78 replies to this topic

[allanb]

I got excited last week when my mpg went from 9.1 to 9.8! 2015 chevy 2500 hd 4x, crew cab and 8 foot bed, 6.0
liter, i just turned over 3000 miles. Hauling a northstar 850, guesstimating at 20000 lbs as now loaded.
I drove about 80 miles each way up into the cascades, average speed about 45 m.p.h., only gained 1150 feet of elevation. Only take away is slow speeds sure help.
When is a truck considered broken in? I understand that mpg improves when "broken in". But never read when that is considered to be?

[fwc4me]

I'll chime in as well on the 12V cummins.  I have a '94 auto, regular cab, long bed, with a 2006 Grandby on it.  I typically drive 65-70 on I-10 from Tucson to the Chiricuahua's and average almost 18 mpg.  Considering I paid $9000 for it, with only 120k miles on it, it's the best purchase I've ever made. 

If you are looking for good mpg's and don't mind the noise and smell of a diesel it's a great way to go.  For me, the first thing I did after buying it was put a 4' Donaldson muffler on it!  It's slow as can be, but gets you where you want to go.  The later 24V 5.9l cummins makes better HP, but I'm not sure what it does to the mpg's.

[Bad Habit]

We just did a trip with our F350 6.7l diesel.  Had the 8' Hallmark K2 fully loaded, along with extra gear that we brought to support a wedding party.  We were also towing our 2 door Jeep.

 

The dashboard screen measured it at ~12.5 overall.  I also have a Nav unit that I can input the gallons used at each fill up and it calculates it based on miles traveled by GPS (I tend to trust that one more).  That gave me almost 14.2

 

Just over 2000 miles, with 34,400 feet of elevation gain (and of course the commensurate elevation drop).  I was running 60-65 most of the time, did get it up over 70 on some stretches where it was flat and easy.

 

Edited by Bad Habit, 31 August 2016 - 03:34 AM.

[stanbiker]

My 16 Dodge 3500 diesel with a loaded hawk on the trip home from Colorado was getting 17, driving 65-75 as the speed limit dictated. I did try to make sure I didn't miss any national parks in the US or Canada that were near, so some of the driving was slower in the parks. 

[mitch h]

2015  1/2 ton,5.3 342 gears, crewcab, e rated tires. Just got back last weekend. 6000 miles, Mn. Nd. Mt. Canada, Id. Wa,Or. Wy. back to Indiana. 20 mph. to 70mph. Avg. 16.5 until good head wind in Wyoming and Kansas. Still avg. 15.5 for total trip. Truck computer pretty close to paper and pen.  Mitch

[Riverrunner]

If you're interested in MPG's of certain kinds of rigs with certain engines, you can go to fuellyDOTcom to see what you can expect.  

Edited by Riverrunner, 21 September 2016 - 09:52 PM.

[srileo]

2008 Nissan Titan 5.7L V8 with loaded Hawk. 14mpg is the best i ever got. 13 mpg is the average. 

[97grandby]

I have an old 1990 Ford F-250 with the big block 7.5l/460 ci with 4.10 gears and zf5 manual 5 speed. Loaded with camper and gear I get between 10-12 driving around 75 mph. When I tow my trailer and side by side still doing 75 mpg drops to around 9.


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[Vic Harder]

I'm heading out next week to pick up my 2005 Hawk shell.  This is our first trip in the new to us 2500HD.  I did have a friend who is an expert tuner give the truck the once over with HPTuners.  He was able to lean out the cruise fuel usage by 24%.  Even if I only would have gotten 10 mpg (seems normal in this truck from what I have read), that should translate to 12.4 mpg now.  On this trip alone (2300 miles) that could mean a $115 savings.

 

Stay tuned for actual results!

[LiveLifeNow]

...This is our first trip in the new to us 2500HD.  I did have a friend who is an expert tuner give the truck the once over with HPTuners.  He was able to lean out the cruise fuel usage by 24%. 

Stay tuned for actual results!

Have a great trip, Vic! And please keep us up to date on the "marriage" between the camper and the 2500HD. I have the same rig but have not yet installed the camper. Your mpg will be of particular interest. As a newbie, I tend to think the additional safety and load-carrying ability of the 2500 will be worth the extra purchase price and mileage.