7.3 Mileage...is it true?

[RussW1911]

There are 4-5 of us where I work that all drive CTD and then there are 3 guys that drive 7. 3's. It seems like the more the fuel prices go up the better fuel mileage they are getting.



I will start with the most outrageous..... woman claims her husband can get 33 out of his 01 7. 3 auto. I told her that was only going to happen if I am towing him.



Next guy has a 99 7. 3 six sp and he is claiming 25 mpg... he admits that it is a 40 mile run down hill all of the 2 times he actually hand calculated it.



The third is the one I actually believe. He says he gets 16-17 if he doesn't hotrod.



What are the real numbers on average that they are getting?



Us CTD drivers are all consistent between 19-22 depending on terrain.



I will say I was quite happy this past weekend. I had my comp on 3x5 on a 1000 mile round trip and averaged 19 with some pretty good inclines. Cruise was on and GPS says my average speed was 74. Nothing but grins passing the Chebbys and Ferds





Let me know what you guys know. Russ

 

[MMiller]

Most I have heard was 16-17 at best, most worse yet. My parents own a 2000 excursion with 7. 3 auto, and 3. 73's At best it got stock was 16. 5. Hand or overhead. My father was very discouraged. His cummins 4X4 farm truck will knock down 22 almost all the time. He is very good at getting fuel economy so is mom. Dad has driven otr truck for many years and consistently gets bonus for good fuel economy, SO I know its not their driving getting bad mileage. I had him put 4" exhaust on the truck and it went up to 17. 5- occasionally 18. Sounds terrible!



HOWEVER he just took it to George's diesel in Des Moines. They hooked up the programmer and reset the computer. Now you have to know they NEVER tow with this truck. Its just the family cruzer. They reset it and took the truck home. The overhead console was reading 28 on the way home. Power is way up, noise is way down. He fueled it up and DTE was 999 miles. Geoge's said NOT to pull with the setup, and if they had to work the truck, come back and he would reset it to work. Mom and Dad are much more happy with the truck, but the truck is just a big car now, that can just drive itself around.



I think the advanced the timing, changed the wastegate, and set up the shift points to shift sooner. The trans in that truck was always confused. It would only shift right if you were driving like you stole it, otherwise it wouldn;t make up its mind. This was about a month ago. I have not talked to him since, I was waiting a while for him to figure milage by hand before saying anything else.



It might be getting better milage, but its still a ferd, its still a V8, it still drives like a barge, and it sounds like crap.



Michael

 

[Chipstien]

Originally posted by RussW1911

Us CTD drivers are all consistent between 19-22 depending on terrain. Russ

I think you find out that the majority are getting from 14 to 18. Only the SO 2wd manuals get those numbers. Remember, I am saying average.



BTW, In 2003 I averaged 15. 55 MPG for the year.

 

[RBratby]

i at one time had a 99 ford 7. 3 6sp ex. cab 2 wheel drive and i only averaged a wopping 15 mpg and that was driving it nice. my 95 dodge gets on average about 18-20 mpg driving it normal. ie normal being keeping up with traffic. nice meaning driving it like an old man that thinks idle speed is fast.

 

[OTRPU]

Don't know bout the newer one's, mines a 96 F350 CC Dually 5spd Manual, 4. 10s, best I've personally ever done, flats, unloaded, locked in cruise at 55, 21 manually calculated, hell don't even have an overhead. I come cross I-80E once, towin both my 26 ft 5er & 20 ft toonboat on a 26 ft tandem trailer, flat as all get out, wind at my tail. . . got 16, called myself a lier. With loads on I can get 6. 5 out of either of my trucks screaming up the Utah hills. It's all about the terrain & environment, whatcha got on, and how you drive it. Some Furd guys are always MT, going downhill, with the wind to their backs.



Cheers,

Steve J

 

[DGFoster]

My 99 4X4 longbox got around 20 on the highway and 15 in city,and it was consistant,it was great on fuel,but 33 MPG NEVER.

I knew a guy with 2wd extended can that got 24 on the highway.

 

[Big_Daddy_T]

My overhead says 39 if I zero it going downhill. So I guess I get better mileage than them.

 

[bmoeller]

My grandpa had a '97 F-350 crew cab, 2wd truck that had 4. 10s and an auto transmission.



Best he got was 15mpg empty and 10 pulling his 37' tri-axle King of the Road 5th wheel that had 3 slide-outs.

 

[ndennis]

I have a 95 F-250 7. 3 PSD Supercab 2WD LB 3. 55 and E40D and on my last long trip, I loaded 2000+ lb in the bed and drove from Ocean Park, Wash to Napa, Ca to Sonoma, Ca to the Napa airport and back to Napa City for a total of 750 miles and hand calculated at 19. 8 mpg. I drove at 70-72 at every chance I got including up Hwy 26 in Oregon between Seaside, OR and Portland, OR and at that time, it had 140,000 on odometer. I thougth that was pretty damn good and would be hard to beat with my 2000 Ram 2500 I replaced it with. When the 7. 3 runs right, it gets very good mileage.

N Dennis

 

[lmills]

My 95 4x4 5 speed PSD got 15-16 on the interstate. I daily drove it about 750 miles a week. My buddies 2002 4x4 dually auto 7. 3 got 13 running the same interstate at the same speeds. 33? maybe in their dreams. Me thinks he forgets to reset the tripodemeter every other time he fills up.

 

[mattymac]

I have multiple buddies around here with SD 7. 3 PSD, and they all say the same thing "if I could get into the double digits for fuel economy I would be happy!" All of the trucks range in year 99, 00, 01, and 2 02's. 3 lifted with 35's one manual and all are bone stock (engine mods). Also wile calc. by hand we add 10% of total miles to compensate for bigger tires and speedo calabration. They honestly get anywhere from 7 to about 10 MAX! 2 of the 5 couldnt stand there trucks anymore, needless to say they both have had one Ch***, one Fo#$, and now drive something else and are very pleased!

 

[CROW]

Since I've gone to the trouble to keep track of this, I might as well chime in with some fuel mileage numbers. My truck is a 2003 HO 6 speed 3. 73 single rear axle. My average fuel economy for 22,495 miles is 14. 95mpg. However, 40% of those miles have been towing a 12,500 lb fifth wheel and 7% has been towing a boat that weighs approximately 3,000 lbs. Considering the amount of towing, I think the fuel economy is very good. Would I kike to have better fuel economy-well sure-but I think the numbers above are reasonably what one can expect and I am not displeased with the fuel economy. Towing the fifth wheel, I have gotten as low as 10. 3 and as high as 13. 0; lot of variables when towing as we know.

 

[klenger]

Those are good numbers. Must be a 2WD.

 

[Cummins Pilot]

I had a 94 PSD. 4x4 5 speed long box ext cab. On road trips with about a 1000lbs in the bed it would get 21-22.

255,000 miles on it also.

 

[Hudsonhawk]

Originally posted by Chipstien

I think you find out that the majority are getting from 14 to 18. Only the SO 2wd manuals get those numbers. Remember, I am saying average.



BTW, In 2003 I averaged 15. 55 MPG for the year.

I average 20. 5 to 21. 5 per tank (hand calculated). Granted its a 2wd Stick but it is a HO.

 

[WDaniels]

With my ex-97 PSD the best I ever got was 18. 25. I had it for 2 and a half years and I only achieved that mileage twice. The biggest problem I thought for the PSD was that POS E4OD transmission that they stuck behind the engine. That was 90% of the reason I got rid of the crew cab.

WD