OK, I don't get any of this at all. The EPA has lost its mind by imposing all this DEF and ULSD stuff on us. In Europe a big twin turbo Diesel Jag gets better gas mileage than a Prius, and while it definitely makes more emissions per gallon, it uses far fewer gallons...net result is LESS emissions.
Lots of people are talking about how to bypass the DEF, or about getting older trucks that don't require ULSD, only because of these new rules. Sports Mobile no longer offers a diesel option on their trucks and they state that since ULSD is not available outside the US and Canada, they wanted to sell a vehicle that was a global traveler (video of interview
here). The end result of the EPA rule has become "drink twice as much gas as a diesel" just because they wanted less emissions from a diesel.
This thread started with Earthroamer trucks. Now maybe I am on a significantly lower budget than most, but a quarter of a million dollars is ALOT to pay for a truck that I can't ship to Russia and drive through Mongolia for a month, or even drive the ice road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.
I am preparing to build my own global traveler, and one of the big things I have learned from this whole forum is how much simplicity and reliability have been stressed. To that end I am actually going with a non-turbo, mechanically injected, air cooled diesel. Very little to go wrong and I can fuel it from even the lowest quality diesel fuel from the depths of Africa.
Just seems to me that even a crappy low compression gas engine running on crappy third world gas would be better than hoping you can have family ship you some DEF or praying your particle filter that is backing up will get you another 100 miles down the road because the supposed ULSD you bought at a middle of nowhere shop in the Altar desert wasn't actually ULSD.