MPG's from coast to coast

Jeremy1977

Jeremy1977

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Location
San Diego/By way of the "WNC mountains"
I just drove from the NC coast to Johnson Valley Calif. This is my second trip towing my 30 ft gooseneck with two rigs on it. This trip was night and day different. I decided to go easy and drive 54-55 the ENTIRE way! 2050-2100 rpm's. My fuel Avg was 11.4 for the entire trip. My best was 11.9 and worst was 9.9 through Amarillo texas to albaquarky NM. The wind was slowing me way down. My total cost I had spent when I got here was 890 dollars and I still had over half a tank in my 34 gallon main and a full 45 gallons in my reserve and 5 gallons in my jug that I had topped off at the last cheap place in Arizona before getting to Cali. The cheapest fuel was in albaquerque NM for 3.56 diesel and 2.75 for gas. Oklahoma city had it for 3.65 and 2.92 for gas. I never paid more than 3.81 for diesel. Going slow was key and saved fuel and saved blowouts! I had 3 last time. I was driving way to fast.

The truck has 383 gears I believe. Put in full synthetic gear oil in the rear end before I left and changed the oil when the notification light came on in Jackson tenn. I then poured that into the reserve tank and burned that too. Specs of truck below.

03 crew cab long bed / Suncoast GMAX Kit / Precision Torque Converter / Air Dog 150 / Stage 1 Injection Pump /PPE Boost valve / EFI LIve Tuned by Diesel Addiction / S+B intake / Turbo Mouthpiece / Batmomax wheel / Pro Fab 3 in. DownPipe / 5 in. Exhaust / Pacbrake Exhaust Brake / Pacbrake Airbags / Pacbrake Compressor with 5 Gallon Tank / 2 fancy gages ( EGT & Boost ) and an expensive radio / Rancho 4 in lift / 315 Cooper AT3's / 45 gallon reserve / Fresh injectors at 117,000

I hope this helps anybody out who is gonna do this trip. Things I would do different is let all the air out of rigs to get them lower and maybe put some plywood on front to help with wind resistance but it was blowing from the side when it was slowing me down.

Hope this helps out and feel free to ask me any ?
 
ai276.photobucket.com_albums_kk38_braxton357_imagejpeg95d.jpg
Here's the setup. What was the mpg last time?
 
braxton357 said:
ai276.photobucket.com_albums_kk38_braxton357_imagejpeg95d.jpg
Here's the setup. What was the mpg last time?
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Last time my best was 9 and worst was 7.4.

The difference in weight was significant though.

26400 with my orange jeep and Bobs M37 that weighs like 8000 with tools and ect:shaking:

This time I was 23000.
 
What kind of mileage were you getting dragging it around North Cackalacky?

Driving "normally" to Uwharrie last weekend, I got 10mpg. Driving home, I basically didn't use 6th. Let the truck spin 2200-2400rpm the whole time. I got 11.5mpg.

Wind out west is a real PITA. Nothing like pulling out into a 40mph headwind first thing in the morning.

Also:

 
Sounds like fuel is cheaper now than it was in february. I applaud you on being able to go slower, I could never do that, it would drive me insane. We were just over 27k when we went to KOH this yr. 2011 3500 Dmax cruising 65-75 the whole way never got us more than 9mpg and often less. Knoxville, TN to Las Vegas to the Hammers and back to Knoxville ran us alot more than what it cost you:(
 
yeah, i dont have the patience to go that far that slow, although, we spent a LOT MORE on fuel!
 
If you're towing in Cali, you have to go that slow... and yeah, even just riding in the back, it sucked.
 
At 11mpg slow vs 9mpg fast it's a hard decision to spend the extra cash. Sure it'll save you $175 or so one way but when you're at hour 34 knowing you could have already been there i know I'd happily pay the extra money. Especially knowing that you're adding about 10 more hours to the drive. No thanks.

Me and Travis did this on the way to Nevada. I kept giving updates telling him would only cost another 100 bucks if he'd go 80 vs 70 and we'd get there 4 hours sooner. When he was asleep I'd go 80.
 
Some of us are poor white trash folk would like to save a couple extra hundred bucks when possible.

I also ran less of a risk of a blowout that slowed me down last time even though I was doing 80 with dollar bills blowing out the exhaust.
 
Will Carter said:
I hear you. And do try and keep the $$'s in the tank myself...but man...42 hours in a pickup truck is a long time...
Click to expand...

Satellite radio and good friends to talk to saved me. I also had football Saturday and Sunday to listen to so that helped tremendously!
 
Jeremy, did you drive it straight through? How long did it take?
 
Shawn said:
Jeremy, did you drive it straight through? How long did it take?
Click to expand...

I left Friday night at midnight from black MTn. I drove from the coast that morning but had some things to take care of with family there. Once I left blk MTn I stopped in oklahama city saturday night. Woke up Sunday and stopped in flagstaff to sleep Sunday night. Woke up Monday morn and arrived by lunch in yucca valley. :lol:
 
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