Dagum, that's bad. Unless ya got some big meats on your wheels or somin

 

before I bought my truck, i borrowed one of my dads. He has a 95 v10 5spd and a 96 5spd 5.2L truck. My brother has a 97 5.9L. I would make sure I borrowed the v10, especially when my driveway washed out and i was filling it in with dolomite. The v10 barely noticed 3yards in the back. the other two trucks really felt 1 yard.

But diesel's get better MPG under load then gas trucks.

 

Nothing to big jus some 35's an 4.10's. Mileage maybe better, since my speedo is off from the tires kinda hard to get a perfectly accurate number.

 

Current gas prices around here are 3.30 a gallon for 87 octane gas, and 3.90 a gallon for diesel....... Now, if you figger you drive 12,000 miles per year, all of it towing, and get 10 miles per gallon with the gasser...... and prices remain static...... You spend 3960 in gas.....

Ok, switch to the diesel, and lets assume an average 15 miles per gallon. (which is probably actually kinda high. We are talking AVERAGE towing mileage here....) You spend 3120 a year.....

Difference? 840 per year. Now, consider that just the badge that says "diesel" on the door, adds right about 4 grand to a 2000-01 truck..... you would have to drive it almost five years to make up the price difference in fuel you didn't have to buy, and that completely ignores maintenance costs, and possible repairs.

Obviously, the further you drive, the greater the difference becomes.......

I would also add that the V-10, not being the most common motor in the world..... can also be problematic to find parts for, higher maintenance costs than its 8 cylinder counterparts.... and probably VERY similar mileage when towing. Cost difference between the 10's, and the 8's isn't quite so extreme though, seems they didn't make them out of gold, like the diesels...... finding one can be fun though......

V-8s? Common as flies on dog poop. Parts are available anywhere, maintenance is reasonable, and with a few upgrades, can be a very capable motor, for less than the cost of the diesel. Granted, you won't have the GOBS of bottom end torque the oil burner does.... but, you can get in the neighborhood, and have a very nice tow rig.

 

I've got 285 75 16's on my truck with 4.10 gearing and the automatic 47RE transmission. I get about 13 hwy and 10 city. If I pull heavy then about 10 sometimes lower depending on the weight.

Now I had a Durango completely custom built 360 and 46RE trans with 3.92 gearing and 31 10.5 15 rubber with the NV242HD T-case. The thing was a f*ckin power house! But under tow my V-10 rips it up, however that 360 would wipe the floor with my V-10 on the get-up-and-go. Best I would get on the Durango was 15.8 MPG but I don't see the full size Rams even come close to that with the 360!

Fact of the matter is, if you have a daily driver you should chose the 360, if you don't drive much and need power here and there then go to the 488, but if you tow all the time and run all the time then buy a Cummins hands down. I've seen the Cummins get 22 MPG+ on the hwy, and have all the towing ***** that you will ever need.

Also you can mod a Cummins with incredible torque with a few mods (like 180+ lbs) wereas you can't do that with any gassers. The other thing is there is really little mods for the V-10.

 

all this talk about these big motors. makes a 318 look like a 6 cyl. jk. 318's a brick ****house. once a few boltons are thrown at it. i would love to own a 12v cummins though. hard to find.. harder to find stock or in good shape.

 

my work truck lol only gets 10mpg and its a cummins... but man does it have some power

 

My heavily mobbed cummins will get 24-26 highway and with a heavy load the lowest I got was 15 when I had my bigger turbos and they took long to spoil up

 

I avarage 17-18 under my towing day to day and I have a little fun to

 

V10 owner here that does a ton of hauling. With 5-6000 lbs behind the truck you don't even know its there. With 10k+ lbs behind it, it will take a really steep mountain to slow you down. But it would slow any truck down lol.

As for maintenance, parts aren't too bad to find. I've replaced *******ly everything on mine and the only thing I couldn't buy new was a front timing chain cover.

As for mpg, I get about 9-10 mpg while towing 10k+ lbs. it's hard to be terribly accurate since my truck was originally a 3.55 geared truck and now it has 4.56's and 35" tires.