- Jan 14, 2021
- 1,002
- 2,594
- USAF Retired
- 21 F250 7.3l Platinum Tremor, Lithium Gray
- 04 Ram 3500, 1150 rwhp, almost stock
I just returned from a three week journey going through 16 states (CA, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and back to CA).
The terrain of course is quite varied from mountains to plains to desert. The weather was hot to very hot the whole way from the heat wave that was plaguing the country. Up to 109* in Ft Worth to 111* in 29 Palms. So dry heat or humid heat everywhere. Ran into a pretty bad T-storm near Las Cruces too.
The rig: stock 2021 Tremor with 7.3. Only mod is the 58 gallon gas tank from Transfer Flow. Let me tell you just how wonderful that tank was! Paid for itself in this trip alone.
The fifth wheel is a 36' Montana and GCVW was around 21.5k give or take depending upon fuel and water levels. It was weighed with about 2/3 tank of fuel and about 25 gallons of water on board. I also have a 42 gallon auxiliary tank in the bed that was about 1/2 full. (No way to really know)
The total miles and mileage is shown below. Computer mpg was consistently .1 mpg optimistic from hand calculated, so subtract from computer accordingly. To be very precise, it was closer to .082 optimistic over the course of the trip. According to the math, 96.7% of the driving was with the trailer attached. We didn't do a lot of driving around un-hooked except from RV park to the local restaurants or attractions. Average speed was from 65-70 mph on freeways. Also have to figure in the various traffic jams encountered in Omaha (college world series going on), KC rush hour, St. Louis rush hour, Nashville rush hour, Dallas/Ft Worth rush hour, half a dozen accidents along the way with a couple of doozys... you get the picture. Also, there was substantial idle time. Because of the heat, one of us stayed in the truck with AC going for the dog on board while the other went to get food or do shopping. All of that hurts the MPG.
The worst mpg stretch was from Phoenix to Bakersfield through 29 Palms (son in law stationed there... was visiting him and daughter). The best stretch was from Las Cruces to Phoenix through Tucson. Surprisingly, I got better mileage going through the mountains from CA through to Cheyenne (all high elevation) than from Cheyenne to Omaha.
Lastly, I am simply shocked at how poor the roads are EVERYWHERE! I think Texas was the worst but frankly every state I mentioned is in the running. New Mexico may have been the best. Of course this observation is limited to the roads traveled.
In the end, I am going to call it 8.9 mpg. Similar trips with the same trailer in my 2004 Dodge diesel yielded about 10 mpg. So I am not unhappy with the result.
The terrain of course is quite varied from mountains to plains to desert. The weather was hot to very hot the whole way from the heat wave that was plaguing the country. Up to 109* in Ft Worth to 111* in 29 Palms. So dry heat or humid heat everywhere. Ran into a pretty bad T-storm near Las Cruces too.
The rig: stock 2021 Tremor with 7.3. Only mod is the 58 gallon gas tank from Transfer Flow. Let me tell you just how wonderful that tank was! Paid for itself in this trip alone.
The fifth wheel is a 36' Montana and GCVW was around 21.5k give or take depending upon fuel and water levels. It was weighed with about 2/3 tank of fuel and about 25 gallons of water on board. I also have a 42 gallon auxiliary tank in the bed that was about 1/2 full. (No way to really know)
The total miles and mileage is shown below. Computer mpg was consistently .1 mpg optimistic from hand calculated, so subtract from computer accordingly. To be very precise, it was closer to .082 optimistic over the course of the trip. According to the math, 96.7% of the driving was with the trailer attached. We didn't do a lot of driving around un-hooked except from RV park to the local restaurants or attractions. Average speed was from 65-70 mph on freeways. Also have to figure in the various traffic jams encountered in Omaha (college world series going on), KC rush hour, St. Louis rush hour, Nashville rush hour, Dallas/Ft Worth rush hour, half a dozen accidents along the way with a couple of doozys... you get the picture. Also, there was substantial idle time. Because of the heat, one of us stayed in the truck with AC going for the dog on board while the other went to get food or do shopping. All of that hurts the MPG.
The worst mpg stretch was from Phoenix to Bakersfield through 29 Palms (son in law stationed there... was visiting him and daughter). The best stretch was from Las Cruces to Phoenix through Tucson. Surprisingly, I got better mileage going through the mountains from CA through to Cheyenne (all high elevation) than from Cheyenne to Omaha.
Lastly, I am simply shocked at how poor the roads are EVERYWHERE! I think Texas was the worst but frankly every state I mentioned is in the running. New Mexico may have been the best. Of course this observation is limited to the roads traveled.
In the end, I am going to call it 8.9 mpg. Similar trips with the same trailer in my 2004 Dodge diesel yielded about 10 mpg. So I am not unhappy with the result.
Had to adjust speed accordingly.
