I just bought a 2014 Dodge Ram 3500 long bed Single Rear Tire diesel and wasn't told about DEF.How much of this stuff do you go through? Roughly in relationship to a tank of diesel how often am I filling this DEF tank?

Most of them are designed to last about the same as oil changes.I have a hard time understanding your not knowing about diesel emission systems with all the talk about DEF in the last couple of years. Where have you been?

Good for you!Don't have DEF, I would just drive until it gets low and fill it at a local truck stop. I guess you don't want to let it sit around it has a short shelf life.I would highly recommend visiting the turbodieselregister.com web site it's the longest running Dodge RAM Cummins group.

donn0128"Where have you been? "Well I haven't had a diesel since I sold my 2006 Ram in 2011. This is adding injury to as they say insult because I retired as an operations supervisor of a 60MW power plant. We used Urea to combat NOX in our GTG / HRSG. I never gave it a thought even after I found out this truck purchased two days ago had an SCR unit. Of all people I should have known.Well its an inconvenience now as it was then. I can't escape the emissions stuff LOL.

I'm reading its 2-6% of diesel usage. Figure 3 cents a mile or so.

Cummins says 2-3% of fuel use. Mine started out at about 8%, they took it in, and did something. It is now in the correct range.

DEF consumption In Dodge Ram | Good Sam Community

15 Replies

dave17352
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
NinerBikes wrote:
dave17352 wrote:
No big deal. I find the DEF not a problem. The system itself has given me some grief though.

Just make sure you don't put the DEF in the diesel fuel port. It will just about total your engine. I just read a 17 page thread on the ford enthusiasts forum where several people believe it or not actually did exactly that.

A link?

clicky to thread about def accidents
NinerBikes
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
DelCamper wrote:
The manual says do not overfill DEF tank. Its supposedly a big deal. If you did it by accident how do you drain it down?

You don't drain it down... just driving will do that. You wipe up the corrosive mess you left in the fueling /Def adding area down with lots of water and wet paper towels, so corrosive white crystals don't grow in the area.
DelCamper
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
The manual says do not overfill DEF tank. Its supposedly a big deal. If you did it by accident how do you drain it down?
NinerBikes
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
dave17352 wrote:
No big deal. I find the DEF not a problem. The system itself has given me some grief though.

Just make sure you don't put the DEF in the diesel fuel port. It will just about total your engine. I just read a 17 page thread on the ford enthusiasts forum where several people believe it or not actually did exactly that.

A link?
jus2shy
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
mdamerell wrote:
jus2shy wrote:
The Urea tank on the Dodges have left me a little wanting since they're only 5.5 gallons in total.

Curious, how big would you like DEF tank to be? The tank on my Freightliner daycab is 13 gal and an OTR tractor is around 20 gallons. Seems the 5.5 gal on a pickup is ample.

My daycab burns about 415 gal of fuel a week and use about 13-14 gal of DEF a week or 3.13%. Average run less than 100 miles on 2 lane so mpg suffers.

8 to 10 gallons like what the Grand Cherokees and RAM 1500's get (and they use fuel at a much slower rate). Average shelf life of DEF in the US is 1 year, so for the lower use vehicles that would work just fine. For the higher use vehicles, 8 - 10 gallons would make the DEF last about as long as an oil change in unloaded circumstances for most people (those that travel more or less about 15,000 miles a year).
dave17352
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
No big deal. I find the DEF not a problem. The system itself has given me some grief though.

Just make sure you don't put the DEF in the diesel fuel port. It will just about total your engine. I just read a 17 page thread on the ford enthusiasts forum where several people believe it or not actually did exactly that.
NinerBikes
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
I go through about 3 gallons in 10,000 miles on a 2013 VW Touareg TDI with a V6 3.0 Liter motor. About 4000 miles of that was pulling an ultralight travel trailer, 21 feet and around 4000 pounds, dry. I'd figure you go through about 2.5 times that in 10k miles, under similar conditions. 8 or 9 gallons.

You can buy it cheap, in bulk at almost any major truck stop... like $2.79 a gallon at Flying J or Pilot or... just get in line with the big rigs. I'd also keep it topped off, or at least half full at all times, too.
mdamerell
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
jus2shy wrote:
The Urea tank on the Dodges have left me a little wanting since they're only 5.5 gallons in total.

Curious, how big would you like DEF tank to be? The tank on my Freightliner daycab is 13 gal and an OTR tractor is around 20 gallons. Seems the 5.5 gal on a pickup is ample.

My daycab burns about 415 gal of fuel a week and use about 13-14 gal of DEF a week or 3.13%. Average run less than 100 miles on 2 lane so mpg suffers.
azrving
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
I have used about 7 gallons in 4100 miles. About 2500 of it was pulling a small trailer and a fair amount of idling.
jus2shy
Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
It is typically between 1.5 and 3% of fuel usage (1.5 to 3 gallons of urea to every 100 gallons of diesel). The Urea tank on the Dodges have left me a little wanting since they're only 5.5 gallons in total. Personally, I bought a 2.5 gallon container of DEF that I re-use by filling at the truck stops. Cost per gallon at stores such as Walmart seem to be around 5 bucks a gallon give or take 2 dollars. At the truck pumps, seems to be anywhere between 2.5 and 3 dollars a gallon. So in essence, it adds about 5 to 10 cents per gallon diesel depending on whether you're buying in bulk or purchasing in a container. There is a shelf life, but it mainly diminishes in the summer to around 6 months at 90 something degrees. But typically, you can get a year or two for shelf life. I've been entertaining getting a second container to haul DEF around with, but really haven't had a need as of yet.

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DEF consumption In Dodge Ram

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