Diesel costs an arm and a leg, so the gains would be negated by the increased cost at the pump.
Hybrid options cost 2 arms and one leg.
Buying a hybrid may look like a money saver, unfortunatly, usually thay are not. It is a mental state of savings.
With an initial investment of 3 to 5 thousand dollars, it will take alot of gas to make that money up. A larger system in a truck that big would cost more than that, I would guess closer to $6,000 or more. Lets say $6,000 for sake of argument.
If I have a truck that gets 13 MPG in the city. I drive an average of 300 miles a week of city traffic.
300*52=15,600 miles a year of city driving.
15,600/13=1200 gallons of fuel
Lets say an average of $3.50/gallon for fuel.
1200*3.50=$4200.00/year
Looks sickening...right?
A 40% improvement sounds awesome.
13*1.4=18.2 MPG
15,600/18.2=857.14 gallons for fuel
857.14*3.50=$3,000.00/year.
A savings of $1,200.00/year.
Last report I read says the average hybrid batteries last about 100,000 miles.
100,000/15,600=6.4 years.
6.4*1200=$7,692 over 100,000 miles.
In the end, your best bet total savings would be about $1,600 over 100,000 miles.
Provided you keep cars longer than 3 years.
No matter how you slice it, hybrids are hardly ever a way to cut costs.
You are better off buying a cheap POS truck to tow the toys on the weekend and buy a little car to drive whenever you are not using the toys.
Tom