17.7 ave MPG for the Titan Cummins?

[houstonscott]

My experience with milage has been "the driver" is the largest factor. HS

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Son just drove 2015 Dodge 3500 4x4 diesel from Texas to Alabama, got 22.3 mpg. Wow!

HS

They must be all over the place as far as mileage goes, because a friend of mine just bought a brand new Dodge 3500 diesel with a flatbed in Cairo Georgia and drove interstate coming home with cruise set at 70, told me he got 15.1, about what I figured.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Not being personal but where do you work that you run that many trucks. And yes I know you don't run them all

I work for a large contactor. We have 400 employees in 4 locations but work all over the country.

I fly their corporate jet.

I drive about 15 different trucks a month at the sites we fly out to or ones that are simply left at the airport.

Chris

 

[MinnesotaEric]

How much pulling power do you want? A few years ago a 318 was good enough to haul 80,00bs of freight plus the weight of the rig . From coast to coast over two mountain ranges . Now some people think they need 400+ HP in a pickup to haul a horse trailer or motor home . It's highway driving, not drag racing.

My 1980 F250 with a 130hp 400CID engine was able to tow everything around. Eventually. Now my F150 greatly exceeds the specs of my old F250 but the F250 had heavier axles.

 

[HHR]

Here is an interesting graph showing the steady state fuel economy on a 2016 CCSB Duramax.

 

[Monster5601]

When calculating fuel mileage is the accuracy of the odometer ever in question?

Excellent point. I am not aware of any laws regarding odometer accuracy, SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) has guidelines that call for a 4% margin of error but nothing forces a manufacture to follow the guidelines. There are so many variables calculating fuel mileage from tire size, inflation pressure, temperature, humidity, elevation, fuel heat energy, and driving style to name a few and then through in odo accuracy and comparing MPG is difficult.

 

[Egon]

My GPS always shows a different MPH from the odometer. Usually about seven percent or so.

 

[Bill601]

How much pulling power do you want? A few years ago a 318 was good enough to haul 80,00bs of freight plus the weight of the rig . From coast to coast over two mountain ranges . Now some people think they need 400+ HP in a pickup to haul a horse trailer or motor home . It's highway driving, not drag racing.
As for a gassers bad habits with early down shifting and screaming engines. Mine did do that and it was horrible .I fixed that by changing the rpm and ground speed shift points. I have had passengers ask did I swap a diesel into my gas truck .

buickanddeere,

Are you driving a manual transmission or did you somehow reprogram your automatic? If you reprogrammed it, I'd sure like to know how.

Regarding the whole horsepower race, it's getting as bad as it used to be with lawn tractors. I think they finally gave up and started rating those engines by torque instead of horsepower. Wouldn't it be great if they started doing that with car and truck engines? We had a diesel Jetta (pre-cheaters). Only 100 HP, but the torque made it a joy to drive.

Bill

 

[buickanddeere]

buickanddeere,

Are you driving a manual transmission or did you somehow reprogram your automatic? If you reprogrammed it, I'd sure like to know how.

Regarding the whole horsepower race, it's getting as bad as it used to be with lawn tractors. I think they finally gave up and started rating those engines by torque instead of horsepower. Wouldn't it be great if they started doing that with car and truck engines? We had a diesel Jetta (pre-cheaters). Only 100 HP, but the torque made it a joy to drive.

Bill

I bought a programmer from Summit Racing. Prior to reprogramming the gas 2003 6.0L truck was a piece of Chit when stock. It would drop to 2nd and scream up a slight hill. Now it stays in OD and with a locked torque converter until it almost starts to lug. The torque unlocks as the grade continues. If the engine almost gets to the point of lugging, the transmission shifts to 3rd. It takes a heavy trailer and a steep hill to make it drop into 2nd now.

I think the factory programmed the gassers so miserably back then. To make more purchasers select the diesel option.

 

[sd455dan]

buickanddeere,
Wouldn't it be great if they started doing that with car and truck engines? We had a diesel Jetta (pre-cheaters). Only 100 HP, but the torque made it a joy to drive.

Bill

I think they finally gave up and started rating those engines by torque instead of horsepower.
Wouldn't it be great if they started doing that with car and truck engines?


No No NO torquey engines are great i like them to

BUT
a torque reading alone will NOT give you the actual amount of work that can be done over time... just the amount of twisting force it can generate

My choice would be a full rpm referenced torque and HP @ RPM graph
also choice for most useful specs would be average torque and horsepower with defined low and high rpm spread. imo that gives the best guide to an engines (character)