bohoram,

Well you did not say how many miles you have on the truck; it may not even be broken in yet. I have found that the best way to break in my engines is to load around 800 to 1,000 lbs in the bed for the first 2500 miles during its break in. During this time I drive it at hwy speeds (70 to 75 mph) as much as I can along with some town driving.

I know some will say it’s not needed but by doing this with my last truck being a 2005 Dodge 4.7L SLT QC 4x4 short bed, I could get up to 19 mpg empty. On my move from Oregon to Iowa I averaged just over 16 with 1200+ lbs of house stuff in the truck. Also by having all synthetic fluids in the engine, diff and trans helps a lot too. BTW I also used Z max in it every 6,000 miles starting after I had 5,000 miles on the truck.

BTW; all mpg was hand calculated and not from the overhead trip computer.

 

sticker says 14 and 18....thanks

 

don't take what the coumputer reeds your mileage to be to heart, I just pulled 27 MPG in my 06 Ram 2500 5.7 Reg cab Hemi on the trans Canada highway threw Golden British Columbia, I costed a lot in N down long hills, but even so, this is a 17 MPG truck on a good day.

run your gas tank empty before filling up, I have found this mess's up the mileage reeding's...

 

Cyclone, what do you mean to run my gas tank empty?

 

Flue up with as much gas less ofton, adding short amounts of flue here and thier lowers your mileage.

 

Really, I didnt know that...I wonder why but I will give it a try, thank you

 

I've Got a 2003 Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 with the 5.7l hemi. and i get 20mpg highway doing 60mph. I get really low mpg in city because I always go a little hard on it. but i can get 11mpg.

 

If I do decide to take it to the dealer, what will they say and does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Tell them how terrible your fuel mileage is and that something has to be wrong.

All of our company vehicles are 02-03-04 RAMs with the 4.7L and we see an average
of about 17 mpg out of them, whether we're pulling a trailer or not.

My HEMI gets about 16.5 MPG in the city and about 23.5 MPG on the highway,
however my 4.L Dakota only gets 17 MPG... whether it's loaded, empty, in overdrive,
out of overdrive or if I'm driving the **** out of it..

 

Here's an interesting article where a police officers
reviews 'Heavy Service Police Package' Rams

The link is
http://www.pfmmag.com/MarchApril2004...cedodgeram.htm

note this quote from the article:

quote
During our 140-mile test of the 4.7L-powered Ram, in light to medium commuter traffic, sometimes in 2WD and sometimes in 4x4, on wet, dry, snow and ice covered roads, we averaged 10.2 mpg. Consumer Reports tested a 4.7L-powered Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 and got an overall fuel economy of 12 mpg.
During our nearly 1,400-mile test of the HEMI Ram, doing routine traffic enforcement, and driving in urban gridlock and at high speeds on rural interstates, we averaged 11.5 mpg. Don’t avoid the 5.7L engine because you think you will get significantly better gas mileage than the 4.7L engine. You may actually get better mileage with the bigger engine {with its dual sparkplugs}.
endquote