I will repeat....my husband loves
his 2004 Dodge Ram diesel. It gets 18 mpg on the highway pulling our 20'
gooseneck fully loaded for a ride. It has a 6-speed stick shift and
dual-range 4WD. Tons of power....it walks away from just about anything
else on the highway going over Donner Pass. He had another Ram that has
been recycled into our company.....low mileage but hard use, and the bed was
rusting away. His new one has an all-aluminum custom designed (made wide
enough to take four bales of hay side by side and wide enough to load our JD
Gator onto it) bed which should last him for a LONG time. The one thing
he has to watch out for is the cows jostling his truck while trying to get hay
off it. He has developed creative techniques for avoiding this
problem. His previous Dodge had dents in both front doors before he
realized the problems. Boy, was he upset! Lud studied diesel
mechanics when a teen and spent time on board merchant ships (in the engine
room) and lots of bulldozers and tractors with diesel engines. He knows
his diesels and really likes the Cummins.
the inline design is ALWAYS more efficient than a v8, especially in
diesels. If you ever look at a 18 wheeler truck, ALL of them are in line 6
cylinders. I am trying to get ride of my Ford right now and buy a Dodge,
more power, better fuel mileage.
Both the Ford and the DuraMax are 8 liter v8 diesel
engines. The Dodge Cummins is a 5.9 liter straight 6.
My Dodge gets 22 mpg on the highway and 18 around town. It gets
14 around town towing my gooseneck Sundowner stock trailer. I
don't know what it gets with this trailer yet on the highway, but
hopefully I'll find out this spring. :) His Ford gets
10mpg around town, but he has a lead foot.
Sounds like
you are doing everything right. It may just be the best the
larger 8 liter v8 engine can do. The cummins has plenty of power,
btw. Mine is the year before the "high output" option... I don't
know what that does to the Cummins mpg.
Hope this
helps,
Kathy Myers in Santa Fe, NM ps... the straight 6 is a
heck of an engine. We have an old jeep cherokee with the 4.0
liter straight six. It now has over 210K miles. Our mechanic
here says he's seen them go 350K miles if they are taken care
of. So, that's my new goal for the jeep. pps... back in CA we would
have probably sold the jeep just because that's what people in CA
do. Here in NM, we'll keep it, repair it, and drive it.
ppps... the Dodge has over 180K miles already. I know of 3
now that have gone over 1,000,000 miles. Anyone know of a Ford
or Duramax that went over 1,000,000 miles? That's my goal for the
Dodge. pppps... is this what they call endurance
driving?????
