About 16-17000 miles now and getting 14-16 in town (heavy foot territory) and the best on the highway +- 2000rpm is 19.69 hand calculated.I guess you could say that I'm happy!


JB

 

It seems to me the more miliage you get the better they get!
I hope that holds true for all of us!

 

Your highway mileage is great!!!

I get 16 in the city and 18 on the highway.

I filled up when a local station had premium diesel at the same price as others regular diesel and saw a 1 - 2 mile jump when using premium diesel.

Keep the oil changed frequently and keep your fuel filters changed and you are good to go... Try some fuel additives to keep your system free of water, keep everything lubricated (pump and injectors)... and sounds like you are well on your way...

Maybe your truck is using VIAGRA... helps keep the mileage up!!!!

Thanks,

Jeff

 

I'm happy with the mileage I'm getting now (my last SD was a gasser it got 8 - 10). I guess I will have to wait a few years to know if it gets better after 20k because I only put about 10k per year on it. Oh well, I love this truck so much now I don't care if it gets better with age or not.

 

At my station Diesel is now cheaper than unleaded...Diesel is 2.17 and Unleaded is 2.21 .

 

I haven't seen that in a while. I still don't understand how it could cost more to make diesel than gas.

 

It doesn't we are paying for the transportation cost. As well as futures spectulation in heating oil which is basicly the same as diesel. Remember most 18 wheelers get the fuel from tank farms, where a refinery is not close by. Product pipelines carry all sorts of products in the same pipeline. From diesel to base stocks that our motor oil is made from. Now where the futures comes into play is that an 8000 mile strech of pipeline carring home heating oil, purges, then pigs, then starts transporting diesel, oops now a rare late cold snap causes another purge, pigging and re-transport of heating oil, and then back again. You guessed it if you think the consumer is the one that this cost is passed onto.

Ryan

 

I have 26000 miles on my 04 now and with the SCMT in HP mode at 70Mph the Lie-o-meter says I am averaging about 21-22mpg even with the hills here in northern Mass. I would agree that between 20 and 30k your motor is pretty much "broke-in". My local diesel tech tells me that the Lie-o-meter is conservative. I can't say whether that's true or not as I haven't hand calculated my mileage on this truck. BTW, my truck now has 4" straight-pipe from the turbo to the y pipe under the bed which then opens up to a pair of 5" bull-horn
stacks. This alone picked up approx 2mpg.

 

MRXLH,
What I don't understand is why doesn't this same problem effect gas prices in the same way and make it more than diesel like it used to be?

 

I had the opportunity to speak with an oil executive the other day, at my place of employement. I asked him what he thought the main reason was for such a price increase. What Ryan said is true, but we must realize what the EPA has done also. The sulphur content in todays diesel is much lower now, than it was years ago. It costs more to refine it now, to meet the EPA standards.............thus it cost oil companies more, and us more.....so he told me.

I'm still confused about my highway mileage. Maybe too little sulphur in my fuel?? I just took it in for it's first oil change, so I will check to see if there is any improvement. I would think I should get at least 17 mpg's on the highway.

 

Well, I've been driving my brand spanking new 06 350 DRW for a week now. Did my first fill up yesterday and hand calculated 14.8 mpg. This morning coming to work the computer showed 17.0 mpg. This was in a mixture of stop and go plus a little highway covering 34 miles.

I'm excited to think that this truck may get as good or better mpg than the 99 350 SRW that I traded in.

Ed

 

What I hear from my dealer, what I read on FTE and what I have experienced is that the 05s ON AVERAGE don't get as good mileage as the 03s and 04s. My guess is there are some tuning changes that really helped some problems but hurt mileage a little. Best I can do on the 05 is 15.5 highway @ 2000 rpm. The 04 would do 18-19 under same conditions - all hand calculated.

 

I don't understand what the complaints about feul costs are, up here in oil rich Alberta Canada, we are paying a rediculous 89.9 cents per litre. At aprox 4 litres per gallon that would make the price we pay at about $3.60 per gallon. I only wish we paid so little, especially when Alberta produces such a high volume of oil & gas revenue. I own a 03 F350 drw 4x4, and I love the milage that it gets, aprox 19.3 miles to the gallon. When I feul up my 51 ford, it will only run on premium, and that price is 99.9 per litre. That is almost $4.00 per gallon. Makes me cry!!!

 

Its more of an east west thing than north south. A majority of pipelines spur out from refinery row in Houston, From Baton Rouge, and From Lake Charles. Most pipeline are not quite as point to point. Many refineries that do produce diesel, may not refine near as much as say one down the road. East coasters get most of thier products from the Colonial pipeline, as they are relativly refinery poor compaired to their usage. They have not had a very fortunate luck streak here lately. They were fined heavily in the 90's for being out of compliance. Guess who gets the costs passed on to them. Colonial may not even ship gasoline, they may not have elected to accept any orders placed during open season, due to heating oil, and diesel bringing them a much more lucritave profit. The pipeline industry is run much like the stock market, refiners and customers bid to ship via their pipeline, the pipeline companies in turn hold them to taker pay agrements to ensure that they don't get burned by the supplier, or the end item user. IE if a customer orders 1,000,000 gallons of diesel and changes his mind say if futures are down, he still has to pay the transportation fee, reguardless if he actually receives all of his purchase. Producers who negotiate with the pipeline companies for a better rate, have to produce what they purchase for throughput of the pipeline, to keep competative rates of capacity. ( If you promised to ship 50,000 bbls of crude a day, and then could not deliver said quanity, the pipeline company loses revenue due to not taking the balance form say another producer. Also what someone else has said here is true, the Epa has their hands in this matter as well. Tightening up regulations to an unattainable goal, after letting them run rampant for years. The last new refinery built in the continental U.S. was in Belle Chasse, La in 1976 by Gulf Oil Corp. In turn the refineries have been trying to play catch up just to stay in compliance, let alone having the money to permit and build a state of the art refinery that nobody wants in their back yard. It has been speculated that the oil companies themselves are responsible for lobbying the EPA for tougher regulations, just to increase the price of oil, to that of the rest of the world market. If you think about it, it does make sense, lets make it so hard for a new refinery to get built, that no one will be able to feasably build a new refinery and overload the market and drive the cost down, and compete with the majors. All of the independants marketing and refining divisions have been gobbled up in the last 10 years.

Sorry for the long post, but it is hard to explain the reasons why without getting into specific details. Heck I never new how complicated this industry was til I got into it 5 years ago.

Ryan

 

Heck mrxlh we have a 5 year old refinery in out back yard and diesel is still $2.80 a gallon. Though we would get a break on the prices since it was so close but nope. Although it is a small refinery by most standards.

As for MPG. 04 with 25,000 getting 16-16.5 on the highway average. Best was 21 (Drove conservative). Towed 7K of concrete two days ago at 70 for 310 miles and got 12.5. Not to bad considering 1/2 of that was up and over the mountains.

Driving the wifes subaru more with current prices. 35 mpg. Man thats nice.