[TractorMan]

Hey guys I am looking for true mileage in this truck EMPTY NO TRAILER, City/HWY/ Combined. Combined is primarily my interest. If you want to contribute a LOADED mileage that is great but please specify. I personally figure loaded mileage is probably not great for any truck and given the amount of driving i do Loaded it is least of my concern (however do some heavy towing occasionally). So I want to know "TRUE AVG UNLOADED MILEAGE". PLEASE ALSO SPECIFY IF CHIPPED. I know there will be variations and other variables but this is taking out the biggest difference for me. If you feel your mileage is exceptionally different than everyone else and have a reason why please let us know.

I have looked at different sites like fuelly and forums etc and they dont really seperate out loaded miles and unloaded miles. Hoping to shine a little more light on this subject as I am sure other would like to know as well. Thanks guys for your contributions.

 

[Captainmal]

When I am forced to do city driving, not often, it is in the 19 mpg range. Normal driving with different conditions is normally just over 20 mpg. Now if I can just run a rural road or get on and stay little more than 75 mph on Interstate roads I do around 23 mpg.

Now my 2019 is stock. I do read of others saying 18-20. I say 19-23 mpg.

As an aside my towing mileage with the same trailers I towed with my Ecodiesel gets me just 1/2 -1 mpg less than the Ecodiesel did. The truck is way heavier with more stature than the 1500's, The motor is over twice the size as the Ecodiesel. You would think there is little comparison but there is.

 

[TractorMan]

When I am forced to do city driving, not often, it is in the 19 mpg range. Normal driving with different conditions is normally just over 20 mpg. Now if I can just run a rural road or get on and stay little more than 75 mph on Interstate roads I do around 23 mpg.

Now my 2019 is stock. I do read of others saying 18-20. I say 19-23 mpg.

As an aside my towing mileage with the same trailers I towed with my Ecodiesel gets me just 1/2 -1 mpg less than the Ecodiesel did. The truck is way heavier with more stature than the 1500's, The motor is over twice the size as the Ecodiesel. You would think there is little comparison but there is.

Interesting comments Captainmal. I am currious if others had similar experience as you. Honestly that is not all that much worse than my typical ecodiesel mileage. Doing 70 regularly I get 23/24, higher speeds seem to hurt it. Sure I can hit higher numbers but it is extremely rare and in perfect conditions. Like long stretches of 55 or 60. I might get as much as 27 but it has to be perfect. I only hit that "elusive 30mpg" a handful of times. You would expect there to be a more significant and sustained difference. Lets see what others have to say about their mileage.

Does winter seem to affect your mileage much?

Thanks for the input.

 

[FCAEMPLOYEE]

3.73 and stay at 65mph or below will serve you well

 

[DATA]

When I am forced to do city driving, not often, it is in the 19 mpg range. Normal driving with different conditions is normally just over 20 mpg. Now if I can just run a rural road or get on and stay little more than 75 mph on Interstate roads I do around 23 mpg.

Now my 2019 is stock. I do read of others saying 18-20. I say 19-23 mpg.

As an aside my towing mileage with the same trailers I towed with my Ecodiesel gets me just 1/2 -1 mpg less than the Ecodiesel did. The truck is way heavier with more stature than the 1500's, The motor is over twice the size as the Ecodiesel. You would think there is little comparison but there is.

What gear ratio does your truck have?

 

[sourdo]

I have a 2021 2500 Cummins 3.73 finals, with about 22,000 miles on it. I get pretty good mileage when empty, with mostly hwy driving with some city, throw in a regen, I'm getting over 20 mpg up to 21.4 mpg consistently. I also drive 60-65 mph, past that the mileage drops below 20 mpg fast, diesel is expensive down here, so I drive accordingly. So far this winter, every tank is over 20 mpg hand calculated. It is flat driving here with no hills, and not much wind.

Note, all of my mpg are from hand calculating. The Evic has read as high as 26 mpg, if your hypermiling, stick to 55 mph, on flat windless ground and never stop, you can get some impressive mileage. But as soon as you stop and go, it takes fuel to get that 4 ton truck to move. It all comes out in the wash, miles driven divided by gallons to fill up. I do this for every tank, it only takes a few seconds. Lately my Evid mpg to hand calculated has been fairly close and under 1 mpg difference.

