RAM 1500 Ecodiesel, anybody seen one in the wild?

jerem0621 wrote:
I had a 97 F150 with a 5.4 with 235 hp and 335 lb ft of tq. I pulled my TT that weighed 7000 lbs all over Tennessee. The truck handled well and accelerated fine, it wasn't winning any races but it wasn't slowing traffic down.

Now this Ram EcoDiesel has a little more HP (at lower RPM) and a what 90 more lb ft of torque? That with a better transmission and lower rear axle ratios will make a light duty towing beast that will get much better MPG.

I may have to look long and hard at buying one of these. I put a lot of miles on a vehicle and tend to travel 500 plus miles on vacation.

Anyone have any idea what kind of MPG this thing will get towing a 7-8000 lb travel trailer?

Thanks!

Jeremiah

RangerGress wrote:
The trip was ~725miles. I paid attention to gauges and had the Android Torque app running on my phone on the way out. Half flat, half rolling hills. Ambient temp 90+deg, 7400lb 24' enclosed trailer, 64mph for most of the way, except I back off a bit when going up hills. Airlift airbags @35psi. Weight distro hitch set darn tight.

14.2mpg on EVIC. Previous testing indicates EVIC mpg is dead on. This is ~1mpg better than my "pre-EPA" 2000 Ford F-250 diesel got, and 1.5mpg better than my buddy's late model Ram Cummins.
EGT's were usually 1000-1100deg F when I was in serious boost.
Turbo was usually 10-14psi. I did not note it going higher than that, altho it was often lower.
Coolant, 222deg F which put it dead center of the analog gauge. Oil 242deg F, Tranny 179deg F.

I played around with Tow/Haul mode a bit on (fairly) flat stretches. With Tow/Haul off I seemed to be in 7th gear at 2000rpm. With Tow/Haul on I seemed to go to 6th gear at 2300rpm. Fuel mpg seemed to go slightly better when it went from 2000-2300rpm, but I would have to play around with that more before I believed it.