I'm thinking of trading in my gas truck ('94 F250 4wd 351) for a diesel in order to improve power and gas mileage. I'm currently carrying a Lance 10' camper and getting 8.5 mpg. What gas mileage should I expect to get with a 7.3 diesel? Are there any diesel engine performance add-ons that can improve this mileage?… and to what extent? Any experiences or feedback will be appreciated.

 

Pulling a 24' trailer, I can get around 12.8 mpg, not sure how this compares to a camper.

PS with diesels, it's known as "fuel milage".

 

I have a 7000Lb 29 foot T.T. I have't gone real far yet but I am getting about10 MPG when I am pulling. That is combined city and highway. Hope to raise that a bit with just highway driving.

 

I would estimate the FUEL economy to be about 16-18 mpg with a manual and about 2 lower with an auto (regular cab). It all depends on weather, gearing compared to the load, fuel quality, vehicle up keep, the configuration of the truck, and driving habits. You will burn more fuel becouse of wind resistance than weight, so the faster you drive the worse it (fuel economy) will get.

A better air filter system is really about the only thing that might improve the fuel economy. Plenty of things to improve the power though. Becouse there is really not all that much weight to the camper, I don't see H.P. increases give much of an advantage in fuel economy. Becareful how much you spend on improving fuel economy. It can take along time to get it to pay for itself...If ever.

 

I pull a 37' fifth wheel and average about 12 mpg. Simply put, you will get better mileage and longevity out of the vehicle.

 

I have a standard slide in camper, home made (read heavy) from the late 60's. I get about 10-11 with the camper on truck in signature.

Father has a 97 F250 Extended Cab 4x4 PSD Auto and pulls a 22' AlpenLite 5'er that weighs about 3600 lbs and he gets about 2 mpg better in the same conditions on the same road. We filled up at the same gas station after about 170 miles and I took 17 gallons and he took about 16. We were in heavy winds(30+mph) and steep grades.

 

I have a 550, crew cab. Tow a 40' gooseneck race car trailer that once loaded weighs in at about 11,000#. Running no more than 65mph it averages 14mpg. If you push it on up to 70mph it drops to about 10.

 

As a full time RV'er I have been towing a 13,000 lb 5th wheel with my 01 F-350 Dually PSD. I have the 4.10 rear end and have made several mods to the truck as you can see in my signature below. It has been my experience that improving your HP by using the Superchips Microtuner (on the lower 60 HP program) along with the other mods not only improved the HP and torque it also increased my milage by about 3 mpg. Not towing, I went from 13.5 to 17 mpg. I also have to take into concideration that my truck is now "broken in" with 54,000 miles on it and that may well have contributed to the increase. I just went on a 7000 mile trip last fall, Starting from California traveling through several states in the mid west and then back to California. I averaged 11.1 mpg. Towing the 5th wheel about 95% of that time. Before the tuner and the installation of the other mods I never got over 10 mpg towing the 5th wheel. No matter though, even without the mods I get far better milage with the PSD than I did with my old 91 F-250 460 gasser. With the gasser, towing I would only get 5.5 - 6 mpg, and 10 not towing.

 

I recently purchased a 1995 F250 Extended Cab with a Powerstroke and automatic transmission (107,000 miles, no engine or tranny mods) to haul my 11 1/2 foot Lance camper. Our first camping trip was last weekend. The camper was fully loaded for a 2 day outing (family of 5) which equated to a pretty heavy load. I paid close attention to the mileage, as this was the first time hauling the camper. The terrain consited of several steep mountain passes (Anchorage, Alaska to Homer, Alaska and back). On the trip back we gained about 400 extra pounds (one brother-in-law and 200 pounds of Halibut fillets ). The end result was exactly 13 MPG. Good enough for me! My friend who followed us in his 2000 F350 Crew Cab V10 (unloaded with no passengers) averaged 11 MPG. I'm still rubbing that one in! P.S. I installed Firestone Ride-Rite air spings prior to the trip and they performed marvelously. The sagging rear end was gone and sway was practically undetectable.

 

Boy I hope that I have that to look forward to. Currently I pull about 13K 5th Wheel and just got back from a trip down to the coast. I averaged about 8.5 to 9.2 pulling. Empty I averaged about 13.4. Now I realize that the truck only has about 4500 miles on it and that with a little time that I should be looking a little higher. As you can see I havn't done the programer thing yet but it is in the works. RVfiver you said that you tow on the 60 hp setting. I was under the impression that this setting was more for performance and not towing. Correct me if I'm wrong, which in this room I don't have to much worry about. What settings do you have on your programer? I was under the assumption that the two settings were 40hp and 65hp.

 

I want to thank you all for the interesting information and personal experiences with fuel mileage. It looks like there's a bit of variation between diesel trucks in mpg, but that they all get better mpg than gas. I checked the Super Chip out for my gas 351 and it will only deliver 18 hp more... probably not worth the money to buy it. Given that it will probably cost me about $9,000 to upgrade to a used PSD, after selling my gasser... it probably won't save me any money to switch... that is, until gas goes up to $3 a gallon! When my truck gets worn out, I'll get a diesel. That's something to look forward to... and just think of the great places we're going to travel to, wearing out the truck!

 

SouthernDually,

The Superchips Microtuner has a 60 HP and a 80 HP program. According to Superchips when using the 60 HP program you don't have to make any exhaust mods when towing. Although I did put on a high performance flow through muffler and a cold air intake to reduce the EGT's. If you use the 80 HP program you will need to increase the exhaust system if you tow over 4,000 lbs. I have been told by others that the 80 HP setting will not increase your milage, and may even drop it a bit. I highly recommend the Microtuner. The change in performance is outstanding! The extra MPG is a bonus!

 

I'm with southerndually,

I get about 8-10 mpg.

I have my foot in it a lot though.

My fiver is 32'

 

do yourself a favor... trade it in on a Cummins... you'll get about twice the MPG while hauling and it'll last a million miles if you take care of it.

and before anyone jumps down my throat, Ford uses the same 5.9B series engine found in the Dodge 3/4 and 1 ton trucks in their F650 and larger trucks! If it's good enough for Ford's 2.5 ton trucks, it's good enough for my 3/4-1 ton Dodge!

my crappy old '92 Dodge diesel with a non-lockup converter would get 16-17mpg hauling 6000lbs of car and trailer! a later truck w/ a manual tranny will get close to 30mpg unloaded!

The Navistar V8 is a decent engine, but it's no comparison to a real (inline 6) turbo diesel... look at the big rigs... not a V8 in the bunch... ALL I6's, and plenty of Cummins engines among those!

Plus? the Cummins trucks are WAY cheaper and easier to modify than the Powerchokes...

my .02

Forrest

 

But then we would have to put up with that awfull, tinny sound they make. You know, the "Pebble in a Beer Can" sound.