliability of these new diesel ATV models. (One of my grandfather’s sage mottos was: “Never buy the first year of any new model car or truck.” I suppose that the same caveat should apply to other vehicles and any other complex machinery.)

As for chainsaws, there were a few diesel saws made decades ago, but they never caught on, since diesels are inherently heavier than gas engines of the same displacement, and they typically have lower RPM [5]. However, one possibility is the ethanol chainsaw variant made for the Brazilian market by Stihl. But I’m not sure where you could lay your hands on one in the U.S.