Have a '06 3500 QC g56 6spd dually. I love the truck, but my mileage isn't what I expected to get. I get about 12-15 just running around empty (town and highway). I was wondering if the '10 would get any better or if the dpf and all the other epa stuff will keep it around the same. Has anybody had any problems with them?

 

I wouldnt be looking to a stock 6.7 for milage gains. If you spend the money to delete all the emmisions equipment then it would help some.

 

If that's all you're getting on average (12 - 15) I'd look at how your truck is running (filters / injectors / tire inflation / etc. etc. ). That seems kind of low to me.... I average 16 - 17 combined city / highway pulling a 3500 lb. cargo trailer 25% of the time.

I think it'd be much cheaper to fix whatever is holding your truck back in the mileage department vs. buying a new one. JM2C

 

Kind of in the same boat. I am getting 19 mpg empty and over all happy with the 06. I had an 07.5 6.7L 3500 auto and only got around 12.5 and 10-11 loaded. I liked having the 6spd auto. I like the interior of the new ram, went and looked at a couple yesterday and figured i will wait till they come out with some good incentives. kind of a toss up, but for now my 06 will stay.

Also is it just me or are these newer trucks not flying off the lot like expected?

 

I have pretty much the same truck as you and get around 17 city and only a bit better (18-19) Hwy. Your MPG seems a bit low, assuming everything is functioning correctly and your truck is well broken in. You might look into some Rickson 19.5 wheels & tires and/or a GearVendors OD unit for better mileage. From what I've read & seen, a stock 6.7 will get less MPG than a 5.9 plus you have to deal with the EGR, DPF etc.

You can buy a whole lot of fuel for the cost of trading up to an new truck, or even the wheel or OD mods.

 

I own a 2010 2500HD CTD 4x4 and while I love my new truck, I will be honest and say that it does eat the fuel. After purchasing my truck in Texas (24mi on the ODO) I drove it cross country to my current home in Las Vegas (about 1150 miles or so). The best I got, at highway speeds, was 16.5 mpg. Now that I am home in Vegas and traveling to/from work everyday I am averaging 14.5mpg. That is my single/biggest complaint about this otherwise fantastic vehicle. While I know I could delete everything, I cannot justify voiding my 7 year warranty on a brand new vehicle. But, man do I wish she wasn't such a fuel pig. To each his own, I suppose.

 

Apples to apples is tough to do, as altho I had an '06 Quadcab 4WD long bed, and traded it for an '10 Crewcab 4WD long bed, I had 4.10's on the '06 and now 3.73's on the '10. Before I put the 34's on the '10 (today), I was getting primarily in the mid-16's combined higway/city, while on the '06 I was getting mid-15's same conditions. But, the '06 was lifted (which changes the aerodynamics and the friction at the U-joints), and had 35's that were much wider than what I have on the '10 even now. All that resistance added up to keep the mileage lower than what it might have been, and I didn't do anything to the engine to better it. Altho I've only got 50 miles on the 34's on the '10, it seems like the mileage has gone down a tad with them. But that might be because the RPM's are not at their peak HP/torq at the speeds I was going, when they might have been before. Seems like playing around the instantaneous mileage is a little better selecting fifth gear in the auto at 55-60 mph...

 

thanks for all the suggestions. I just hand calculated the mpg today and I was up to 14, so maybe there is hope to get the mid 15s when I get 40-45k.

 

hand calculated with my 35'' tires i get about 14 on the highway. closer to 11 in town depending on how i drive I seen 9 at times.

 

The difference in price from an 06 to a new 10 could buy a whole bunch of Diesel fuel.........No way a few MPG more could make up for the depreciation on the 06 and the difference in cost between the two.

The best way to save money is to drive your vehicle into the ground. And with a Dodge diesel that will be around 1,000,000 miles..................

 

I've been toying with the same idea.. trading up the 06 for a 10. I have exactly the same truck, but not the same MPG. I get 17-18 around town and 20-22 on the highway, empty - hand calculated ( trick is to keep the rpms down ). But the two things that let the truck down for me are :
1) Rear seat space (Two growing kids)
2) No rear air, or vents in the back. (Two growing kids)

I must say I love the new crew cab and the cab configuration would be the biggest reason for me to change, though after trying to juggle a phone, a coffee and the stick shift going back to an auto wouldn't hurt either . I just don't know if I can justify the cost because I have bunch of money in my 06 and the 10 wouldn't stay stock for long.

 

Altho you might not see a return on the engine upgrades, the used 5.9's with reasonable mileage are getting resales much higher than book right now - if there's ever a time to sell or trade an earlier model, it's now...
(before I decided to buy a new one from the same dealer, a dealer offered to buy my '06 outright for nearly $6K more than book trade-in, and the only upgrade I had that didn't have a book value was the lift kit.
FWIW...)

 

Sorry to hijack but 6k more than book! holy handgrenade! That would go a long way to sway me for sure. NADA has mine at a trade value of 25k and if I traded I would take as much stuff of as possible. I never leave stuff on when I trade - they give you nothing for it.

 

You're not hijacking - the thread originally was about whether or not to trade up from an '06 to a '10...that's what we're talking about.
So you have some bargaining info, that amount was in Northern Cali - other locales might not be doing the same. But it's worth looking into if you're considering moving up. The truck had relatively low miles, but that's accounted for in the book values, so nothing different there except that perhaps the dealer thought because of the lower miles (46K on an '06) that it would move quicker and for more money. And look closely at the difference between trade-in and retail book - there's a HUGE difference and anyone "giving" their truck away for just trade-in when the retail is so high, is, well, high? If the truck is sweet, and the dealer thinks they can move it quickly for close to retail, you should get within a couple grand of retail...I did.

 

Drove a 2500 mega on saturday. Like blownsmoke said the auto was a nice change from a stick. I'm in the same boat, I have a lot of $ in my 06, but the bigger rear seat would be nice for my two girls. I am thinking of just a crew and not the mega (on count of the gvw), they told me the mega is just 1" bigger between the seats than the crew.(the main diff is behind the seat storage) Still just trying to figure out if it will be feesable. I know the diff in trade-in and the new one will buy a lot of dsl, but starting about a month ago my tach has been going crazy but it won't do it coutinous enough to get it diagnosed (told me it could be a crank sensor or the inst cluster but has to be messing up to tell), also I have a ticking sound you can hear from the bottom of the driver door,(told me that was an injector acting up?, but diesel mech told me to drive it until it gets worse, probablywhere my mpg is going) Still just trying to see if all the emmision s$%# will be worth it.