Cross Country Towing Round Trip 6000 miles

17013 Views 33 Replies 9 Participants Last post by DStrachan, Dec 5, 2014

firemist32

Discussion Starter · Oct 27, 2014

I had hoped to find more time to do a daily blog-ish update for this trip. However here I am on day 4 of my trip just writing the first post. My gang of 4 (2 littles, my wife and I) headed out from our home in NC to visit friends and family along the US and end up in CA for a couple weeks where I am originally from. The whole trip should be around 6000 miles. I left with 6108 on the odometer and on our 4th night now we are ~7500. I am having to fill up once a day and the first morning diesel was 3.44, then 3.41, then 3.33, then 3.26 today in Oklahoma where we are stopped. We are going between 57-63mph and I am mostly using the tow mode so the gears don't hunt as much. I turn it off down grades and on flat travel. Gas milage for the first 2 refills were 14.1 each and then a 13.1 and then a 14.6. We had a lot of wind today coming right at us today and the computer is showing 12.6 currently with about 115 miles to empty when I gas up tomorrow. I am not taking the time to hand calculate any milage on this trip but I have done it in the past and found it was always within .1 everytime I did it so I have stopped. The last thing I will add is I am towing a Rockwood Mini Lite 2504s for anyone wanting specs. It is ~5200lbs dry and I am guessing about 5800lbs with our stuff in it and some fluid in the tanks. I will update again in a few days I hope and if anyone has questions I will try to answer them. Pray for us and my sanity as I drive a 2 year old girl and 5 year old boy cross country!

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zoomie

· #2 · Oct 27, 2014

Thanks for the report.

My folks dragged me and my two sisters across canada in a trailer like that back in the 70's. It was a great time and I'll never forget it. You're building some fantastic family memories. Oh, my dad had a 70's ish pontiac station wagon with a 454 4 bbl that got 5mpg towing. He was complaining that gas just hit $1 per gallon.

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zoomie

· #9 · Oct 31, 2014

This is really interesting to follow, Thanks for this Firemist.

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zoomie

· #12 · Nov 3, 2014

I think 14.4 is pretty good since we see lot's of hemi's in that range without even towing anything.

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zoomie

· #17 · Nov 19, 2014

ECO33 said:
<firemist> I was following your trip as we plan to do a long one this coming spring. Plan to head east,south, north or where every we decide to go. May take a month or two so will give the rig a good test. We did the southwest last year for a month plus a few days. That was with my F150 which was a nice rig but lousy gas milage.
This is my 4th Ram, starting with a 91,then a 95 and finally a 03 1 ton. When I sold the 5th wheel and big horse trailer I sold the 03. When this ECO diesel came out I started following the blogs and decided I would go back to a Ram. So far we have less than 2000 miles on it and really love it.
When we start our trip next spring I will do a blog about it.

Good news, we love reading these.

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zoomie

· #27 · Nov 24, 2014

firemist32 said:
Good question. I have the 3.55 gear with a 4x4 (ran 2wd the whole trip though)

I made it home tonight and filled today in South Carolina for $3.05 (saw it later for $2.99 a first for the whole country in SC) Climbed a bit up and down big hills and faced a head wind and rain all day. Sucked my 15.7 down to 14.3 on the refill. That makes 11 tanks to get back and with our unexpected detour south about 3800 miles total. I averaged all of them to get 14.7 going east. We got 14.4 going west so I guess thats about the best I can do for the way I drive.

That's a great trip write up Firemist. Happy to hear a good news story.

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Cross Country Towing Round Trip 6000 miles

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