Towing in overdrive

[FlaDon]

I like the Holiday Inn plug. So why did you opt for the 8.1 if you are a diesel tech?

Chris

Cost vs cost. I could have driven out of the dealership with a DM equipted truck for the same costs as list on the one I had them find. $8000 more out the door is a lot of fuel with both engines rated at the same service life and towing capacity. The figures just didn't add up. $0.005 difference in op cost per mile just couldn't cover the fuel cost in the time I expected to keep the truck. Don't get me wrong, Diesels do have their place. Where they run 24/7 is that place. Although they do need sized right.
Last year fuel cost actually would have been higher with the Diesel than with gasoline.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Cost vs cost. I could have driven out of the dealership with a DM equipted truck for the same costs as list on the one I had them find. $8000 more out the door is a lot of fuel with both engines rated at the same service life and towing capacity. The figures just didn't add up. $0.005 difference in op cost per mile just couldn't cover the fuel cost in the time I expected to keep the truck. Don't get me wrong, Diesels do have their place. Where they run 24/7 is that place. Although they do need sized right.
Last year fuel cost actually would have been higher with the Diesel than with gasoline.

You are in the same position as my uncle. He drives his 05 V10 4x4 Ford about 2,500 miles a year. Can not justify a diesel. Thought you drove a lot with the talk of going to Ohio. I personally drive 40,000 to 50,000 miles per year with about 30,000 of those miles towing loads from 6,000 up.

Chris

 

[Duffster]

Last year fuel cost actually would have been higher with the Diesel than with gasoline.

Eh?????

 

[FlaDon]

You are in the same position as my uncle. He drives his 05 V10 4x4 Ford about 2,500 miles a year. Can not justify a diesel. Thought you drove a lot with the talk of going to Ohio. I personally drive 40,000 to 50,000 miles per year with about 30,000 of those miles towing loads from 6,000 up.

Chris

Truck has 90K on it after 8 years. 3 years of that were local/Florida driving only. It get miles put on in spurts. Last trip north put 3958 miles on it with about 3200 of it with trailer in tow. It has seen as many as 5K on one trip. And it's only 1178 miles door to door. When it travels north, it's always towing a trailer. It will be going north again at the end of the month. With side trips back as far south as Anderson, SC before coming home. We've also had 3 cars in that time that made runs to Ohio. Next truck will be 4X4 for use in Ohio.

 

[funny farmer]

When empty, my truck runs the best in overdrive, and at 2000 rpm. I'm driving 65. And I get around 14.5 mpg. with 33x12.5x16.5 tires. As far as pulling a trailer I'll keep it in overdrive unless like the other day I had 3500 pounds of beef in a 16 ft. trailer. Situations will dictate.

 

[FlaDon]

When empty, my truck runs the best in overdrive, and at 2000 rpm. I'm driving 65. And I get around 14.5 mpg. with 33x12.5x16.5 tires. As far as pulling a trailer I'll keep it in overdrive unless like the other day I had 3500 pounds of beef in a 16 ft. trailer. Situations will dictate.

Where's the beef?

 

[FlaDon]

Eh?????

For part of the year the price of Diesel here was way over what the price of gasoline was. Like around a dollar. Even with the differences in MPG, Diesel would have cost me ~$275 more for the year. Current price of Diesel here is about $0.40 more a gallon. Gasoline at $2.45 / 12 mpg = $0.204.
Diesel at $2.85 / 16 mpg $.0178. 3 cents a mile before maintenance costs are added difference. Takes a long time or many miles to pay for the difference in initial costs.

 

[KeithInSpace]

Didn't read every post, but here's my 2 cents:

You have a manual...you can do whatever the heck you want as long as the clutch holds IMO. I'd 5th gear it on interstate and 4th it when I get into grades, twists and turns, or other situation.

IF you had an automatic, the risk is the tranny falling out of "lock up" in overdrive. If you run for extended periods with the transmission not locked up while towing, you'll cook your transmission fluid in a jiffy. I haven't cooked my fluid, but on any type of grade, I'll notice the transmission drop out of lock-up in overdrive even when pulling my EMPTY 8' x 20' trailer (~2,000#).

As far as pulling in lower gears, I've towed my BX (plus trailer and implements, about 5,500# load) for >200 miles locked out of overdrive (via button on my shifter) in my Expedition, had the engine boogy-ing between 2,500 and 3,000 RPM, and gotten 11.5 MPG for the trip, including in-town driving. Of course, I'm very careful about changing my synthetic oil every 5,000 miles (overkill) just to be sure I don't hurt anything in the engine running such an odd/extreme duty-cycle.

If I had one of these super-duty trucks rated for 16,000# towing or whatever and I COULD tow in overdrive without risk of it popping out of lock-up, I'd probably flat-interstate tow in overdrive.

 

[Ryan03]

I just returned from an atv riding trip in Logan WV {Hatfield McCoy trails}. I rode with a friend who has basicaly the same truck as me, other than the fact that his truck has the 8100 gas engine with an Allison and 4:10s, 2wd, mine is a DMax Allison, 3:73, 4WD. Both trucks have 265's, are reg. cab long beds, and relatively close miles, mine 97k, his high 80's, his is a 2002 2500HD, mine is a 2003 2500HD.

We were towing a 22ft tailgator camper/toy hauler with 2 4wd utility quads inside, and gear and food for four adults, the water and waste tanks were empty, we estimate the weight of the camper to be around 6500lbs as towed. We were also using a cab top air deflector. The best hand calculated MPG we got was 7.1mpg, the rest of the time we were between 6.4mpg and 6.8mpg. It was 392 miles each way, and it took almost 3 tanks of fuel to get there and about 2 and a half to get home[ had a little left]. The Rig also spent lots of time in second gear at 4000+ rpm's climbing the hills on the freeway, it did however maintain 65mph the entire time, regardless of the terrain.

It would have been cheaper to drive my Duramax down there by myself {towing the same load], rather than splitting fuel with my 8100 buddy. I also doubt that it would have come out of overdrive on any highway grade that we encountered, [it is chipped though] based on past mountain towing experience in it. I sure am glad I spent the extra money 6 years ago for a diesel. The 8100 did the job, but I prefer the diesel.

I always tow in overdrive, and use Tow/Haul when towing and NEVER exceed 60hp setting on the chip when towing. Rarely have I seen trans temps in excess of 200 degrees, only a couple times when towing in heavy stop and go highway traffic. My buddy with the 8100 towed all the way down and all the way back in tow haul overdrive with no issues. That being said, If I did not have a Allison, Torqueshift, or Aisen, I would play it safe and keep it out of overdrive when towing, as none of the older auto OD's [E4od, 4l80 etc.] were realy made to be towing in OD.

 

[Eagleview]

Overdrive in a manual is a tiny little auxiliary gear with an equally tiny needle roller bearing . It's that little bump sticking out the side of your gear case . They will fail sooner than expected whilst towing in overdrive , especially with your big torque engines and the weights you guys tow .