First long trip on 2004.5 milage!!!

[Mr. Hemi]

Last thursday had to drive to Liverpool NY, about 500 mile round trip. Ran at 70+ MPH, and got 17. 221MPG hand calculated.

Around town I average about 16MPG with a lot of backroads and stop signs. Was a nice comfortable ride.

 

[roperteacher]

Sounds about Par! I get 16-17 in town, 25 on hwy, but only going 60-65 MPH

 

[swexlin]

My trip up to Maine and back, running 70+, netted me around 14.

 

[trailexplorer]

Do you have an Auto or 6 speed /rear end ratio/ 4X2 or 4X4? I ordered a 04. 5 6spd 3. 73 QC 4X4 dually and was wondering if anyone had numbers that reflected this configutration.

 

[Apence]

Trailexplorer That is the configuration I have when i first got truck 13 mpg now with 4700 miles and lots of hard towing (24,500 gooseneck) I get about 14. 5-15 mpg around town driving easy and 15 mpg highway at 70-75, last cummins 19 mpg around town same conditions and 20-22 highway.

 

[jadoca]

is that 25 mpg on the hwy, going down hill with the engine running or not?



regards,

 

[Mr. Hemi]

My truck is a 4x4 Quad cab 2500, auto, 325/600, with 3. 73 gears. I have been very pleased with the truck in the past 19 days since I picked it up. The dealer on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired. Parts department inhales in a big way. Used to always deal with the dealership they bought out as a very good friend was the parts manager, but he got fed up with the nepotism and incompetence and quit last month.

Service really sucks as they never listened to me when the wifes Durango chewed up the oil pump and had extremely low oil pressure, finally I told her to drive it till it blew, and it sure did!

Wasted 3 rods! Thank god it was under warranty but the sphincters put the new engine in with the old oil pan/pickup and pump so that engine was bad too!!! Traded it on a yuppie wagon Volvo!!!

 

[KKelly]

325/600 Mileage

I now have 6800 miles on my 3500 SRW 2004. 5 325/600 Auto 4WD w/3. 73

I am getting 13. 5 to 14. 85 on the highway and 10 to 13. 0 with local driving.

This truck drinks fuel like theres no tomorrow.

 

[phicks]

My new 2500 325/600 Auto 4WD with 2500 miles is getting the same milage as you KKelly. Doesn't matter if I'm 70-75 down the interstate or pulling the 5th wheel. Any one that tells you they are getting 18 or better needs to replace their calculator batteries

 

[CAgnoli]

Roperteacher, is your truck an automatic 4x4? To get 25 on the highway at 60-65, do you have any mods.



My truck is 3500 QC 4x4 Auto 373, and the absolute BEST I can get is 19. 4 on the overhead, using Mobil fuel at 65MPH. I've got 6466 miles on the truck right now. I say mobil fuel, because if I use fuel from the reservation, I only get 17 on the highway.



I know that by me saying only 17, you guys with the trucks getting 14 are confused, but I am serious. I always use the cruise, never drive over 70, unless I expect bad mileage.



I say this because when I drove the truck 75MPH for a full tank, I hand figured the mileage at 16. 6. Personally, for the extra six minutes on the thruway at 68-69, I'll take the 18+ mileage I'm seeing.



Chris

 

[Iwant1]

16. 62 at 3k miles not towing. I run it plenty hard.

 

[CoastyAV8R]

I think driving habits are a huge part of some of the mileages people claim they get. Some people round up, some don't. I know when I drive my truck at 75 mph, I'm looking at 14 or 15 mpg. When I drive 65-70, I see 18 or 19 mpg. Although these trucks are pretty, they aren't aerodynamic compared to a car so the faster you drive the more the horsepower it takes. I read somewhere that it takes like 70 hp to drive the truck at 60mph and almost triple that to drive at 75 mph. I think if you drive the truck at higher speeds, you should expect to get less than stellar fuel mileage. 25 mpg on the highway is unheard and I'm wondering if this is consistent or was it a one time best?

 

[doldenburg]

Apence- glad to see your mileage has got better. I'm close to 10,000 mi. now and haven't got much better. o/h still reads 13. 6 and its close to hand cal. if i lived in town i'm sure it would be worse. older trucks were defitnetly better

 

[WStoops]

These fuel consumption post are interesting. Many people are posting mileage figures stating that they were driving 75 or 80 mph. As an old time pilot I can tell you that wind resistance can be calculated as the square of the speed increase. In other words, for a truck going 40 to double its speed to 80, the wind resistance is 4 times greatern not double as logic would seem to suggest. Technically, it should take 4 times more horsepower to go 80 than 40. Even an increase from 60 to 80, a 33% increase, will increase resistance by 2/3. To further put things in perspective, my 2003, 1500 gasser (4. 7L, 392 Anti-spin, 5sp Auto, gets 14. 5 around town, 18 hwy @ 65. ) My 04. 5, 3. 73, 48re, QuadCab, ordered 4/6 has not arrived but based on what I'm reading in these posts, the fuel consumption numbers are pretty good compared to my gasser. Especially considering the 4. 7 produces only 235 hp and 295 lb/ft of torque. I don't think I'll be disappointed.

 

[Yo Hoot]

WStoops,



Thanks for the lesson but calculated mileage is just that.



Now compare what you get with what they were getting with the older trucks, same wind.

 

[Larv]

Took a 300 mile round trip today, all fwy. Hand calculated at 17. 0 but had a headwind on half of the trip. No towing yet. Larv

 

[sschu600]

Yo Hoot,



Same wind.



Certainly MPG calculation is a complex equation... driver habits, environmental conditions, individual truck characteristics, etc.



Perhaps we TDR members are jumping the gun here, good fuel mileage or not. I have yet to see a post from a member that has 20K+ miles a their rig. With all the talk of 15K-20K mile break-in period, is it possible that we have yet to see the best these trucks have to offer...



or maybe, because I have not recieved delivery of mine yet, it's just my hopeless optimism.



We'll see?!? The 600's are just too new.



P. S. Still better than powerchoke or dm

 

[DVogler]

Locomotive horn

Hey Yo Hoot, where did you get the locomotive horn and where did you mount it????

 

[TravlinRam]

Better mileage, finally.

Well we just got back from a 1400 mile round trip. Chicago to eastern Tennessee and back. I think I found the solution regard

ing the poor mileage we all have been getting. All you have to do

is hook up to a 13000 lb. fifth wheel and go. This was our first

trip with the new truck ( build date 1/10/04). On the way down I

was only getting 8. 5mph to the gallon. To say the least I was

rather disappointed since my 99 2500 cummins got 13 on the same trip last year. We left with 1600 miles on the odometer.

It was on the way back a week later that I noticed that it was

starting to climb. I was over !0. 5 mph by the time I got back home. What is really interesting is that after I dropped the

trailer off and headed back home I glanced up at the computer

and noticed that I was getting !8 mph and still climbing. Just two

weeks ago I was barely getting !4. 5. By the way the truck is a

3500 dually with 4. 10 gears. I'll let you know if it continues to

improve.

 

[crobertson1]

I hand calculated my mileage today. With only 700 miles on it and me, not for life of me, being able to keep my foot out of it, I figured 14. 13 mpg. I'll take that all day long with this much power!

BTW, that's a combination of city and highway and towing a light load in the mountains.