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Cross Country Towing Round Trip 6000 miles

17013 Views 33 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  DStrachan, 
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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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ECO33
Did you run into snow

>:)>:)
firemist32 said:
I'm back! Headed out of the Bay Area a couple days ago and filled in San Jose, CA for $3.47 and made it to Barstow, CA $3.55 and got 15.5mpg. From there we climbed about 6000 ft and filled up in Flagstaff, AZ $3.35 and got 13.9 with that climb (also had a small $10 add to make it up the hill at $3.79) but we had the wind at our backs which helped a lot.

Today we went from Flagstaff, AZ to Albuquerque, NM and got a record for our trip 17.9mpg and filled again for $3.25 same place as before in this city!! We had a strong easterly wind at our back the whole day and I was easily doing 65mph and getting good mpg. There is a slight drop in elevation as well from 7200ft to 5200ft between those cities so that helped also. Hoping for good wind tomorrow and there will be more down hill as well into the plains.
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Are you stuck in a snowdrift, waiting for an update on your trip. :|
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ECO33
<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.:)
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ECO33
firemist32 said:
ECO33 how am I doing compared to a F150? Some days I question if we would be doing the same in a gas truck at $2.49 a gallon now. This is our first travel trailer and my old gas truck never towed anything this heavy or wind blocking so I have nothing to compare.

At any rate I made it to Dallas,TX today on the rest of my tank and the EVIC shows 17.2 with a good favorable wind again today. I will fill in the morning and start heading east to Mississippi.
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<firemist>
The mileage I have read about is the main reason I decided to go back to the Ram ECODiesel. Even with the higher price for fuel this truck has saved money on each fill so far. The F150 would get 8 to 11 MPG towing so I'm sure this rig will be a cost saving outfit. Enjoyed your updates. Thanks for taking the time.

On a side note, I drive allot , the F150 had nearly 40,000 miles on it in just over 1 1/2 years. :|
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ECO33
Cross Country Towing Round Trip 6000

Firemist, what do you try to average for MPH on flat roads.
Here is a neat site for finding DEF well traveling. Home - discover Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) going to see if there is APP for my IPad,, I have one for finding the lowest fuel prices :)
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ECO33
Cross Country Towing Round Trip 6000 mile

firemist32 said:
It depends on what the wind is doing. If its coming at me I set it at 57mph as I see about a 1 - 1.5mpg drop for every 5mph over that (i have done some rough testing of this at times). If there is no wind I am set at 63mph and if its blowing strong behind me I set at 68mph (assuming thats under the posted speed limit) I am in no hurry so even if its a 70mph limit that is what I do. This tends to get me around 14-16mpg on the instantaneous results. That wind coming at you is killer though and its hard to break 13 at times if its strong.

Today when I filled up in Auburn, Al the EVIC said 14.5 for the tank and got diesel for $3.14. Made it to Atlanta, GA with 3/4 tank to go with somewhat favorable wind and showing 15.7 on EVIC. Plan to make it home tomorrow in NC!
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Firemist,thanks for the update. Your driving sounds like the way I drive when towing/traveling speed wise. When we toured the southwest last year we only had one date we had to make so we left with two weeks before that date so we were never pressed to make up time. We often only drove for 4 to 5 hours before stopping.
That made for a great trip and hope we can do as well fuel wise but will not lose any sleep over it if we don't. :) Ray
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ECO33
tire size

Are you running 17 " or 20 " tires. I have the 3.55 gears and 20 inch tires.

I really enjoyed all your posts and the good information they contained.

Thanks much for the time you put into all the posts. Ray:)
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ECO33
firemist32 said:
I have the 20" wheels with stock tires. I am glad people liked the posts
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We are running the same gear ratio and tires. Like I said earlier thanks for all the good information. I'm sure a lot of people read it put did not post about it. Ray
:)
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