Now this is with southern California #2 diesel, so far I've not seen any "winterized" fuel. We moved from Alaska this fall. Winter fuel up there last year drove my mpg as low as 11, but mostly I got 15-17 mpg driving around, our truck is our DD. Alaska diesel is all some kind of blended something, I never got the mileage I get with this straight up #2 diesel. Even in summer up there, you can get a tank of winter fuel in summer, and drive around empty getting 13 mpg really sucks. Fred Myers was the worst offender there for selling "blended" diesel in summer.

As for towing the old Rv we also towed with the 2017 Ecodiesel, the difference in mpg is very slim. One day I got a solid 15 mpg hand calculated, towing with the 2500. Totally acceptable.

Now we have a big heavy 5th wheel, Tuesday I need to take it in for a vin verification, and I'm interested how she'll do towing this thing and what kind of mileage I'll get.

So depending on where you live, winter fuel will screw with mileage. I also use Power Sports Diesel KLEEN fuel additive. When towing I double the dose per instructions.

As for using this truck as a DD, it is fine. As for the ride, you know you're in a truck. I'm going to start a new thread and talk about these neat air springs I installed, man the ride is pretty sweet, when empty too.

Super reliability was a big part of my buying decision for the Cummins. It is all stock, don't need to do nothing but drive it. I am very happy with this Cummins.

 

[TractorMan]

As for using this truck as a DD, it is fine. As for the ride, you know you're in a truck. I'm going to start a new thread and talk about these neat air springs I installed, man the ride is pretty sweet, when empty too.

Great info you laid out for us. Thanks. I am also looking forward to your thread on the air springs, I will keep an eye out for it. Thanks!

 

[Captainmal]

What gear ratio does your truck have?

The typical 3:73.

On that topic a deceased friend had me driving his Cummins with something like a 3:51 or 3:21 ratio. Wish I had that today. He regularly got a real - not EVIC - 24 mpg from the trucker more. I said it was "BS" until I had the displeasure of driving it 400 miles with him in the truck. Displeasure because Don was my age at the time but was a bit incontinent. The stains on the seat I was driving from, Don's frequent requests to "pullover" and the odor in the truck made it less than a pleasurable ride.

I hand calculate all my mpg's. Often the readout says 23 - 24 mpg or even higher. It is a true "lie-o-meter". Yes, if things are perfect, you keep speeds less than 65 mph, it is possible to see mid-20's mpg. Reality makes that short-lived and rare.

 

[rfwalchli]

I have a 2015 3500 Cummins, SRW, 68RFE, and 3:43 axle ratios. The truck with me in it is just short of 8,400 pounds. On the road, I see an average MPG that varies around 23 to 24 MPH unloaded and not towing. Typical driving is rural, with few stops and most roads 55 MPH and up.

 

[Captainmal]

I have a 2015 3500 Cummins, SRW, 68RFE, and 3:43 axle ratios. The truck with me in it is just short of 8,400 pounds. On the road, I see an average MPG that varies around 23 to 24 MPH unloaded and not towing. Typical driving is rural, with few stops and most roads 55 MPH and up.

That's the gear ratio my deceased friend Don had to get such good fuel mileage.

Wish that is what I had today. My 3:73 is a bit too high for my uses today.

 

[MAS]

From what we get in my dads 2018 I feel like there are some misrepresentations or very optimistic interpretations of average given above.

Low 20’s is a good day but wouldn’t necessarily consider it a mixed average, more a babying it hwy average. From my experience a decent mixed avg would be upper to high teens. Many ecodiesel owners do not report the MIXED averages some are stating above.

 

[RIckL]

20 to 21 on the high way. 15 combined city and Highway.

 

[Chadd]

I have a 2018 2500 Cummins and use an app to track every fill up. I don't remember the gear ratio off the top of my head.

With mixed driving including towing a small enclosed trailer and my average for the 2022 year was ~17-18mpg. If you don't tow anything with it and drive ~60-65 it will get in the low 20's. My low MPG between fill ups for 2022 was 11mpg and my high was 26 mpg. The low 11mpg was towing the camper and the high of 26 was me seeing how good of mileage I could get by driving as conservatively as I could, slow acceleration, not going over 55mph, no towing and coasting as much as I could when coming to turns etc.

I went from a 2014 ED to the 2500 "due to ED engine failure" and one thing I really noticed mileage wise is that when towing the 2500 really takes a hit in mpg and also DEF usage is much higher. Towing the same trailer with my ED it would not get below 15mpg whereas the 2500 drops down to 11-13mpg.

