bad fule mileage?

[AWalkup]

Wondering if anyone has any advice. My 05 does not seem to be getting near the mileage that my 93 got. I am towing a 34' gooseneck enclosed trailer. It probably weighs about 6,000lbs and is basically empty. The trailer is not exceptionally tall, and is only 8' wide. With my 93 I was able to get 14mpg with the trailer. With the new 05 I'm only getting 10. 5 to 11. I am cruising around 65mph, with a totally stock 05 with an auto. Any advice??

 

[GECCO]

the mileage on the '05s isn't that great, the previous models with the 305hp models seem to be the best mileage-wise. how many miles are on the truck? the mileage seems to get better with more miles.

 

[AWalkup]

The truck has about 10,000 miles on it. I really felt that by keeping the speed to around 65, the mileage should have been better. This trailer tows fairly easy, my single whell 93 had no problem. I can live with the low mileage, just want to make sure this is normal.

 

[amsoilman]

Wondering if anyone has any advice. My 05 does not seem to be getting near the mileage that my 93 got. I am towing a 34' gooseneck enclosed trailer. It probably weighs about 6,000lbs and is basically empty. The trailer is not exceptionally tall, and is only 8' wide. With my 93 I was able to get 14mpg with the trailer. With the new 05 I'm only getting 10. 5 to 11. I am cruising around 65mph, with a totally stock 05 with an auto. Any advice??

You have to remember your 93 only had 160 HP! The 05' has TWICE that!



Best to keep the R's below 2K, and your milage will be better.







Wayne

 

[ox1]

You have to remember your 93 only had 160 HP! The 05' has TWICE that!



Best to keep the R's below 2K, and your milage will be better.







Wayne

I would buy a lesser powered motor that got better milage! My '99 has what ??? 245/435 I think. ??? Very seldom do I ever think that I NEED more power. It would be nice on some hills and getting the goose rolling a little quicker maybe - but this ^$*(# power war has me ******! All the power we could ever have any use for in a PICKUP and the gas motors have cought up in milage while the diesel guys were out racing!



A four cyl version of the current motor would have the same power as what I have. Now if I could get 1/3 aggin the milage or so - then I'd be a much happier camper.



I want a Cummins in my next truck - but that 8. 1 and even the V-10 do pretty good for milage - and the difference in sticker price will buy a lot of gas!

 

[pholt]

That is a little low

I have a 04. 5 600 and mine gets about 10 towing 7500lbs, and about 13 empty. Even with the edge programmer. I was thinking about removing or putting on a high flow cat, this truck is pushing 6 to 10lbs of boost going 65, that is why it gets crappy gas mileage, it should push NO boost on flat ground empty.



Maybe the exhaust is to restrictive? The older trucks did better. Wait until 07 they will suck even worse. And the V10 ford gets about 6 loaded dont kid yourself, and the v10 dodge is a junk pile.



Diesels will always get better gas mileage, they produce more btu than gas, it is simple physics. .





Paul

 

[KBennett]

My truck is a 555 but I still only get 12-13 pulling my 4K trailer and I try to keep it at 70 because that's where she runs the smoothest. My buddies Furd V10 definitely gets less mileage. He has to stop for fuel when I still have almost a half a tank left and his trailer weighs 1K less.



I think there are several factors that affect mileage on the new trucks. Not to bash the 1st gen but when you compare a 1st gen to a 3rd gen you have several things to consider.

Weight- 3rd gen has to weigh about 2K more than a 1st.

Frontal area - bigger on the 3rd gen.

Drivetrain- Bigger and heavier duty than 1st gen. How about gearing? Tires?

HP- like amsoilman said.



I'll bet the 3rd gen pulls the hills a lot better than the 1st gen. Maybe one of the performance box companies should come up with a box that turns down the power. :-laf



Here is an article written by Cummins on fuel mileage:

http://www.everytime.cummins.com/every/pdf/MPG_Secrets_Whitepaper.pdf

 

[pholt]

Kbennett I agree

My dad has a 3/4 1st gen 2 wheel drive and he gets about 20 mpg putting around town, the truck runs perfect and always has and he has a 94 WITH that darn cat. I Love his engine but when we tie trailers to them, there is no comparison. My truck will literally walk off and leave him and never look back and it will do it without breaking a sweat, but guss what he says I am in no hurry he gets there 10 minutes after me and I get 10mpg and he gets 15.



I also have common rail 04 3500 2 wheel drive dully and it gets 24 empty with a edge box and 15 loaded with a 47' car hauler, go figure that???? I have no idea anymore.



Dodge is turning way to much crap up front with this version of the Dana 60. The 4x4 will suffer at least 2mpg over the 2x2.



