EcoDiesel, A Maiden Voyage

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loveracing1988

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2020
Engine
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Alright Guys! After almost 2 months I finally sold my POS last week for about $1,400 less then I had payed in a round about way.

The vehicle blue booked at $48,080 with the options and miles, I payed $49,369 ($58,080 MSRP). I put it up on consignment for $44,995 ($995 consignment fee so I would of only gotten $44k) I also had it advertised on Craigslist for the same amount. There where two people who attempted to buy it through consignment but they couldn't get financed. Out of the blue one day I receive a phone call from the local Chevy dealership saying they want my truck and will give me 41-42k for it. Seeing as the best numbers I was seeing for trade in was 38k I thought, what the hell I'll bring it in and see what they'll give me. Sure enough they offered $41,500 and I accepted the offer after much debate. What made this all possible was the $6,500 settlement I'm receiving from Chrysler. When I add that onto what I sold the truck for it comes out to $48,000. 1.4k less than I had payed for the vehicle itself. Considering I put 27,000 miles on the truck in that first year I think that is a pretty good deal. Of course I would of loved to have sold it privately for 48, then gotten that check from Chrysler meaning I made 6,500 and drove all those miles. But I just wanted to wash my hands of her and crawl into bed with a new girl :hump:

So the same day I sold the EcoDiesel I bought a 2015 Ram 2500 Mega Cab with the 6.4L Hemi. Well, It's not the long bed like I had originally wanted, nor is it the 6.7L Cummins, However a friend of mine recently picked up the same truck and showed me the mega cab. Up until this point I had never seen the inside of the mega cab, never felt first hand how much room there really was, especially if you lay the seats down. After that, I had to have the Mega cab. I'll use the extra space inside the truck daily if nothing else for my dog Titan who is a Grate Dane. Where as I would of only used the extra 2' of bed space... maybe once every other month, if that?

As far as not getting the Cummins like I had wanted, my buddy said and showed me he was getting around 15mpg in his 6.4. In my opinion that's pretty good considering the size of the truck, and the engine. Where as most the people I talked to who owned the diesel was getting around 17-18. The biggest reason I wanted the diesel was for the better economy. Paying 8k MSRP to get 2-3mpg better? didn't make much since to me. So I did some math and calculated out how many miles I'd have to drive in order to have save the cost of the diesel upgrade.

266,667 miles is what I came up with and that's assuming I'd get an average of 18mpg in the cummins and 15mpg in the hemi without the fuel prices changing.

266,667 miles is a long, long time. I have no doubt the engine is good for it, but thats before you calculate DEF Fluid. It would take an estimated 296 gallons of def to get you that far. (Def consumption is averaged at 2% of the diesel fuel consumed.) Locally I can only purchase def in 2.5 gallon containers for around 16.99. That would cost another $2,000 dollars you'd have to save. which in turn would be another 66,667 miles. and then another 74 gallons of def... another 500 dollars... 16,667 miles... 18.5 gallons of def... 125 dollars...

As you can see it just keeps going until finally you reach a safe bet of 356,000 miles of driving before you finally THINK you have saved enough money to justify that engine... What about the extra 5 quarts of oil every oil change, and the price difference in the type of oil?... Well, I got done calculating things before that as it becomes extremely complex and just knowing it would take me almost 28 years to drive all those miles at a high average of 15,000 a year I knew any more calculations would just be a waste of brain power.

So basically what I'm getting at is you'd never save that money. Once you contribute everything from regular maintenance to unforeseen repairs your going to be out whatever you paid to upgrade to the cummins. Now, if you bought the cummins for all of its capacities, and not just its better fuel economy, then its money well spent no doubt about it. But thats not why I wanted it. I'd never use it to its capacities.

Anyway, I've spent long enough typing this all up. I just wanted to let y'all know that I won't be supplying updates on the EcoDiesel anymore and if you like what I've posted so far you can follow my build page / truck journal here, or in my Signature.

*edit* I'll add a link to the thread when I actually start it. Thanks for reading guys!

The price difference between a 6.4 oil change and a 6.7 oil change isn't much because of the special oil the 6.4 takes. Also you can see my mpg numbers in my signature, I have had 1 tank, maybe 2 above 15 miles per gallon and that is all highway. Once winter sets in you can expect about 10 miles per gallon. Unless of course it is like last year where we had a colder winter in Michigan than half of Alaska.
 
