600 owners,....your gonna love this....

[OT-OF-HERE!!]

600 build date

Mine was 3/15. Doesn't make sense,. . guys 2 months on either side of mine having great mileage comparably. Go figure.

 

[JeepinDoug]

Labor Day weekend I towed the Jeep (6K lbs with trailer) from sea level to 8200 ft. By the end of the weekend my overhead said I averaged 12 mpg. I'm not complaining towing 13K lbs over 350 miles. My 600 is just getting ready to break the 8K miles mark. I'd try the reflash fir the heck of it.

 

[jnelson]

30,700 miles in 3 months. Best Ive seen is the high 16's. My '01 auto was in the extreme high teens to low 20's.



I'll reflash but I wont be the guinea pig. Remeber not all these reflashes are a God send.



Power? No complaints. I'll sacrifice a little mileage for more power.

 

[BRuppel]

im getting 12. 5 in the city and 18. 5 if i keep it at 68 mph. i guess i can't complain that much. i would try the reflash as long as it isn't effecting any other performance.

 

[PJ]

My truck was built in June. . No white smoke yet but I only have 254 miles on it so far. when should I expect it and will I be on flat ground or just going up hills? Towing or unloaded or just all the time? So far, all my mileage is around town and it claims Im getting just over 12. Not quite as good as the 305/555 my 600 replaced. i was getting 16+ and 20+ on the highway in the older rig.

 

[zues]

What should I tell the dealer to get re-flashed.

 

[dan_gilson]

I just thought I would comment from past experience... .

The guys at the Cummins help desk have been consistantly good.

They try to give you the best information that is available at the time.



I had to use this when Dodge service starting lying to me.

I had a '96 12V with the oscilating thermostat problem. Dodge kept telling me that it is perfectly nromal and that it would not hurt a thing. What a bunch of bull$$$$. Cummins explained that they were working on getting a "fix" qualified with Dodge.



In general, all of my experiece with Cumins, I have been treated like a professional when I was or not. Dodge just treats me like a dumba$$, peon of the masses. Different target markets I guess.

 

[favord]

1/5 build date on my 4. 5, 14K on the clock: this weekends 500 mile trip with trailer - 9. 8mpg



Not holding my breath on the reflash - we've heard that before.



'bout choked on the above post referring to 500+ miles on a tank of fuel - I get nervous above the 250 mile mark and start planning for somewhere to fill up.

 

[Rhinohd]

Anyone make any headway on this yet?

 

[BrentKaiser]

'bout choked on the above post referring to 500+ miles on a tank of fuel - I get nervous above the 250 mile mark and start planning for somewhere to fill up.

I just filled up today 31. 102 gallons going 289. 0 miles . You do the math! :{ Granted the truck only has 1000 miles on it and it was all city driving, but at this rate it is going to be an exspensive winter, especially when we switch to #1 diesel. I am praying that this flash works for me.

 

[GWoody]

My build date is 1/24/04, and I'm getting the 18's... . I've not been flashed, but I did have the High Idle "enabled" Not sure if I'd have newer software than a truck built last month.

No tellin how many different versions of software are in these things, my build date is 1/29/04, dealer enabled the high idle but it doesn't work and my truck has the poor mileage issues.

 

[FJfonda]

I'M READY ------ flash me baby!!!

Just turned over 13,500 miles----- about 2000 miles of it towing the 12,500 lb boat. My non towing milage has increased, from 13 to 14 mpg. Towing is 8 mpg. I volunteer to be the guinea pig... ...



Interesting notes:

- Towing 55-65mph is the same mpg as 65-75 mph. The same holds true

for aggressive throttle usage while towing. Doesn't make sense. .

- Daily commute is 30 miles, 5-6 stops at 55-60mph. Mpg is the same

on non towing 300 mile trips, 65-70 mph using cruise control.

- Towing in hilly terrain (ie. . NY and CT I 84 and I 90 east of Hudson river) is the same mpg as towing in relatively flat terrain (ie ... RI and ME I 95).

