Hi Guys and Gals,

First, let me say that I have always thought that those individuals that claimed to get 25mpg from their CTD's towing a 25,000 pound trailer over the Rockies should have their own rubber room. However, after just returning from my first short towing trip with my (used) 2005 SRW A/T 4WD CTD (22k miles), I have a couple of questions.

First, the truck did know the 4000 lb travel trailer was behind it. It towed very well but it was working harder than normal. Temps were in the 90's and on flat ground, the coolant temp stayed down. I had one terrible hill to pull (2000 feet in about 4 miles) and the temp went up over the 200 degree mark. The big disappointment was mileage. While towing this fairly light load, I was probably getting 10-12mpg at a max speed of 65mph. Tires were all inflated to max, clean air and fuel filters and fresh oil change.

What is the REAL NO B.S. mileage I should be looking for, and what can I do to improve my mileage. I'm happy with the power but I thought that I would be seeing at least 16MPG towing this small trailer.

Thanks for your input!

 

Towing this trailer

6'-6" tall 6x12 all steel I get about 16.5 highway with my 97 if I keep it at 65. That is up about a mile and a half from the 99 in the picture. Not an apples to apples comparison, but I have timing and fueling mods verses the stock 99.

 

slow down and get a small fueling box w/timing. that will increase your milage 3-5 mpg depending on where your pulling and how fast your running.

 

Drag knocks more milage off towing than the weight if you aren't towing heavy... Notice my 16.5 is at 65mph. If I go 75 I get about 15...

 

Can't agree more, I would pull weight over wind any day. With 5er and a good head wind you can dang near watch the fuel gauge go down, you can only slow down so much. But then again I'm not one of the guys who gets upset because his or hers truck won't get 22-25 mpg going to grocery store and back. I am not affraid I towed a 7500# TT to boise and back a few weeks ago, ran 75-80 mph the whole way got 11.8 mpg and didn't worry about it because the truck pulls it like a dream and didn't ever second guess whether or not I was going to be stranded, That's why I have owned CTD powered Dodge trucks since 93.

I'll go to sleep now,
T398

 

Doesn't sound terribly out of line to me if you were pulling hills like that. I got 11 towing a 6 or 7x14 flat front pull into a 35 mph head wind going to Oklahoma last spring. I was running 75 pretty much the whole way. Got 14 on the way home with no wind. Have to agree with everybody else here though, speed kills, and in this instance what it's killing is your fuel consumption. Seems like these trucks are more sensitive to speed variations than gassers.

 

my ho will get 24 mpg MT and 10-12 pulling a 11k toy hauler

 

If you were getting 10-12 MPG while actually going up that grade you're doing fine. If it was an average for the whole trip we don't know enough to make much of an opinion. And once again you'll get everyone chiming in with their mileage in a completely different situation with a different load and averaged over a different distance. I just don't see any accurate way of comparing.

Some use the computer and some of them have boxes that the computer doesn't see, everyone drives differently, everyone averages over a different distance, some reset on the flat at 55 and report in a mile or two, some report afte a long trip, and, dare I say it, some probably exagerate. And some are proud of driving 75MPH with a trailer but can't seem to understand wind resistance. It's really hard to accurately compare. We even see the opposite results reported when switching to larger tires and, even crazier, arguments about the results BEFORE the tires are changed. Sheesh. I followed a buddie of mine with similar loads on one trip. He has a Duramax. His driving style is foot to the floor at every stop and 80 on the highway. No respect for the truck and no thought about mileage. He seemed amazed when I didn't have to fuel up for the whole trip and he did twice.

So, tell me, how do we compare in a meaningful way? How can I say your truck is OK or not OK? I can't. I can only say that if I leave my computer alone and it averages for a few thousand miles of mountain driving, some city driving and some flat freeway driving, with about 500 lbs average load it settles in at about 17.5 to 18 MPG. I don't hot rod it but I like to drive 70 to 75 on the open stretches of flat ground. Slower in the mountains. I'm not afraid to pass. No burn outs. Easy starts in the city. And I notice a big drop if I go any faster on the highway. If I reset the computer on a grade with a load it will easily stay down at 9 or so. Big deal, it's the average that counts. Coasting down hill we're getting better than 200, and sitting in the driveway or at a light we're getting ZERO. So what, it's the average that counts. And the average must be over a reasonable distance to be meaningful.

Wetspirit

 

IMHO there is to much varation in the computer readings, even stock to count, alwyas hand calculate...

 

The biggest load I put on my truck to date and hauled a long distance was when I bought my 95 in TX. I figure it was around 6000 lbs and the trailer was 2k lbs for a total of 8k lbs. The truck was also full of junk from a 2 week vacation. When I was running 65 with an egg under the pedal I pulled in 13MPG. When I was running 70-75 I pulled in 11 MPG. The worst tank was pulling alot of grades. Not mtns but constant long uphills. This was back when the truck was stock with 20k miles on the odometer. I forgot to mention that hauling the empty trailer to TX at 70-75 MPH I averaged 16 MPG which was a .5 MPG penalty over the same trip empty.

 

I have kept a log of my mileage in a spreadsheet since the truck was new. I only have 34k miles on it and it see a lot of towing - either a 32TT or a 20' enclosed car trailer. According to my log almost 11k of the 34k are towing miles. The best mileage hand calculated has been 20.9 solo and the worst was a flat 9.0 towing the 11,000 lb TT. The calculated average since new has beem 14.7. The overhead computer does not agree with the hand calculations but if I average the readings for the log I get 14.568 - so the Dodge overhead is pretty accurate over the long haul but no good for tank to tank readings.
Jack

 

I pull a ~7000lb TT in the Rocky Mtns and average about 13mpg on a stock 02 hand calculated. I'm hoping maybe santa has a fueling box for me this year. I've been as slow as 45 up I-70 just west of Denver with a full load.

Good luck

Bill.

 

I like how you say your truck "knew it was there back there". That is about the most over used phrase in the diesel truck world. I pulled a 12K 18' equipment hauler fairly often with my old truck with a total of about 8750 lbs, I always knew it was back there (truck did too). Matter of fact, it got to bucking and jerking around every so often under the right conditions. Had the power, but really had to make it scream to keep speed on a decent grade (drinking fuel).

Mileage is always discussed, exaggerated and incorrectly calculated.

If you can get 13.5 -14 towing anything you are doing a heck of a lot better than a gasser getting 12 empty.

 

well at least you got that much. i got 7 mpg towing this:

for 300 miles.

but i did get 20 mpg driving out there doing 70 - 75 mph the whole way.

however the 7 mpg coming back, being passed by loaded big rigs, and the constant back and forth jerking movement of this machine kinda was a kick in the teeth to the whole "20 mpg!" so it all kinda cancelled itself out in the end.

 

Your mileage is spot on............. I have 5 in our camping group all with almost the same truck and they are averaging the same mileage as you.