Author Topic: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle  (Read 4316 times)

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Offline wobblywalrus

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Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« on: November 28, 2013, 12:18:54 AM »
My youngest boy, Werner, did a lot of research and bought a 2014 Dodge S1500 truck.  It is a pretty fancy full size pickup with two back seats, an 8-speed automatic transmission, and a little V-6 engine that runs on four cylinders part of the time.  Intentionally.

He is visiting so we drove to Portland and back.  Gas mileage is displayed while driving and this truck was running on regular grade 10% gasahol.  It is hard to get good mileage with that swill.  Also, this was a new engine with only a few hundred miles on it.

The truck got mileage in the mid to low 20's unless the driver was a lead footed idiot, then it would drop into the high teens.  Sometimes at a steady cruise it got into the upper 20's.  It moved down the road plenty fast and did all the things a person would expect from a big pickup truck.  It would easily tow our bike trailer, no problem.

The good fuel economy, nice performance, and decent looks make this an ideal tow vehicle for backwoods bike racing folks.

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2013, 09:58:51 AM »
Bo:  Once Werner is ready to spend a few minutes being serious about his new toy/truck -- remind him that dashboard computers (for gas mileage) are not necessarily accurate.  I do this on my vehicles that have the 'puter built in:  Check mileage the old way -- record how much gas is put in for say, five or ten tanksful and how many miles driven, and then figure out the mileage.  It might show the 'puter is right, of it might show that you need to apply a "correction" to the displayed number.

No matter what, though - that's pretty good mileage for a new truck.
Jon E. Wennerberg
 a/k/a Seldom Seen Slim
 Skandia, Michigan
 (that's way up north)
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Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2013, 01:05:19 PM »
Not sure if that will happen, Jon.  The old man mentions the virtues of good gas mileage, long engine life, or lack of speeding tickets.  Son looks over at me like I am speaking Egyptian.  Then he mashes down on the gas pedal. 

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2013, 01:09:11 PM »
Boyoboy, does that sound familiar.  I do remember pretty well my dad telling me how he looked forward to the day when I had to pay for all of the gas that I was burning in his cars - racing hither and you.  I didn't spend that much time worrying about it with my daughter, although she's good at some of the stuff of driving.  But we had a Mercury LN7 when she started driving -- and there was nowhere near enough power in that  thing to bother with mashing the pedal to the floor.  After that she had a sedan Mustand 4 cy/auto -- not much better.  But I'm sure that given the opportunity I'd have told her about the virtues of good fuel economy.  Happy Thanksgiving.
Jon E. Wennerberg
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 Skandia, Michigan
 (that's way up north)
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Offline Cereal KLR

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2013, 01:17:37 PM »
If you can pull that kinda mileage out of it then things are getting better. I have an 06 Ram 1500 with 3.7 6 cylinder and 6 speed manual, it is rated 14-16 town and 20 on the highway. Never gotten better than 18 out of it doing hwy 80 thru Nevada with just one bike loaded.

The good part is its on original battery/brakes/light bulbs etc and paint looks like day one. That truck should last him a long time.
I thought I would die young, but now its too late.

Offline JimL

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2013, 03:08:11 PM »
Bo, I dont know what algorithm the Dodge mpg calculator uses, but here is a typical method.

- ECM stores mileage average data for the last X number of long miles (could be as much as 500-800 miles). 
- ECM also calculates mileage for the last X number of short miles, which might be as small as 10-50 miles.
- displayed mileage is an average of the "long" miles aganst the "short" miles, with the "long" miles about 80% weighted.
- the algorithm is adjusted for different types of cars/trucks based on typical useage and a lot of feedback from customers and engineers in the field.  The same engine and trans package, in two different cars, may display differently due to typical age group of the buyers.

The purpose is to give the driver a more realistic view based on his overall drivng condition and habits.  If you tried to do a shorter running average, for example comng down Floyd Hill into Denver on I70, you'd look at your latest average and say, "gee, I dont need to stop for gas...I'll just head on out into Kansas with my 1/4 tank!"

Even the short term MPG selection is somewhat a blended number.  Actual instantaneous mileage is changing so rapidly, we had to store the readings as long data files and then average particular sections to see what was happening on somethng like...say... the top two miles of Baker Grade where oil temps are up in the stratosphere, trans temp is so high that the torque converter clutch has been commanded into lockup by the ECM, and throttle control has taken you down to 28 mph at wide open!

It sounds goofy, but it is a remarkably good method to give the driver a reqlistic view of his/her driving habits.

By the way, for those interested, calculating mileage the old way (miles driven divided by gallons) will not work on certain hybrids.  This is because of several factors.
- fuel tanks are pretty small, and so a 0.5 gallon error is a big percentage miscalculation
- charcoal canister capacity is large, and you can force overfill into a flooded canister condition..the car will purge/clear that canister as quickly as it can...but its not helping the mileage as much because it is a duty cycled vacuum draw and not injected at the intake ports.  That overfill fuel makes your last mpg calculation look really bad!
- fuel tank shell contains a semi-collapseable bladder that is used to keep air space off the gasoline, for reduction of evaporative emissions.  If you get really aggressive with the gas pump, you can overfill into the shell (gallons!)  The computers will work like crazy to get that sucked out through the EVAP system.  The customer, meanwhile, is convinced his Prius only gets 15 MPG.
- bladder expansion changes from fill-up to fill-up depending on barometric pressure, fuel temperature, kick-off pressure of individual gas station pumps, angle of the gas station ramp, condition of the nozzle insertion tube (dented or badly scratched means less fill-up compared to another day and place).

