F-250 vs 2500 HD gas

Copperhead · May 27, 2015

I get roughly the same mpg on everything from regular to E15. Just did a 1243 mile business trip with my 2015 2500 6.0L gas and averaged, hand calculated, 16.7 mpg for the entire trip on E10 regular from various no name brands. Never a major brand, just convenience store fills. The cost spread in my area between E85 and E10 is not great enough to justify going out of my way to get the stuff. I have used it in the past and the 25% mpg loss might be a little extreme, but not far off. That is only because, even the flex fuel motors we have available, are not set up to fully take advantage of the fuel. Motors that have been developed to use E85 all the time are getting diesel equivalent power and fuel economy.

Right now, I just stay with E15 as it offers the lowest cost per mile to me. It gives me equivalent mpg as E10 and is 10 cents a gallon cheaper, or 40 cents a gallon cheaper than ethanol free regular. I am always interested in mpg, but only how it relates to the fuel cost and how that plays out on a cost per mile basis. I might pick up 1-2 mpg from non ethanol regular, but the cost per mile would essentially be a wash. 16.7 mpg on E10 at $2.49 a gallon is roughly 15 cents a mile. Let's say I get 18 from using non ethanol at $2.79 a gallon in my area. That comes out to 15.5 cents a mile. Why pay more when the cost per miles is essentially the same? E15 is $2.39 right now, I get the same mpg as E10, so that cost per mile is close to 14 cents a mile. A better value.

TomSeller · May 27, 2015

Copperhead said:
$84K for a pickup? What left field did that come out of? Not sure I follow that one. I did pay $120 for the semi tractor new, but the way I did it, I actually saved $40K over the normal price for a similarly spec'd new truck. How? By ordering a new truck minus the engine and transmission. I then dropped in a factory rebuilt engine and factory rebuilt trans. Doing so, I got to avoid the 14.5% Federal Excise Tax on new equipment and got to avoid all the emissions junk being placed on new trucks nowadays. EPA ties the emissions to the year the motor was built, not the vehicle. If it comes from the factory with a motor, you are stuck with that year. If it comes without a motor, you can drop in whatever you want and it only has to comply with emission from the year the motor was initially made. Sneaky eh? And that setup is averaging right around 7.83 mpg over the last 405,000 miles. Not bad for a commercial semi truck, 53' trailer, with gross weights up to 80K lb. A typical new truck spec'd the same as mine except with new motor and trans and all the emissions stuff and the federal excise tax would be near $160K.

Sneaky? No. Smart? Yes. Very clever.

I always found it amazing that a big truck hauling a load could get 7 to 8 mpg and regular old pickups were getting 13 mpg empty until recently.

The $84k for a pickup was referenced in a different post.