Comparing 3/4 Ton Trucks: Fuel Economy

[allanb]

I got excited last week when my mpg went from 9.1 to 9.8! 2015 chevy 2500 hd 4x, crew cab and 8 foot bed, 6.0
liter, i just turned over 3000 miles. Hauling a northstar 850, guesstimating at 20000 lbs as now loaded.
I drove about 80 miles each way up into the cascades, average speed about 45 m.p.h., only gained 1150 feet of elevation. Only take away is slow speeds sure help.
When is a truck considered broken in? I understand that mpg improves when "broken in". But never read when that is considered to be?

 

[fwc4me]

I'll chime in as well on the 12V cummins. I have a '94 auto, regular cab, long bed, with a 2006 Grandby on it. I typically drive 65-70 on I-10 from Tucson to the Chiricuahua's and average almost 18 mpg. Considering I paid $9000 for it, with only 120k miles on it, it's the best purchase I've ever made.
If you are looking for good mpg's and don't mind the noise and smell of a diesel it's a great way to go. For me, the first thing I did after buying it was put a 4' Donaldson muffler on it! It's slow as can be, but gets you where you want to go. The later 24V 5.9l cummins makes better HP, but I'm not sure what it does to the mpg's.

 

[Bad Habit]

We just did a trip with our F350 6.7l diesel. Had the 8' Hallmark K2 fully loaded, along with extra gear that we brought to support a wedding party. We were also towing our 2 door Jeep.

The dashboard screen measured it at ~12.5 overall. I also have a Nav unit that I can input the gallons used at each fill up and it calculates it based on miles traveled by GPS (I tend to trust that one more). That gave me almost 14.2

Just over 2000 miles, with 34,400 feet of elevation gain (and of course the commensurate elevation drop). I was running 60-65 most of the time, did get it up over 70 on some stretches where it was flat and easy.

 

[stanbiker]

My 16 Dodge 3500 diesel with a loaded hawk on the trip home from Colorado was getting 17, driving 65-75 as the speed limit dictated. I did try to make sure I didn't miss any national parks in the US or Canada that were near, so some of the driving was slower in the parks.

 

[mitch h]

2015 1/2 ton,5.3 342 gears, crewcab, e rated tires. Just got back last weekend. 6000 miles, Mn. Nd. Mt. Canada, Id. Wa,Or. Wy. back to Indiana. 20 mph. to 70mph. Avg. 16.5 until good head wind in Wyoming and Kansas. Still avg. 15.5 for total trip. Truck computer pretty close to paper and pen. Mitch

 

[Riverrunner]

If you're interested in MPG's of certain kinds of rigs with certain engines, you can go to fuellyDOTcom to see what you can expect.

 

[srileo]

2008 Nissan Titan 5.7L V8 with loaded Hawk. 14mpg is the best i ever got. 13 mpg is the average.

 

[97grandby]

I have an old 1990 Ford F-250 with the big block 7.5l/460 ci with 4.10 gears and zf5 manual 5 speed. Loaded with camper and gear I get between 10-12 driving around 75 mph. When I tow my trailer and side by side still doing 75 mpg drops to around 9.


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[Vic Harder]

I'm heading out next week to pick up my 2005 Hawk shell. This is our first trip in the new to us 2500HD. I did have a friend who is an expert tuner give the truck the once over with HPTuners. He was able to lean out the cruise fuel usage by 24%. Even if I only would have gotten 10 mpg (seems normal in this truck from what I have read), that should translate to 12.4 mpg now. On this trip alone (2300 miles) that could mean a $115 savings.

Stay tuned for actual results!

 

[LiveLifeNow]

...This is our first trip in the new to us 2500HD. I did have a friend who is an expert tuner give the truck the once over with HPTuners. He was able to lean out the cruise fuel usage by 24%.
Stay tuned for actual results!