 

[TCretired]

My 3.21 gets slightly better around town (but I baby it in this case). It's showing 20 - 21 right now.

However, I can jump on the interstate to bypass most of the intown driving -- much preferred. The mileage will jump significantly on just 1 interstate trip compared to the stop and go around town.

I pulled my 4,000 # trailer up to Utah last fall and got right at 20 mpg for the trip. It is very subjective if you set the cruise and zone out it will not take advantage of the downhill sections and suck fuel on the uphill. By allowing speed increases downhill and moderate uphill pull you can coax more mpg's.

However, on unloaded trips (truck alone) and no stop and go, it will get up into the 30's easily.

On DEF, last fall I was following other's advice and not filling the DEF tank but trying to keep it on the low side. About 1/2 way home I started getting the DEF countdown. I was under 50 miles to Shutdown when I arrived home. The next day I put one box (2.5 gallons) into the truck and it showed 5/8 of a tank on the gauge. From now on I will be packing an extra box on any trip, filling it before I leave home or both... The moral -- don't trust the DEF gauge. I says it's full but will still hold 1 - 1.5 gallons on top of full.

 

[3DHawkeye]

I do not own a 2500 and have never driven a Ram 2500. Therefore take my thoughts with a grain of salt. A couple things to keep in mind, many of these 20+mpg 2500s may be in warmer climates. I am in IA and the few drivers of 2500s I talked to don't regularly see 20+. It is also difficult to find any diesel besides biodiesel around here. From what I understand bio is better for lubricity, but worse for economy.

 

[Captainmal]

Possibility that temperature and fuel type, biodiesel is an issue. I near always use biodiesel of some mixture as Walmart and the Murphy stations associated with it have a 10% biodiesel blend most often. That deceased friend Don always used the same. We are/were ones getting the higher fuel mileage.

Granted we live/lived in Florida but we both often traveled to Georgia in the Winter. Temperatures there below freezing were too frequent for me but happened. We both bought at the Americus Murphy station and I still do. Never really noticed a mileage change while there.

Neither of us endure the hideous below freezing with snow and ice conditions. Those conditions do cause multiple driving issues that would reduce fuel mileage.

 

[ajb3015]

While this is for my EcoD, I'll chime in with a comparison of summer vs winter fuel economy. I'm in northern Illinois so I get a wide fluctuation in temps throughout the year. Also since the question of biodiesel has come up, Illinois law requires 5-20% biodiesel so that is what I run.

Back in September (mid to high 60s F), I made a run of about 500 miles (all highway) with a hand calc'd average of 28.8 mpg for the trip. Last week I made the same exact trip (30 degrees F) with a hand calc'd average of 26.0 mpg, for a drop of almost 3 mpg. My average for my daily commute during the summer was just over 25, and now I'm seeing around 22; so figure 3 mpg or more drop in mixed driving.

As Captainmal said, you would not expect many similarities between the EcoD and the Cummins, but in this case I think it would be safe to assume that a Cummins would see a similar 3+ mpg drop in economy from summer to winter.

 

[SlowRoller]

......................

As Captainmal said, you would not expect many similarities between the EcoD and the Cummins, but in this case I think it would be safe to assume that a Cummins would see a similar 3+ mpg drop in economy from summer to winter.

As I understand it, winter fuel blends contain less energy, so the drop would be a constant proportion. Therefore, a drop of 3 MPG from 30 should lead to a 2 MPG drop from 20. You had the same 3 MPG drop in different types of driving, but "mixed driving" can vary a lot from tank to tank in my experience.

Also, I believe that winter blends vary depending on how far North you are, maybe on predicted temps, so it's hard to predict how much effect that will have. I don't know if temps alone affect mileage, but I know that rain does.

 

[Captainmal]

Old thread I am bringing up.

Fueled yesterday. 17.8 mpg. During that time I did tow 120 miles with 10' trailer but holding a high side by side with full windshield. Darn thing acts like you are pulling an open parachute. The rest of the mileage, about 1 1/2 times that was running local errands, church, grocery getter etc. Reason I thought of this is ...

$5 a gallon here now. $100 for just over 20 gallon is BS.

 

[BrianF]

Well our fuel price has dropped recently. With conversion to US funds, we are about 8.30$ a gallon.