Disappointing MPG

Received my 2022 2500 with the desiel engine about a month ago. My highway mpg is running about 20,but towing my travel trailer on level highway is giving 9.9 mpg's. This is less than what I was getting with my 2015 Hem 1500. I bought the deisel with the expectation of better mileage. Considering the extra cost of deisel fuel and maintenance, I think I made a mistake.

I never got better mpg with any ouf my diesels over my gassers. When I had my 2500 6.7 rfe I averaged anywhere between 19-28 depending on how I drove it or babied it but when I towed our old 13k fiver i stayed around 10 mpg, so I'd say your numbers are right on the money for what to expect

seems towing a person would be happy with 10mpg all while having plenty of power to pass slower moving trucks...

Well, sounds like you will never recover the 12K cost for that diesel. But I guess you'll never blow it up towing anything. I just got a Ram 2500 tradesman 2022,, not towing anything yet,, only 1000 miles on it ,, 8ft bed. I cant get it over 10/11 mph not towing anything!! Will be towing around 7000 in the spring camping. That should be fun at around 7 or 8 mph. under load. 3.73 gears.

I have a2015 2500 Longhorn with the Cummins and 3.21 gears. Easily get 19-22 Highway and around 9-10 towing 15-20,000 pounds.

JeffLW said:

Received my 2022 2500 with the desiel engine about a month ago. My highway mpg is running about 20,but towing my travel trailer on level highway is giving 9.9 mpg's. This is less than what I was getting with my 2015 Hem 1500. I bought the deisel with the expectation of better mileage. Considering the extra cost of deisel fuel and maintenance, I think I made a mistake.

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A month old? Probably not even broke in yet. Give it time. Also, don't trust the computer, figure it out by hand calculation.
You'll come to realize diesel MPG are all over the map depending on who's telling the story because of things like fuel quality, driving characteristics, type of trailer, actual scaled weight, terrain, ect.
If I keep it around 60-65 mph towing 13k 5er with my 9.8k truck I get 11.8 mpg. If I go 75mph+ and it drops to 10.5 mpg. Speed kills when towing. There's no way around it. And having a diesel for me is capability of doing more work for a longer period of time without killin the truck. If the fuel mileage turns out to be better than a gasser than it's an added bonus, which usually does. A gas truck towing my setup would always be it the single digits around 7 or 8.
I say give it time to break in (change out that break in oil) and hand calculate MPG and see what happens. I think you're too early to tell.
Also if you're traveling alot it pays to get a fuel card like EFS to take advantage of lower cost diesel fuel at truck stops. I usually get diesel far cheaper than a gallon of gasoline.

I get 12 to 13 towing a 6500 lb 30 ft travel trailer and I got 21 running highway with the bed 1/2 loaded on a trip from FL to CT and back. 10K miles on the truck now.

If you're towing your TT thousands of miles a month fuel mileage matters some. If it's a weekender once a month I wouldn't be concerned with fuel mileage when towing. It's going to suck regardless. Driving habits and terrain can impact mpg but it's still going to be substantially less than what you normally get when not towing.

If you bought a diesel to save 2 mpg you spent an additional 12k for the wrong reason. Good thing is today's vehicle market is nuts and IF you decide it's not for you it is likely you can get out of it with a small or no loss. You might give it a little time and look at the truck as a whole and determine whether or not it's a keeper for you.

Lee Pedrick said:

Well, sounds like you will never recover the 12K cost for that diesel. But I guess you'll never blow it up towing anything. I just got a Ram 2500 tradesman 2022,, not towing anything yet,, only 1000 miles on it ,, 8ft bed. I cant get it over 10/11 mph not towing anything!! Will be towing around 7000 in the spring camping. That should be fun at around 7 or 8 mph. under load. 3.73 gears.

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Something is wrong with that truck.

First Highway trip with my 2500 gas, long box CC. Mileage has been hand calculated on every tank. EVIC is within .2 pretty much every time. At 8000 Klms overall average is 16.4 mpg for 4x4 off road and gravel 50%, city 20% hihway 30%. Best highway mileage, 22.2 over a 220 mile run.

New truck and worse time of year to measure diesel mileage with blended fuel. With that however its no secret to expect 11-12 towing on the upper end.

With 9,250 miles on the truck i'm getting around 22mpg average. We tow a lot and we're getting around 14mpg towing our 7K trailer, our 1500 averaged 8-9mpg. I'm more than happy with that, especially with how heavy the truck is.

My 6.7 gets 3 to 4 mpg better towing than my 6.4 did. Don't know what my unloaded hwy economy is yet, as every trip I've taken has been hauling the camper. My 6.4 once got 16 mpg highway.

Took my truck 40 miles up the New Jersey tpk. Cruse on 65 even the whole way. Averaged just touched 14mpg. Ran back at 75mph and got 13.5 average. RPM,,1600 at 65,,on return,,RPM 1750 at 75 mph. I think somethings wrong also. There is a harmonic,,,SOUND/ VIBRATION,, from 50 on up thru 60mph. The biggest constant when hearing it is engine RPM. Tire balance already eliminated.

If you really want to whine, you should have bought a Hemi. I would love to see those figures. But at the additional cost of a Cummins, I don't think I would ever recover the cost difference.

Wickenburg Geezer said:

If you really want to whine, you should have bought a Hemi. I would love to see those figures. But at the additional cost of a Cummins, I don't think I would ever recover the cost difference.

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I showed you 6.4 hemi gas mileage numbers. Better by far than the OP is getting and not far off the best numbers being posted. Plus a lot of money I didn't pay for the Cummings or maintenance there on.

