I just returned from my first long trip with the truck and Fifth wheel. Left NY last week for Jacksonville FL and returned 5 days later. Total miles were 2300 miles. The truck performed flawlesly. In fact, I never shut it off on each of the trips, just left it running at the truck stops. 20 hours down and 18 hours back. I had the cruise set at 70 on all the interstates.

The only problem was my fuel mileage, but I expected that doing 70 with the 5er. I averaged about 10 MPG. I'm convinced that drag is more of a factor than weight. My fifth wheel isn't exactly aerodynamic.

Just wanted to pass along a good report, since most of what is posted on forums has to do with problems.

By the way, the monster truck show was awesome.

John

 

Except for the fact that it rained lik H@ll and I had to park a 1/2 mile away. Didn't even stay for the freestyle competition

 

Yeah, that kind of put a damper on the event. We stopped at a local sporting good store before the show and bought some ponchos. It was chilly, but at least we stayed dry. Since we drove all the way down from NY to see the show there was no way I was leaving early.

 

You'd be surprised at how much your overal mpg lowers when you leave your truck idling for extended periods. By the way this doesn't do your truck any favors, unless it's really really cold and you're trying to keep it's temps up.. I believe it even says in the manual not to leave the truck idling for more than 5 minutes.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your truck so much on the tow. I agree about the drag being a huge factor in mpg. I towed 8700lbs on a flatbed from OH to FL at 70mph and got 14.8 hand calc. Another time I towed a 4500lb travel trailer that was totally un-aerodynamic (probably not a word) - and got 12.5mpg..

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lightman
[B]You'd be surprised at how much your overal mpg lowers when you leave your truck idling for extended periods. By the way this doesn't do your truck any favors, unless it's really really cold and you're trying to keep it's temps up.. I believe it even says in the manual not to leave the truck idling for more than 5 minutes.

I would just leave it idle when I was fueling or using the bathroom in the trailer. I do remember reading about extended idling somewhere. I would say 10 minutes was the longest the truck idled. The truck has 505 hours on it, which works out to an average of 38.8 MPH. I dont think that is too bad for a truck that is my only vehicle. If I subtract the 11 hours it had on it when I took delivery, it works out to 39.6 MPH.

 

Your mileage will improve as the truck breaks in, don't worry. I'm at about 18,500 miles now and the mileage keeps on going up and up. Glad the truck performed flawlessly. At this point I've made a bunch of similar trips and the truck has never given me any troubles.

I, too, leave the engine idling when I stop for fuel or whatnot. I feel this provides more benefit to the engine because, especially after towing, it's bad to just shut it off without giving the thing time for the turbo to spool down/cool off and just for the engine to cool off in general. I also find that extended idling periods don't hurt my mileage too much, but a lot of WOT does.

 

I too have noticed decent fuel milage when towin. Nothin like draggin that 24" cow wagon wide open!!
I let mine idle about all the time unless Im goin in somewhere for extended periods of time. I just dont see where letting it idle with hurt anything.Its kinda hard not to leave it idling after drivin a big truck. Its more of a habit than anything.

 

The other thing I find is that, especially this time of year, I want it to be warm in the cab!! Thursday I did 1100 miles of driving and probably at least 90 minutes of idling in that time (accumulated over stopping to load/unload two cars, plus fuel stops). Seeing as the ambient temps ranged from 20-30 degrees, I left it idling with the heater on max. That way when I jumped in the truck after working and getting my hands all chilled, it was warm in there!

I know that for a while Dodge was saying that if you idled too much that it was causing the injector problems (strangely enough, I also haven't heard about injector problems nearly as much recently... wonder why?), but I refuse to believe that. I've idled every vehicle I own when it's cold out (and sometimes when it's warm for A/C purposes), and the only problem it's ever caused is that my gas gauge goes down!

Seriously, I do wonder what happened to all the injector problems that seem to have stopped popping up as of recent.