MPG Cummin's Diesel

[buckstop108]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

Seems like the diesel engine has a lot to offer. One of the previous posts brought up something interesting that I never thought about. The repair cost, I guess the rate goes up when talking about the diesel engine. I was also told that the valves need to be adjusted after a certain amount of miles, and that this maintenance is important to the longevity of the engine, more so then with the gas engine. Is this true? I went to edmunds for the giggles of it and checked off all the bells and whistles that I thought I might like and the truck came in at $45,875.00 I don't think my parent paid that much for their house 40 years ago.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

If you ever go diesel you won't look back.The Cummins is a power plant! It would pull a house!
My Dodge 3500 work truck gets 15 mpg hauling well over 10.000 pounds.
Your boat won't even strain that engine...

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

buckstop, don't know what you figured, but my new 2007 has everything but a sunroof and didn't click in but at 38,500.
That's with the 6 speed automatic.

 

[buckstop108]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

The cost is probably closer to what SBN paid. I am sure a lot of the options punched in were duplicated in some of the packages. When I do make up my mind I will be a lot more careful in what I order. I am still concerned about the cost of repairs when needed compared to the gas engine. Since I need an instruction Manuel to work a wrench the truck would be going into the shop. Thanks for all the input. I do appreciate it.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

Maintenance costs are definately much higher on a diesel. Whether that becomes an overriding factor for a personal user is hard to pin down because the motors just don't get worked as hard as they do in commercial service. But, if something does break, be ready for a repair bill that will shock you if you are not used to it.

BTW, this thread got me thinking about the newer Powerstrokes. I had heard that the early 6.0 litre engines had some problems but, after doing some web surfing, I have found out that the problems were worse than I knew. It seems that all of the motors made in the first five months of production had defective fuel injectors. Apparently the problem was so bad it was actually destroying motors and Ford recalled thousands of them. They also bought back many under lemon laws in some states. Later motors seemed to be OK but a new, 6.4 litre motor has been introduced.

 

[buckstop108]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

Jay this thread has me thinking as well. Do I really need a diesel pulling my #4,000 pound boat around? I don't plan on getting a bigger boat since the Lund I have is my dream boat. A gas engine in the 2500 series I think would get the job done nicely. Repair bills aren't cheap in general and if diesel is considerably higher then I'm not sure I want to go there , especially since I have that black cloud that follows me everywhere. So if it can break it will. The next time I am in the N.O. I will look for the Powerstroke in front of my favorite place, the Acme Oyster House. 16 dozen my best so far.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

You don't even need a 2500 series to tow a 4000 pounds (plus the weight of trailer, toys & stuff). A 1500 series V8 will do nicely. And if you buy a GM you can run E-85 which in my neck of the woods is currently 60 cents/gallon cheaper ($2.25/gal) than regular gas. Yes -- mileage goes down a little but as long a E-85 is 40 cents difference it pays to use it and the engine performs a bit better on it. We are currently in our "winter formulation" so even regular grade gas doesn't deliver as good a mileage as summer formulation so it is even more advantageous.

 

[oops!]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

buy the diesel.

youll be happy you did.

try and sell a gas p/u with a half million miles on it.

any car lot will be happy to have a deisel truck with half a million miles on it, cause they know it will be a quick sell!

motor maintinence is allmost a non issue. i havent changed the SPARK PLUGS once on my cummins!

however, oil changes cost more, brakes are often, (use ceramic) and you also go thru the tires. (get regular 16 inch rims, not the big twentys)

nothing will touch a diesels milage, even towing.

keep in mind, every vehicle needs reuglar maintenience.

my 6 cyl dodge has done every thing ive ever asked of it.
i pull a fully loaded thirty foot trailer up high mountain passes (700 kms) once a week. there is no way a gas would do this. not once a week. i put on 70,000 kms every year.
if i sold this truck today. id get 15,000 for it. i bought it for 20,000 four years ago.
thats 280,000 kms for $5,000 depreciation.
a gas p/u would be in the scrap yard by now.

you do the math
cheers
oops

 

[buckstop108]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

I have a 2001 1500 Dodge now and she does do the job. But you know your towing the boat especially when climbing those hills in the Adirondacks. I had to add some helper springs because of the sag when the boat was hooked up. My tongue weight is at 7-8 %. I don't want to turn this into a Dodge, Ford Chevy shoot out but I can not buy any GM products after the way they treated me with my "88 K5 Blazer. This is a story and a half. Three rears in less then five years and 37,000 miles and on the forth rear and 1,000 past warranty they didn't want to know me. My Dodge has its problems but the dealer seems to go out of his way to make you happy. It seems like Ford has problems as well. OOPs brings up a good point as far as resale. A lot of good info has been posted. The wife is against the diesel. She fears that the neighbors will burn the house down after the first few months of me getting up at 3:00 am to go fishing or hunting and firing up the diesel. Then again she is complaining about my 1500 with the flowmaster exhaust. I think it sounds nice and no complaints from the neighbors. She says she can hear the truck coming down the street. Of course my reply was " Good then there is no excuse for dinner not being on the table." That didn't go over well either. I think I'm going to do it. I really appreciate the help. Merry Christmas.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

I'm telling you, go fire up a 6.7.
Not near the noise of the 5.9s.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

16 dozen "ersters?" Dang!

I think one of the key bits of information in helping you to decide is that you don't tow the boat very far, very often. Even the trips at 800 - 900 miles round trip aren't that far. A 1500 with a gas engine would do the job and a 2500 might give you a little more in terms of overall load carrying capacity.

