Fuel Milage on 2003 HO with 48RE

[dandlwiley]

Just got our HO 3500 4x4 and towed for the first time this weekend--only 60 miles round trip. TERRIBLE MILAGE!! First tank, solo, 450 miles, about 200 miles freeway was 16 mpg. Husband is a VERY conservative driver--top speed 65 mph and below on freeway. This second tank was 160 miles, 100 were mixed-- mostly town except the 60 miles easy towing--below 50 mph most of the time--no real hills. The trailer was lightly loaded--probably less than 7000#. Got 11 mpg. Husband freaked--we got that going over the Cascade Mountains with our '97 CTD pulling over GWR of truck and over the GCWR of truck and trailer! We know 700 miles isn't much of a test, but this looks bad! Love the truck, but..... Have others experienced this poor milage--and has it gotten better?



NOTE: Truck in profile is wrong. We ended up keeping the White 48RE with the Jak Brake on it guaranteed by the dealer.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Your trucks performance and fuel mileage will change dramatically as it breaks in. We drove about 200 miles today under the same speeds you did and got about 21 MPG. This included going back and forth over a mountain pass. Our truck has 16,000 on it now.

 

[CSilkowski]

I picked up my truck two weeks ago and drove it 2,000 miles from the dealer to home (all freeway and unloaded averaging 80 mph). Got ~16. 5 mpg for first tank, 18 mpg on second and third tanks. 18 mpg on fourth tank with mixed city and freeway.

 

[ray1933]

Fuel Mileage

Hey Gang,, the mileage will be a lot different with the Auto VS the 6 Sp Of course I know that you just over looked the fact they were talking about an Auto.

 

[BillHicks]

dandlwiley,



At my last fillup I had a total of 2,054 miles and a cumulative hand calculated 17. 5 MPG in mixed driving (mostly rural and highway) all empty. No towing yet. I don't blame you for being unhappy with the numbers you are getting. Hope you find the problem. Good luck. On edit - best tank - 18. 0, worst - 16. 7

 

[RMcCulloch]

dandlwiley :



Which rear end did you get and is it a 4WD?



Is your Arctic Fox a fifth-wheel? If so, the frontal area and not the weight is the mileage killer when towing.



I've got just under 6K on mine (see sig/profile) and get about those numbers and I'm pulling close to double the weight.

 

[DBVZ]

I have about 7500 miles on it now. Mine is a 4X4 DRW, so it should be 1 or 2 mpg less than you should get. We are getting about 18-20 empty on the freeway under 65, and it drops to about 16 at 70mph. It gets 14-15 around town empty. We pull a relatively light TT (5000 pounds), and when pulling we average about 14 under 60mph, and average about 12-13 over 65mph. I find it helps to take it out of cruise in hills, and to take it out of overdrive when climbing so the rpm gets up over 2000 where the power and torque are better.

 

[Fitter48093]

I'm getting right around 18. 5 with a HO\auto, Truck has about 1450 miles on it and trailer weights is at 4000lbs

 

[dandlwiley]

Thanks for the responses. We are especially interested in hearing from members who had poor milage originally and it got better with time. The updated signature below is now correct for the new truck.



Help! I went back to our profile, edited the truck information, checked the right boxes after writing the message, and the signature does not appear! I'll add the new truck info on edit:



2003 HO 4x4 Quad, 48RE, 3. 73, SRW, LB, Jake Brake, pulling a

2002 Arctic Fox 25R Travel Trailer

 

[DPKetchum]

3000 miles this tank mixed driving average is 15. 5. Towed 8000lbs when it had 1800 miles mixed mtn,city,highway at speeds up to 70mph average was 11. 8. A friend with a 2500 48re and 3. 73 gears gets 20 or so at 70 mph empty. Towing a three horse bumper pull trailer with two horses mixed mtn. and hiway got 13. 2

 

[Bertram65]

My best tank so far is 17. 6 MPG, my worst is 14. 4 MPG, average around 16. The worst tank only had about 80 miles of towing and it was less than 5000 lbs. My truck is an 3500 SO 48re SRW 4X4 with 4. 10s. I have about 3000 miles on the truck. I think the mileage so far is ok, after all it's a 7200 lb 4X4 with an automatic.