Paul

 

[RDusch]

I have a 04. 5 600 and mine gets about 10 towing 7500lbs, and about 13 empty. Paul

13mpg empty,, Man, you must have something wrong, Towing i get 10. 5mpg under 70 mph, over 70 and it goes down fast, but empty driving around town i get 18-18. 5 pretty consistent, on the road steady 68-70mph cruise i get 19. 5-20. 5 depending on terrain, my buckstop and winch cost me 1 mile per gal.



Rick D

 

[AWalkup]

The funny thing is that my 93 had been drastically turned up, and produced close to as much power as the new 05 does. This is why I felt that the milage should be comprable. I guess the difference is that the 93 was a single wheel, and had a stick with a gear vendors overdrive, the 03 is an auto. Guess I'll just have to live with 3 mpg less to have the new truck with the auto.

 

[RDusch]

My 300 hp 93, got better milage towing, 14-15 mpg, but never got over 17 running empty.



I don't know why there is so much differance between towing and empty on the later 3rd gen trucks, it's almost like there is a switch on the hitch, "hey somethings on me let give 10 mpg"



Rick

 

[Mark1si]

My 05 gets the same!!! IT SUX. 9-10. 5 in town and 13-15 on the highway. 11k on the truck. I took off my tst and it stayed the same. The dealers tell me that they dont get paid to "hunt" for problems

 

[RDusch]

My empty milage did'nt start comming up untill i was over 20k then kept getting better untill it's where i'm at know.

 

[pholt]

I might

I also have 20" wheels and tires too. I think it hurt my mpg about 1. 5 or so. I am in Oklahoma and I never drive 60, it is 80.

13mpg empty,, Man, you must have something wrong, Towing i get 10. 5mpg under 70 mph, over 70 and it goes down fast, but empty driving around town i get 18-18. 5 pretty consistent, on the road steady 68-70mph cruise i get 19. 5-20. 5 depending on terrain, my buckstop and winch cost me 1 mile per gal.



Rick D

 

[RDusch]

See, i new there was a problem,,, EXTRAHEAVYRIGHTFOOTITIS,,, there's no cure. :-laf :-laf

 

[ox1]

I have a 04. 5 600 and mine gets about 10 towing 7500lbs, and about 13 empty. Even with the edge programmer. I was thinking about removing or putting on a high flow cat, this truck is pushing 6 to 10lbs of boost going 65, that is why it gets crappy gas mileage, it should push NO boost on flat ground empty.



Maybe the exhaust is to restrictive? The older trucks did better. Wait until 07 they will suck even worse. And the V10 ford gets about 6 loaded dont kid yourself, and the v10 dodge is a junk pile.



Diesels will always get better gas mileage, they produce more btu than gas, it is simple physics. .





Paul

My '99 Dually got 18 when new and empty. I now have a flatbed on it and the headache rack has it now topping out at 16mpg empty/summer. So far it seems that I am dooing better than most of you newer truck guys by far.



It doesn't take much to get it down to 11 tho. Heck - just two sleds on the deck and heading into the north wind @ 70mph can yield me 12! But once it is down to 11 it will stay there. I have a 30 [deck] gooseneck that weighs 5200# (?) empty and I have had 20K sitting on it on occasion. I have never gotten lower than 11 as long as I could pull in 5th gear. If it was a big wind resistance load and I had to drop into 4th - then I would get down to 10 or maybe 9 - but that has only ever happened once!



Now - with that all said - four of us went to the Snowies (Laramie, Wyoming - 18 hrs away. ) with a four place enclosed behind a chumms 4wd F250 Crew. It has a juice transmission and V10. IMO the gears were 180* wrong for the combination as it was too little gear for O/D and too much gear for third... and it still got aboot 11mpg on many of the fill-ups!



He said to run it in OD and let it run - but I did that once on my 'Burban yrs ago and it wasn't hunting gears either - ended up smoking the transmission. If it was mine - I woulda dropped to third and let'r wing 3000 and maybe burn a bit more gas (which is split four ways eh?) and not be tearing up the transmission - but that's me...



It was a few yrs ago now - but I remember being really surprised that his truck as good'a milage as I could have expected outta mine!



I know that the Dodge V-10's aren't as fuel efficient - but doo they even make them anymore? ... and I have a chumm with one of them that claims dang good milage with that too! (15mpg maybe? - it's obviously a pick of the litter motor tho - LOL!) My brother in law has a 3/4 ton with a Hemi that gets 15 empty and can pull a race car trailer with ease!



These new diesels are insanely inefficient! ... or at least for the given intended use. They may be well efficient @ 300hp - but who needs that in a ton truck? Not all of us buy them as toys and bragging rights. I am likely going to be getting a 450/4500 next go round. I have no use for 800 foot pounds. Sure - it would be nice if it was efficient at that - but I am not aboot to compromise a good deal of milage for bragging rights! Besides - that kinda power makes it more likely that a load will get spilled pulling away from a stop. (My wife hauls most of the loads. )



Cummins needs to get their I TRIED TO BY-PASS THE CUSSING FILTER together! Maybe Dodge should offer us two motors? A 450 tq motor that gets good milage and will doo most jobs that any "pickup" has any business dooing - and a 700 tq motor that will pass anything but a truck stop for those that race trucks.



