andy levy <andy-dml@levyclan.us> wrote:
: On 5/21/2004 12:05 AM, Aaron Wyse wrote:
: | How much of a mileage increase is the Cummins over the Hemi? For some
: | reason most of the Daks seems to get less than ideal mileage. I
: think the
: | 3.9 BTA or 3.9 ISB would be a more dramatic mileage difference for the
: | Dakotas. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd be able to get 35mpg.
: I think somewhere around 20%? Maybe more, depends on so many factors.
: If you do any towing at all though, the mileage advantage is HUGE.
When I drove my 3500 CTD from south Florida to NY, I filled the tank
twice; the first half of the trip I got almost 21mpg, the second half
almost 20. (Those WV and PA hills...) That was a basically empty
truck, open bed, tailgate up.
When I went up to Toronto to help Jason & Norah with their move,
I towed up an enclosed trailer that weighs around 3500lbs empty, and
we filled it up but good. :-) I'm not sure how heavy it was, but
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that we put 3 thousand pounds or so
in it. (Jason would probably be better able to estimate the weight
than I). On that trip, I got somewhere between 12-13mpg, I forget the
exact figure now. However, that included a decent amount of city
driving. I also have to wonder how much #2 diesel I used up at one
point in particular where I didn't see the Y coming up in the road in
time which required hauling most of Jason & Norah's wordly posessions
past them at 80mph in order to fit into the space Jason was fortunately
able to make for me in front of his Dak. Got a decent puff of soot
out of the tailpipe on that one... ;-)
(If I had tried that trip in the Ram Jason & Norah *thought* I
was bringing, the gas mileage would have been DEEP into the single
digits. ;-) ('92 318 W150 4x4 - lucky to get 12-13mpg empty))
In my local driving around here, I seem to get around 18mpg.
Those numbers may not sound too great, but keep in mind that
this is a fairly un-aerodynamic 3500 with an open bed (no tonneau),
which weighs well over 6,000lbs empty and has 4.10 gears. (Eventually,
I want to change the rearend ratio to 3.55s or so which should help
both my gas mileage and my highway crusing RPMs...)
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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