E85

[gelswick]

For those of you that have gasoline powered tow vehicles, any pros or cons on using E85. Decided to try a tank in the new 2500 and could not find any station that had it before having to fill up. Salesman said 30% cheaper than regular and 25% less power. Agree, disagree??

Gary, Nancy and Molly the Hyper Puppy

[Slufoot733]

Personally I am NOT a fan of Ethanol in any concentration. Our beloved EPA states it pollutes less so that's good, I guess. But ethanol has about 18% less energy per gallon so you have to burn more E-fuel to travel the same distance. Therefore you send more pollutants into the air than non ethanol fuel. The newer vehicles are designed to run E-fuels; yours can run up to 85% ethanol so it should not be an issue. It just is not as efficient.

[racerjoe]

have you done any mpg comparisons? I would like to know if it is close myself. we have a station not to far from us but have not tried it yet.

[dieselguy]

E85 ... yet another closed door "brother-in-law" deal from some powerful group poised to buck "big oil". Best thing since sliced bread till you run the numbers. Damn ... where did I put those numbers .... ?

[lasater]

Make sure your owners manual states that E85 can be used in your vehicle. I put a tankful in my wife's Explorer in Rapid City and had the MIL lamp come on within 2 miles. It cost me $450 plus the cost of fuel to get it cleaned out of the system. Dummy me didn't know that you can't use E85 in vehicles older than 2004/5.

An expensive lesson.

[8.1al]

Give it try and see how it works for you. I have never seen E85 cheap enough to offset the lower fuel mileage.

[richfaa]

Without going into a long discussion we ran E 85 in out previous 2005 F-350 Ford V-10 pulling this same 06 3400. Our MPG decreased and the truck did not seem to run as well.

It is a boon for the frmers selling all that corn to the oil companies.We do run 10% in our cars since we have no choice and it seems to do OK.

[gelswick]

After making sure that E85 is cheap enough I'll try some and report back.....

[DQDick]

Being eco nuts we tried it in our old pickup and it wasn't worth it. Mileage and the price caused it to be a money losing proposition and between the fuel used at harvest and the water and energy used to produce it E85 doesn't do the environment any good either.

[mhs4771]

Now I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard or read somewhere that it takes a gallon of gasoline to produce one gallon of ethanol. As I said I have no knowledge of the validity of that statement, but knowing the Government it wouldn't supprise me. I do know that the current 10% mix sold just about everywhere does not give as good mileage as 100% gasoline does. I equate this to the Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel, produces less soot, but doesn't have the same energy thus you have to burn more to go the same distance, so did we gain anything??

[RickW]

Had a friend run a little test of E85. He ran 2000 miles on E85 and 2000 on regular gas. In the end they both cost the same to go the same miles. With E85 he just had to stop and fill up more often. In addition he did not feel he had the same get up and go on the E85. He has opted to continue to run regular gas as he finds it more convenient.