What is your MPG with Diesel truck and 5th Whl

[RRman]

05 Dodge Ram 3500 Dually gets 10-12, averaging 11 pulling almost 13K 05 3670 in the mostly flat southeast at 65-70 MPH. The Dodge gets over 21 MPG empty, just running around - usually only once a week.

[sgtpp214]

At 2000rpm I was going 65-67 and getting 11-13 towing. With the cost of diesel I now do 1700rpm and go 55-57 and getting 13-14 towing. We don't drive much not towing to give real accurate mpg, but usually 18-20 which is usually stop and go. This is with automatic and 4.10 rearend.

[rickety]

11.5--13 pulling the 3400 18-21 not pulling 15.3 in town. A little over 12000 miles on the truck.

Not too bad for 6 wheels and 4 wheel dr.

[Dustytuu]

We got 10 MPG, mountain towing this 36 foot SOB. Actual 38' sob. We get around 12 and up flat land towing. Traveling 55 to 65 MPH. Get 15 and up without towing. We have 19.5 inch tires. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. Also the back tires are like snow/mud tires. Going to replace those when they wear out.
Truck is not broken in yet and if it is like our previous Dodge the mileage will go up lots after break in period.

Love this beast of a truck!!

[Trailer Trash 2]

I get 25 MPG towing


What a lier!!!!!!

Well OK I lied, on a realy good day with a tail wind, I'll get 11.5, on a flat 11. pulling a hill 6% 9.5 some times 10. no more no less.

[hazmic]

Rich, how many miles have you gotten on that new truck? Also how are you checking the mileage? Don,t go by the read out on the speedo. The hand calculation,it is the best.

[kmh3212]

Never ever believe or quote that little computer mileage gizmo on the dash or overhead console that is the liar. I get 15 to 15.5 unloaded mixed highway and town. I get 9 in hilly areas towing and 10 on the flatlands towing my 13k fiver with a 1999.5 7.3 Ford crew cab dually fuel milage hand calculated. 130,000 miles and just broken in.

[Dustytuu]

Don does our calculations on our mileage. He writes down every gallon and price, miles etc. We do look at the MPG thing on the truck but his calculations are more accurate and that is what I posted our MPG from.

[tjuhl]

Glad to see someone else is complaining about using computer figures instead of actual mileage calulations. I don't mean to open a can of worms but I don't believe any truck mileage computer is accurate every time. My Dodge computer is always showing about 2 mpg more then I am really getting. I don't think computer readings should even be used to report here, or at least "that's a computer reading" should be noted.

[dsprik]

It's not just truck computers. My Park Ave has the mpg calc - my 2500HD D/A SLE does not. We use the car's comp figures for bragging rights, but we use the hand calc for our budget...

[richfaa]

The truck computer readout is within a couple of tenths of hand calulations and I do not trust hand calculations. The only way to be accurate doing it by hand is to fill the tank up to the very lip..run a couple of hundred miles and fill it to the lip again. I can squeeze in up to 4 gallons of fuel after it shuts off. It takes awhile to fill it to the lip,what with all the foam. When I do that..which is not often, the figures are very, very close.. We are now pushing 13K miles and the MPG is getting better towing.. Did 11.3 on the Ohio and I-80 to PA then 10.0 on PA 80 to State college..There are some nice pulls on PA 80 west and East.

[Snownyet]

I jumped up one tire size from stock on my 2006 Chevy 2500 and since then my hand calc'ed mileage is within 1 thenth of the DIC and magically the speedo is spot on, thats been confirmed by both GPS AND calibrated Radar. My 2004 Ford also read about 6mph faster than actual speed. Do they do that to end the warranty period faster than actual? I seem to recall talk of some sort of lawsuit about this a while back.

[dsprik]

quote:Originally posted by Snownyet

I jumped up one tire size from stock on my 2006 Chevy 2500 and since then my hand calc'ed mileage is within 1 thenth of the DIC and magically the speedo is spot on, thats been confirmed by both GPS AND calibrated Radar. My 2004 Ford also read about 6mph faster than actual speed. Do they do that to end the warranty period faster than actual? I seem to recall talk of some sort of lawsuit about this a while back.

