Your WORST fuel mileage ever.

[Billy Golightly]

I see quite a few threads about the best mpg, but what about the worst? Whats your truck specs and what were you towing? My worst so far is 7mpg last summer on a road trip to and from Indiana. Pulling a box trailer up and down the mountains and running about 80-85mph most of the time. The truck has 4. 10's. Never had to downshift one time :-laf

 

[Cowboy Medic]

The worst with this truck was 11 mpg and that was bringing a 33 foot avion fiver with a three horse slant bumper pull behind it from Wickenburg Arizona back to Rapid City, SD. Dad did that in '99. He said he hand calculated that, the computer told him he was getting 6.

 

[McCRam]

The worst I have had is 12. 5. A lot of around town driving and idleing on winter fuel. The worst highway mileage is 13. 7, while towing the 3800# boat at 75 mph with a 40mph headwind. So far I have had the truck for 18000 miles and have averaged 18. 2 since I bought the truck.

 

[todt061458]

Yesterday coming home from louisville head winds and stupid construction slow ups and ford and chevy pickups who just could not get out of there own way even if they wanted too. If they want to haul trailers buy a truck with a real diesel engine :-laf 12. 9 MPG. Have a nice day TOD mabe the fact that I was going around 80 MPH had something to do with it also NAW.

 

[nickleinonen]

i never did calculate my worst milage, but it was with my tahoe 6. 5td... one winter a few years back, we had a massive snow fall... and i filled up that sunday morning with a little under 100 liter of fuel, and by that evening, i was down to the red on the gauge... and i had driven less than 400 kilometers, so that works out to about 25l/100km... i think that works out to just under 10mpg... [6. 6 gallons per 62 miles] i was in 4x4 all day, driving through snow that in some spots was better than 36" deep in the drifts... my wheels were packed with snow so you couldn't even see the center caps...



lots of wheelspin that day [and drifting ]

 

[michigandon]

The '97 3500 I used to own was a constant 13MPG machine once the winter fuel hit the pumps here in Michigan. Slow or fast, towing or not, didn't matter. #@$%! It was all stock with the exception of a straight pipe exhaust, NV4500 and 4:10 gears.



In the summertime though, it would get 21MPG empty, 15MPG hauling a slide in camper, and 13MPG hauling a slide in camper and towing a 4000lb payload behind.

 

[mjoppie]

does about 8mpg count being on the sand dunes all day?? :-laf lots of fuel big tires and a heavy foot in the sand didnt give that good of milage. mine rarely sees less than 13mpg doing anything.





matt

 

[SRadke]

12mpg in the old 96. 19k pounds gross and 400 minles at an average of 70-75 mph across the Oregon desert. Nothing to cough at as far as I'm concerned.



-Scott

 

[RTillery]

I'm not bragging, but the worst I have ever gotten on a full tank, was over 15 hand figured. This was a combination of off roading, road hunting and running around in the snow, plus running back and forth on the highway to and from town. This truck is the most amazing vehicle I have ever owned. I use it in my sales job and do a lot of highway combined with in town driving. I have over 53K on it now and am really disappointed if I do not break 20mpg's for the tank.

 

[ndurbin]

I've been under 10 mpg acouple times pulling my stock trailer. One was moving cows when the stock transmission was slipping. The second was helping my parents move running threw the Flint Hills at 75 mph. Those where both when the truck was pretty much stock except with the timing bump and 215 injectors.



Nathan

 

[KOdegaard]

I just got back from a trip to Wyoming (2000 miles) towing an ex Roadway box

on a GN. I got an average of 11mpg, I got that loaded and empty. The flat

front of the box is 5' over the truck and is like a sail, and of course I had

head winds almost everwhere I was. Moving sucks!

 

[GerryDrake]

With my prior ride, a 95 PS auto w/3. 55, came w/b from Russell, Kansas toward Denver in a quartering 50 or so mph headwind. It seems like it is pretty much uphill too... As I recall it was 5. 8 with a lot of time in second gear, but we were towing our 35' fiver which presents a pretty big sail. I think the guys going the other way were likely idling in neutral... ... ah, I love my CTD with the 6 speed. . might have gotten down to 11 on occasion while towing in the hills.

 

[AndrewKing]

ZERO MPG'S !!!... . Well about as close to zero as you can get... . A friend of mine was going out of town and wanted to fill his truck up to help prevent condensation in his truck's fuel tank (about 1 or so miles from the diesel station)... . we got to his house and he set his turbo timer on... . threw his luggage in my truck and I drove him to the airport... ... When my friend got back and tried to use his truck..... it wouldn't start no matter how hard he tried... It would crank but no start... . after much cursing and a look over by a frend who is a mechanic, it turned out that there was no fuel!!..... Best we guessed his timer must not have worked properly and his engine ran until it went dry (lives in the boonies so no neighbors around)... . It kinda made me paranoid about using mine but I guess longest mine would run would be 45 minutes or so in between lawn jobs... . I suppose if it happened at night (being that I live in the city) my neighbors I'm sure would complain about the noise so I could shut it off then.

 

[WMonroe]

How long would one of these trucks idle on a full tank of fuel?

Will

 

[RKerner]

worst, and then best...

