Engine hours... what i didnt know...

[TucsonBamaEngr]

Don’t feel too bad. I’m in the camp of “take the RAM hour meter with a grain of salt.” My 2018 RAM 1500 has 80,000 miles with 1,050 running hours and 900 idling hours. I don’t think that I’m really averaging 76 mph! 1/3 of my commute is at 45 mph. I found I’m not the only one from other threads here.

 

[Dean2]

Guess I’’m either deranged or a liar then….your pick

Ignore people that make jackwad comments like that. All it proves is how tiny their world and minds are. They seem to think that if they haven't seen something personally it can't possibly exists.

One of the big reasons for forums and the internet is passing on information. Something that occurs 5 percent of the time would take forever to figure it out if it wasn't for the sharing we now see everywhere. Researching something prior to the internet was a tremendous amount more work than it is now.

You contribute to that knowledge base, he clearly doesn't.

 

[My4thRam]

Because of other threads about this I saw previously, I have periodically looked at my 2019's readings since I got it.
When I was at high 900's for hours my idle time was just over 100 some odd.
When I checked it again a few months later the idle and drive were almost identical. LOL
At least on my truck the idle hours seem about right but drive reset to 0 when it should of went to a 4 digit number....so instead of going from 999 to 1000 it rolled over to 000. LOL

 

[My4thRam]

I've had the truck since 75k. Pictures don't lie!

This is mine currently View attachment 523783

You are right they don't lie.......they tell me even with Joel Osteen telling you how to get the most blessing in your life......you are still sweltering in hell hot temps and only getting 6 mpg!.........

 

[Hemi832]

You are right they don't lie.......they tell me even with Joel Osteen telling you how to get the most blessing in your life......you are still sweltering in hell hot temps and only getting 6 mpg!.........

View attachment 523940

Yup, living the American Dream!

 

[Andrei20]

So I just bought a 2020 limited ram truck with 34,000 miles.
This is my first truck. Not knowing about engine hours I sign all the paperwork...
So a few days later I discovered how to see my engine hours... and this is what I saw

IDLE 839
RUN 1325

2,164 total engine hours!

Well I think I stepped in it this time.... from what I see online this is quite high for 34k miles...

It should be illegal not disclosing this info.

I have hour meters on my all three cars, aftermarket installed on Volvo XC90 and Mercedes GL350, and a factory(obviously) on my 2016 Ram 3500.
The Volvo is mostly used in the city, groceries, kids to and from school and sports, so I'd say 80-90% city driving. In 200 hours, as I set my oil change interval, it travels around 5500-6000kms, which would be an average speed of 27-30.km/hour, or around 18-20 mph.
The other two, the Mercedes and the Ram are for long distances on highway and for pulling the camper, so I get about 10000 kms or 6000miles in about 150-160hrs, which would be around 40 mph average.
These are my stats, maybe they help you make a comparison.
So your average speed of around 25 mph (not including the idle hours), just show that your truck was used mostly in the city, and probably in lots of traffic. I might be wrong here. And the idle hours, well, some people like to idle their trucks a lot.
I hope this helps you understand the previous life of your truck.

 

[GeoffG68]

I have a 2011 Ram 1500 with the engine hours metric in the EVIC. It doesn't break out idle time from run time, but it's good to know the number of hours regardless. To the best of my knowledge it has never reset in the 10 years I've owned it. Interesting data point: when I hit 100K miles, the engine hours were about 4100 or so...about 24MPH overall. Living as I do in stop-and-go traffic, I don't have a hard time believing that figure is roughly correct. I would guess maybe 20% of the total is idle time.

 

[Daniel Ortiz]

The drive hours reset, apparently randomly. See here.

I wouldn't be surprised if the idle hours reset as well. Who the heck knows. But the grans of salt... have plenty of them!

 

[Cablespinner]

If the engine has been serviced properly, that shouldn't be a problem. I have a 2015 with 171,000 miles and 7,446 hours. 1,602 of those hours are showing as idling. The first year I had my truck i used it on the job and had a lot of idling time. I changed the engine oil every 200 hours rather than going by the mileage.

 

[greecegreens]

So I just bought a 2020 limited ram truck with 34,000 miles.
This is my first truck. Not knowing about engine hours I sign all the paperwork...
So a few days later I discovered how to see my engine hours... and this is what I saw

IDLE 839
RUN 1325

2,164 total engine hours!

Well I think I stepped in it this time.... from what I see online this is quite high for 34k miles...

It should be illegal not disclosing this info.

UPDATE:
SO something fishy is going on here. I had the truck for 3 weeks. I have put 473 miles on it.
This morning I went to look at the engine hours. I saw the idle hours are at 844! And I have been intentionally not idling. At most I Idled 30 min tops! For engine warm up.

Also it added 54 engine hours .... I damn shure didn't drive this truck for 54 hours !

This gives me relief and concern at the same time....

What gives?!?!

 

[Jimmy07]

UPDATE:
SO something fishy is going on here. I had the truck for 3 weeks. I have put 473 miles on it.
This morning I went to look at the engine hours. I saw the idle hours are at 844! And I have been intentionally not idling. At most I Idled 30 min tops! For engine warm up.

Also it added 54 engine hours .... I damn shure didn't drive this truck for 54 hours !

This gives me relief and concern at the same time....

What gives?!?!

It’s a novelty feature at best. Don’t even bother paying attention to the hours, and just drive it like you normally would like any other vehicle that never had hour meters.

 

[06 Dodge]

UPDATE:
SO something fishy is going on here. I had the truck for 3 weeks. I have put 473 miles on it.
This morning I went to look at the engine hours. I saw the idle hours are at 844! And I have been intentionally not idling. At most I Idled 30 min tops! For engine warm up.

Also it added 54 engine hours .... I damn shure didn't drive this truck for 54 hours !

This gives me relief and concern at the same time....

What gives?!?!

As I understand it any time the engine is running and not moving is considered idle time, so all of that sitting at the stop light & waiting in drive thru with engine running adds up faster then one thinks...

 

[turkeybird56]

OP, and whomever, just drive it and perform service/MX at proper intervals with quality fluids and filters, and ENJOY the ride.

 

[Daw14]

I did okay for many years without an hour meter , odometers did the trick just fine . Hour meters are for farm tractors and boats .

 

[Robert Mc]

Yea it was a certified truck with 7 year powertrain warranty.. so I kind of got over it.. lol. Just a kick in the pants initially... Def a learning experience

As you’re finding out the Idle/Drive meter is terribly inaccurate. In fact mine says I’ve been averaging 1,923 mph covering 148K miles in just 78 hours and I’ve idled the truck 338 hours. When I bought the truck it had 10K miles and the Idle/Drive meter had 168/145 hours respectively. Even if the drive meter reset at 1000 hours that means I’m still averaging 169 mph

The Cummins motor is the best part of a Ram 2500. Everything else is waiting for its end of life immediately after it was installed in the truck.