I highly doubt that I will be ordering a new 12mpg diesel any time soon! I cannget that with an 8. 1 or V-10 for a lot less $ !



And don't give me none of that delsels live longer crap! Sure - maybe they doo - but I have 315K on our 5. 7 'Burban and still going fairly good! How long doo you keep your trucks guys? I keep them 'till their done.

 

[pholt]

Wow

I have had about 10 1 tons for my business in the last few years. The Dodge V10 is a crap pile, we had one and it had, count them 4 engines by 90k miles, they stopped making it because it was junk. The gas mileage was about 8 towing from what i remember. I have never seen a Ford loaded get 11 but I also have a 04 dodge 1 ton that gets 24 so who knows. I had a 03 3/4 4x4 V10 and it got about 10 around tonw and about 7 loaded. Yes I agree the new diesels are screwed, everyone want horsepower so they will drive like a gas truck and that kills the gas mileage potential off any diesel, and they are restricting them so much with emissions, but diesel technology is also cathing up also. I have never had a 4x4 truck get over 13mpg in town EVER, oh well it is just me. I just sold my 03 Harley davidson f150 with a supercharged 5. 4 and I promise it would walk off and leave my 600 with 7000lbs behind it, but the trucks suspension could not handle my trailer, and it go about 5mpg pushing it with a load.

Paul

 

[Diesel Dually]

I currently run a '96 3500 4x4 reg. cab auto. 3. 54 (mildly turned up and beefed up transmission) and a '05 3500 SRW 4xi4 Qcab 6spd. (NV5600) 3. 73 completely stock.



'96 best ever was 20mpg average empty is around 17. 5 mpg. Average towing about 13K is about 14mpg but have seen it as low as 11. 5 when I was in a hurry while towing this weight. Currently at 87K miles.



'05 best 22. 8mpg empty averaging 19mpg currently and still seems to be rising. Average towing the same trailer 13K has been 15. 1mpg with a low of 14 even. Truck only has about 9500 miles on it currently. I notice a big difference if I run above 2K rpm, and believe me it isn't good.



All mileages are hand calculated. I am careful to anticipate hills and don't try to accelerate too quickly when I don't need to. I don't know what is making the 3rd gen trucks get such differing mileages, but there are a bunch of people getting pretty good mileage, as I do, and a bunch that don't. I am happy to have a truck that is getting good mileage and I'm keeping it away from the dealership for fear that they will reflash the computer and my mileage may then go in the toilet...



As far as the gassers go a good friend of mine just picked up a Chevy 3500 xcab 4x4 8. 1L auto. The people he talked to said he would average around 14. 5 mpg. So far his high is 11. 8 empty and averaging 10. 2 empty. Towing about 5k he loses about 1. 5mpg. I drive a Chevy 1500 4x4 short bed xcab 3. 73 for work and average about 16 mpg empty and 12 towing two snowmobiles.



As for the original post, I think your numbers are way off, but there may not be anything wrong with your truck as some others are getting the same or worse than yours. I hope it improves for you with more miles...

 

[BILLVO]

I have been trailer shopping and this week I had an eye opener all trailer places run dodge fords and chevys and they all had run older cummins and all are very unhappy with the milage of the 05 and 06 models of dodge many are going to duramax because of this. I had 6 guys at different locations tell me the same thing only getting 8-10 loaded and 13-16 empty with dodges and 11-15 loaded and 15-21 empty with chevys. No comments from any ford guys though. Is this a common problem with the newer ones? :{

 

[pholt]

I will agree with the comment on the 05 06 Dodge Gas mieage, but that is a flat out lie or they cant add on the duramax, I have a 03 and an 05 Duramax and both about 11 on the average. about 13-14 empty and about 10-11 loaded. The truck is a 05 3500 2 wheel drive, my 03 Dodge gets 24 empty, I have no idea how, it gets about 15 with a 48' car hauler and 2 cars, on the floor. And my 03 Duramax is a POS, 4 sets of injectors, it smokes, EGR problems and much more. Great transmission though. The 05 is much better.



Paul

I have been trailer shopping and this week I had an eye opener all trailer places run dodge fords and chevys and they all had run older cummins and all are very unhappy with the milage of the 05 and 06 models of dodge many are going to duramax because of this. I had 6 guys at different locations tell me the same thing only getting 8-10 loaded and 13-16 empty with dodges and 11-15 loaded and 15-21 empty with chevys. No comments from any ford guys though. Is this a common problem with the newer ones? :{