Gas or Diesel
Captain
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 687
Likes: 0
From: KY
The new cummins is great but you will not get good mileage with it. several people around here have them and get at best 16mpg driving 100% highway. Now I know I will get flamed for this big time but in my opinion ford has the best diesel around right now. We just got a 2011 superduty with the new 6.7 from ford and it is the best diesel that ford has ever produced. We are getting 15mpg over the lifetime on it with over 10k miles on it and that is farm use pulling trailers and making short trips. If we go out on the highway we can easily see 20+mpg. All depends on if you are dead set on a dodge.
Last edited by tombogue09; Sep 9, 2010 at 07:05 PM.
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 35
Likes: 0
From: SC
Not on the 6.7s. My '08 got the same(if not worse) mileage than my '10 Hemi.
Being someone who is a daily driver of a Cummins that replaced a 1/2-ton gasser, that's a load. I get around 22MPG mixed driving (city/highway/towing a light trailer) in my Cummins. I never saw above 18 in my 1/2-ton. I'd love to know what makes you think a Cummins would ever get worse fuel mileage than a Hemi.
That said, if you don't plan on keeping it a while, it'd be silly to buy a diesel. A lot of money would go into dropping an '09 truck already, so I'd have to see the cost of doing the upgrades you want vs buying another new truck.
That all said - the addition of a travel trailer would definitely put the new truck on my block. I guess it depends on how soon, how large, and (how often using) the travel trailer would be.
That said, if you don't plan on keeping it a while, it'd be silly to buy a diesel. A lot of money would go into dropping an '09 truck already, so I'd have to see the cost of doing the upgrades you want vs buying another new truck.
That all said - the addition of a travel trailer would definitely put the new truck on my block. I guess it depends on how soon, how large, and (how often using) the travel trailer would be.
Having done both I'd look at which you'd be doing more and understand the trade-offs for each size of truck. The 6.7 Cummins is *not* a mileage queen like the 5.9s and is much more difficult to "open up" while under warranty to fix the mileage issues. While I never had any troubles with mine the whole DPF system on those trucks only works well when the things are being worked hard. I rode around in regen 1/2 the time on mine because it never got hot enough driving around town for work/errands/etc to keep clean. I averaged ~14mpg in it overall. The Hemi is a little better, not by much though. Its much more pleasant to drive though.
Veteran
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 461
Likes: 0
From: NW Arkansas
I drove an '06 2500 Mega Cab with the 5.9L Cummins as my daily driver for two years. I'm very happy to be back driving a gas motor. My daily commute is 10 miles to and from work, I just know I was killing that motor. Not to mention I could drive all the way to work in the winter before it would warm up the interior and I live in Arkansas, not exactly Canada cold here!! That was with having the block heater plugged in all night.
Don't buy a heavy duty diesel truck unless you need a heavy duty diesel truck!
Don't buy a heavy duty diesel truck unless you need a heavy duty diesel truck!