Thought You All Might Be Interested In Some Fuel Economy Figures I Experienced On A Recent Trip To The Midwest. Trip Was From North Central Oregon To Southwest Missouri. Tow Rig Is A 2004.5 2500 Ram, 5.9 Cummins, Six Speed Manual, 3.73 Gears, Workhorse Power Module, Bd Exhaust Brake, Ispro Gages, Minor Mods To The Air Intake. Towing A 39.5 Foot Hitchhiker 5th Wheel Rv. Ran It Over The Scales A Beginning Of The Trip And Weighed Within A Few Pounds Of 24m Total Gross. Kept The Speed Around 60 Mph Except When Facing A Steep Grade I Increased To About 65 So It Would Pull A Lot Stronger In 6th. Came Back Through Yellowstone N.p. Was Able To Keep Accurate Fuel And Mileage Records For Just When I Was Pulling The Trailer. Logged 4400 Miles With The Trailer And Averaged 12.1 Mpg. I Was Really Pleased With The Performance Of The Cummins.
Those are really impressive numbers while towing that heavy. Did you experience any problems along your trip? LT.
ron archer Had some tire troubles the first couple of days. Had to replace three of the tires on the trailer, but they were due. The most serious problem was the pickup blew a valve stem out of a rear tire the first day. It was in the middle of rush hour traffic and I had to get across 2 lanes of traffic to get off. Ruined the tire. Everyone should be sure that they have metal valve stems in their tires. Dodge don't send them from the factory with metal stems.
Did you happen to ruin the wheel on the truck? I thought that I saw you were using a single rear wheel truck. LT.
Didn't hurt the wheel, I had it slowed way down by the time it actually broke down but the fools in the outside lane would not cut me any slack so I could get off the road. It damaged the sidewall from all that weight. When I took the tire to a michlen dealer he said those rubber stems that they use are only rated for 80psi. So you have an 80psi stem in a tire that is recommended to be inflated to 80 psi. Looks like a formula for failure to me. I had a serious talk with the Dodge dealer where I bought the truck and he agreed that it was not a good situation. Of course none of the above were willing to help me out on the loss of the tire.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Everybody is willing to say something but nobody wants to do anything about it. Oh well, some time from now, when you are thinking about it, all you will be able to do is laugh and thank the good Lord above that all you did was lose a tire. It could have gone out while going down a mountain two lane road or something worse. LT.