That may explain why when I asked GM about going up one size, they were very adamant that I not go up one tire size. When I asked about recalibration of the computer - which I know can be done - they were very strong in stating the "they DO not and WILL not have a re-calibration available for consumers". They warned me to stay with the stock recommended tire size.

I thought that was a little odd that they were so adamant about this. Now I know why. Can you imagine how much money this has cost the American consumer over the past several years??? Talk about a massive class action.

I know for a fact that my 2000 Park Ave is UNDER on MPH and therefore OVER over on MPG. Never thought much about this until Snownyet's comment...

[Dustytuu]

Don has done this with every car or pickup truck he has ever owned. Always bought new. Everytime he puts fuel in the tank. Out comes the pencil and writes everything down. If I fuel anything, I need to have the gallons pumped and mileage written down along with the cost per gallon. Orders from my old man!

This is off topic but Don bought a new black GTO convertable a few months before he went into the army. He sold it to his brother who ended selling it. It was a 1966.

[Cyrus]

I don't think you have given enough information to get an answer to your question.

You will have more wind drag with the 5er then the trailer for one thing. Depending on the trailer size you have now there could be more weight in the 5er also. I pulled a 24 trailer with my truck and didn't know it was back there except for the sway from the trailer and it dropped the mileage, don't remember the amount. I now pull a 35ft 5er weighing around 15,000 and it drops my mileage from 17 to about 11-12 except on mountain roads then it's more like 9-11. The 5er does not give you the sway that a trailer does and since it connects over the truck wheels the impact on truck ride is much less. The 5er is a much better pull, like it's not there compared to the trailer.

[Ruth]

We get about 8 mpg with a diesel Chevy Silverado but we drive about 65-70 mph. I'm impressed with what I read and we'll try slowing down next trip. We just completed 8500 miles and spent $4300 on diesel - Ouch!!

[scattershot]

2955RL Montana, 2000 Ford F-250 Power Stroke, no chip. I get an average of 10 MPG with this setup. Got 7 once, but that was in New Mexico with a 30MPH headwind.

[2 Sinks]

Around town 18.7 to 20 mpg average always,hwy 21 to 22 with the cruise on at 70mph at aprox.2000 rpm's 3:73 gears and "79k" on the odo.
Pulling the Mountaineer 5ver 336RLT 13.2 mpg, best ever was 14.8 in ideal conditions.The more miles I put on the Cummins the better the mpg it seems to get.
Have not pulled with the new rig yet,2006 Dodge diesel 3500 drw auto 4x4 quad cab with 16k odo.

Philip,
2006 Dodge 4x4 diesel
2500 quad cab auto.

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

We tow our 3585 with a '08 Ford 350 crew-cab diesel. When we're not towing in the mountains, we've been getting about 10 - 11 MPG. We definitely do better when driving 60 - 65 MPG, but driving that "slow" on the wide open Montana interstates earns you a lot of hand signals, honking, and other signs of interest in you and your rig.

Carolyn

[Snownyet]

quote:Originally posted by dsprik

That may explain why when I asked GM about going up one size, they were very adamant that I not go up one tire size. When I asked about recalibration of the computer - which I know can be done - they were very strong in stating the "they DO not and WILL not have a re-calibration available for consumers". They warned me to stay with the stock recommended tire size.

I thought that was a little odd that they were so adamant about this. Now I know why. Can you imagine how much money this has cost the American consumer over the past several years??? Talk about a massive class action.

I know for a fact that my 2000 Park Ave is UNDER on MPH and therefore OVER over on MPG. Never thought much about this until Snownyet's comment...

My dealer says no problem on a recalibration for 265 tires on a 2500 and will honor warranty claims while using them, also I think 265's are standard on 3500 trucks. He did however stress that I should not go up to a 285 when towing the load we tow due to added stress on the transmission. One point he did make was that If I were to have any transmission problems while running my larger 265 tires that requires stock size tires for transmission troubleshooting and its my responsibility to get them on the truck.