Have a great trip, Vic! And please keep us up to date on the "marriage" between the camper and the 2500HD. I have the same rig but have not yet installed the camper. Your mpg will be of particular interest. As a newbie, I tend to think the additional safety and load-carrying ability of the 2500 will be worth the extra purchase price and mileage.

 

[Bombsight]

Rolling in a 2016 GMC 3500HD Denali - Duramax w/Allison tran.
Avg. mpg 13-14 w/loaded Hawk.
Never squatted once while passing over the continental divide. The only time I know that the camper and gear is back there is when I hit the brakes. Awesome!

 

[allanb]

Hope your trip is going well Vic! Me too, anxious to hear what you wind up with. Have heard a lot of good about tuners. Does your friend need any more business :}

 

[CougarCouple]

Hello LiveLifeNow
I'll chime in on a couple of vehicles. 99chevy 3/4 7L 4 speed manual (1st was a granny) 10mpg combined 16mpg on hwy no load.
We had a Roadtrek 19ft class B, 7.? L. 3spd auto with OD. Thing was awesome power wise 10-12 mpg it would tow my jeep on a car trailer drop out of OD and would do 65-70 up Baker Grade. RV side of it sucked. Present 2016 F250 6.2 w/ 3.73 and 6spd auto 11mpg combined got 16.5-17.0 Vegas to Sacramento and back @70-75 mpg no load (went to meet ATC folks). Looks like will be about same as others mpg. Nice truck, think we'll be good on gvwr and could still tow something.
Vic congrats on your find, looking forward to pics and mods

Russ

 

[Lighthawk]

Happy Trails, Vic!
Interested to see how your rig comes together.
You know there is a requirement to post exterior and interior photos!

 

[Vic Harder]

Pics are in my gallery - http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/gallery/album/1070-2005-hawk-shell/

Without the camper on yet on the way down to Utah, we did as good as 12.4 miles per US gallon – with tail winds, and driving at 75-80 mph. More like 11.5 without the tail winds.

Once the camper was on that went down to 10.5 at the same speeds. Did one stretch at 50 mph and the economy went up to 14 mpg! Wow.... still, that’s slow and our travel days were very, very long as is. Not likely to slow down to that speed often, and the rig feels good doing speed limit or maybe 5% over (according to my GPS).

The truck/camper handles curvy roads very well. I never seem get anyone waiting behind me (and move over if I do - it happened... once - ), and I even had to pass a few “sporty” cars in the curvy sections!

Average economy at an average of 60 mph for the 2300 miles of this trip (calculated at the pump, not using the OBC):

13.95 imp mpg 11.62 US mpg, 20.38 L/100km, or 4.94 km/L

My friend Bill says we can do better. More tuning to come!

 

[oldebondo]

Not a 3/4 ton but FWIW: 2016 F-150 XL, 2.7L TT, 3.55 Rear axle + new Hawk = 18 MPG. 22 MPG w/o camper.

 

[CougarCouple]

Hi Vic
Yes the inside looks very clean. Happy for you, standing up when camping sounds nice! Will you be able to reuse any of the cabinets?
Thanks for the photo fix this Tues. evening!
Russ

 

[Vic Harder]

Russ,

I will reply to non-mpg related issues in the other thread about my new camper!
http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/13125-new-hawk-owner/page-2

 

[CougarCouple]

Sorry about that Vic.
Still happy for you and your new camper. I'll look over there for the answer to my non mpg question..
Big trucks burn fuel, but I think they rock.
Russ

 

[RisingSun]

My 2004 Dodge 1500 5.7 quad regular bed gas gets 11mpg (highway) with Camper. Without camper, about 14 (highway).

Recently I sold my dodge and purchased 2008 Chevy 2500 crew long bed with Duramax. I have not put camper on it, but without camper I get 17-18mpg (highway). Hope to get 15 + (highway) with camper.

Very impressed so far as my 2011 Toyota Sienna AWD only get 17mpg.


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