I sold my Tundra that got 4. 5mpg once with an open 4 place into a 30mph headwind. It averaged 6. 5mpg on that trip which helped me decide to get the Cummins. Two weeks ago I got an 8. 5mpg and 8. 1mpg on two tanks heading east from a 2200 mile trip out west (14. 5K gcwr). That was with the Juice on level 2. I averaged 9. 9mpg for the whole trip which is 1mpg less than a 3000 miler to CO at Christmas. Then, as I am about ready to make a move on another truck, it gets 19. 5mpg unloaded on a 900 mile trip (on level 1). I'll be pulling 13K in two weeks so I'll see what it does then. Maybe it'll finish engine break-in and I'll get better mileage?!

 

[Cummins Thunder]

I recently went on a trip to Florida and got a best of 17. 2MPG and a worst of 15. 4 I ran 70-80MPH there and back



I had about 1100LBS of extra weight in my truck..... I wish I could see 20+



I have had people tell me BS about getting 27MPG This is my first CTD, but my parents have had the following trucks and MPG's to go with them...

99 QC 2500 auto SWB 3. 73open 4X4 315's no power mods. 15. 5MPG day to day driving. 18. 0MPG H-way.

02 QC 2500 auto LWB 3. 73posi 4X2 no power mods. 17. 0 MPG day to day, 22. 0MPG on H-way.

04. 5 QC 3500 auto LWB DRW 3. 73posi 4X4 Edge EZ, removed cat , Donaldson muffler, AFE PG7 & TQ Tube, nerf bars, cross bed tool box.

16. 0MPG day to day, 19. 0MPG H-way.



On a normal day I make 15. 5MPG 13. 5 if I flog it. I have seen 18. 7 as a best on a long trip. mods and specs listed in my sig.



I have a habit of asking people with these trucks what kind of MPG they get, they range from what my family and I get to the all too common "oh well, I get 25MPG no matter what" or "if I am easy on it I can get 30 sometimes" I wish people would just state the FACTS! I love my truck, but, I DO NOT tell people I get a zillion MPG just to make them jealous. #@$%!

Do others feel the same way I do about people and their claimed MPG??

 

[Hohn]

My worst was 14. 8. This was running winter fuel, cruising at 88 mph into a headwind with lots of stuff in the bed (mattresses!), and ambient temp was 10°F.



jlh

 

[SRadke]

..... running 105 bucking a 54mph headwind across Nebraska at 3am pulling a 14,000lb gooseneck full of chicken feed with EGT's never over 950 .....

Wow! You've done that too! How much boost were you running



-Scott

 

[Cummins Thunder]

Dunno no boost gauge, but I'd guess around 47lbs based on the sound.

Only 47!!!????? I can get 65lbs on my stock turbo and 35lb Auto-Meter boost gauge



BTW, I smoked a chiped 6. oh-no with my stock 235 SO :-laf Don't get me started about that SRT-10 that I whooped... .

 

[viper700]

I have an 04. 5 CTD 4WD DRW 48RE QC and it turned 22K on the mileage last thursday as we pullled into our home in Anchorage, Alaska where we live. We had just returned from Yuma AZ. where we had wintered there and around southern AZ. The truck was purchased from Dave Smith last July and we headed north to Alaska. Our first 10 days with the truck we had 3K on it. This was our first Dodge and a diesel. Mileage at first was crummy I thought and I did get it flashed before we headed south on the 21st of October. Down in Yuma AZ we had stored a 36' King of the Road 5er, that weighed at 14K empty, so when we finally got it on the road we were close to 15K. I was not sure how the truck would pull this weight but was impressed with how it did perform. I had Dave Smith put in the guages on the pillar before I picked it up. I wanted to KNOW how hot things were when towing. The guaged were really nice as when pulling up some hills as coming in to Prescott from the south on highway 89 the altitude was 6K feet. Now on mileage as this thing was supposed to about I was trying explain where I was at the time. My worst mileage pulling hills down there and on the highway at 60 to 70 was 9. 5 and as good as 12. 5 with this weight of 15K behind. When unloaded and on the road on the way back I had a topper on the truck with a 65 gallon transfer tank with about another 500 pounds of our things. We traveled back to

Alaska and I had it in cruise control most of the 3950 miles back at 70 mph and average 18. 4. mpg. I did not think this was to bad at all. The truck has performed extremely well and the guages were worth there weight in gold. When on the hills when the temp on the Pyro hit 1000 to 1050 I would drop a gear and Temps would drop to 800 and the worst day the transmission Temps hit 200 degrees. The other 2 rigs I ran with a lot had 99 dodge's and towed 11K to 12K and no guages but some mod's but I stayed with them on all the hills. One day on the trip without the trailer we could only drive 57 mph it was 55 but I added 2 and the fuel mileage was 19. 4 so I really could see that more pedal meant less left in the tank. The truck has really run super and the only time it was back to the dealer was for the flash. At the time I went to the dealer for the flash, I thought I would pick up an extra oil filter for the truck. I almost choked when the parts man handed me the invoice with a straight face and the filter was $36. 50 at the dodge dealer. I politely explained to him what he could do with the flter and went down to the Cummings dealer and paid $11. 70. These guys complaining of bad fuel milage out to make the same trip at 70 instead of 80 to 90 and they would be very surprised at the rusults. My truck is stock except for the AFE Proguard filter assy I picked up in Quartzite in Jan. for $250. 00 at one of the stalls.