Mileage Question

2000, QC, 4x4 AT, LWB, I post 13-14mpg avg around town, my over the road avg is 19.5, indicating about 22mpg while at cruise speeds of 65-70mph

I get about 125% of a Chebbie 1/2-ton, while making about 2.5x the power, and weighing about 50% more :)

About 19MPG in mixed (50/50) driving... 21 on straight highway runs. 23 if I keep it in the right lane at 55. 15-16 if I'm playing "make the rice rockets look even sillier".

19.4 MPG or so as I travel about 80% Freeway (68-70mph) and 20% city (25-55mph, not to mention the times I go 0mph). The heated seats allow for an extra .2mpg as I'm not shivering down the road. I also get 11-12 MPG when towing my Arctic Fox 24-5N 55-65 mph.

'03 2500 HO

4wd LB 6sp Laramie

My 2500, 04, six speed, 4X4 gets 19 to 20 mixed city and slow highway. At 80 it's gets about 14.

Al

05 QC 4X4 auto w/4:11 rear, 14.5 city, 19.5 highway at 60mph mt

Roy

Hey all you CDT (and other Diesel) owners, what kind of fuel mileage do you average, inner city and highway?

Well, it ain't a diesel, but my son is still getting about 21-22 mpg out of that old 79 318 I had . . . . . . .

And blowin the doors off dem chubbies at the same time.

VBG

Budd

Yeah right on the 2.5 x power. If the gas truck is geared properly, it will pull just about as much as a oil burner will. It is all in the gearing. Deisel are usually geared correct to match their narrow power/RPM range to the load while gas truck are rarely geared properly. I have hualed a 13k loaded equipment trailer a few time with my K3500 with not problems or big fuss. Heck 30 years ago I was hualing 23k grain trailers 20 miles to a mill at harvest time before there was even the dream of a CTD dodge with a 72 GMC 3/4 ton 4wd with a 350, a 4 speed and

4.10 axle ratios and NEVER had a problem getting the load moving or keeping it moving. It was traction limited in 2wd first/granny gear even when loaded and would frequently leave marks into the surface of the county roads when starting out because on the high torque loads placed are contact point of tire to road. I could even pull the loads out of the field in 4 lo most of the time if the ground was not too soft and again it was traction limited not power limited. A freind pulled too with a F250 and a 351 with 3.54 axles and a automatic but he would stall out with a load in soft ground and not even be able to spin the tires even in low range. It was no match for my old GMC in pulling power. That truck was one of the last of the beasts before emmissions set in big time. I used to pull a load 4 horse trailer with it a lot too and never had any problem hold speed in 4th on any interstate hill and got 10 to 11 MPG doing it too. One time when I was redoing a dam I hauled 2ea 5k cement drain pipes at once on a equipment float with a total weight of close to 15k 60 miles on the interstate atspeed limit without any real problems. You just need the gears and the proper drive line, not a oil burner to move a lot of weight.

currently im gettin on average 19.5 on my 05 6 speed. i drive mostly city to and from work. some highway on off days running errans but not much.

Give us a break with the 30 year old stuff. Get current will ya.

You just don't get it do you? First, I doubt you know anythign about Tom's truck. Second, gearing will elt you do about anything, at a sacrifice of something else. To get a gasser to pull what a diesel will, you can lower the gearing, at the sacrifice of top end speed and fuel mileage.

More bullshit. Factory gearing almost always allows an engine to run at

1500-2500RPM while crusing at highway speeds in top gear. Try doing the math.

Think how much easier it would have been with a diesel. Oh... sorry... thats right, you don't know that since you've never owned one.

Actually, I'll bet there was a dream of a CTD Dodge, since the late 70's was when Dodge put a small diesel in the pickups to begin with.

Never said you had a problem, but wouldn't it be nice to double or triple your fuel mileage while doing all that work?

Which is fancied up lack of knowledge speak for: Couldn't get enough traction to move the load at high RPM, and don't have enough power at low RPM to turn the tires.

Yup, it was all because of emissions that power went away.....

Wow, all of 10-11 MPG? I get 25MPG at 60MPH pulling a 6000lb trailer. When I pull in the 4wd, I don't worry about using more fuel, because it doesn't.

You aren't getting this. At all. Its FUEL EFFICIENCY that we like. Plus, some of what you describe shows exactly how limited you are with a gasoline engine in a hauling truck.

Increasing sales of diesel powered trucks of all brands don't lie.

Yeah.... right. I figure about 250HP at the crank for a typical 1/2-ton V8. I'm easily at 625HP at the flywheel, so by my math, that's two and a half times more.

So will a golf cart.... but it's gonna be REEEAAAALLLLLYYYYYY SSSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWW

Nope... it's all in the horsepower. You want to move a load of lbs. at speed, you need HP. Period.

Good for you.... what was your mileage while doing that?

30 years ago, I was crapping in a diaper... things change.

Go find me an over-the-road commercial truck that pulls 60-80K and runs on gasoline. I'll wait here...

sheesh and what's the torque?

Flywheel? I dunno... a little over 1100 at the wheels on the dyno, but that was an inertial dyno. A load dyno would probably show more.

Those poor stock U-joints.... :(

It's actually all about the torque. Horsepower doesn't really do anything; just a mathmatical expression of Torque:RPM relationship. Torque is the force that gets you moving, spins your tires, wins races, tugs the 80k trailer, etc. That's why a 250hp tractor trailer will do so much more than a 250hp rice burner.

they havent broke yet? *grin*

God Damn, ask a simple question about mileage and this is what I get! Glad to see the group is still as dysphunctional as ever!

I really do get tired of explaining this.... but oh, what the hell...

Okay.... put a lug wrench on your wheel's lug nut. Stand on the wrench (so you're tightening it). Lotta torque you're applying to the lug nut, right? Did it move? Hmmm.... thought it was all about the torque?

Exactly... it's a FORCE. Just like you pushing on the side of your house. You're applying a force. The house isn't moving, so you're accomplishing no work.

Really? I bet the 250HP ricer will whip up on that 250HP semi on a drag strip. Why? Better power (there's that HP thing again) to weight ratio.

To further illustrate that it's not "all about the torque"... a Formula 1 racecar's engine makes about 900HP, yet have a torque peak of somewhere around 270ft.lbs. A 4.7L V8 in a Ram makes more torque than that. So, let's put the 4.7L in the F1 car, and it'll go even faster, right?

Well... I _DID_ at least answer your question before making a left onto tangent boulevard... :)