Come on now, no ganging up on me! Besides, 6th gear drops off less from 5th than 5th does from 4th. So how do you consider than an overdrive? Hmmmm? [8D]

 

According to 07QCDAK's spec's, 5th gear is 1 to 1, 6th is 1 to .79.

Doesn't that make it an overdrive?

 

And 4th gear is 1.23:1. That's more of a differential than going from 1:1 to 0.79:1 so[8D]

Now here's an overdrive...

42RLE - AUTOMATIC, 4-SPEED OVERDRIVE [ul][*] Availability: Available with 3.7L engine[*] Description: Clutch-selected planetary gear sets full electronic control, electronically controlled torque converter clutch[*] Gear Ratios: [ul][*]1st 2.84[*] 2nd 1.57[*] 3rd 1.00[*] 4th 0.69[*] Overall Top Gear 2.45 with 3.55 axle ratio, 2.74 with 3.92 axle ratio[/ul][/ul]

 

It's also an automatic...

The manuals just run higher RPMs, and oddly enough, get the same mpgs as the autos at lower rpms...

 

More efficient. I wish I had a manual.

 

That's one thing I've always been curious about. Every manual I've ever owned was rated at better MPG than it's auto counterpart. That's not the case with the this Dakota.

I just checked my mileage again on my last tank of gas and I got just over 13. That was mostly city, with about 30 miles of highway driving thrown in there for good measure. At $50.00+ to fill the tank, I sure wish this pig could eek out a few more MPG. [&o] When I bought this truck, and the last two Daks I owned (both with 4.7), gas was around or under $2.00 a gallon. Now it's been averaging like $2.90 here for the last year or so and this **** sucks. 220 miles on a tank of gas is almost depressing. My '04 QC with an auto seemed to average a little better than this one. Maybe because with the auto it was less fun to drive?

Also, these trucks supposedly come with a 22 gallon tank, right? I have NEVER put more than 18 gallons of fuel in this thing, regardless if the low fuel light has been on for a day or two. Has everyone here found that to be the case with their trucks too? That apparently means when I think I'm about to run out, I should still have 4 gallons left.

 

I get 16city, and around 20 on the highway in the winter, and about 18city 22 on highway in summer... and that's a 4wd v8...

And the reason you can't get more than 18gal in it, if you read the manual, it says when you are at E (or if you have the overhead, DTE = 0) you still have a 10% gas reserve, so on a 21.x gal tank (it's not quite 22 gal), thats almost 2 gallons... which would put you right around high 18s to low 19s for gallons to fill up.



Btw, those up top numbers aren't overhead calc'd... they are actual, fill up tank, clear odometer, drive, check odometer, fill tank, grab cell phone, divide mileage by gallons used, and voila...

I've gone almost 450 miles on a tank of gas, when I went to go see Eric last year... I had 23mpg the whole way at about 62mph, and then I hit city driving, and it dropped to an average of 19.73...

I wasn't complaining. :-)

 

That's freakin' nuts. With my 4X4 the BEST I've ever gotten on an over the road trip was about 17.5MPG. Some of that is through hills and mountains, and other is relatively flatland like Indiana and Iowa. But that is the best I've ever averaged. On the highway, I might get 280 miles out of a tank before I have to stop with maybe an 1/8 tank left. In town, I'm doing 200-220 miles on a tank.

What the hell are you doing that I'm not?

And I check mileage the same way, divide miles by gallons on my cell.

 

I'm getting the same MPG's as you are getting.

Frency, how or why are you getting better milage? I've done mods and drive my truck lightly but I've never seen more than 260 out of a tank.

 

I get about the same as Frenchy with my V6 4x4 QC 6 Speed, a friend of mine with the V8 gets about 14 -15 overall. He recently added a CAI, Fastman TB, New Exhaust, and Synthetic oils to get his MPG to about around 16 overall. Its been about a month or so for him with the new parts, I will ask him again what he is getting for MPG after all the changes and some more time driving.