Do you have the 4x4 hemi crew cab...? What gear ratio do you have...?
My buddie has a simular truck to what i have, with the exception of his being a crew cab, mine is the quad cab sport, he too also complains of bad MPG in the city. Like you, he is only getting 10 - 11 in the city, BUT, he does live in the city, i dont. (i avoid city driving as much as possible, and really baby it when i`m in the city, but when you`re stuck in alot of traffic, the hemi is not your friend for mpg`s) We both have 3.55 gears, mine is an open diff, his is LSD. I chose open diff due to the fact that for many years, i`ve always gotten better MPG`s out of open diff`s as opposed to LSD or POSI rear diff`s. Tires will also have alot to do with mpg`s. If you`re running an aggresive tread, mpg`s will suffer. I run smooth street tires, and i jack up the air pressure to 40+psi. My buddie has winter tires on his truck year round, i`m guessing thats alot of HIS mpg problem and adding into the fact he lives in the city. That scenario will always hurt mpg bigtime.

 

Cyclone, you asked alot of questions. First, you mentioned a Ford 5.0, please be advised Ford is having significant issues with the 5.0 & eco-boost models due to transmission failures at relatively low mileage. If you search the F-150 forums you will see what I am talking about. It is a pump failure in the transmission. Many F-150 owners drove off dealer lots or only had their trucks a short time and the trans. failed. There is a nationwide parts wait of several weeks for repair. There is a thread on this subject. I see some 12's owners have had issues. You ask on real world mileage on Rams and there is a sticky in this forum for you to review. Mine I get 12/18. Anyways, as have repeatedly stated if you look at the big three and compare pricing vs. options Dodge is a clear winner. I price my sticker against an F-150 now and then and my $35,000 Ram blows the doors off a F-150 when it comes to options. A $35,000 F-150 regular cab has 3/4 less options than my Ram, which is sad. Hands down a Ram provides you the best bang for the buck. A good friend is a Dodge salesman and I have bought many Ram's off him. I have yet to be disappointed. The 4th gen has many nice/new features you will like. I LOVE MINE!!! I think GM is ok, but they have not changed in several years and they do look bland, but from what I hear Sierra/Silverado are reliable but offer poor engines (5.3 is only 310 hp I think). I just question the whole Ford hype and I personally never understood it. Good luck

 

The v6 is the eco bost engine, I thought the 5.0 has no twin turbos, easy to find out.

I like GM vortecks for the 8 plugs over 16 on the hemi, changing plugs on a vorteck is a cake walk.

I'm going to rent out a hemi ram just to see how well the truck will fit me.

All the hemis good points and not so good stuff I'm aware of, as I own one.

As this will be a car with a box ( all brands) I'm used to a 3/4 ton truck.

 

Mine is a Hemi quad cab with 3.55's and stock tires. I agree with you, the constant stop and go is brutal on the mileage. The instantaneous is always up over 25 in the city but any time I accelerate from a light its down around 5. Oh well, that's what I figured id get

 

As far as changing plugs, it's not like that you do it every week, so it is really a non issue. The Ford 5.0 is a non turbo. The Ford 3.5 eco has twin turbo's. I have read alot on the eco and reputable auto media sources are disappointed in the eco, it is Taurus engine with turbo's on it. Renting one is a smart move, a few guys at work have Ram 3/4 trucks and like them. They plow, haul, tow, all that stuff. The hemi is a great engine, it has been around a long time.

 

I'm not brand loyal, drive em all and buy whatever you like for what you need it for. To answer your question, in no particular order :

• F150 FX4 supercab - ecoboost w/ 4.10 gears. ( gear option with max tow )
• Tundra TRD ( rock crawler package ) - 4.30 gear

I driven a couple F150's with the eco and brother also owns one. Fortunately no trans issues as I see a few posts on here but it is a 10/11 build so maybe ok now. A buddy has the Tundra and have also driven this.


At 62k now and still like the Ram best, soft touch interior and not all this grainy hard plastic. Not ready to move on to anything else yet. With the SC tune and customized trans tune option, MDS disabled, this is a great daily driver and IMO, the Sport package is still the best looking truck available today.

 

I was going to trade my 2010 Laramir CC for a 2012 ecoboost lariat. Dealer let me take a demo ecoboost home for the weekend, well that was a mistake on his part lol. Wasnt really impressed with the power, it had the 1-2 clunk on downshift many complain about. But so does my 2011 mustang with the same trans (+ and added 200 horsepower from a 2.3 TVS supercharger) and its considered normal in the mustangs so I dont know..

Anyhow, didnt like the ride, didnt like the interior and the turning radius of the Ford was a bit more than the Ram and it took me three tries to back in the garage as opposed to one swing with the dodge. Also after 180 miles the fuel mileage was no better than my 2010 Laramie, that was one reason for the ecoboost for me. Wasnt super impressed with the power either at part throttle. The new 5.0 is a nice engine, love it in the mustang with a 2.3 TVS and 7psi of boost, in a heavy truck its a little short on torque IMO.

Since I had so many issues with my 1996 1500 Dodge I made the switch to GM in '99 and had four GMs in a row, last was a loaded 2008 1500 CC 4x4 with a 5.3/3.42 gear and it had plenty of power. I liked the truck but I was just GM'd out and wanted something different. I like the GM trucks, but feature for feature its hard to beat the Dodge for the money, not to mention the 2007 redesign was just cosmetic. I would take a GMC 1500 SLT with a 6.2 as my second choice though. But a truck like that with the same features will cost 3-4K more than the Dodge.

 

Hate to say it but I really like the Ford Eco Boost killer mpg, and it will out tow a 5.7 hemi any day of the week. As far as the tranny issues with Ford, well look at my post with my 2009 Dodge 2500 tranny issues. Currently Chrysler is involved trying to figure it out. Before this truck I had a 2008 with a 6.7 that had major tranny issues.

I cannot really talk up Dodge trannys myself given my past experiences with them, but I will say this there NV4500 and NV5600 in the 2005 and earlier 2500 cummins trucks were really good. I never had any issues with those tranny's.

I have driven all three, and IMO there is no comparison in power the ecoboost will flat out kill either the 5.7 or 5.3. As far as MPG most ecoboost are in the low 20's hwy.

I have only owned Dodge for about 8 years now, but I am feeling I need a change after all the issues the last 3 years with these two trucks.

Also my resale value on my 2008 6.7 Dodge was horrible, and I had a heck of a time trying to sell it. I ended up trading it off for the truck I have now. I am sure a lot of it had to do with mine did not have the new body style and it had a 6.7 cummins not a 5.9.

 

My picks:

#1: Toyota
#2: Dodge
#3: Ford
#4: Chev

 

4434 is right, if I remember a regular cab ecoboost w/3.73 is rated 11300. I think my revised towing on my regular cab hemi is 10500, I think.