Truck is now broke in at 100,000 miles

[Turbo_Bob]

Since I bought my new truck, 2003. 5 Dodge Ram 3500 with the Cummins turbochagred diesel engine, six speed stick, I have allways kept detailed records on everything :-laf

Just turned to 100,000 miles today, 12-13-07, it is now broke in I am thinking when I have some extra time I will adjust the valves for the first time. I still have the original tires and brake pads when new. Measured the tread depth to the wear bars (1/8" left), still many more miles to go. Rear pads have 50% thickness left, front pads have 25% thickness left.

13 oil and filter changes.

6 fuel filter changes.

156 quarts of Shell Rotella.

5,483. 09 gallons of diesel.

181 station fill-ups.

At 100,000 miles, the TOTAL MPG is 18. 23, that is all driving conditions, towing, solo, fast, slow, idle, stop & go, many CA traffic jams.

Now with the reformulated diesel I only get 22 MPG solo and 14 MPG towing.

Oh ya, just ordered new Bilstein shocks to replace the original shocks.

The only thing that went bad so far is one brake light blub, replaced that. The other thing is the (up) electric motor for the power seat, wife did that by jaming a oversize cup between the controls and cup, against the door Need to buy the whole power seat frame assembly as a unit, around 500 bucks.

Five more payments and it is paid off !

 

[BZieg]

Thanks for the post, sounds good. Just curious but what oil and filter do you use and do you run any fuel additive?

 

[Cattletrkr]

My mileage went up at 160K... finally finishing off the break-in.

 

[Grizzly]

My 05 feels broke in when I passed 21K after towing heavy.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

These engines are amazing - my old '91 got it's best oil analysis wear numbers after hitting 110K miles - dunno how much lower they might have gone if I hadn't traded for the current '02 - and it is still getting noticeably better at 55K miles...

 

[MasterChief]

Since I bought my new truck, 2003. 5 Dodge Ram 3500 with the Cummins turbochagred diesel engine, six speed stick, I have allways kept detailed records on everything :-laf

Just turned to 100,000 miles today, 12-13-07, it is now broke in I am thinking when I have some extra time I will adjust the valves for the first time. I still have the original tires and brake pads when new. Measured the tread depth to the wear bars (1/8" left), still many more miles to go. Rear pads have 50% thickness left, front pads have 25% thickness left.

13 oil and filter changes.

6 fuel filter changes.

156 quarts of Shell Rotella.

5,483. 09 gallons of diesel.

181 station fill-ups.

At 100,000 miles, the TOTAL MPG is 18. 23, that is all driving conditions, towing, solo, fast, slow, idle, stop & go, many CA traffic jams.

Now with the reformulated diesel I only get 22 MPG solo and 14 MPG towing.

Oh ya, just ordered new Bilstein shocks to replace the original shocks.

The only thing that went bad so far is one brake light blub, replaced that. The other thing is the (up) electric motor for the power seat, wife did that by jaming a oversize cup between the controls and cup, against the door Need to buy the whole power seat frame assembly as a unit, around 500 bucks.

Five more payments and it is paid off !

Thanks for thread; it is good news to hear from someone that has had such a great experience with their truck. You always hear about all the problems everyone is having but not many people talk about the trouble free issues. So far my truck has been real good to me. I'm getting ready to take an RV trip from VA to FL pulling my Big Horn Fifth Wheel next week, so I'm knocking on wood as I type:-laf

 

[Turbo_Bob]

Thanks for the post, sounds good. Just curious but what oil and filter do you use and do you run any fuel additive?

Shell Rotella 15-40, since the oil has been reformulated to SJ specs, I add a 1/2 quart of red bottle STP to the mix.

I have allways used Fleetguard LF16035 oil filters, and fuel filters.

No fuel additive, but been thinking about Lucas.

 

[Turbo_Bob]

Latest update, 6/08, truck is paid off, still using the orignal tires and brakes. The Bilstein shocks work great. Now I have 111,000 miles on truck. But as we all know diesel sucks out in CA, it is over 5. 00 per gallon. The other thing that sucks is the low sulfur diesel, worse MPG's compaired with the tried and true old school diesel.



I have been keeping very detailed records, recording mileage, MPG's, maintenance.



2003 - 2005 yr. After the mods that I installed, TAG, muffler eliminator, high flow intake, high flow air filter I would get up to 23 MPG @ 70 MPH.



2006 yr. When the low sulfur diesel came out in CA my MPG droped to 21 mpg @ 70 mph. So I slowed down to 68 mph and that got me up to 22 MPG.



2008 yr. Now that diesel is over 5. 00 per gallon in CA, I slowed down to 65 mph and the MPG picked up to an all time high of 23. 9 MPG !



Now what I mean about slowing down is on the freeway, instead of driving the posted speed of 70, I drive 65. Around the city streets and stop and go I drive the posted speed limits. It averages out to the 23. 9 MPG now.



If you see where I am going with this, aerodynamics plays a huge part of this with our trucks frontal area, tire width and size, gear ratios & RPM, and SPEED. It is a proven fact with large anything rolling down the road, once you start going over 60 MPH ones MPG will start droping.



Tire rolling resistance makes a big difference below 55 mph and aerodynamics makes a big difference past 55 mph.



I think I am at my lowest set point in speed "65 mph", but I guess if diesel gets to the Europiean price levels, 9. 00 per gallon, I guess I will force myself down to 60 MPH #@$%!



I bet if I had access to the old diesel and drove 60 MPH I would get around 28 MPG ?