Heard about milage problems w/ early 600/325. How can I make sure that the truck I'm thinking about buying is one of the later ones (thinking about a new one on the dealers lot)? Wha are the build dates that I should stay away from.

 

Actually there isn't a particular build date the guarantees good MPG. Some folks with January builds get decent MPG, while some people with June builds have crappy MPG. I've just got my fingers crossed for my '05... and I'm going to drive it and check MPG before I plunk down my cash. If you are talking about issues besides that, there wasn't anything major that can be isolated to a certain build date, but I think anything built after May should have the latest ECM software and tranny/ps hose updates, etc. If I was buying an 04.5 I'd get May or later... but to me it's worth it to wait for the '05. Mine's scheduled to ship 8/17

 

Mark,
My truck was built 01/4/04, with an engine build date of 10/03, and I get good mileage. 15 town 17.5-18 highway @65-70 with 11k. Good luck with your future truck

 

Engine Cummins build date is on engine valve cover and truck build date is on the door (month/year)

 

Mine has a build date of 4-04 and I'm averaging 17.5 MPG.

That's with my daily commute which includes lots of stop and go traffic.

It's improved with each new tank of fuel.

My truck has 1150 miles.

It has 4:10 gears, 4WD Auto, QCab, short bed.

So I have no complaints about mileage.

 

Big red Psd cc
How many miles on your rig?Have you towed anything heavy yet?What is you average speed on the highway?
Odie

 

G'day guys, Im a bit confused with the build dates, and what constitutes a Cummins "600"

On the TST website they have a drope down bar to select if your CTD is built before or after 01/05/04, why is that? Is the Cummins 600 only our after this date?

I had a look on my door and it only shows a month 01/04, so Im a little confused.

Can anyone assist?

 

I WOULDN,T BUY A DODGE OR CUMMINS UNTIL THEY FIXED THE THOUSANDS THAT ARE OUT THERE THAT GET BAD MILAGE MY GETS GREAT AROUND TOWN AROUND 15 MPG DRIVING WITH A RAW EGG UNDER THE FUEL PEDAL AND IT GETS 15 MPG ON THE INTERSTATE WITH THE CRUISE SET ON 65 14 MPG ON 70

 

Man that must make a mess if you have to floor it for some reason.

 

THAT IS WHY IT IS THERE BECAUSE THIS MILAGE GETS CUT IN HALF IF YOU PUSH THE PEDAL ENOUGH TO GO BEYOUND 1800 RPMS EVEN IF YOUR ARE JUST TAKING OFF FROM A STOP LIGHT . A LOT OF GOOD IT DOES TOHAVE THE HORSE POWER IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO USE IT JUST CALL ME GRAND PA BECAUSE THATS HOW I HAVE TO DRIVE

 

wild bill,
Are you hand calculating your mileage?It looks like we have the same set up. My overhead reads way off of what I'm actually getting, normally between 1.5-2.5 mpg (low). Upon leaving stop lights my overhead dips also. I try not to look at the overhead computer, it's not to reliable.
Odie

 

One thing everyone seems to keep forgetting is that when you have more horses to feed it takes more fuel. When I picked mine up from the dealer I had to drive it 350 miles to get it home. Got most of the breakin done the first day out. I now have 5000 on it and have had it 2 1/2 months. I have seen mileage ranging from 16.6 to 19. Just got back from a 2500 to 2600 mile trip pulling my 5th wheel and averaged about 10.3 mpg. The beats the socks off my old gasser.

One of the things that I noticed was that depending on the brand of fuel I was running my mileage varied considerably and I only bought fuel at truck stops with one exception. The one exception was in a farming community that fueled grain trucks and other farm equipment so they had a good turnover on their fuel also.

My engine build date is about the middle of March 04 and I have been very happy with what I have. I see an average of about 17 mpg driving a truck that weighs in about 7800 lbs. Not to bad for a little 6 cylinder engine.

 

I will agree that more HP and a heavy foot can equal lower MPG in stop and go situations. However, what you guys that keep saying this keep forgetting is that when you do a comparison of otherwise identical trucks by setting them at identical speeds on identical roads and one gets 12MPG and one gets 20MPG, you can't use the "but it has more horsepower" excuse. In this scenario, both trucks are USING the same amount of horsepower.

The difference can only be one of two things...

1. One engine is producing that horsepower more efficiently, by burning less fuel to generate the same power.

or

2. There is parasitic loss somewhere else in the system that requires the truck with worse MPG to generate more power to overcome these losses (possible binding in tranny, driveline, axle, etc).

I know of 500HP trucks still getting 17-20MPG on the highway, so there's no way that going from 305 to 325 HP caused a ~6MPG drop on these trucks. There is something else at play here. All I'm hoping is that the new '05 600's will fare better.

 

Actually neither one of those things makes makes any difference if you have both trucks with cruise set at the same speed on the same road at the same time, since they would be in the same conditions.