Diesel Truck MPG

Me Again wrote:
He asked best!!! I gave the best answer so far. The trucks I identified will get 14-15 towing his trailer maybe even a little higher and 24-25 empty on the highway. Chris

"He asked best!!! I gave the best answer so far."

And there you have it. Mods- you can close it now! No need for more replies!..:R..:R..:R

~

Vulcaneer wrote:

Camper 2012 wrote:
Do you guys know what would be the best MPG Diesel Truck to pull my 2012 26 Foot Fifth Wheel (7,580 lbs). Thanks for your help.

If you are worried about least cost per mile, the best truck might not be a diesel for that small load.

I am a diesel guy. But sometimes a good gasser makes sense too. Especially if you are not towing long distances and a lot of miles per year.

This should be the standard first reply for gas vs diesel.

Still flying the flag. :B

travelnutz wrote:
Me Again,

Simply crazy of you to push that old of a Dodge pickup at the OP. He lives in the Midwest and most of the Dodge trucks you are pushing are now rusted out hulks in junkyards here and in the east and S.E. also and those that aren't now in are mostly looking like swiss cheese with rusted frames and looking for a junkyard to retire in. Might be OK where you live, Me Again, for an old Dodge but not remotely so on this side of the Rockies and most people already know it. Even if a good one were to be found, the extremely loud engine turns buyers off as there's lots of them sitting on used lots for very long times and they have horrible resale value in the Midwest and down south for all the obvious reasons. Auction lots have gobs of the old Dodges around this region and very few dealers even bid on them because they don't sell. Check the auctions inventories and see for yourself.

To the OP: Go check out the older Dodges on used lots and in stroe parking lots and their model year age. When possible, open the doors and look along the bottoms at the rust and check around the wheel wells and rocker panels and even under checking of the frame rust. Even many 2007 Rams in the Midwest now have rusted thru holes. Then it will be self-explanatory as the light comes on. It's your money you are spending and I doubt you want to throw it away! Campers verbally hate it when the old extremely loud Cummins comes in as you can't even carry on a conversation when one is even 5 ot 10+ sites away.

Pretty bold statements. I have experienced just the opposite.

Here is the south you can't find used Cummins equipped trucks of any year. They are rare birds on the used car lots and do not stay long. Would have to see a verifiable source to believe you. Sorry.

transamz9 wrote:

bobx2 wrote:

Me Again wrote:
He asked best!!! I gave the best answer so far. The trucks I identified will get 14-15 towing his trailer maybe even a little higher and 24-25 empty on the highway. Chris

Gonna have to raise the BS flag on these numbers. Take 5 mpg off of them, and then they are realistic.

I can get 12 mpg out of my 05 Cummins towing 18,000 if I take my time and empty out on the road I get 22-23 not trying. If I slowed down to 65 then I know I can bust over 25 empty. The best I have ever seen was a 400 mile weekend trip on very straight 2 lane. I average 27 mpg hand calculated for that trip. That was a once in a blue moon trip though. With cruise set @ 75 I'm in the 22-23 range empty. So put your flag away.;)

Thats is some kind of freak milage, all my buddies with common rail dodges (tuned/built motors or not) see 10-12 with 12k and never see 23 empty unless all that is mostly driving downhill, some of them guys have 500-1000hp motors thru a EFI live/CSP5 and are always trying to find the best mileage towing. even thoe I am a duramax guy I would trade my 650hp @ the wheels for your rig if I could get that mileage, congrats....

Me Again,

Simply crazy of you to push that old of a Dodge pickup at the OP. He lives in the Midwest and most of the Dodge trucks you are pushing are now rusted out hulks in junkyards here and in the east and S.E. also and those that aren't now in are mostly looking like swiss cheese with rusted frames and looking for a junkyard to retire in. Might be OK where you live, Me Again, for an old Dodge but not remotely so on this side of the Rockies and most people already know it. Even if a good one were to be found, the extremely loud engine turns buyers off as there's lots of them sitting on used lots for very long times and they have horrible resale value in the Midwest and down south for all the obvious reasons. Auction lots have gobs of the old Dodges around this region and very few dealers even bid on them because they don't sell. Check the auctions inventories and see for yourself.

To the OP: Go check out the older Dodges on used lots and in stroe parking lots and their model year age. When possible, open the doors and look along the bottoms at the rust and check around the wheel wells and rocker panels and even under checking of the frame rust. Even many 2007 Rams in the Midwest now have rusted thru holes. Then it will be self-explanatory as the light comes on. It's your money you are spending and I doubt you want to throw it away! Campers verbally hate it when the old extremely loud Cummins comes in as you can't even carry on a conversation when one is even 5 ot 10+ sites away.

bobx2 wrote:

Me Again wrote:
He asked best!!! I gave the best answer so far. The trucks I identified will get 14-15 towing his trailer maybe even a little higher and 24-25 empty on the highway. Chris

Gonna have to raise the BS flag on these numbers. Take 5 mpg off of them, and then they are realistic.

I can get 12 mpg out of my 05 Cummins towing 18,000 if I take my time and empty out on the road I get 22-23 not trying. If I slowed down to 65 then I know I can bust over 25 empty. The best I have ever seen was a 400 mile weekend trip on very straight 2 lane. I average 27 mpg hand calculated for that trip. That was a once in a blue moon trip though. With cruise set @ 75 I'm in the 22-23 range empty. So put your flag away.;)

Camper 2012 wrote:
Do you guys know what would be the best MPG Diesel Truck to pull my 2012 26 Foot Fifth Wheel (7,580 lbs). Thanks for your help.

If you are worried about least cost per mile, the best truck might not be a diesel for that small load.

I am a diesel guy. But sometimes a good gasser makes sense too. Especially if you are not towing long distances and a lot of miles per year.

My old Monaco averaged 9, didn't matter if something was behind it or not as the swing was maybe .2mpg + or - hand calculated. The new rig, my trip to FL I saw 10.8, return trip I saw 10.2. Truck itself is maybe 13 mixed, 16 and once as much as 17 hiway.

Just having this discussion with my wife yesterday, as we are dreaming of upgrading from a pop-up to possibly a motorhome or maybe a larger TT

I don't have a huge resume of RV experience, but I've done a bit of towing in my day....... & I have done a lot of research on this topic.....it seems that these ballpark numbers presented here in this thread cover most of the RVing world.
10-12MPG towing
10-12MPG for a motorhome

Just as a point of reference, I'm probably in the 15-16MPG ballpark towing a small pop-up behind a half ton Silverado, but guess where I'd estimate that I'd be towing a TT appropriately sized for my truck (a little less than 7,000#)!
yep, probably around 12MPG

I used to tow a gooseneck trailer for work in the 12,000# ballpark, behind a dodge 3500 gasser V-10 back in the mid-late 1990's. I used to see approx. 8MPG to 10MPG as I recall......

Heavy on the foot, or in hills it'll go down a bit
and of course there are some that would b less, and some of the big diesel busses might get better......

But, so where does that leave us as a general rule?
maybe 9MPG to 12MPG across the board for RVing? Do you more experienced folks agree?

An expense and a concern sure, but not much of a variable so I agree with bombfixer, there are more important things to concern yourself with.....

Oh, & as I tried to point out to my wife, you have to stop thinking of it as a daily driver. Or at least in my case we do. It's more like that travel expense to get to the destination..... once in a while.....like an airline ticket.