Miles per gallon with a diesel?

[Dave and Kimberly]

I'm thinking that my next truck will be an F-250 super duty diesel.  I understand all the benefits (pay load, braking, handling and elimination of the WDS) There is a significant cost up ($10K) for the diesel engine alone.  Ive read enough folks opinions on the diesel engine and I'm convinced that it is better for towing.   My current F-150 just never gets any more than 13mpg... and thats generally a good day!   

  A question to the many of you folks that have made the leap to diesel;  what kind of milage are you getting while towing your Ollie?

[Mike and Carol]

MPG will, of course, will depend on how and where you drive.  My Ram has a 6.7L inline six, a little different than the Ford V8.  I get about 18 mpg around town not towing.  A little over 20 mpg just highway.  Towing on level highways I get a little over 15 mpg at 65 mph.  I’ll do 70 on I-10 going west from San Antonio and I’ll get 13/14 mpg.  In the mountains it drops to 11 or 12.  I’ve got about 75K miles on this truck, half of it towing.  Mike

[Patriot]

Totally agree with @Mike and Carol on mpgs. That said we are very happy with our F350 6.7 diesel with safety, comfort, towing,  great cargo capacity and ridiculous power and torque. We only have 30k on our TV. We own a smaller Ford Ranger that we use daily for running errands when at home. Our F350 is mainly for travel and towing. 

Empty and not towing I get about 19-20 mpgs. Our average towing on the flats we average 15.9 mpgs. This of course changes when we hit the mountains. But I know our mpgs are much better than our former half ton Tundra with the 5.7 V8. We sold the Tundra as it just did not have the power, braking and mainly cargo capacity we needed.

One thing worthy of note we have noticed out west in some of the mountain passes Law Enforcement will do brake checks on 1/2 ton vehicles towing campers. They use a heat gun and determine if you need to pull over to designated parking areas so that your brakes can cool. With our one ton diesel we were waved through and no check. 

Best of luck with your choice for a new TV!

Edited September 16 by Patriot

[ScubaRx]

Tali and I currently tow with a Silverado 3500 HD. We did tow with a Silverado 2500 HD and before that, a Sierra 1500 SLT 6.2L gasser. Both the Silverado's have be diesel. We found the 2500 HD to have a minimal payload of just over 2000 pounds. As many of you have pointed out, we carry a lot of gear, too much according to some (I have a list.)

The poor Sierra was seriously overloaded, probably by about a ton (literally). It's no wonder it got a dismal fuel mileage of around 10.5mpg. Moving up to the 2500 HD was great for fuel mileage coming in around 13.5-14 mpg right out of the gate. Unfortunately, I discovered that I was still 7-8 hundred pounds overloaded so we moved up to the 3500 HD. The engine and transmission in both the Silverado's are the same. I was pleasantly surprised to get exactly the same fuel mileage from the 3500 HD.

With the exception of driving the 3500 HD around town, it is always a tow vehicle. We've had it nearly three years and it doesn't even have 30K miles on it. Our trips are always at least 4500 miles so the mileage we've racked up are virtually all highway towing miles. We have only ever made a single one-way trip to Huntsville not towing the Oliver. We went there to pick up another trailer to tow back to Tupelo. I can say that in the 2500 HD we made a few non towing trips in. It got 22 mpg on the open highway. Mileage around town seems to be the same as towing mileage.

[Rolind]

Our F250 gets 13-14 mph while towing our LE2. Mileage is very speed dependent. 

[Jason Foster]

I love diesels but I do not love what the EPA is doing to them.  I have a 2014 Cummins that gets about 25 on the highway, 18 in the city and about 13 towing.  This includes stopping, idling and everything in between.  Mine is not EPA compliant, however.  Personally, if I needed a new TV, I would buy a Ram 2500 with the Hemi.  It gets decent fuel mileage and doesn't suffer the ill effects of emission equipment.

[Going Coastal]

If you are worried about MPG, get a gasser.  Prior to 2005, when diesel cost less than gas, you would pay the 10k upfront on a diesel and recover it on fuel economy overtime.  That has not been the case in 20 years.  A diesel will cost you more due to fuel cost, filters, additional maintenance cost, etc. The only reason to get a diesel is if you need the towing capacity.  That is not the case with an Oliver.  I have a 2006 F250 with the 6.0 that I bought new...have about 250k on it... and get 14-15 mpg when towing in flat areas.  My next truck is going to be the new GM gasser 3/4 ton with the allison tranny.  I would not buy a new diesel for an Oliver.

[Cameron]

I've got a 2020 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4 with a 3.0 diesel. Since starting with the Ollie E2 (15k miles so far on the trailer) I've averaged 15.8 mpg. 

[ScubaRx]

On 9/9/2024 at 12:25 AM, ScubaRx said:

Tali and I currently tow with a Silverado 3500 HD. We did tow with a Silverado 2500 HD and before that, a Sierra 1500 SLT 6.2L gasser. Both the Silverado's have be diesel. We found the 2500 HD to have a minimal payload of just over 2000 pounds. As many of you have pointed out, we carry a lot of gear, too much according to some (I have a list.)