 

[PPeters]

Just a little more data, my build date is 4/26, I have pretty consistantly got between 17. 5 to 18. 5 non towing, and around 14 pulling 2 horse tag (about 7500# loaded). Have 4500 miles on the clock, and just recently noticed the white smoke on startup. Doesn't happen all the time, and no where near like what I would get on the old '92. So it would appear that I have a "decent" 600 from a mileage standpoint. Unless I hear about guys like me picking up mileage after getting this flash (when released), I'll probably pass.



Bert, that's some pretty good numbers. You must have got a PERFECT unit.



Pat

 

[KHorikawa]

A MPG flash for whatever little or great MPG increase would be awesome. I'm tired of 11-12 MPG all city and 14 MPG long trip highway. I'm sure the TSB # will be posted ASAP once available. Just hope the flash doesn't only tweak the overhead to make us think its gotten better. I do hand calculate every fill up and leave the overhead on Direction and Temp since that seems to be the only accurate setting.

 

[RKerner]

my 04.5 is coming around

I was averaging 16 mpg highway and after getting one injector replaced at 5K miles, removing the topper, activating the high idle and DRL, I am now getting 19 - 19. 5 mpg at about 68mph (1800-2000rpm, hand calculated, both ways on two tanks of fuel - no A/C on). My truck did have the startup white smoke if it didn't start before 2 seconds of cranking. After the injector, I've had no poor starting issues or excessive cranking. I am really surprised at this damn thing as I was writing it off as a poor purchase. I'll put the topper back on and see if mpg drops by 2. If it does, I'll have a flame red topper for sale. What maybe helped is that I raced my buddy's V10 SD and handed him his a$$ three times in a row - musta been the motivation needed for my truck to act like it should. Oo.

 

[Cajun4x4]

Rkerner

Sorry to ask, but how do you activate the high idle? Does that have to be done at the dealer? I have seen a slight increase in my fuel economy ever since I pulled my 6500lb TT from San Antonio to Houston. Finally saw 12. 5mpg doing 65mph. My current problem is that I have been seeing only 15mpg in city driving here in Houston. I think maybe the high idle would help in that respect as I attribute most of the loss in fuel economy to idling alot.

 

[Scooby]

I'll go for the reflash... I seem to get the same mileage with or without a 4500lb slide in camper!



I've got about 4K miles and see about 14. 2 mpg mixed driving. Granted its an 8000lb truck!

 

[RKerner]

Rkerner

Sorry to ask, but how do you activate the high idle? Does that have to be done at the dealer? I have seen a slight increase in my fuel economy ever since I pulled my 6500lb TT from San Antonio to Houston. Finally saw 12. 5mpg doing 65mph. My current problem is that I have been seeing only 15mpg in city driving here in Houston. I think maybe the high idle would help in that respect as I attribute most of the loss in fuel economy to idling alot.

In Park, turn the CC on, hit SET to get 1100 rpm, hit ACCEL to increase speed to a max of 1600, hit COAST to reduce rpms, hit CANCEL or SET to turn off fast idle.



The dealer has to enable fast idle, cost me $40.



My overhead is off anywhere from 2 to 18% as I track it along with mileage. I don't have any faith in it except as a relative mpg indicator, but at least the temp is accurate.

 

[PNeuzil]

Now I went 783. 3 miles on 32 gallons last tank, 24. 5mpg done by hand to the brim. Just driving back and forth to work over a 3 week period of time with the air on. If I remember correctly the build date on my motor was sometime in December. The truck has just under 18,000 miles and was run in pretty hard right off the bat.

 

[bpete]

I don't care what my build date is. I took possesion in early march. But the mileage a sucked from day one. The best calculated mpg was 16. 6 on a 300 mile trip. Often 11 around the farm, but it weighs 10k. I have 23k miles currently and am happy with everything but mileage.

Brant