3 cyl Daihatsu == Briggs vs. V-Twin kawasaki

[Jon]

I'm buying a Kawasaki Mule 3010 4x4.
The only question that I'm stymied by is:

Should I get:

the Diesel (a 950cc Daihatsu 3-cyl)
or
the gas (a 617cc Kawasaki V-Twin)

Power-wise they are fairly close, although obviously the diesel makes more torque earlier.

Also, I've been told that the Daihatsu 950cc 3-cyl is also called a Briggs/Daihatsu for some reason. Comparing Briggs and Kawasaki and Kawi gets the nod every time, but what about this?

I'm looking for reliability!!

 

[friendly_jacek]

I remeber Daihatsu puting this diesel in small cars (they called them... Charade) in 80's, man, those were slooow! 0-100km/h in like 20 sec.
Do not know about reliability though.

 

[Bill Kapaun]

A bunch of the Briggs Vanguards are actually made by "D". Some are made by Suburu.
Can't remember which, but the V-Twins are made by one and the singles by the other.
Yes boys and girls, Briggs Vanguards ARE made in Japan, unlike the Hondas!

 

[blano]

I run three mules comercially with tons of hours on them. They all have the gas motor in them and I have never had any motor problems. Change the oil once a season with a hd 15w40.

 

[JR]

Hi, my name is JR and I would like to sugest that you look at a Kubota RTV900 first. I was a proud owner of a diesel Kaw, but had a friend offer me 8,500 for her and I couldn't pass an offer like that by. After that I looked for a new diesel and ended up looking at and buying the RTV900. The Kubota is so much better then the Kaw. and if you get the orange on it is like 400 dollars cheaper.

 

[JTK]

If fuel economy is of major importance, the briggs / daihatsu diesel would definately offer better fuel economy than the kawasaki gas engine. I'm sure the diesel would give 1000's of hours of service, but an air cooled kawasaki lasts a LONG time too

!
G/luck
Joel

 

[Bill Kapaun]

Do you already own any diesel equipment?
Do you have outside storage?
Do you have a wife?
Having to mess with diesel does have some disadvantages, since you basically have to live out of cans. A little diesel spill remains "with you" much longer than a little bit of gasoline spilled.
It's hard NOT to get diesel into your clothes etc. with it's "lingering" effects.
You don't really want it in your garage, so unless you have an outbuilding to store it....

 

[Jon]

Well

I went with the gas model.
Even though the diesel offers better fuel economy, power (although with gearing it's hard to say if it's a real benefit), and ease of starting (glow plug, go. That's it, no messing with a choke), the gas offers a few benefits, too:

you can get gas anywhere
all of the other equipment is gas
gas isn't stinky and doesn't stay with you (great point!)
I can repair a gas engine