Z-Michigan
Veteran Member
I'm pasting below the first 15,000 miles of driving on our 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 with the 5.9L Cummins turbodiesel. Virtually any tank below 16mpg was partially or entirely pulling our 3-horse slant trailer - 4800lbs+ empty and add 12-1300 lbs for each horse, and it sticks up 2' higher than the truck cab for good measure. Any tank over 18mpg was usually most or all freeway travel, often at 70+ mph. You can see our best tank in this batch was 19.5mpg and our average, not towing, is in the 17-18mpg range. Mostly my wife is driving this. There are no mods nor anything special, though I do keep the tires at the recommended towing pressures - if I remember correctly this is 60psi fronts and 70psi rears. The overall average of this whole set, calculated based on averaging the 3-tank averages that I use to watch for any long-term changes (and not displayed here) is 15.7mpg, which, again, includes a lot of time towing the 5k+ trailer.
Based on how things were in 2006 - with diesel and gas being the same price or diesel even being less, and with diesel engines being reliable and about a $6k option - I would buy diesel again. Based on how things are today, with diesel being 30-50 cents more/gallon and the engine costing $8k, if buying new I'm not sure I would.
Odometer Reading Gallons Purchased Date Trip Mileage Trip MPG
75 0 01/26/06 n/a n/a
100 20.646 01/26/06 25 n/a
243 9.84 01/28/06 143 14.5
368 7.661 01/31/06 125 16.3
586 15.127 02/11/06 218 14.4
1020 26.113 02/17/06 434 16.6
1307 17.812 02/19/06 287 16.1
1593 18.7 02/25/06 286 15.3
1929 23.718 02/27/06 336 14.2
2420 27.068 03/02/06 491 18.1
2733 16.97 03/03/06 313 18.4
3130 27.466 03/06/06 397 14.5
3330 14.52 03/08/06 200 13.8
3620 22.502 03/11/06 290 12.9
4120 27.225 03/12/06 500 18.4
4472 18.712 03/15/06 352 18.8
4553 5.312 03/18/06 81 15.2
4925 23.15 03/23/06 372 16.1
5121 13.814 04/01/06 196 14.2
5400 20 04/08/06 279 14.0
5700 21 04/08/06 300 14.3
6084 24.308 04/15/06 384 15.8
6517 25.801 05/08/06 433 16.8
6876 26.985 05/11/06 359 13.3
7096 17.095 05/15/06 220 12.9
7539 25.821 05/21/06 443 17.2
7867 23.248 05/25/06 328 14.1
8164 22.846 05/26/06 297 13.0
8510 23.958 05/26/06 346 14.4
8893 25.413 05/27/06 383 15.1
9058 12.41 05/28/06 165 13.3
9360 22.277 05/28/06 302 13.6
9695 22.066 05/29/06 335 15.2
10010 22.323 05/30/06 315 14.1
10512 27.38 06/08/06 502 18.3
11035 26.874 06/13/06 523 19.5
11207 12.996 06/14/06 172 13.2
11614 24.646 07/05/06 407 16.5
11997 23.044 07/16/06 383 16.6
12319 21.789 07/20/06 322 14.8
12517 14.317 08/12/06 198 13.8
12918 23.741 08/24/06 401 16.9
13105 16.268 09/04/06 187 11.5
13438 18.123 09/09/06 333 18.4
13723 16.372 09/19/06 285 17.4
14127 22.748 10/01/06 404 17.8
14382 13.718 10/04/06 255 18.6
14642 15.822 10/08/06 260 16.4
14997 22.077 10/24/06 355 16.1
To answer the obvious question, I don't have the chart ready for tanks after the last one. I have the receipts with odometer readings on them, but haven't gotten around to entering the data since it's my wife's vehicle.
Based on how things were in 2006 - with diesel and gas being the same price or diesel even being less, and with diesel engines being reliable and about a $6k option - I would buy diesel again. Based on how things are today, with diesel being 30-50 cents more/gallon and the engine costing $8k, if buying new I'm not sure I would.
Odometer Reading Gallons Purchased Date Trip Mileage Trip MPG
75 0 01/26/06 n/a n/a
100 20.646 01/26/06 25 n/a
243 9.84 01/28/06 143 14.5
368 7.661 01/31/06 125 16.3
586 15.127 02/11/06 218 14.4
1020 26.113 02/17/06 434 16.6
1307 17.812 02/19/06 287 16.1
1593 18.7 02/25/06 286 15.3
1929 23.718 02/27/06 336 14.2
2420 27.068 03/02/06 491 18.1
2733 16.97 03/03/06 313 18.4
3130 27.466 03/06/06 397 14.5
3330 14.52 03/08/06 200 13.8
3620 22.502 03/11/06 290 12.9
4120 27.225 03/12/06 500 18.4
4472 18.712 03/15/06 352 18.8
4553 5.312 03/18/06 81 15.2
4925 23.15 03/23/06 372 16.1
5121 13.814 04/01/06 196 14.2
5400 20 04/08/06 279 14.0
5700 21 04/08/06 300 14.3
6084 24.308 04/15/06 384 15.8
6517 25.801 05/08/06 433 16.8
6876 26.985 05/11/06 359 13.3
7096 17.095 05/15/06 220 12.9
7539 25.821 05/21/06 443 17.2
7867 23.248 05/25/06 328 14.1
8164 22.846 05/26/06 297 13.0
8510 23.958 05/26/06 346 14.4
8893 25.413 05/27/06 383 15.1
9058 12.41 05/28/06 165 13.3
9360 22.277 05/28/06 302 13.6
9695 22.066 05/29/06 335 15.2
10010 22.323 05/30/06 315 14.1
10512 27.38 06/08/06 502 18.3
11035 26.874 06/13/06 523 19.5
11207 12.996 06/14/06 172 13.2
11614 24.646 07/05/06 407 16.5
11997 23.044 07/16/06 383 16.6
12319 21.789 07/20/06 322 14.8
12517 14.317 08/12/06 198 13.8
12918 23.741 08/24/06 401 16.9
13105 16.268 09/04/06 187 11.5
13438 18.123 09/09/06 333 18.4
13723 16.372 09/19/06 285 17.4
14127 22.748 10/01/06 404 17.8
14382 13.718 10/04/06 255 18.6
14642 15.822 10/08/06 260 16.4
14997 22.077 10/24/06 355 16.1
To answer the obvious question, I don't have the chart ready for tanks after the last one. I have the receipts with odometer readings on them, but haven't gotten around to entering the data since it's my wife's vehicle.
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