It should improve as it breaks in, give it a few thousand miles. From what I've seen, the Cummins should get about 20% better economy than the 6.4 towing. What is the length of the trip while towing? What size camper? My previous 1500 got 11 mpg towing a 5500# camper. My mpg can fluctuate on a trip but my 6.4 with 3.73 shows 9.1-9.6 mpg for trip averages towing my 11k 5w between Maine and North Carolina at 65mph. Empty I only get about 16-17 on the highway or cruising country roads, 17 is on a good day; the 2" front "level" doesn't do me any favors on the empty economy.

For comparison purposes, on fuel economy savings only, based on my local prices:
5,000 miles towing annually
87 octane: $3.07
Diesel: $3.37
Gas cost: $1705.56 (9 mpg)
Diesel cost: $1404.17 (12 mpg)
Diesel savings: $301.39

10,000 miles commuting / cruising / whatever
Gas cost: $2046.67 (15 mpg)
Diesel Cost: $1685.00 (20 mpg)
Diesel savings: $361.67

Obviously the diesel prices have been closer to gasoline prices recently in my area, but as you can see, the diesel fuel has started to get more expensive. Diesel is typically $.25-$.30 more per gallon around me; these prices are from this morning. When I got to the middle of the country on some trips I saw diesel fuel cost the same as gasoline.
Buying diesel for economy only is like buying an airplane for the free peanuts. The diesel exhaust brake, double the amount of torque, and lower rpms are what you're really buying and the economy is a slight bonus. I won't discuss maintenance because I don't own a diesel.

For me, based on the fuel economy only, using the above numbers, it would take 13 years to break even on a $9500 Cummins. It's a badass setup for sure, and if I had the spare coin, I might buy one for the easier fueling and better range on long trips towing the camper. Today it's -2 degrees out and my 6.4 fires up and is warm pretty quickly, so it really depends on needs/wants.

Good luck with the truck, the economy will improve.

This may sound foolish to many. I bought my 5th gen High Output Cummins/ Aisin duelly because I like the way it looks. When I was a kid I liked stock muscle cars. Now I like stock muscle trucks and this is my last hurrah. I also got a great deal on the brand new truck on a year end clearance off the lot and worked an ever better deal as it was the last day of the month. Yea, as a 2019, its 3 years old but I only have a little over 10k miles on it and its loaded with hi tech & options like the 12 inch touch screen. I also feel very safe driving it. I don't yet tow or haul anything with it yet, but I may. If I hold out.

I average 15 mpg on mostly level terrain, at 70 mph. That's almost as good as my old Toyota Tacoma. Which was 1/2 the size and 1/2 the power, and maybe 1/4 the torque. And I feel so much more safe on the road vs the Tacoma. I am extremely happy with my Ram Laramie Cummins/ Aisin duelly.

Oh lord another mpg thread!!

Let's compare 1500 to 2500 Hemi's for a minute. My son bought a brand new 2018 Grand Design Imagine 2670MK. He was on the road working so I picked it up from the dealer and towed it 200 miles away to his location with my 2013 1500 5.7 Hemi 3.55's. Me and a friend went and the truck and camper were both empty. I got 7.345 MPG hand calculated. I made it 145.2 miles and my low fuel light was on. My son had a 2018 2500 6.4 with 4.10's that he used to tow that camper all over the country with and he was getting about 200 miles per tank but granted the 2500 had a 6 gallon bigger tank. On one trip from Pittsburgh to Baytown, TX I went with him. We stopped and weighed the combo (trailer was loaded with his stuff by this point) and the trailer weighed 8100lbs. We averaged about 8.5 MPG each fill-up, give or take. And the truck was also loaded down with at least an extra 500-1000lbs. In fact the truck weighed 8000lbs with me and him in it so roughly an extra 500lbs of stuff in the truck. So the 2500 6.4 Hemi with 4.10s got just over 1 MPG better towing AND the trailer was probably an extra 1000lbs heavier with the 2500 due to it being loaded up then. Guessing apples to apples the 6.4 was maybe 1.5 MPG better than the 1500 with the 5.7 was.

dhay13 said:

Let's compare 1500 to 2500 Hemi's for a minute. My son bought a brand new 2018 Grand Design Imagine 2670MK. He was on the road working so I picked it up from the dealer and towed it 200 miles away to his location with my 2013 1500 5.7 Hemi 3.55's. Me and a friend went and the truck and camper were both empty. I got 7.345 MPG hand calculated. I made it 145.2 miles and my low fuel light was on. My son had a 2018 2500 6.4 with 4.10's that he used to tow that camper all over the country with and he was getting about 200 miles per tank but granted the 2500 had a 6 gallon bigger tank. On one trip from Pittsburgh to Baytown, TX I went with him. We stopped and weighed the combo (trailer was loaded with his stuff by this point) and the trailer weighed 8100lbs. We averaged about 8.5 MPG each fill-up, give or take. And the truck was also loaded down with at least an extra 500-1000lbs. In fact the truck weighed 8000lbs with me and him in it so roughly an extra 500lbs of stuff in the truck. So the 2500 6.4 Hemi with 4.10s got just over 1 MPG better towing AND the trailer was probably an extra 1000lbs heavier with the 2500 due to it being loaded up then. Guessing apples to apples the 6.4 was maybe 1.5 MPG better than the 1500 with the 5.7 was.

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I would have been happy getting slightly less towing mpg (2017 Coleman Light 2855bh) switching from my 2016 1500/5.7 to my 2500/6.4 due to the size and weight difference, but I got about 1mpg better with the 2500 and it didn't need as many rpm's as the 5.7 did. I was pleasantly surprised, which led me to getting a 5w (2020 Cougar 30rls). Once I got a 5w, I got .5-1 better mpg than with the lighter travel trailer on similar trips (7,500# vs 11,000#).