Speaking of trucks and gas mileage

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

Two weeks ago we headed out to Lake Powell from CO. It's about 1,200 miles round trip from my house. Anyway, A friend asked me to drive his Dodge V10 3/4 ton out and back and pull his 23 foot boat. This was the first experience I have had with a V10. Plenty of power, but man was that thing thirsty. After I got past the mountains and out in the flat lands in western CO and UT I had a nasty headwind. That thing went all the way down to 5 MPG. Interesting thing too was red line on the tach was 4500 rpm and worked really nice between 2500 and 3200. That seemed to be it's sweet spot.

Greg

fixerupper · Aug 13, 2015

Back when the V10 came out my local Dodge dealer was telling me the contractors and guys who pull trailers were buying V10's instead of Cummins. The dealer claimed even though the V10 got poor mileage it still offset the extra cost of putting a Cummins in a pickup. I tend to think otherwise when you look at longevity but what do I know.

DENNIS MIN · Aug 13, 2015

GregCo,

Dodge/RAM

Cummins 6.7 stick 3.4 something rear gears, pulling 6000 pound on a trailer of 1700 pounds, 1100 in the bed, in addition, 70 mph average, no winds to speak of, AC running, no hills, I get around 9-11 mpg on summer diesel. I drive at night to relieve me of most idiot drivers.

Completely stock.

D.

Bruce from Can. · Aug 13, 2015

My new Dodge half ton 2wd gets great mileage. Drove it 4500 KM last week and we got 11KM to the Liter. something around 30mpg. V8 hemi ,shuts down part of motor when you reach road speed,you would never know it.

Fatjay · Aug 13, 2015

My 6.0 diesel excursion gets 13-14mpg mixed, 22mpg all highway. My 6.8 v10 gas excursion gets 8-9mpg mixed, 16-18mpg highway.

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

The other truck on the trip was a Dodge diesel pulling a similar load as me. His mileage was much better. We ran neck and neck through the mountains, but he was getting double the mileage I was.

Greg

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

This engine is an 8.0L. I guess with that much displacement you better be prepared to feed it. I drove it around couple a couple of days when we got back. Running around empty and lighter loads it was not bad at all. Similar to my Chevy 7.4 in my 1 ton about 12 to 13.

Greg

Nick m · Aug 13, 2015

I had one of those for a short time (1996). Seemed like an alright truck, but sold it when my brother in law needed a farm beater. I went back to a cummins (2001). Still have that. The v10 auto got around 10 empty, a little worse pulling. Never went on a long trip hauling anything with it. The diesel manual gets between 17-21 empty and 12-15 with a 28ft goose neck loaded with hay or old tractors. Has a 50hp chip and 4in exaust.

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

I don't know about the longevity either. This truck had 230k on it and seemed fine. It drove allot like a diesel with the narrow RPM range it ran in and really nice torque.

Greg

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

Funny how he ended up with this truck. He had a much newer Dodge with the Diesel in it. He seldom ever drove it. Once a year to Powell and back and maybe a few hundred miles a year other than that running around empty. His BIL had this V10 truck and pulls a large trailer frequently. He gave him the diesel in exchange for the V10 and some labor to help rehab an old house he bought to flip. He seems happy with the trade. Money is not this guys problem and he really doesn't care what he drives.

Greg

David G · Aug 13, 2015

I do not know when the direct injection gasoline will come out in the trucks, but would expect that will help a lot.

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

It will I'm sure. His boat I pulled down there has a new 200 HP four stroke Mercury Varado outboard on it. It's direct injected with a little supercharger on it and it and it would run all day on 20 gallons of fuel. The old carburetor 200 HP two stroke Mercs would not get even close to that. they would burn about 10 gallons an hour.

Greg

David G · Aug 13, 2015

JD Seller and I were talking about that technology, expect it will takeoff in the small utility tractor market.

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

Probably right. Funny how some of the latest and greatest stuff starts out in other markets before it moves to cars and trucks.

