fuel mileage?

[Bickford]

Well Guys and Gals,



I now have over 13,000 miles on my 2003 HO six speed 3. 75 rear SLT four door. The very best MPG city and country was 23. 4 MPG running empty with a full tank of fuel and my two hundred and sixty pound carcass. For over 160 combined miles on paper. But you must shift below fifteen hundred RPM. And never top fifty five MPH. It sounds easy but here in Central Florida you will get run down.



While on a seven thousand mile Canadian road trip, pulling a five thousand pound trailer at eighty to one hundred miles per hour. The numbers dropped to the worst of ten and a half MPG. To a high of fifteen MPG, all done on paper. It seems that the stock Michelin tires don't like the extra HO power compared to my 2002 225 HP auto CTD 3. 54 2500 truck. It looks like at around twenty five thousand miles old Mr Abraham Lincoln (on a US penny) will have the top of his ears showing.



Good Night, God Bless.

Earl



2003 Black 3500 four door SLT 3. 75 rear HO six speed A. F. E drop in. ARE topper, worn tires.

1969 Road Runner A/C four wheel disk brakes 3. 54 Dana 60 rear auto trans Dynamic TC, PS, 440 RPM engine.

1975 Bricklin (Ford power)

1986 Dodge 100 pick up with a 392 Hemi engine (project)

 

[ttreibel]

Originally posted by Bickford





But you must shift below fifteen hundred RPM. And never top fifty five MPH. It sounds easy but here in Central Florida you will get run down.

Bickford I am surprised the State police didn't stop you thinking you were "juiced up" I thought they pulled everybody over that was going less than 65 in Florida as a possible DUI.

 

[JohnSS]

Just an inquiry here... you stated that you are running stock Michelin tires? I thought I read in other posts where there were complaints about the only stock size tire you could get was the Goodyear Wrangler. But if Michelin makes one then we should have 2 choices for replacements rather than 1. Am I missing something here?

 

[Bickford]

Bickford I am surprised the State police didn't stop you thinking you were "juiced up" I thought they pulled everybody over that was going less than 65 in Florida as a possible DUI.



Well between the twenty percent of the Florida Drivers with no Insurance. Add in the South of the border Illegal Aliens, with out a driver’s license or Insurance... (unless they just drove in from Califorina) The few older people driving (like ninety plus years young) keep you wide awake. Then consider the under sixteen year old first time drivers. Plus the Kids with the Baseball Caps on back wards, in the sheet metal shaking (loud base) foreign imports. We have more to look out for then just the local police.



To all of our TDR members in the Mid West States enjoy your trucks on the open road. Some of us can relax only if we drive hundreds or thousands of miles away from the above traffic.



It seems that my 2003 truck is getting broken in very well. A few days ago when I drove off, my Wife stated my truck made a Big Puff of Black Smoke out of the tail pipe. I asked if she saw any white, gray or blue smoke? No she said it was only smoking black.



I to enjoy my Freedom in a CTD Dodge... Drive Safe, God Bless.



Earl

 

[rashwor]

machinemover

80 mph with 4. 10 gears will kill mileage... what are the RPMs at 80 mph? Whoa!

 

[Turbo_Bob]

So far at 9500 miles I get 21 MPG empty driving no faster than 70 MPH and 15 MPG towing a 6000 lb. enclosed car hauler.



It is a good feeling to be able to rack up 700 miles on the trip indiacator then gas up.

 

[EB]

In an earlier post I said I couldn't remember when I ran far enough without my trailer to get an empty fuel mileage (just the truck) Just made a trip from Victoria, Tx. to Odessa, Tx. , almost 500 miles one way. Ran the edge on level 2 going up and level 4 coming back. Going the mileage was a calculated 16. 6 and coming back it was 15. 1. This was carrying the same load up and back. The load weighed 4250 lbs. This isn't the mileage that some get but with a gross weight of almost 12,500 lbs thats not bad. Miles on the truck is now up to 74,360.

 

[CajunDieselMan]

My 2500 Quad SWB auto 3. 54 rear got 14. 5 pulling a 30 ft 5th wheel and 18-19 on the highway at about 75. Oddly, driving to/from work in city traffic netted 17 mpg. I can live with that since a V-10 would be about 7 mpg towing and 11-12 commuting.

 

[JNutter]

I just got back from my first tow today. Mildly loaded, with a 9. 5' Palomino slide in camper (1500lbs empty, but had some stuff in it) and a 16 foot car trailer with a CJ2A on it. The trip was about 300 miles and I averaged 12. 7 on the digital readout. The truck had 1460 miles before I left. There was about 40 miles of 70 mph freeway in each direction, most of the rest was 2 lane black top with a small town speed limit of 35 mph every 5 miles or so.



I got great mileage on the first tank when I got the truck, 19. 5 in combined stop and go and freeway. Then I filled up again and mileage went down to 17. 5 and I could feel the power loss. I was told 70/30 blend starts at Oct 1 in Minnesota, so that would explain the difference. I checked the fuel and air filters when I noticed the power and mileage loss, and they looked OK. The thing that sucks is that fuel prices go up at this time every year but the fuel doesn't give as much power. That just seems wrong...

 

[Turbo_Bob]

Originally posted by JNutter

I was told 70/30 blend starts at Oct 1 in Minnesota, The thing that sucks is that fuel prices go up at this time every year but the fuel doesn't give as much power. That just seems wrong...

Minnesota must have learned a thing or two from California.

California does that to its unleaded gas and my fuel MPG goes down and there is that power loss.

 

[ttreibel]

I am now three tanks past the CO2 re-flash, one city, one pulling TT, and one mostly highway and my mileage did not seem to take a hit and if I lost any power like others it was less than 2%.



My last fill up had some city (2-30 min B to B traffic Jams) and the rest mostly on the highway and freeway and I had a recent high of 18. 1 MPG (pen & paper) thats great if you see all the junk I drive around everyday.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Originally posted by ttreibel

I am now three tanks past the CO2 re-flash . . . .

Tom, what's the Co2 reflash

 

[ttreibel]

Thats what they are calling the flash for the early build manual shift trucks with Cruise control idle issues. I think you are the one that persuaded me to get it in the first place because it being a safety issue. I think you had it like 5 months ago I am just paranoid of dealers in general and just got around to having it done after the third letter from DC corporate.



Some complained of loss of power and mileage, I do know they have a new cable for the computer upgrades with the truck. I also got a new alternator bracket and hope thats the last time my truck visits the dealer. They were friendly and nice at Bremerton Dodge but I think even Sears has a better waiting room (circa 1970)

 

[nkiewel]

Originally posted by JNutter

I was told 70/30 blend starts at Oct 1 in Minnesota, so that would explain the difference. I checked the fuel and air filters when I noticed the power and mileage loss, and they looked OK. The thing that sucks is that fuel prices go up at this time every year but the fuel doesn't give as much power. That just seems wrong...

I live in Minnesota too, but my mileage has been going up steadily since around Oct 1. Miileage is nothing to brag about at 16. 1 on the console, but it's not calibrated for the BFG tires. I was looking for an explanation, but I was going to attribute it to break in now that I have 15K on the odometer. Maybe it's the blended fuel?



Nate