The poor Sierra was seriously overloaded, probably by about a ton (literally). It's no wonder it got a dismal fuel mileage of around 10.5mpg. Moving up to the 2500 HD was great for fuel mileage coming in around 13.5-14 mpg right out of the gate. Unfortunately, I discovered that I was still 7-8 hundred pounds overloaded so we moved up to the 3500 HD. The engine and transmission in both the Silverado's are the same. I was pleasantly surprised to get exactly the same fuel mileage from the 3500 HD.

With the exception of driving the 3500 HD around town, it is always a tow vehicle. We've had it nearly three years and it doesn't even have 30K miles on it. Our trips are always at least 4500 miles so the mileage we've racked up are virtually all highway towing miles. We have only ever made a single one-way trip to Huntsville not towing the Oliver. We went there to pick up another trailer to tow back to Tupelo. I can say that in the 2500 HD we made a few non towing trips in. It got 22 mpg on the open highway. Mileage around town seems to be the same as towing mileage.

Followup...

I took the truck and trailer to Hohenwald on 11-12-2024. I left the trailer to have some custom bodywork done. On 11-15-2024, I returned to Hohenwald in the truck to pick up the trailer. On the way up the Natchez Trace, driving no more than 55mph, I averaged 23.5mpg (about 160 miles). After the drive home, towing the trailer, the combined mpg (for both trips) was 19.5mpg.

[Steph and Dud B]

6 hours ago, Going Coastal said:

If you are worried about MPG, get a gasser.  Prior to 2005, when diesel cost less than gas, you would pay the 10k upfront on a diesel and recover it on fuel economy overtime.  That has not been the case in 20 years.  A diesel will cost you more due to fuel cost, filters, additional maintenance cost, etc.

Just some rough math out of curiosity: Diesel is about 13% more expensive than gas right now. However, my diesel truck was approx. 35% more fuel efficient when towing, so there are savings there, maybe $81 per thousand miles driven towing. Based on that, diesel would have saved us $264 in fuel costs this year (we towed 3260 miles). However, with the higher initial cost of a diesel truck, more expensive maintenance, DEF, etc. we would have lost money overall (assuming a 15 year lifespan for the truck). I estimate we'd have to tow approx. 3X as many miles per year to break even. Diesel might be worth it for a full timer who puts on a lot of miles though, especially if they do a lot of mountain towing. 

[QuestionMark]

2020 F250 w/ 6.7 diesel.  Towed around 60K miles so far and averaging just shy of 16 mpg while towing all around the US and Canada (Alaska, Maine, PEI, etc....   Another benefit is you get a much larger tank on the diesel (over 400 miles between fill-ups) and can utilize the fuel discount program "Open Roads" to save on every gallon of diesel. In addition you get to use the much nicer and larger commercial truck lanes when filling up.  Only complaint my wife has had is that the fill rate on these commercial lanes is much faster and she hardly has time to utilize the facilities (bathroom) before I am ready to go 😀.  

[Patriot]

7 hours ago, QuestionMark said:

2020 F250 w/ 6.7 diesel.  Towed around 60K miles so far and averaging just shy of 16 mpg while towing all around the US and Canada (Alaska, Maine, PEI, etc....   Another benefit is you get a much larger tank on the diesel (over 400 miles between fill-ups) and can utilize the fuel discount program "Open Roads" to save on every gallon of diesel. In addition you get to use the much nicer and larger commercial truck lanes when filling up.  Only complaint my wife has had is that the fill rate on these commercial lanes is much faster and she hardly has time to utilize the facilities (bathroom) before I am ready to go 😀.  

We really like our “Open Roads” card for all the reasons you mentioned and more. On our last 48 day trip out west we occasionally saved 65-70 cents per gallon on diesel. @QuestionMark you are totally on point about being able to safely fill up in the larger diesel commercial truck lanes, we are really spoiled. One of the other nice benefits of the O/R app is forecasting along your planned route and knowing where you can use it.

Huge fans here of Open Roads! 👍🏻 🇺🇸🇺🇸 

@Dave and Kimberly should you purchase a diesel beast here is the link to Open Roads.

https://myopenroads.com/

Edited Tuesday at 06:17 AM by Patriot
Add link

[Galway Girl]

Live in the west and in mountains 6.7l f350 gets 12.7 mpg and on east coast flats 13.8 mpg.   Overall 80k is 13.5 mpg towing EII. 

[QuestionMark]

7 hours ago, Galway Girl said:

Live in the west and in mountains 6.7l f350 gets 12.7 mpg and on east coast flats 13.8 mpg.   Overall 80k is 13.5 mpg towing EII. 

Thinking my mileage is slightly better due to me having the 3.31 differential.   Rig runs low rpm’s while traveling highway speeds and the trailer is so light I really do not need the higher ratio diff.   Also run with hotshots every day treatment (EDT) added to the tank with each fill-up.   

Edited Tuesday at 09:14 PM by QuestionMark

[FloraFauna]

On 9/9/2024 at 9:16 AM, Rolind said:

Our F250 gets 13-14 mph while towing our LE2. Mileage is very speed dependent. 

This has been my experience with the Duramax in my Silverado 2500.  Quite honestly I thought it would be better but on the other hand the truck never feels overly stressed.  Mileage is very speed dependent as stated.