blcoonrod

This is not on my truck. It is my Dads, he has a 08 4X4 quad cab with a standard tranny.

He does hot shotting, had a load other day that was around 28,000lbs. I know that is more than what the truck is rated for, but it is rigestered for 41000lbs so he is legal.

Going through the mountians his overhead was reading around 6mpg. Is that normal for what everyone else is seeing? Coming back empty running 80mph, his overhead was reading 15. He also said on some of the hills he had to drop to 3rd gear and 35mph to climb them.

He is just wanting to know what his numbers compare to others. Thanks

eb290

Need to know a little bit more than that. Truck is an 08 4X4. OK, 08 4X4 what?, how many miles on it. Pickup, Cab and Chassis, what rear end? The load is 28K. OK, 28k, truck trailer and load, or 28k trailer and load or 28k on the trailer. First of all, forget the overhead, get a pen and paper and figure the mileage, if it was a wind catching load the 6 mpg was probably about right pulling in the mountains, if he was driving 80 pulling a trailer even empty, he needs to slow down if he wants any decent mileage and second of all I know he wasn't getting 15 mpg pulling a trailer at that speed so again, forget the overhead.

blcoonrod

Well to start with this is a diesel forum so yes it is a 6.7 as they dont offer the 5.9 on a 08. It is clearly posted that it is a quad cab with a manual tranny. The truck has 2000 miles on it. Yes he and I both know that the mileage will get better as it gets broke in. Edit: it has 3.73 gears

The load was 28k which is also posted in first post. Load meaning what he was pulling. Not to bad of wind drag. Was hauling goose neck trailers.

And sorry about not making it clear enough when he was coming back. He had no trailer he dropped all trailers.


So handcalculated what do yall think he should get while towing.
And I know that my truck always reads atleast 2-3 mpg high on the overhead, is that the same case on the 6.7?

Thanks

bigsnakebud

blcoonrod
My 07 6speed got 10.2 pulling my toyhauler 4000+ miles from IN to TX and back. It had 8000 on the clock and I drove 70 & 75. I tried 60 and 65 for a couple of hundred miles on 57 in south Texas and it only made 3 TENTHS difference. Tried it both going and coming. The th weighs about 14,000 with the Harley and all the wife's stuff. Would I like better, yep, and at $4.00 today for fuel not sure I will be able to make that trip again next year thanks to the Republicats and Demicons!! . If you can figure out how to move 10 tons or more down the road in style and at speed and get better mpg PLEASE let me know and I don't mean voiding the warranty for 2 mpg!
Fred

GMScott

Regens will knock you down a couple of m.p.g.'s and it seems, in my case, that they can last for at least a good steady 30 minutes while running @ 75 m.p.h. My truck is auto/4:10's with 120k miles on the clock. Fuel mileage hasn't really changed much since new, so I've had to quit dreaming about better m.p.g.'s with higher miles on the truck. I average about 15.5 m.p.g empty @ 75 m.p.h. and anywhere from 8 - 11 m.p.g. (if I'm lucky and NO wind) depending on the size unit I'm hooked up to.
ALTHOUGH, I have to be careful with this one, I bought into the idea of using a 5.9L air filter instead of the 6.7L one and it has increased my m.p.g.'s a bit. The jury is still out on this one, but I have to admit I have seen an average of a 1 m.p.g. increase so far. I mainly drive the same route 2 - 3x a week and buy my fuel from the same place so I'm whittling down the variables before I can really say for sure if this is the ticket for better m.p.g.'s. It could also be that these 6.7L's may need more miles than the 5.9L's to loosen up.

jthorpe

I'd like to see some real world information on this as well given that we're about to buy another camper. I have yet to tow with the new ride.

gsbrockman

With an attitude like that, I'm sure lots will break their fingers getting to the keyboard to type you a reply.

I'm sure all eb290 was trying to ascertain is if the truck is a Cab & Chassis w/305*610 6.7L or a standard pickup w/350*650 6.7L . That would help a future poster make a more intelligent response. We don't even know if it's a SRW or DRW, either.

Your Dad's truck may be "tagged" for 41,000 lbs, but in the eyes of the DOT.....he's way overweight when they go by the placard. If he were to be involved in an accident, the lawyers would have a field day with him.

blcoonrod

Yea I dont know all the laws with DOT. But I know the company he works for had him tagged for the 41k. He also mentioned the last time I talked to him that he did get asked how much he weighed in at and when he showed them the papers they had no further questions.

But besides the weight stuff. I was mainly just posting to see about the MPG. I would guess that 6mpg with that weight is probably about right, since some are getting 10 the a lot less load.

Also neither of us is familiar with the regens. Do you know when the truck is doing a regen?

Thanks

eb290

If you were pulling gooseneck trailers, probably stacked 3 or 4 high for that weight, there is a tremendous amount of wind drag there because of all of the neck and axle piping. The wind has to go through all that and it is nothing but drag. 6 mpg is probably about right, I don't know what mountains you are talking about, but long 6 or 7% grades will pull you down. (3.73 gears don' help there either, that's probably why he had to go to third) My trailer weighs 9820 unloaded. I get 12 - 13 towing it empty. Mileage will run between 9 -10 loaded with the max load my company will allow (15k) will usually average around 10. As far as regins go, you probably will not know when it is doing them unless your truck is one of the ones that sometimes smoke when it is doing it. (Mine did that off and on for about the first 15,000 miles or so)

This truck compared to my 03 towing the same loads the difference is really not that much. My old truck, 6 speed stick, 373 gears, weighed 1100 lbs less than my 07 cab and chassis got 11.3 mpg over a 10,000 mile period. My 07 cab and chassis, again, 1100 lbs more in weight, larger engine,6.7 vs 5.9 (same hp and torque) automatic (aisin) transmission, 4.10 gears. Over a similar 10,000 mile period got 10.45 mpg. There is not that much difference in them doing the work I do.

I hope, this time, I answered some of your questions.

RAMRODD

If the truck it tagged for 41,000 why wouldn't it be legal?? I am tagged for 42,000

T210DRVR

Depends on where you are running. Some places like Kalifornia may decide to check the GVWR on the door and put you out of service. This would only apply if you are exceeding the GVWR of the tow vehicle. They won't check GCVWR so if you can keep the pin weight within reason you should be fine most everywhere.

blcoonrod

eb290 thats the kind of info I am looking for. I am not sure what kind of grades he was pulling up. But I will let him know that he is doing about average. And by the way sorry for the mis understanding in the first post. He had a 02 with a 5 speed before this truck so he is very happy with the performance.

Thanks Again

dozer12216

A dealer could eaisly void warranty for pulling weeeeeell beyond rated capacity of unit.
Milage is right for load and wind resistance.
Hot shotting is skirting laws and everyone knows it. DOT is somewhat limited in ability to control.
Paying the price for a 41K tag doesn't make unit a bigger truck.

Dodgezilla

Dang! That's a lot of weight to be pulling up and down mountains. I would say that is pretty normal for a very new truck BUT pulling that kind of weight will definitely break the engine in sooner which will in turn give better mileage in the future.
My 07 5.9 6 speed manual got 10mpg pulling a mere 10,000lb to Michigan and there aren't many big mountains out that way.....

blcoonrod

Yes it is a lot of weight and I am pretty sure the company does not usually have there haulers tow that much.

Yes Dodgezilla you are very true on breaking the engine in sooner. On my 5.9, I pulled a 32ft toy hauler loaded with quads, water, gas and all gear for 4 people about 2,500 miles within a few months. The mileage seemed to start getting better after that.