8.1 gas vs diesel.....

[Bloomy]

I need to get my friend who is a new member (Spockie) to post why he traded his 04 8. 1 3500 SRW on an 05 CTD. He has no brand loyalty and this is his first dodge. So far there is no comparison. I am willing to say he can tow up any hill just as fast and at twice (nearly) the mileage. My little old slightly modified 12v could toast the 8. 1 in a drag and still get over double his mileage. I just can't see anyway to justify the 8. 1. My opinions only of course.



Thomas

 

[10.5 Dave]

I put 58,000 miles on a 2002 Silverado HD 8. 1 CCSB 4X4 with the Allison and 3. 73's. I burned 113 qts of oil in the 2 yrs I owned it. Went to arbitration with GM about the 500-600 miles to the quart and the mysteriously disappearing coolant. They agreed to give me $7,000 and I traded the truck on a new Z06 Corvette 2 weeks after getting my check.



In all fairness the truck made good power and never made me walk. It pulled my old trailer(9500 lbs loaded)fairly well except for the 5. 5-6 mpg and constant downshifts on the smallest of hills.



My wife drove this truck every day hauling kids and groceries my average was 9. 7 mpg overall for the entire time I had it. The mileage claims from the guy in the RV are total BS IMO. Every single person I know(not internet Rambo's)that has a 8. 1 burns much oil and get 8-10 mpg empty in normal driving,5-8 towing heavy.



My CTD has 9,000 miles on the oil in the crankcase and I haven't added a drop.

 

[jnelson]

Friend of mine in 3-rivers TX had a 7. 3 PSD and a 8. 1 gasser and now has 113,000+ on his 03 CTD. When haulig hay (18 rounds on a 40ft) he said the 8. 1 could out pull his CTD but when it came to the hills the CTD would rule.

 

[AfterBurner]

I traded the truck on a new Z06 Corvette 2 weeks after getting my check.

now you're talkin'

 

[TFucili]

so long 8.1

I am waiting for completion of buy back of my '04 2500HD, 4x4, crew, short box. It towed my 7x14 motorcycle trailer ok(<5,000lbs), but averaged 8-9 MPG doing it. I find it hard to believe someone is getting that MPG at that GVW. I knew the mileage would suck going in, but the range of the peanut sized fuel tank is the annoying factor. It is somewhat of a hot-rod empty though



I got word today that my 3500 was built, so in two weeks or so we'll see how the CTD works Oo.

 

[FloridaEd]

I talked with a guy who was working on the Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte NC last Fall. He had bought a Chevy 3500 with 8. 1 enging to haul a big backhoe. He told me he travelled around NC a bit and got about 6 MPG pulling the backhoe and about 8 without it. Said he wished he'd gotten a diesel.



Florida Ed

 

[Spockie]

8.1 vs Cummins

As Bloomy mentioned I just traded my 04 GMC extended cab with 8' bed 8. 1 with Allison Trany for my first Dodge. An 05 Quad cab 8' bed Cummins. The 8. 1 would eat the stock Cummins for lunch with out towing anything... No replacement for displacement!! But if you drove all day trying to beat a Cummins your gas bill would kill you unless your wife got to you first. My average for 13k miles was 8mpg. If gas was $2/gallon, I spent over $3200 in 6months. If I was driving my Cummins for the same time period it would be about $2000. Truck payment went up $100 and I would have still saved over $400 in the 6months I owned the big GAS HAMMER. :--) After I figured this all out 6 months to late, I now own the cummins. Current avg. is 14. 5 loaded with about 1000lbs in cap and tools. I'm told that would go up, who cares!!! It's still better than 8.

As for Bloomy and the fictitious dusting of the 8. 1, I kept up with him through 2 gears Completely loaded with tools and cap and whatever else an extended long bed has that an empty reg. cab dodge doesn't. :-{}

Spockie

 

[Bloomy]

As for Bloomy and the fictitious dusting of the 8. 1, I kept up with him through 2 gears Completely loaded with tools and cap and whatever else an extended long bed has that an empty reg. cab dodge doesn't. :-{}

Spockie

Just read this after looking at some old subsciptions. My empty regular cab still weighed just about as much as your gas guzzling pig. A big 8. 1 with the "vaunted" Allison should have been able to dust my 10 year old 200,000 mile nearly stock STANDARD truck. You still lost Just imagine if my clutch wasn't dying and slipping :-laf Wanna race now?



For the record, I definitely like the new truck even though it is an automatic.

 

[lmills]

As Bloomy mentioned I just traded my 04 GMC extended cab with 8' bed 8. 1 with Allison Trany for my first Dodge. An 05 Quad cab 8' bed Cummins. The 8. 1 would eat the stock Cummins for lunch with out towing anything... No replacement for displacement!!

As for Bloomy and the fictitious dusting of the 8. 1, I kept up with him through 2 gears Completely loaded with tools and cap and whatever else an extended long bed has that an empty reg. cab dodge doesn't. :-{}

Spockie

I'll bet I can let you meet a local guy with a 8. 1 Allison combo that is running a hypertech programmer that got totally embarassed three times running up to Maplegrove the other weekend. We rolled onto it from 65 and by the time I cut out at 105 I had him by at least 10-12 car lengths. That was with his programmer installed, some aftermarket intake spacer, exhaust and a K&N versus my truck with a TST on level 4 out of 9 and nothing else. His truck is a regular cab long bed 4WD. Mine is a shortbed quad cab 4WD. Both trucks have 3. 73 rears also.



An believe me I have 2 more witnesses plus him to prove it.

 

[FloridaEd]

Last Fall I was camped at Lowe's Motor Speedway just north of Charlotte, NC.



A guy with a BIG backhoe/frontloader tractor was re-working several of the campsites. He has a regular cab long-bed Chebby 8. 1, so I wandered over to talk (as us old Farts just LOVE to do) to him about it.



He told me he bought it for power, power, & more power. He didn't know how much his total rig weighed, but it was overloaded, no doubt in my mind. He told me the gas to pull the rig was killing him... . back then when gas was a lot cheaper. He said he got 5-6 miles a gallon towing the trailer and tractor. As I recall, he'd had several major problems with it and wanted to trade on a medium-duty diesel, but he owed too much money on the Chebby.



He just didn't appear to have enough truck to me.



Florida Ed