Greg

David G · Aug 13, 2015

Diesel is a pain for most small acreages and homeowners

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

It is. I have a 35 HP utility tractor to do chores around my place. I love it, but it is the only diesel I have and hauling fuel is a pain. I don't burn enough diesel to warrant anything more than a 55 gallon drum of diesel with a hand crank pump on it, so I haul the drum in now and then and fill it.

Greg

Brendon-KS · Aug 13, 2015

Chevy and Ford (with the Ecoboost) already have direct injection in their pickups and from what I've read Ram will soon have it as well.

GregCO · Aug 13, 2015

Forgot all about that. They do. A guy I work with has a Exploder with the ecoboost in it. He really likes it. He says that if you can keep your foot out of it the mileage is pretty good. His problem is he can't and the mileage isn't all that great. Self control goes a long way I guess.

Greg

Sprint 6 · Aug 14, 2015

I believe the '15 GM trucks are direct injected. I am not sold on direct injection because it brings a host of other issues, the worst of which is major carbon issues. There is also a class action suit in the works over one of Audi's high dollar cars that needs to have the heads removed every 10-15K miles to have the carbon mechanically removed. GM has the same issue with the Ecotech and the 3.6 V6.

Brendon-KS · Aug 14, 2015

The carbon issue is a concern with direct injection. With regular "upstream" injection the detergents in the fuel keep the underside of the intake valves clean but with DI there is never any fuel behind the valves. I'm not sure why this isn't a problem with diesels - maybe it has to do with the valve overlap differences that might allow more combustion gasses to get behind the intake valves with gas engines.

buickanddeere · Aug 14, 2015

(quoted from post at 21:58:05 08/13/15) I do not know when the direct injection gasoline will come out in the trucks, but would expect that will help a lot.

GM since the fall of 2013 in half ton trucks. For reasons unknown the 2014-2015 3/4 and 1 ton are still port injected .
Ford has been DI with the vehicles for years.

buickanddeere · Aug 14, 2015

The sooted up intake valves are a problem with short trip puttering around drivers . Particularly in winter . Using cheapo oil or pre 2007 diesel oil with high ash makes it worse.
E-bay has catch cans that trap the mucky stuff out of the PCV before entering the intake manifold. Before the oil/water/slime coats the intake valves and bakes on.

RBoots · Aug 14, 2015

Haha "Exploder" . I laugh every time I hear someone refer to an Explorer as an Exploder. A very close friend had one that was always referred to as "the exploder". LOL

Ross

Indiana Ken · Aug 14, 2015

(quoted from post at 06:01:56 08/14/15) The sooted up intake valves are a problem with short trip puttering around drivers . Particularly in winter . Using cheapo oil or pre 2007 diesel oil with high ash makes it worse.
E-bay has catch cans that trap the mucky stuff out of the PCV before entering the intake manifold. Before the oil/water/slime coats the intake valves and bakes on.

Learned something today. I had not thought of the PCV vapors contributing to this problem. Makes more sense now.

Wemedeeres · Aug 14, 2015

There's a guy around here that has one in a 1 ton dually, he had license plates on it for a while that read "0 MPG" I bet the only thing it couldn't pass was a gas station.

GregCO · Aug 14, 2015

I have an old Exploder and it has lived up to those expectations. It has had the engine replaced once and it needs it again and the trans done once. It has also had more electrical issues than I care to count. Other than that it's a good car.

Greg

GVSII · Aug 15, 2015

(quoted from post at 06:35:04 08/14/15)

(quoted from post at 06:01:56 08/14/15) The sooted up intake valves are a problem with short trip puttering around drivers . Particularly in winter . Using cheapo oil or pre 2007 diesel oil with high ash makes it worse.
E-bay has catch cans that trap the mucky stuff out of the PCV before entering the intake manifold. Before the oil/water/slime coats the intake valves and bakes on.

Click to expand...

Learned something today. I had not thought of the PCV vapors contributing to this problem. Makes more sense now.

If the engine designers of port injected or DI engines aren't careful about where they put the PVC outlet in the intake track that engine is going to have a dirty throttle body,dirty intake manifold and intake valves.

Speaking of trucks and gas mileage

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