Just got back from a trip to the Keys. As on most of my trips to the Keys I brought along my 24' Scout Abaco boat. The boat and trailer weighs in at about 5700 lbs. While not a heavy weight it has a hard top and stands 10'4" high. My truck has the 3.42 gears in the rears and the Re68 (?) 6 speed auto. While I have always been a manual transmission guy I have to say the tow haul mode almost blows away any manual that I have owned. Coupled with the 800 Ft/lbs of turque and the engine break... Wow. I thought the gearing would hold the truck back, make it sluggish. I'm here to tell you that it does not. This truck out accelerates all of the older trucks that I have owned. The transmission seems to always know the right gear top be in reguardless of speed or hill. Not once did it hunt or down shift violently like other trucks that I have driven over the years. The engine break really works great. I found in the auto mode that if you just tapped the break enough to turn of the cruise and turn on the break lights the engine break and transmission would slow the truck just right on the I95 off ramps with out having to use the trucks service breaks.
My trip was a total of 3500 miles, most of which was towing. My Mpg's were not as good as the 2005 that I use to own. On the 05 I would get 13.5-14.5 at 64 mph. The 2013 gave 12.5-13. What I did find was that the Mpg's do not fall off as much when you run at 70. I was able to get 11.5-12.8 at 70mph. Best Mpg was at 60-65 Mph where I was able to get 13.5-13.8. At 45 I found that the Mpg's would reach 14.8. Def usage was around 1 gal to 450 miles when towing. I found out the hard way that the DEF tank is only about 6 gal. I thought the book said it was 8 gal? The fuel tank shows it's smaller size giving about a safe 285 miles of travel between fill ups. I'll be looking for a larger after market tank in the future as I miss the range of the 35 gal tank the 05 had. I should add here that when we got to the Keys we took a few trips with out the trailer or boat. If anyone has driven on Us1 down there you know you don't race anywhere. your average speed is about 40-50 Mph. Now this blew me away, at those speeds two full tanks worth, I got 27.8 Mpg!:--) I have never gotten that kind of Mpg's in any truck I have owned. All my Mpg calculations are done by hand not from the Lie o meter on the truck though it showed about 1 Mpg less than I was showing on paper.Oo.
My CEL lamp lit up half way through the trip.
The same issue that I have written about on another thread on here with the P20EE code that has shown up about 4 times now. My Dealer is at a loss why it shows as it only shows up every 2,000 to 4,000 miles and there is nothing showing up just yet. Only issue this time was about 500 miles after it turned on I lost power#@$%!. Had to clear the code with my scan tool to get everything back to normal. The Dealer said that if the lamp flashes then it's a major issue, my lamp never flashed just turned on. I'll be heading back to my Dealer again later this week again..... maybe they will get lucky????
It's funny that I never had the CEL until after they Re- Flashed the truck with the program that was to eliminate the false CEL lights.... Progress...
All in all the hype about these trucks being much better than the older ones is.... well.... it's true. It pulls like no tomorrow. Delivers fair Mpg's and is quiet. all in all a pleasure to drive on long trips. RAM has gotten it right. Oo.
My trip was a total of 3500 miles, most of which was towing. My Mpg's were not as good as the 2005 that I use to own. On the 05 I would get 13.5-14.5 at 64 mph. The 2013 gave 12.5-13. What I did find was that the Mpg's do not fall off as much when you run at 70. I was able to get 11.5-12.8 at 70mph. Best Mpg was at 60-65 Mph where I was able to get 13.5-13.8. At 45 I found that the Mpg's would reach 14.8. Def usage was around 1 gal to 450 miles when towing. I found out the hard way that the DEF tank is only about 6 gal. I thought the book said it was 8 gal? The fuel tank shows it's smaller size giving about a safe 285 miles of travel between fill ups. I'll be looking for a larger after market tank in the future as I miss the range of the 35 gal tank the 05 had. I should add here that when we got to the Keys we took a few trips with out the trailer or boat. If anyone has driven on Us1 down there you know you don't race anywhere. your average speed is about 40-50 Mph. Now this blew me away, at those speeds two full tanks worth, I got 27.8 Mpg!:--) I have never gotten that kind of Mpg's in any truck I have owned. All my Mpg calculations are done by hand not from the Lie o meter on the truck though it showed about 1 Mpg less than I was showing on paper.Oo.
My CEL lamp lit up half way through the trip.


All in all the hype about these trucks being much better than the older ones is.... well.... it's true. It pulls like no tomorrow. Delivers fair Mpg's and is quiet. all in all a pleasure to drive on long trips. RAM has gotten it right. Oo.