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Mr.Asmith9

Mr.Asmith9

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Fairbanks, AK
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2015 Ram 2500 Mega Cab
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6.4L V8 Hemi
Hey Loveracing1988,

Did you know when you quot a post you can actually shorten it to the portion you want to quote and or to just enough to tag the person your quoting? When there are longer posts like my last one and the whole message is doubled you end up adding a lot of clutter to the forum. I just wanted to let you know, if you didn't, that it's possible.

In regards to the economy your receiving I have actually inspected your fuelly account and appreciated how consistent you where with supplying so much information, like posting notes saying what the evic showed for mpg.

As far as winter gas mileage it all depends on how long you let your vehicle idle, if your garage it, driving habits ect. Of course like any vehicle you can expect to see a decrease in winter, I suspect I'll drop down to around 10-12 myself however most my miles are highway at speeds up to 65mph. With distances around 40-100 miles a trip.

Since you mentioned winter I'd like to clarify that I didn't take winter mileage drops into my accounts for fuel efficiency and repaying the cost of the diesel upgrade. The first reason I didn't is before I could I came up with about 27 years of driving, the other is because if you were to estimate 18 mpg summer grade diesel without warm up then in the winter you'd probably get around 10-12 with winter grade diesel and idle times. My EcoDiesel got an average of 26ish highway in the summer. In the winter it dropped to 21ish just driving and with idle time included for my shorter trips down to an average of about 18. This a huge decrease I'd be afraid to see if it was the Cummins that would definitely increase the time frame to bridge the gap of that upgrade.


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loveracing1988

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I know that is possible, if I were on a computer I would do so, but typing on my phone it is a little more of a pain to delete entire paragraphs. I'm sure you planned on the lower winter economy, but even the summer economy isn't that great. For as big of a truck as it is it isn't bad but I was hoping for just a little better. My 1500 averaged 16 in the summer, I just want to average 14 with this in the summer. I rarely let my truck idle and drive 65 on the expressway so it will be similar to yours.
 
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Mr.Asmith9

Mr.Asmith9

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I rarely let my truck idle and drive 65 on the expressway so it will be similar to yours.

Sounds about right, I wonder what our elevation difference is and how that could effect our mileage. I know that I've got about 30 miles of hills I go through that will end up dropping the economy some but on the flat terrain I hope to recover from that. My Dad's '06 2500 with the 5.7L Hemi Averages 15.5 for the 100 mile stretch from home to work so I'd like to get at least 14.
 

toofart

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I have the 5.7 and as soon as the temps drop near freezing it's a pig.

Tthe 2500/6.4 is a great combo -- you don't need to justify your choice based on MPGs. The simplicity of a gasser for those of us who only tow occasionally only makes sense.
 
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Mr.Asmith9

Mr.Asmith9

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The 2500/6.4 is a great combo -- you don't need to justify your choice based on MPGs. The simplicity of a gasser for those of us who only tow occasionally only makes sense.

Haha quite the opposite my good sir. I had to talk myself out of buying the Diesel as that's what I wanted but it didn't make any sense when I actually got my head out of my exhaust pipe ;)

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loveracing1988

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Sounds about right, I wonder what our elevation difference is and how that could effect our mileage. I know that I've got about 30 miles of hills I go through that will end up dropping the economy some but on the flat terrain I hope to recover from that. My Dad's '06 2500 with the 5.7L Hemi Averages 15.5 for the 100 mile stretch from home to work so I'd like to get at least 14.

I live in Michigan, our "mountains" hit almost 2000 feet! I think I am right around 650 feet above sea level, so probably not near as high as you. Everywhere I have driven my truck stays within about a 50' range in elevation. I hope once I hit 10000 miles I get a slight mileage bump like I did with my 1500, but I'm not holding my breath. For reference all I have done to my truck is a k&n filter and the wheel to wheel sidesteps which are supposed to help slightly with fuel economy per ram.
 
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Mr.Asmith9

Mr.Asmith9

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Fairbanks, AK
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2015 Ram 2500 Mega Cab
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Well, my aftermarket accessories plan will drop my economy for sure, probably to around 10. But I'll have it for a week or two to get an idea of what it would of been before mods.

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