2004.5 CTD 600 mileage...
 

I know this issue has been beaten to death but I'm curious how many new owners have seen acceptable to very good improvement in fuel mileage after racking up some miles on their new trucks.

So...how many folks here have seen good improvement in fuel mileage since they've taken delivery?

Thanks...

7000 miles and milage has dropped.

Mine improved from 11 to 13 in the first 1000 miles and that is about it...I'm not buying the break in theory because:

"Truck #1" and "Truck #2" are identical including miles on the clock.

"Truck #1" gets 13 mpg and "truck#2" gets17 mpg.

Will "truck 1" break in and "truck#2" not break in????[eyecrazy] [eyecrazy]

Have not figured it by hand yet, I got over 12,000 miles in less than 2 months. Its better than when i bought it but it still suxs.

I don't buy the break in thing either. My mileage did improve some at around 1500 miles from 13 to about 14.8. I can't say what caused this, but I think that is around the point where I learned how to drive this truck properly.

The thing w/ my truck is that it sucks bad in town. A stop light might as well have a siphon (sp) attached to my tank. I can rack up decent mileage on the road over a couple of hundred miles but 10 miles of city driving will shoot my mileage all to hell.

15.5 at 70mph, 15 at 75mph 14.4at 80mph all on the overhead based on 100+mile trips on interstate. these numbers are up since I bought the truck mabey 1mph. and I keep my front tires at 75lbs cold and rear at 70lbs cold and a tonneau cover helped about .5 mph legit. Diesel fuel additive Diesel Kleen (Wal-Mart $4.00) helps too about .3mph legit.

average hand calculated from same pump everytime and filling to the neck, the best I've gotten is right at 15mph, city and hightway mixed.

at 55mph overhead reads about 22mph.

hope this helps.

btw I'm a newbie too and this website is VERY HELPFULL.

thanks to all who help us newbies, jamie

did any of you guys here about a flash that they came out with to improve milage?? I have ...... but power may be sacrificed ?

For anyone interested, here's my 600s mileage history.

After running the dealer's first tank out, I filled it to the neck, drove 629.1 miles, refilled to the neck took 35.79 gallons. 17.577 mpg. 1135 miles on odometer at time of second fill-up.

Second measured tank, 517.7 miles, including the truck's first 339 miles of towing, a 6'x12' cargo box trailer full of racing motorcycles, (<5000 lbs.) at 65 mph took 31.296 gallons. 16.542mpg. 1653 miles on odo.

Third tank, filled to the neck, driving with the hammer down with the trailer to heat the cylinder walls (don't tell any cops, but around midnight I topped 100mph with trailer on the cimarron turnpike. Yes, it's the middle of nowhere.) Anyway, with 468 miles on that tank I filled it to the neck again. 33.878 gallons. 13.8 mpg. Not as good, but much faster. 1653 miles on odo.

Drove it the rest of the way home at ~70 mph. Filled up on arrival. 332.4 miles all towing the same trailer. 20.731 gallons. 16.034mpg. Looks about the same, but travelled at 5 mph faster. At this point there were 2454 miles on the odometer.

Through all this the overhead read about 1 mpg below the hand calculations. Overhead got reset at fill-up.

Here's the kicker. The overhead is now reading 18.6 around town. It was as high as 19.2 until today's errand running and short trips. We'll see if this holds up for the full tank. It has never read this high before, though.

I have observed the following regarding my first diesel:

1) The mileage improves as the temperatures in the diff and tranny and motor rise. Short trips don't get temps to where they need to be to thin the fluids. (BTW, logically that's why synthetics in the diff and tranny help mileage.) Also short trips are not usually made on the freeway/highway. [duhhh]

2) Idleing sitting still will seriously kill your mileage.

3) Idleing while coasting at 50+ mph will seriously help your mileage.

4) I hate having to drive so slowly on the freeway to get good mileage. It needs an over-overdrive.

5) Light-to-light I can leave the other traffic behind and still beat the mileage of my old gasser.

6) Diesel foams too much. It takes forever to fill this thing to the neck.

7) This is one bad-a$$ truck! There is almost nothing I don't like about it. If I can get it to do 30mpg it will be perfect! :D

Bot I'm so proud I don't have the 04s if thats the mileaged. o3 ho 6 speed 20 around town 22.5 to 23 on the highway at 70 I LOVE IT. sorry guys couldn't resist[laugh]

actual mpg
 

I finally did a manual check of milage yesterday. The computer was typically indicating 16 mpg. I drove 104.8 miles and took 6.193 gallons, 16.9 mpg. I have 6700 miles on the truck.

Bill, what's the truck?

4WD, QC, 600???

Mine started about 13-14 and slowly worked its way up to 18 and then the trailer got attached and it came down to 10.3 which I don't think is bad on the yoyo hills of NW SC at 70-75 MPH. Just about the same as my old 96. The 96 did not use overdrive and the 04 makes the trip in overdrive without slowing down. Probably do better on the MPH if I let it slow down going up the hills and speed up going down but I hold the speed so as not to upset the big trucks. All in all, I am very happy with it. Buy-the-way, I carry 105 gallons of fuel which cuts the MPG somewhat.

20 in town is way more then I see on the highway! Infact that seems about the highest in town I have ever heard of. You must be proud.

Yeah, and I'll betcha 50 bucks if you or I borrowed his truck for a week, we wouldn't see those numbers.

I'm driving a 3/4 ton four wheel drive pickup truck( 04.5 Ram 2500 "600 series cummins) that can darn near pull a house, and at this time the most powerfull medium duty diesel engine in a general public avaliable light duty chasis truck that is capable of making more power than the truck chasis can handle , I'm not expecting to get 17-20mph. Hahaha, I'm happy to be getting between 13-15mpg City/Hwy. Maybe that's just me :p