04ctd

towed a 8x24 enclosed trailer, 2900lb race car, ~1000lb of tools.

got a quad cab, 4wd, short box. 4:10 gears.

by overhead console, got ~10.9 mpg for most part, mostly highway, some city,
reset it a bunch of times, like when unhooked trailer to run parts, and when shifted from city to highway, but usually let it run ~50 miles at least, prolly ~200 on highway stretches.

kinda rural, from Jax to Tampa and back.
only 2500k miles on the truck,

will it get better? is that normal?

Drafter

Patience 04CTD.

Wait until you get at least 15,000 miles before you start getting concerned about mileage. If you don't work the truck hard then wait until about 20,000 miles. It takes awhile but the mileage will come up as the truck gets broke in.

crobtex

I didn't work mine very hard and didn't reach 19/20 MPG empty until about 30K.

CR

clifford

I get about 11 mpg pulling 7,000lbs. the trucks weights 8000 so thats not bad. When empty hiway 19, do a search on MPG ,gear 3.73 or 4.10, atuo or stick you will find alot on the subject.

1sttruck

A coworker with a crew cab F250 gasser gets 10mpg empty and 2mpg when towing their boat.

2003Ram

Did you buy a full size truck for work or for mileage? I work mine.

Just asking.

04ctd

bought it for a daily driver. i've had ~100 vehicles, and am really tired of trying to find one vehicle to do everything. I really think this truck CAN DO IT ALL.

at ~16mpg around town, it's doing better than most of the Gas trucks I've owned.

got a SLT to have decent comfort
got a quad cab for the space (family trips)
4wd drive for snow (got land in the mountains)
and Deisel/Heavy duty to tow crap back & forth to mountains.

I want to get a trailer like we towed this weekend, and put the convertible and bikes in it, and take them to the mountains, or the Keys, and vacation.

the wife don't drive much, she ain't gonna ride ~600 miles on my bike or hers, so it's hard to take one of the toys & any amount of clothes, so we can take turns driving the truck, and still take all our stuff.

so yeah, i'm gonna work it some, but it ought to get good mileage, whether it's working or playing.

this weekend is an empty run to mountians of NC, been getting ~16 empty, will see if the tow "broke it in" then. still only 2650 miles on it.

2003Ram

It would be great if it could do it all. IMO, any fuel mileage realized is a bonus. My truck is all things to me as well. I have 9K miles on my '03, and the computer says I'm getting 15mpg which includes city and highway.

Towing, I get 9.2 mpg pulling 11K as hard as the truck will let me through mountains and deserts.

I get about 2mpg better in my diesel than my old chevy truck pulling 2x the weight and faster.