Dodge 2500 Fuel Mileage
Dave and Helen Damouth www.damouth.com
updated 7/16/2000
- The Truck:
- 1996 Dodge RAM, club cab, diesel, long bed, 2-wheel drive,
automatic transmission, 3.54 axle, limited slip differential. Weight,
with bed cap and some stuff stored in the back, probably about 7000
pounds. The truck is entirely stock, except for a BD exhaust brake,
added gauges, and a switch which allows me to manually control the
torque converter lockup clutch.
- The Trailer:
- 1988 Real-Lite, 35' long, weighs about 8000 pounds loaded.
- Overall Cumulative Data:
- Total Miles: 104072 (4/4/1996 to 7/10/2000)
- Total Fuel Cost: $9639
- Total gallons: 6998
- Average cost per gallon $1.377
- Average cost per mile $0.093
- Cumulative mileage:14.9 mpg
- Non-Towing Data (53,145 miles, 2989 gallons)
- Average:17.8 mpg
- Highest mileage:24.4 mpg (mostly level 55 mph expressway driving)
- Around town, winter:~13 mpg (short runs to work or grocery store - truck barely warms up)
- Around town, summer ~16 mpg (short runs to work
or grocery store)
- Towing Data (50921 miles, 4009 gallons)
- Average:12.7 mpg (typically 62 mph expressway, 58 mph rural 2-lane highways)
- Highest: 18.9 mpg (strong tail wind all day in the desert)
- Lowest: 8.0 mpg (Climbing into the Rocky Mountains)
Notes:
Mileage is low during the 10 miles or so that it takes to fully warm up this heavy engine. So I wouldn't recommend a diesel if the primary use is short drives to work and grocery store.
The above data is for the entire period we've owned the truck. The first period, through 6/18/98 was living at home, 12,571 total miles, of which 4579 were towing. Since then, we've been full-time travelers. While traveling, we've usually got two canoes on the roof of the truck. These significantly reduce our mileage when we're not towing (perhaps by 2 mpg on the highway)
Fuel cost per gallon seems rather high. I attribute this to extensive time spent in California (San Diego is particularly high), in Canada, and in very rural areas. In all of these areas, fuel is substantially higher than national averages
Questions and comments welcome. EMail