I'm sure this has been asked before and here I am asking it again.
I've got about 2300 miles on my 2006 Ram CTD. I bought it to haul a 5th wheel. So I don't put a lot of miles on it. But...at what point should I start to see some improvement in the fuel economy????
I'm getting only about 17MPG on the hwy and about 15 around town. This is not loaded, or towing. At this rate I'll be lucky to get 12 mpg hauling the 5th wheel. My 97 2500 CTD with 80,000 miles was getting something like 22 hwy and 17 around town.

 

16/17 max city and 20 max highway is what I'm expecting from all of the comments I've seen.

Presently my best has been 15.1 city and 18.1 highway. 8,800 miles on her.

I may go to Tahoe this weekend, if so I'll let you know, I haven't checked my highway since Monterey about 3,000 miles ago (IIRC).

 

That is about what I get now as well. I just rolled over 12k and the best I have gotten on the highway is 17.9. That was leaving my cruise set on 68 on a 400 mile round trip.

 

welcome.

i'd say your first long tow may give you 1 mpg improvement, break in, seems a common comment on here.

if you have the 4:10 gears (off road package) you are about normal. (like my 04)

all the high MPG guys are 3:73 (like my 06)

 

The gear ratio in my truck are 3.73. I was hoping you'd all tell me that I'd see an improvement at ?????miles. Nuts!

 

I just got to 18.5 highway, no trailer but 8500# with just the truck and fuel. I also just had the flash for the P0514 code done two days before. 708 miles on one tank, I love it!!!

 

You won't get as good mileage with that 06 as you did with the 97. The common rail engines don't get quite the mileage as the old 24 valves.

 

And your 97 was lucky to have 200hp and your 06 has over 300 a couple mpg less is just normal for over 100 hp more.

I've heard several guys say that there old 12 valve got 20 mpg and the new truck was lucky to get 18 mpg. I said drive your new truck the same speed up and down the hills as your old truck and check your mpg, wow they actually got better mpgs!

 

My '06 has about 12500 miles. I just got back from a trip to New Jersey towing a 5500# trailer. It's roughly 500 miles round trip, and I almost got it done with one tank. I didn't hand calculate it this time, but the overhead was saying between 17.4 and 17.8.

I recently did a 2500 mile round trip without the trailer, and hand calculating the mileage, I was around 19. That was when I had about 6000 miles on it.

By the way, I have the 4.10s and 6sp. I also tend to drive a little faster than the speed limit - usually 75 on the highway. Needless to say, I'm pleased with my mileage.

 

I would be pleased with that as well....so far I am still waiting. I just got back from a 1500 mile trip with 1000 of that pulling a 6000# high profile trailer. The last 500 was with a 40 mph headwind. Between the wind and the mtns, I didn't get great mileage. I started out with ULSD with 2 cycle oil in it and came back on LSD. The LSD gave me much better mileage. Too bad it is almost gone now. It sure had a nice blue color to it.

I used a transfer tank to fill up on the trip, so I don't have any good numbers to work with. It is looking like I averaged 11-12 pulling and about 16 empty. I'll start over when the LSD is done with. No sense before then...the results will be too good.

I did notice this much. My speed did not drop in the mountains, even with the load. My mileage was worse than my '99 would have given me, but this '07 hit the mtns hard and never even slowed down. That definitely skewed my numbers. The trip took almost 8 hrs one way with the '99 ....shaved that down to 6 and change with the '07. I can live with that.

 

I too went from a 97 with great mileage to an 05 with great power. I hate to admit it but being able to yank 10k behind me up most anything at 75 MPH has gotten the best of me. I am sure that if I fell off on the hills like the 97 did (and it was the best thing in the world till I drove the new one) I could get closer to the same MPG. Buck up tho, it will break in somewhere between 20 and 40 k and you'll get a solid 14 while towing a TT although you still won't get the 22+ the 97 got empty.

Jason

 

This was about what I was getting new. Maybe a little more. I started to see improvements after about 25-30k miles. I have 44k now and my 2006 average mileage is 20.4mpg. I have also learned how to drive to keep the mileage decent. Also I only do >at most< 25% city driving.

I'll be interested to see how the ULSD affects my mileage. Filled up my first tank last week.

 

Well, I updated my numbers recently. On all ULSD on a recent work day which had lots of highway miles in the hills unloaded, I averaged 18.2 mpg. The only additive I was using was premium 2 stroke oil...Havoline I think. If I didn't get any better than that, I would be happy. My 24v '99 dually never got over 17...ever. I figure I am over the hump. With only 3500 miles on the truck, it can only get better.


Learning to drive it was a biggy as well. Keeping it off of 70 and around 60-65 made a big difference. Much bigger than it did with the '99 which got the same regardless.

 

i get avg of 12-13mpg 50highway/50city driving. this is totally unloaded w/ 40,000 miles on my truck. i drive about 80mph freeway, and usually get on it quite a bit cause i get mad easily here in houstons horrible traffic