OK so tomorrow I am off on my first tow with the new truck, 06 3500 2x4 6 speed. Had a custom flatbed built, including Binkley inverted 5th wheel kingpin. I iwll be interested in power. mpg, etc, this is my first Dodge. I have towed mainly with Fords, and some GMCs over the last 8-9 years. I will be GCWR 21000 lbs or so, will report. Hand calc 17.8 mpg for the first 570 miles on the truck, mainly a box off, so pretty lightweight. Weighed 6500 lbs with the flatbed for license purposes, but will be adding toolboxes, generator, etc. So far have done the Rokktech sensor, True Flow drop in filter, and Aeroturbine 4040L muff, currently with no tailpipe. Wanted to add a turndown, but ran out of time, have to hit the road tomorrow. The 4040L sounds pretty good this way, so I just left it and worried about other stuff. I may tell another story when I get 13000 lbs hooked up.... I will rack up about 2000 miles this week, and climb several mountain passes. Will report my experience vs many miles in various Fords, and some in GMC duramax, all manual trannies. Cant wait to hit the road! Nick
Impressions so far: Truck is comfortable and easy to drive. Good power, especially low/mid. Much easier to drive in town than the Ford. Also, performed better at altitude than the Ford, spent much of today at nearly 6000 feet, the Ford was running out of steam up there, was easy to stall on launch. The Dodge was no problem at all. I am gonna need some airbags, the trailer squats it down way more than the ford. Drives fine, but headlights are aimed badly this way, at least according to oncoming drivers... :-( I will need to adjust the muffler, most of the time its fine, but roars at certain rpms. MUCH louder with the trailer than without. (duh ) MPG has been disappointing, under 10, whereas I wa getting over 11 in the Ford. This tank seems to be much better, so maybe its loosening up some. Just under 1000 miles so far on this trip, about 1600 on the truck. Scaled at 20850 lbs combined, this is about as heavy as I am gonna get, maybe another 500 lbs or so. The exh brake is nice, doesnt have the impact I thot it would, but still good. Test will be coming down Cabbage Hill into Pendleton Oregon later this week. More to come Nick
It's only going to get better, the truck needs to break in for a while before you see better mileage. The truck will probably pull much better too. Good luck. waytogo
Yeah seriously! If you're towing that much weight with only 1600 miles on the truck you are not gonna get good mileage... wait till' about 10k miles or so then you will probably be getting around 12 - 13waytogo
Got back after 1900 miles...phew. Managed just over 11 mpg on last 500 miles or so, helps to get out of the southern Idaho 40 mph headwind!! Got my airbags installed today, too, that should help carry the 3-4000 lb pin wieght! Pretty easy to install, as well, thank goodness. Next up-gauges....
How are you driving with the exhaust brake? If I have a load on, coming up to a stop (a little ways out), i'll drop it into 3rd to get the rev's up; makes the brake more effective. If I time it right, i'lll just need to hit the brake pedal at the 20mph cutoff, to stop. Tony
I have been trying different methods, but have been pretty happy with leaving it on all the time. Most of the time, I havent felt the need to downshift, but the effectiveness sure increases with revs. I tend to drive fairley gently, so I think that helps. I am still running thru the learning process on this truck, the power curve is so different than the Ford or LB7 duramax trucks I have driven. The smoothness and ease it has at low speeds is terrific, its like driving an automatic. Last 3 tanks have yielded 11 mpg, too, so that is encouraging. Overall, the more I drive it the more I like it!!
Hmm one other thing, mine doesnt cut off at 20 mph. It is a 6 speed, and it stays on at idle until I come to a complete stop. Mine is a Pcbrake pxrb, installed by the dealer. Has a on off switch on the dash only, no other adjustments. I coulnt find anything in the pacbrake manual about it.
Sounds good. Glad trip was a safe one. Its alway great whenyou make it home safe for another trip. As for mileage, a TST will add 1-2 mpg towing, more if you leave it on the 1x1 setting, which is timing only. Gain 25hp with no increase in fueling. No BS, it works. My 03 was built as follows - 2003 3500 DRW 4x4 QC HO 6 speed (NV 5600) 3.73 gears Super B single (BD) Jake Brake TST 4 inch exhaust SBC FE clutch 265 70R19.5 Yokahama tires (34.6") 19.5 Alcoa Aluminum wheels Pulling my 5th wheel (bout 14K loaded for bear) I managed an average speed of 70 mph and on the trip from Sac to Redding, 13.5, from Redding to Eugene OR was 12.5, and from Eugene to Anacordes, WA was 13.75. All hand calculated. I am a firm believer that the TST works!
Thought I would chime in on this mileage talk. I have a 2006 MC CTD 6 speed that I bought in December. It started out around 16-17.5 mpg and has stayed there fairly consistently(mostly town and some interstate). With about 8,000 mi's on the truck, we headed for the sand dunes in Utah from Denver. Overall trip was 1300 mi's and i averaged 8.65 mpg (towing camper, 9,000 lbs). I was a little disappointed in the mpg. Thought it would do better that my '02 Power Stroke. With diesel on the rise again, I hope it gets better. The only mod at the time was the MBRP cool duals(loud as **** when pulling grade). I just programmed truck with the SC flashpaq on tow safe. It adds some nice power for 5th and 6th when passing on the highway. I haven't towed with it yet. Hope it helps. I was also a tad bit disappointed with the power of the truck pulling through the mountains. On the flats, it was twice as good as the P.S. But up the hills,still better than the P.S., but not as good as all had hyped. All in all, I like the truck.
I have several more tankfuls of mpg, and I seem to be settling in the 11 range, towing. I pulla large frontal area 5th wheel, GCVW ~20000. I got 11.5 on my last fill-up. Helps to keep the revs and speed down, and in town dont mash it. Its so easy to drive it gentle around town at low revs. I didnt tests any without the Rokk timing sensor, but I am guessing it adds a lot to the low end, and some mpg? What is the flash program you mentioned?
I racked up a lot of miles towing with various PSD trucks, and interestingly, mpg didnt vary much based on weight. I would get about 11 mpg anywhere from 18000 on up to 24000 lbs. I was surprised about that. What makes a BIG difference is speed-70-75 vs 60-65 can be a 2-3 mpg change. And then wind makes a huge difference too.
Yep, that makes sense at least the speed/wind part. It's a shame I love to drive fast, and the speed limit almost everywhere around here is 65, so everyone is going 75.
Just suck it up, slow down a little bit and think how much smarter you are than everybody else when it comes time to fill up the tank. That's what I try to do, although I rarely seem to have much luck with that.
The flashpaq is a programmer made by Superchips. It can be updated via a usb cable on the internet. I like it because it is not a hard wired chip, so the programming can be removed at any time. It was referred to me by a guy at a diesel shop who sells and installs performance parts. He said that for a mild performance upgrade that he felt like the flashpaq was very good. I'm not into major "bombing" stuff. I put 30-40K on the truck per year, so I need the vehichle to last a long time without major repairs. I stacked chips on my '02 Powerstroke. For 100K the heaviest load I pulled was about 5,000 lbs. Then I bought an 11,000 lb camper, and within 3 tows the tranny fried( 2nd tranny, 1st one under warranty at 13K). Even after the tranny shop rebuilt the trans (including a billet TC) the truck just didn't seem to want to tow the new trailer, so I opted to go with a standard tranny in my next truck. So far I have 1 tow with the programmer. It seems to help. The best thing about the truck is the standard tranny. Pick a gear and go. Don't have to worry about the auto shiftin' around. Once out in the open, just roll it up into 6th and watch the speed climb.