Thats why so many magazine mileage tests of first and second generation Prius were wrong.

The tip here, for all of us, is DO NOT top off ANY modern vehicle.  It forces the excess fuel into the EVAP charcoal canister and the computer gets right to work cleaning it out.  I used to occasionally speak at New Owner Event nights, and had a favorite story to explain this.

"When you overfill your tank, the emission system can become flooded.  Your car will take care of itself, but it doesnt help your gas mileage.  The next time you feel like topping off your tank, go to the gas station with 4 one-dollar bills in your pocket.  When the gas nozzle clicks off by itself, hang it up and take the 4 one-dollar bills out of your pocket.  Put 2 bills back in your pocket, and then drop 2 on the ground and drive away.  You were about to waste that 4 dollars....now you have saved yourself two of them, and made somebody else's day!"

Brave new world, aint it?!

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2013, 03:46:16 PM »
To reduce the error in figuring gas mileage I count the amount put into the tank over a long stretch - on the order of a thousand miles or more.  That moves the accuracy's decimal point an order of magnitude better, so to speak.  When we travel to Bville it's about 1850 miles and I record all of the fuel put into the tank.  I fill the tank when we are leaving town, filling only to the auto shutoff.  I then assume that all shutoffs down the road will do so at a similar point so when I fill it - I'm filling the tank to about the same amount.

Around town the trips are shorter, of course.  It's about 35 miles round trip from the house to Kudos Laser.  In such cases - to figure my "around town" fuel economy - I fill the tank and zero the odometer and then record all the fuel (diesel) put in the tank for a few weeks.  By the end of the time period I will have driven maybe 500 miles, maybe more.  Some of the mileage might well have been while towing the equipment trailer, though, and that takes plenty of fuel.  I try to not use the trailer during a mileage check period.

Whatever -- our '09 Duramax (diesel) GMC 3/4 4x4 pickup, with a cap, gets about 18-19 mpg around town, and around 24-25 mpg on the road with no trailer.  Towing the race trailer to Bville the truck this year used a hair over 15 (I think it was 15.15 mpg).  Still -- that's pretty good for a heavy-enough load.  I weighed the entire rig while I was out there (there's a scale that operates 24 hours/day, at the salt plant on the frontage road) and found the entire thing is about 13,000#.  The truck is 7,000 regularly, and therefore we've got three tons of trailer.  I'll take 15 mpg towing a 26' 6,000# trailer across the Rocky Mountains.
Jon E. Wennerberg
 a/k/a Seldom Seen Slim
 Skandia, Michigan
 (that's way up north)
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Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2013, 12:08:54 AM »
Today I drove it to Portland airport and changed my opinion.  The Dodge designers were smart and they put the shift control on a knob on the dash.  The console between the driver and passenger folds up and it makes a seat between the driver and the passenger.  Three can sit side by side in the front.  Just like in the old days.  The truck carried four adults and two kids in comfort.  Not many cars can do that.

There is a bar graph and digital readout for gas mileage.  I was able to keep it halfway between 20 and 30 mpg during the freeway part of the trip at 60 to 70 mph.  There were some places where I switched into "tow haul" mode and stepped up the speed to 75 and 80 like we do while crossing Nevada and Utah.  Mileage dropped quite a bit.

There are a lot of trucks out there that could equal its mileage for towing and hauling, and especially at higher speeds.  The big new Ford F-150 I drive at work could do as good.  The Ford does not get good mileage when it is lightly loaded.  The Dodge does.

This truck is a nice everyday driver that could save a person enough money to help pay for racing.  In a way, that is just as important as being a good tow vehicle.

 

Offline manta22

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2013, 12:16:16 PM »
Bo;

My Dodge 3500 1-ton pickup gets 21.4mpg average (town + highway) running without towing anything. It drops when pulling a trailer, of course, but it isn't bad. It has a 6-cylinder Cummins engine and auto transmission. Diesels are great for heavy hauling.

Regards, Neil  Hermitage, TN
Regards, Neil  Tucson, AZ

Offline redhotracing

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2013, 12:28:01 PM »
Average speed is so integral to MPG ... I drove 70k miles/years in my former career, and the difference between averaging 60mph and 75mph in 5mph increments was drastic on fuel mileage. My little TDI got 40 or better even at the higher speeds, but short jaunts on limited access 55mph roads netted 49+ in real works calculations... Same with my 2010 Silverado- I could squeeze 21 out of  the 5.3L if my foot was light.
Luke- Winston Salem, NC
Loring 2 Club- 201.252 (2010)
Ohio 2 Club- 203.712 (2013)

Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: Dodge S1500 pickup tow vehicle
« Reply #10 on: November 30, 2013, 12:04:16 AM »
No personal experience with this from my viewpoint.  The only four wheel vehicles I have owned are 1974 and 2008 Toyota pickups with four cylinder engines, two wheel drive, and manual trans.  At work I drive a big Ford F-150 with a standard V-6 and it gets mileage in the mid teens no matter how it is driven or loaded.

Today we went back up to Portland on the same route and came back with a Triumph scrambler that Werner bought.  The pix shows how the bike was loaded.  It was easy to get into the mid 20's while empty on the way up at 60 to 65 mph.  The mileage dropped quite a bit when carrying that load and getting up to 70 mph on the way back.  It was down into the high teens and low 20's.  Guestimating from the use today, the truck would be getting mileage in the mid teens with a heavy load or tow.  The bigger Dodge 3500 with the diesel engine would give better mileage for heavy hauling.  He left for SoCal with Rose a couple of hours ago so the truck evaluation is finished.  These new little engines are amazing.