 

[Steve G]

Best - 19 mpg

Worst - 15. 5 mpg

Average - 17. 5 - 18 mpg



This is mixed freeway and city driving with freeway speeds of 70 mph. Most of this is empty. Truck has 11,000 miles.



Steve

 

[Maddey]

I have the same truck without the E-brake. My mileage in the beginning was terrible like ~13mpg. It has gotten better with time now that I have 10,000 miles on it, but still only averaging ~16mpg in mixed driving conditions, and ~18-20mpg straight highway. My towing mileage does not seem to be getting any better though. When I tow my 5'ver, offshore boat, or gooseneck, all within 7-10k, I consistently get ~10-11mpg. I have pretty much accepted it and have decided to try to gain a little better mileage through BOMBing. Sounds like a good enough reason for me anyway.

 

[CATCRACKER]

drove 475 miles empty 17. 8 mpg 75mph. 13000Kon truck stock except air filter. i have 35" tires and 3. 73. if i slowed down to 68-70 i would be over 18 and add a box and i would be around 20 i guess. i was getting 13mpg when i first got the truck.

 

[Eric_77]

How many of you are using the trip computer for MPG? I found that it is off a LOT! My trip computer shows I am getting about 18MPG but by hand calculations I am getting more like 20. 5 that is more than 10%.



Seems the trucks keep going down in MPG as they go up in HP my 92 would get about 24-25 (reg cab) 96 (ext cab) was at about 23 then the new one under 21 all these are highway MPG. in town for all seems to be about 4-5 MPG less

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Originally posted by dandlwiley



Help! I went back to our profile, edited the truck information, checked the right boxes after writing the message, and the signature does not appear! I'll add the new truck info on edit:



2003 HO 4x4 Quad, 48RE, 3. 73, SRW, LB, Jake Brake, pulling a

2002 Arctic Fox 25R Travel Trailer

This is because this TDR forum will only show your signature 1 time per page, whether or not you checked the box for it to show. If you have more than 1 post on a page it only shows on the first one. It drove me nuts once until I figured it out!



Vaughn

 

[Parshal]

Originally posted by dandlwiley

We are especially interested in hearing from members who had poor milage originally and it got better with time.

I have an SO/5-speed with an Edge EZ on level 3 so mine's a bit different than yours. But regarding mileage getting better with time. My truck has over 30,000 miles and my mileage has had no discernable change since the day I drove it off the lot. The mileage changed with the addition of the EZ, though.



I get around 18. 5 mpg mixed and less than 17 mpg at sustained hwy speeds of 80 mph. I have a 1975 Nomad TT that weighs just under 4,000 lbs. and I get around 11 mpg at 70 mph and around 10 mpg at 80 mph.

 

[Parshal]

Originally posted by dandlwiley

We are especially interested in hearing from members who had poor milage originally and it got better with time.

I have an SO/5-speed with an Edge EZ on level 3 so mine's a bit different than yours. But regarding mileage getting better with time. My truck has over 30,000 miles and my mileage has had no discernable change since the day I drove it off the lot. The mileage changed with the addition of the EZ, though.



I get around 18. 7 mpg mixed (I have had a few tanks over 20 with a high of 22. 2) and less than 17 mpg at sustained hwy speeds of 80 mph. I have a 1975 Nomad TT that weighs just under 4,000 lbs. and I get around 11 mpg at 70 mph and around 10 mpg at 80 mph. The towing numbers did not change with the addition of the EZ but the empty numbers improved by approximately 1. 2 mpg. I was averaging 17. 5 mpg mixed before the EZ.

 

[WildWilly]

I just turned 10k and I'm getting 17. 5 average empty (mixed conditions). I've only pulled my 5'er once so far, 9000lbs, 650 miles @75mph all highway and got 10. 5mpg. My empty #'s haven't changed much since new. I've been reading about the fuel filters clogging up between 10-15k, so I'm going to change it and see if that helps.

 

[Parshal]

I've changed mine twice so far (changing for the third time tomorrow) and haven't seen a change.