Let me refresh your memory.
Buying a V8 1/2t will leave you with $11,000 to spend vs buying a diesel.
We were talking about money spent on mods being equally the same, not money spent on the truck purchase.
You were the one that brought the money spent on the truck into the conversion even though that was not what we were discussing. Saying that the average Joe who finances his truck will automatically receive $11k to spend on mods just because he purchased a truck that cost that much less is a false one. That is not how it works.
However on the topic of up front truck costs, just because someone purchases a diesel DOES NOT mean he is spending more. I know guys that bought bare bones Tradesman CTDs for less than $40k because having a diesel was an important option for them and others who have bought decked out 1500 Hemi's for over $45k. How does that fit into your equation if those two decided to spend money on mods? As I said before in this forum, a diesel is an option just like an $8k Laramie package with all the trimmings. As with any option it is up to the purchaser to decide if it is worth the cost or not. Some may think spending $8k is on leather butt warmers and navigation is better than spending it on a diesel while others may not. How come no one ever opens a thread about "getting their money back" or "it is just not worth it to me" about spending $8k on a Laramie option yet it gets mentioned all the time with the diesel option?
As I said above, we were talking about money spent on mods and spending the equal amount on each truck, not money spent on the truck purchase since you will get that back in the long run.
Edit: I take that back. Going from a Tradesman 5.7L Crew Cab 2WD to a Laramie 5.7L Crew Cab 2WD is a $10,890 option per Ram's website, not an $8,000 option that I stated above.