Having once sold cars briefly (one of the worst jobs I have ever had) I'll give you a tip on buying - buy from a dealership in a large metro area. This is advantageous because there will be a lot of them from each brand name (Chevy, Ford, etc) within a 50 mile radius and that means they must all compete with one another. Dicker hard and do not ever take the first deal offered to you. Let them think you are ready to buy, get the price and then walk away and go down the street and start the process all over at the next dealer. Keep doing this until you get the best price you think you can.

Bear in mind that, when the final buyer's order is printed out, there may be a lot of fluff added to it. This is how dealers try to get the money they gave away to get the sale, back. Get rid of all of it, including the dealer prep, and don't ever pay for any of the added items that you often see listed on a separate, dealer added window sticker. Unless the vehicle that you are buying has had custom items added (such as a custom van, etc.) there is nothing on this sticker that the vehicle needs and whatever it is has most likely been marked up to a huge degree, like "paint and Fabric" (wax & Scotchguard) for $500 - $1,000! Dealers call these stickers "bump stickers" for a good reason - they are there to bump the price up so that they can use them as the give away to you, to make you think they are giving you a good deal.

Since most floor sales people make their commission off of the difference between MSRP and what the dealers call "dealer invoice" (which isn't really their cost), your salesperson will end up with about a $50 commission. Tip him or her whatever you feel is right when you pick the vehicle up - just do it on the sly so his/her boss doesn't find out.

 

[j442w30]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

Yeah Ford screwed up pretty badly with the first few years of that engine, from what I have read they wanted more power and cranked up the boost over what Navistar had originally designed the engine for thus creating a lot of injector and engine management problems. The new 6.4 seems like a better design but they also had problems with some of the earlier engines and the new exhaust system they all have to have now.

I like the design and simplicity of a diesel engine but I don't know if I'll ever have the need for one. Maybe they will come out with a 4 cylinder diesel for the smaller pickup trucks, then I would buy one for sure.

 

[woodrat]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

I have an old, 1st gen Cummins Turbo Diesel/Dodge. When I bought it, fuel was still $1.39 for diesel, but it gets double the mileage of the gas truck it replaced (15-18 mpg vs 7-9 mpg). I have put over 80,000 miles on the truck in five years and most of that in the first two years. The difference between this truck and those same miles on the old gas truck is 5000 gallons. Even at $1.39/gallon, that is $6950. I paid $7200 for this truck.

So not only did I come out way ahead on the fuel, since diesel was only $1.39 for a few months after I bought it, but the torque and pulling power is way better than any gas engine I've ever had and the engine is super duper sturdy and simple. I have 270,000 on the truck now and that Cummins just purrs.

new truck? You couldn't chase me fast enough to get me to sign a truck loan that is half the size of my mortgage.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

Another math error. Your numbers are correct only if gas and diesel fuel were the same price. I don't think they were. Someone earlier in this post made the same mistake. You don't subtract the difference in fuel burned and multiply by the cost of diesel. You need to figure the cost of of fueling the gasser, then the cost of fueling the diesel and subtract those two numbers.

 

[woodrat]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

when I bought this truck, diesel was cheaper than gas in my area. So it actually looks even better if you did the cost of fueling each and divide by two. It took a while for diesel to catch and then pass gasoline prices here.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

At current fuel prices, the very same fuel savings arguement was made a few posts back in this thread. The difference over 100,000 miles was about $3500 in favor of the diesel. At todays prices that doesn't cover the extra cost of the truck and the increased maintenance costs. In this particular case one does not need a post maul to drive a tack (in other words a diesel is not needed to tow a 4000# boat). In most of the fuel economy discussions I've seen on these pages, the fuel economy for gas engines always seems to be posted as a worst case yet the diesel economy is figured at the best economy so those dollar savings are questionable at best.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

Another excellent point about the mileage reports Silvertip!

 

[buckstop108]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

A maul to drive a tack..... I like it. Your right of course. When I purchased my Dodge, I did all the research and on paper this truck should eat up the boat. It doesn't. It gets the job done but you know the truck is working. I would think that this would shorten the life of the truck, transmission, rear diff. and motor. Since I got rid of the single axle trailer and went tandem it is a little better but the truck is still working hard. Now maybe my thought process is flawed but I was thinking that the parts they used in the 2500 would be more heavy duty then in the 1500 so it would handle the boat better. This would mean last longer as well. But I guess a 5.9 liter V8 is a 5.9 L V8 no matter what frame it is on. So if the power and not making the motor work so hard is important then diesel is the way to go, right ? My trips that I do take aren't that long as pointed out , but they do cover a lot of hilly terrain and those mountains of the Adirondacks seem to be long and steep when your pulling that boat up with my 1500. This spring there was one hill that the truck was at 5000 RPM's to maintain 55 MPH. I thought she was going to blow. I wish I had a maul then...

 

[JRJ]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

I'm thinking you need that 350 horse Cummins lol. Enjoy.

 

[Johnson 225]

Re: MPG Cummin's Diesel

I have an 02 Dodge Cummins my friends both have gassers my boat is the heavy one. When we go on a trip they have to stop 2 to my 1 for fuel plus I get there 30 min to an hour ahead of them. I try to run with them. I set the cruise an go. Within 10-15 miles I can't see them. I asked and every little hill it down shifts and they say its working there trucks to death just to do the speed limit. I will never go back to gas for a truck. I get 19-20 empty 75 mph 16-17 pulling with full tanks (boat) and truck loaded. My buddy wanted to use his truck for us to goto the lake (new truck). We loaded my boat and off we go after stopping for gas going and coming home he was like it did good I was sick of the down shifting ( I live in Oklahoma small hills). The next weekend we took my truck. Got back with 1/2 tank in it .

Any way my .02 cents

Oh does anybody want to buy an 07 Chevy Nice truck ......