Quote:
Originally Posted by wjohn
Hey, it could be worse - you could have a dually. I have an '03 Dodge Ram 3500. It's got the Cummins and 6-speed manual [Edit - does at least have 3.55 gears], but otherwise it's about as bad as you can get for fuel economy - 4x4 without locking hubs or a disconnect, quad cab, dually, with a flatbed on the back. It does have stock size all-terrain tires. The truck weighs right around 8000 pounds and it's an aero nightmare. Not exactly apples to apples with your truck, but the best I've gotten was 22 MPG driving mostly 55-65 highway/interstate, and the worst I've ever gotten was 15.7 MPG pulling a 2000 lb. car on a U-haul trailer at 60 MPH. Actually I did get 14-ish once (I'd have to pull out the log book) but that was because my accelerator pedal position sensor was going out and the truck was either getting fuel all at once, or not.
I bought it to be a truck, though. I can't haul 3000 pounds of stuff in the back of the Civic, or tow a 17' disk harrow around with it.
I think the thing that surprised me the most is how much my fuel economy shoots up in town driving. I anticipate stops and coast a lot, and aerodynamics aren't much of a factor at 30 MPH. The speed limit on most highways out here is 65 MPH so I try to stick to that and not hold up other drivers by doing 55 unless they have plenty of chance to pass.
I am curious to know what it would get with highway tires but I need the traction often enough that I won't be trying that expensive experiment.
Good luck with your truck. I would've had no issue going with a 7.3 if I had found a nice enough one when I was in the market for a 3/4-1 ton.
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Ironically, a dually was in my list of machines to buy, like you said, a truck for being a truck. If you don't haul anything that actually requires duals, you could run single tires in the back, 2 less tires of wear to expense for, and the lower rolling resistance of 4 tires on the ground instead of 6.
About the only thing I kind of wanted was a truck that was new enough for my OBD2 reader (scan gauge 2). Instant mpg is kind of nice to have, but with out it, it's still possible to learn and improve on tank to tank fills.
It's interesting you got so much worse mpg while hauling a vehicle. With my T100 hauling a Camry or another Toyota pickup (not T100, the smaller ones), I generally got better mpg while in tow than empty. I think it's because of the things you mentioned, basically preserving momentum when possible and planning ahead more. I didn't really try to push the T100 for mpg too much, but no areo mods, driving 45mph home one night from my parents, I hit around 25mpg average. In my tacoma I could hit about 27mpg doing the same thing (also 4x4, manual, but standard cab, same engine). One difference is, I used a car dolly, I suspect you used a car hauler?
So far it seems diesels like high gearing. I'm kind of glad the red truck has 3.55 instead of the 3.73 or 4.10. My dad would prefer the 4.10, but he generally goes all out with loads too.
Does your Dodge have a double overdrive transmission? The Ford 6 speed is creeper gear, 2nd - 4th are normal gears, then 5th for over drive, 6th for a 2nd over drive.
Kind of a funny short story with this truck so far, I'm used to my T100, there's a tiny incline where the 2001 parts truck is sitting, and I wanted to try to jump it with a known good pair of batteries from the red diesel. Since it's on an incline, natrually it wants to roll back down the hill. With my T100 I can just pop the clutch and the tires will dig a small hole and it will sit there just fine (parking brake cable broken). I tried the same thing in the ford and well... that engine weighs a lot more, so it still wanted to roll down. The parking brake pedal on it is real stiff, so it's probably rusted up (most domestics get like that here, and if you force it, then the parking brake is stuck on). Kind of funny though, generally speaking, the Toyota ones don't get stuck on, it's just the cable that rusts in 2. Out of 20+ Camrys (1992-2001) I've never seen one with a parking brake that doesn't work. Yea... my dad and I kind of have a personal junk yard. I've sold parts, used parts, etc to fix up machines. It's quite handy having parts on hand to swap to test if something is bad or not for quick diag instead of grabbing actual specs and doing proper tests.
Back on the Ford, there was another F250 that was a lot more rustier for $3750 with the 6 speed manual, might have been worth going for that instead but generally speaking, the body's condition is the biggest thing in this area. That's why the parts truck might get a Tundra body, they seem to hold up to the salt fairly well, and a replacement body isn't crazy priced like the Ford body is ($5000 for a cab + box), a whole 2000-2005 Tundra can be bought for that kind of price in really good condition.
To confuse things more, my dad also has an F350 sitting with a gas engine that was "rebuilt". Thing has no power and was probably rebuilt like 200k miles ago. It was a nice truck at one point in time, but it's pretty trashed now. He bought it to tow in a school bus and a big dump truck. I got the drive the school bus, the engine was locked up and it was a manual bus, so the clutch was the brake, talk about a brain teaser. He also scrapped a 6 ton bulldozer when he had his 96 7.3l diesel going. Scrap prices were up back then, something like $300/ton, so timing was pretty good for scrapping those things. Anyway, that F350 is like an 87, and the top of the cab rusted out around the lights, so the interior is full of mold and stuff. Besides that I think the box is pretty good, dually box. I was tempted to throw an engine in that and swap another cab over if the red F250 deal didn't work out. Lot of work, but out of pocket cost wouldn't have been too bad. We have no clue how many miles are on it, the odometer rolls all the numbers when going down the road.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
I like stacking firewood. Good clean exercise. It sounds like you have good reason to proceed (clearing the land).
You'll notice I got you to do the heavy lifting for me.  |
It's not quite clearing the land, just the dead trees so the healthy ones can bush out and some new growth might sprout. My property was very heavily select cut around 10 years ago, almost to the point of being clear cut. I have 2 very large trees, and one is half dead. The other is a massive oak tree, I can see it from my house above all the other trees, around 1200 ft away. I'd say it's around 5ft diameter trunk, maybe 6ft. Not many trees survived this area, the small "village" I'm in was known for mainly being full of lumberjacks.
Here's a photo I've seen locally before. I suspect it's a local photo but not 100% sure, it's atleast from Michigan. If you thought my dad's truck was overloaded, what about that 2hp sled?
Here's another photo from 1900, steam power was used a little in the area. At the bottom of the lake that the dam's levi washed out there was a Steam powered "shovel", dams were built in 1923 if I remember right.
Here's the steam shovel, top left of the pic you can see the washed out section of the dam, it has two spill ways.
Here's a better view of the machine, the boom is off it and the cab rusted away long ago. The story on it was that it got stuck in the lake bed (before it was a lake) and the owners went on a hunting trip, by the time they came back, the lake filled up too much to retrieve it.
Kind of off topic, but some of this stuff I think is pretty interesting =).
On the math thing, I wouldn't expect you to do the math for my situation, unless of course I asked for help xD. Want to validate the numbers?
