Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Dodge 2500 gas mileage -real world

Hi,

Considering a '09 Dodge 2500 Mega Cab, 4wd with the Hemi motor.

Anyone had any real world experience as far as mileage goes with this truck?

I am moving out of a GMC Yukon XL, with a 5.3 but 4.10 gears, so it's mileage was only about 17 at the best at highway/interstate speeds, and dropped off quite quickly with increased speed or windy conditions. No big 4wd is good around town, but I do use the trucks for some longer road trips and just wondered what I could realistically expect.

Thanks.

What gears does the Dodge have? Most you will find have 4.10's and you should expect 8-12 in town and 14-17 hwy.

Hemi

Wow! I believe I'll hang on to my Cummins, even with the fuel price difference......

I think this one is 3.73. It is used, so I will have to check.

Yeah, the cummins is probably more fuel efficient vs the Hemi. However, if you don't pull a lot or pull some but not that heavy of loads (up to 12K lbs) the Hemi is the way to go. You can buy A LOT of fuel for the upgrade to a diesel.

Hemi

Show me a HEMI that can make 500 hp and 1060 lb/ft of torque and still deliver 23+ mpg on the highway

.....and your point is?

Hemi

My point is that to me, at least, the price premium of the diesel is worth every penny for the benefits of all that torque thats available with relatively few modifications, and the fact that you don't lose fuel mileage with the increased performance on tap, unless of course you use it.......

I also tend to keep my vehicles for a long time, so the added cost is amortized by the superior economy as well as expected higher resale value. Even were that not the case, I'd still choose the diesel.

A good friend drives an '05 1/2ton hemi. It gets about 14-15 around town and 17-18 highway. He's not crazy about it and thinks the powerband is wrong for a pickup. Don't know if or how the newer ones have been changed. I also know guys with new mega cabs and those things are heavy. Mileage with a gas engine can't be very good. If you're gonna get one, get the diesel and you'll never want another gas truck.

I also tend to keep my vehicles for a long time. My 98.5 dodge diesel has got somewhere around 360K miles on it now. When you do the math for fuel over that many miles you'll be absolutely shocked how much cheaper the diesel engine turns out to be. Most people think about upfront costs and that's it, but if you run the numbers over the lifespan of a high mileage truck like mine you'll find that the diesel option pays for itself several times over. Then there's also the fact that the truck is still doing daily driver and daily towing duties when a gas truck would had to have been replaced at roughly half the lifespan of the the diesel. In my opinion you can expect roughly twice the service life out of a diesel as a gas truck. That's an extra $30,000 or so you have left in your pocket that you didn't have to spend to replace a worn out truck. Of course, if you're one of these guys who has to have a shiny new truck every couple of years then the numbers don't quite work, but that's not me and I'd rather have the money in my pocket while driving the old diesel.

I currently have a pair of 2007 2500 4wd's with hemi's.

They get around 13.5-14.0 mixed driving. Straight highway runs you can squeeze around 450-480 miles on 31-32 gallon fills.

Crow Hunter,

Your are absoulutlt right. If you are not going to keep it for a long time, using the justification of better fuel economy is wacked. I sat down one time and figured the cost advantage of a diesel over a gas for a customer one time. When you factor in the initial expense and higher maintenance cost the break even point was somewhere over 250K miles. That was when diesel was WELL below the cost of gasoline too! Now that diesle and gas are about the same that mileage break will be several thousand miles higher.... and that is just to break even.

I can tell you I took in a number of nearly new diesel trucks on trade last summer when diesel peaked around $4.00 a gallon. The people who "wanted" a diesel or thought it was cool to drive one were trying to get out of them as fast as possible as the market dropped dramatically. Diesels were going for 50% of book or less! I wish I would have stocked up on about a million dollars of diesels and just sat on them, as the market has rebounded again. The people who needed a diesel just grinned and beared it.
I don't know that I agree as the life of a diesel being twice that of a Hemi. Cummins claims 350K miles before rebuild on the cummins in the Dodge. Dodge claimes the life of a Hemi at 250K miles. If you don't over use the gas it should last you a long time. I have seen several Hemi's in the upper 200's and still running strong. I think it all comes down to maintenance and using the truck within the limits it was built for.
I have seen several diesels blown up at less than 100K. Of course, the mentality that their truck is a diesel and can pull anything doesn't help that. Usually it is people towing WELL over the limit- like 25-35k lbs. Or people who have never driven a diesel before and don't know how.
If someone wants or needs a diesel go for it. However using the mentality of better fuel economy to "pay for itself" is a miss leading idea.

Hemi

You are correct about expected engine life, although there seem to be more exceptions to the 350k mile rule with the Cummins, assuming no injector failures. Not uncommon to see 500+k miles on one.....

Once you get a 100,000 miles on that 350,000 life diesel engine, the dealers really won't give you SQUAT for your truck on trade in....FACT!!! You got to get out of that truck before it gets 75,000 on it and that makes you LOOSE MONEY big time in comparison to a gas rig. First off you paid close to $7,000 dollars more in an option for that diesel engine don't forget.

Now a gas rig like a Dodge 2500 with Hemi is going to give you around 16.5 on the highway driving 72 mpg with cruise controll on. Now around town it will get you 13.5 and that is with .373 gears in the rearend with NO payload in the bed of the truck.

If you pull a heavy load around 10,000 pounds, you can look for mileage in the 9.5 mpg bracket simply put. My F-350 Superduty (1-ton SRD) gets 8.5 pulling 11,000 pounds and empty on the interstate hiway, I can get close to 14.5 if I baby it down the road. Stop & GO around town gets me 11.8mpg

Also, some credit unions and maybe some banks won't loan money on a rig with over 100k on it.

The new Popular Mechanics has an article about their long term test on a Ram 4 door with the Hemi. They put over 11K miles on it. They said it will pull a 7k enclosed car hauler with ease and they never ran out of power. However, they said that when towing, the mileage dropped to 6.4 mpg. The best they ever got was 18.3.

Rock Chuck, I almost purchased a 2500 Ram with a Hemi last year. Actually I did purchase the 4 x 4 Mega cab truck and they sold it out from underneath me. They then said "Sorry" you can purchase another, we have several on the lot.

I told them it was going to cost them a GRAND or breach of contract was about to take place. I got my money a week later.
Now I too have spoke to several guys at the hall, who in fact purchased those 2500 Hemi trucks. They do well on the highway empty but don't try to pull heavy loads and expect that 18mpg to only go down to 14mpg. It really dips below to 8mpg or less in some cases. My V-10 Ford only drops down to 9 or 9.5 pulling 12,000 pounds.