Fuel Mileage
 

One good thing happened on my trip to the track Friday, I averaged 9.5 mpg.
Ford F550, 7.3 diesel automatic. 48' 5th wheel living quarters trailer.
All I had to do is stay a steady 52 mph (on the interstate)
People were passing me like I was standing still. But it beats the heck out of 7mpg

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

When are you going to come pay a visit to D-1?

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

Let me see, at 52mph it would take about 3 weeks to get up to Div one. Jim

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

06 Chevy Duramax Dually 4wd
This weekend 48 ft enclosed trailer with 2 cars and a golf cart. Going to Clay City thru the mountains. I ran the posted speed Limit. 9.7 mpg

Last year same trip 50 ft LQ 1 car 75-80 mph avg 8.9mpg

Chip

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

The 4.88 gears really keep my speed down. The sweet spot seems to be under 2000 rpm and unfortunatly under 55 mph.

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

Now that I'm retired time is one thing I have plenty of.

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

Art, would it be worth the $600 - $1000 to regear that beast of a truck (F550)?
or would it just take away too much torque and take too long to recoupe the
investment?

My F350 diesel (6.0) has 4:10 and 285/75R16 tires and seems to do about
9 to 12 mpg depending on how many hills we climb with a 7.5K load.
I suppose if I went back to the stock 265/75R16 tires that might help a bit.

But it's not capable of getting the kind of milage the Dodge diesles seem to
get at all.

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

We towed our open trailer with the firebird and the box we built on the front 2 hours to MIR for the IHRA Double this spring with Mom's Dodge 2500 Diesel truck and got 17.5 mpg round trip.

Then we used it to tow a friends 28foot Gold Rush packed front to back, top to bottom with my stuff moving home from Radford and got a tick over 16mpg. Same trip with my Dad's 2001 Chevy 2500 Duramax got 15.9 mpg with the open trailer loaded down behind it.

The Dodges really seem like the way to go for towing to me. Diesel may be up, but the mileage really helps out a lot for us. Makes it hard to think we should get a motorhome.

Also, Mom's Dodge has a 3.55 gear from the factory, and will still go up the mountains as fast as you want with the 28 footer packed full.

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

Maybe Art needs to fiddle around with the boost or something, LOL.

Re: Fuel Mileage
 

Originally I looked at getting a lower (numeric) rear end ratio. But the rear I have dana 135S full floater.
Very very expensive $900 for the gears alone. Plus I'm afraid of hurting the tranny. I've heard a lot about tranny woes ($5000 for a good one)with these fords, and it seems like its all about lugging them down. With the setup I have now I can go up most bridges in overdrive.