[camper]

Hello everyone, I'm Brian...new to your forum and starting my research for a new truck. I pull a 5800lb TT a few weeks a year and plan on much more when I retire. I can see from your discussions that you get around 20mpg pulling that weight which is more than double what I get. My brother has a Ford EB and though he gets better mileage is not all that happy with his results. His mileage is not near the ED numbers neither.
I have never owned a diesel and wanted to know what kind of costs I would be looking at for regular maintenance on say 20k miles a year.
Also wanted to know about DEF, does it freeze up in the winter. Any issues with spark plugs, injectors etc. Sorry for all the questions, I'm definately a green horn.
Any help would be appreaciated.

 

[Boocoodinkydow]

Hello everyone, I'm Brian...new to your forum and starting my research for a new truck. I pull a 5800lb TT a few weeks a year and plan on much more when I retire. I can see from your discussions that you get around 20mpg pulling that weight which is more than double what I get. My brother has a Ford EB and though he gets better mileage is not all that happy with his results. His mileage is not near the ED numbers neither.
I have never owned a diesel and wanted to know what kind of costs I would be looking at for regular maintenance on say 20k miles a year.
Also wanted to know about DEF, does it freeze up in the winter. Any issues with spark plugs, injectors etc. Sorry for all the questions, I'm definately a green horn.
Any help would be appreaciated.

Seriously, spark plugs in a diesel?!? Green horn is an understatement!! But moving on. My son just bought a new eb. He has only towed a vee front 16' trailer with a motorcycle in it; about 2500# total. Mpg at hwy speeds of only 11.5-12. With your tt mpg would probably be considerably less. While the ed will do better, don't expect 20 mpg in your application. the ed is capable of toting the load, but it doesn't have the tow ratings of the eb. Where the ram shines is the fuel economy. Never heard of a problem with def in winter. Cost of oil changes are ridiculous right now. Hopefully more manufacturers will join the party & will become more reasonable. In the U.s. I was able to negotiate for free service for 40,000 miles. 5600 miles on mine now with no regrets.

 

[Accused]

^ There are glow plugs though, however they will typically last YEARS!

The EcoBoost is great if your simply tooling around, sure Ford may rate the ecoboost with higher payload/towing capabilities but have you ever seen it applied in those situations? Nope, becasue it can't do it. All the major problems the Ecoboost 150s have are directly rated to heavy towing, the engine is just not makde for that kind of stress. If you need to strap a turbo onto an engine to make it capable of even moving the truck run as fast as you can from it.

Anyways back to Diesel vs Boost, check out diesel powers 1500 vs 2500 sibling rivalry piece...

Trucks are built to work. If they can’t tow a trailer or haul a load, they are useless. So we hitched up a trailer to see just how well the new Ram 1500 EcoDiesel tows, and if the Ram 2500’s new five-link rear suspension negatively affected its already impressive abilities. We chose a trailer that weighed in at 7,020 pounds, slightly more than the 6,700-pound capacity of our Ram 1500, but a realistic example of what the average customer might tow. For the Ram 2500, we kept the same trailer load for the sake of comparison. The route chosen took us along urban highways and over, and down, a 5,000-foot pass. Again, both trucks were driven at 5 mph over the posted trailer speed limit (60 mph), and both had Tow Haul mode activated.

We saddled up the EcoDiesel first and loaded it up to 105 percent of its gross combined vehicle weight (GCVW) rating of 12,800 pounds. The Ram 1500 had no issues accelerating from a stop, getting up to speed, or slowing back down. Helping to reign in the load in tow is a factory-integrated trailer brake controller. While not overpowered, the truck never felt underpowered, either. The only place where the trucks showed any sign of weakness was climbing the nearly 7 percent final grade on the push to 5,000 feet of elevation. With the accelerator stapled to the floor, the truck’s speed dropped off to 53 mph, and engine temperature climbed to an almost alarming 244 degrees. Thankfully, as we crested the summit, the engine temperature returned to normal and we never experienced any other engine temperature issues during the remainder of the test. Overall, we were extremely impressed with the truck’s towing abilities. After a 260-mile round trip, the EcoDiesel averaged an astonishing 19.46 mpg, fully loaded.

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/featu...l_vs_2500_sibling_rivalry/trailer_towing.html
~20 MPG at 105% of GCVW is stupid impressive, lets just assume the Ecoboost would of been able to finish the trip, what do we think the mileage would of been, 3.5 MPG?

 

[L.O.A.]

glow plugs are also higher in price right? i guess the fact they last so long weighs that out.

 

[Cummins06TD]

Glow Plugs

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the ED has glow plugs. Most new engines use a heater in the intake system and the "glow plug/wait to start light" is on until those coils get good and warm. My Cummins had that and it started excellent in cold weather. But it throws a guy for a loop when the temp dips below 40 degrees the heater will turn on after you fire up the truck and sucks the battery volt gauge way down for a few seconds and then returns to normal and then does it again a few seconds later. Those heaters take a ton of amperage to heat so it drops the voltage and that is totally normal. I assume the ED is the same set up and we will notice the same thing when it gets cold out!

 

[Haulin]

Good mention, likely that will happen, not sure if it's worth upgrading other things to make it much a much smoother process every time you start, like upgrading the battery to a higher capacity one.

 

[Tim]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the ED has glow plugs. Most new engines use a heater in the intake system and the "glow plug/wait to start light" is on until those coils get good and warm. My Cummins had that and it started excellent in cold weather. But it throws a guy for a loop when the temp dips below 40 degrees the heater will turn on after you fire up the truck and sucks the battery volt gauge way down for a few seconds and then returns to normal and then does it again a few seconds later. Those heaters take a ton of amperage to heat so it drops the voltage and that is totally normal. I assume the ED is the same set up and we will notice the same thing when it gets cold out!

yes it has ceramic glow plugs.

 

[Cummins06TD]

Good to know. Pretty surprised by it though! I wonder if the truck delays the starting until the glow plus cycle on the trucks that have push button start. Hard to wait to start when you push a button and it does it all!