I am buying a 2005 dodge 2500 4x4 slt thunder road. I have never owned a diesel vehicle, but have always wanted one. The truth is i know nothing about them. I dont think that i will be all that power hungry, my biggest concern will be gas mileage. Right now i have a ram1500 with the 4.7 v8, I added 20 inch tires to this truck and it gets about 12 to 13 mpg around town. The dodge I am buying this weekend has 6 inches of lift and 35 inch tires, Will this setup kill my gas mileage? Is there any advice out there for a new diesel owner? Thanks in advance for your help, I hope to use this forum alot to learn about my new truck.

 

That setup deffinately will not help your mileage. It will be down from what stock form would generate.

 

bigfish5, welcome to the site and welcome to the diesel club!

Our conversion to diesel started with the wife's Jetta in October '05, and finished with my 3500 in March '06. We haven't looked back! We enjoy the torque, range, and mileage of both vehicles. Well, particularly mileage of the VW.

Enjoy.

Tony

 

Do you mean kill it compared to your 4.7?

 

yes, i mean even with the big tires i think my gas mileage will be better with the diesel. I am just getting scared of all the maintenence i am hearing about, I am used to just turning the key and changing the oil. WHAT TO DO ,WHAT TO DO.

 

turn the key......wait a few seconds....change the oil. Just like your gasser, it holds quite a bit more oil though. Change your fuel filter, as you would on a gasser. I do my fuel filter every other oil change, so 6000-8000 miles. I don't think there is as much maintenance compared to a car. It takes a total of 5 minutes to change my fuel filter...on my cars, yikes!!!

Get the jack, jack stands. Raise the car or take them into work and put them on the lift. Wrenches, gas running down your arms....I think I'll take my screw off top fuel filter housing on the diesel over the gas in the armpits anyday! Check your air filter, or watch the filter minder. Then when you shut the engine down, wait a minute if your just tooling around town, loaded wait a bit longer depending on load so you can cool your turbo. I usually fiddle around getting kids unbuckled, put up sunglasses etc while I wait.

I don't feel like there is anymore maintenance compared to the cars. I get more time spent on the truck because I'm cleaning the chrome tip, diamond plate bedrails and toolbox, chrome on the truck, waxing, clean bugs off my screen in front of my intercooler/radiator/condensor....something I could really care less about on a 1994 Saturn with 216,000 miles on it!! Not to much, just a tiny amount of time spent before start up and after shutdown. In the winter depending on your location, throw an extension cord on your block heater. If you eliminate my cleaning of the truck.....my maintenance is a snap on the truck compared to a gasser especially when you throw in cleaning the throttle body, egr ports for the carbon build up and a host of other junk....my Cummins is a piece of cake!

 

You will get horrible fuel mileage if you use "gas" ... Im just joshing you. I'm with dodgeguy71 as maintenance on these vehicles is nothing really compared to gassers. Enjoy your new truck when you get it . You'll learn everything you need to know about maintenance right here on DTR.

 

welcome to the world of real trucks. just kidding, you will notice a difference in fuel milage with 35s you will see around 13,14,15 mpg(rough estimate), where with 265s you should see around 16,17,18 depending on how you drive. If you like to hear the turbo you won't get great milage. don't let the fact its a deisel bother you when it comes to maintence they are simple to learn. good luck with your power house..