I am looking a buying one of these in the future and getting rid of my '06 Dodge Mega Cab. What are the comparisons between the two. Gas mileage? HP? I have had 3 diesels and it doesn't look like diesel is going to get cheaper that gas(which is just crazy). Plus having to put the new Urea. Which is pig Ammonia(pig urine). I pull a 5th wheel and a 21' bass boat around quite a bit, especially the boat and sometimes pull tandem. Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Im a Dodge guy but the Dura Max is a heck of a great power plant. We have an 06 that was bought new at my dad's business it has 208,000 miles and other than oil changes the water pump just went out yesterday. You will not be disappointed.

Too bad Ford and International has split company since International is the only company building Diesel engines that don't require urea. Ford would then have an excellent selling point. International is still building the 6.4 liter that was in f-series trucks for awhile and putting it into certain models of trucks and buses.

Last time i checked the 6.2 gas was in the 1/2 ton and the 6.0 in the 3/4 ton. I used a new 3/4 gas with the 6.0 to pull my 8,000 camper to the deer lease this year, and it pulled fine. We drove up ranger hill on I20 with the cruise set on 65 and didn't slow. That allison trans was working hard though. It's no diesel engine for sure but will get the job done.

Get the duramax if you can afford it. My dad has a 2005 2500 duramax and he gets around 19 mpg. I've got a buddy with a 2006 1500HD with the 6.0L and he gets around 11-12 mpg. Duramax gives you more power, lasts longer, a better transmission and better resale. Will cost you quite a bit more up front though.

How big and how much does the 5th wheel weigh?

How often do you realy use it?

The 6.2 is in the 1/2 tons only. I dont think the 6.0 will have any trouble doing what you need to do. Diesel vehicles will cost more to purchase, more to maintian, and more to feed. If you have a need for one they are unbeatable, otherwise they are an expensive hobby.

matt

Oh and why do you want to get rid of your '06 dodge? is it cummins or hemi?

Also something to think about, but my '11 1/2 ton chevy crew z71 with 5.3 gets better milleage pulling our boat or 16' flatbed than my dads duramx does. However if you have a 5th wheel and a 20 foot boat and you are going to pull them tandam that could be alot. Probably more than the 1/2 ton chevy with 6.2 is going to want. it would probably pull it ok, but the structure fo the truck isnt made for it.

matt

I had the gas. I traded it for the Duramax. I have a Champion 206 and a 29' fifth wheeler. The Duramax has way more towing power than the gas had and gets better mileage.

When I am at highway speed she rarely shifts down with the camper and almost never with just the boat.

I crossed the continental divide 5 times one day pulling the camper and the Duramax did not ever shift down.

Yeah the duramax is an awesome motor.

Matt, what gas mileage were you getting with your boat vs. your dad's duramax? I'm very surprised by that. My dad's duramax gets about 14-15 pulling his 5000 lb, very tall 5th wheel and my 2004 1500 with the 5.3L gets about 14 pulling my 2500 lb 17' boat that has no wind resistance.

You're right though, if you don't have a need for the diesel, they're an expensive hobby. But if you have the need for the 6.0, that constitutes a need for the duramax IMHO. I use my truck to commute to work and I couldn't deal with getting 11 mpg everywhere.

The 14-15 is about right with the 5.3 from what I have seen with a similar sized boat. And I have pulled a 30' bumper pull TT with 3 different d-maxes and they all 3 averaged 11 mpg's. Pulling the boat or flatbed it gets 13.5-14 with the dmax and empt is 17-19 and 20 with pure open hwy. I drove the TT with the dmax @ 55 mpg and got 14.5 with it, but if you pick it up to 65 or even 60 mph it was back down to 11. The 5.3 gets 20 empty back and forth to work, and I have yet to have it on a road trip without a load. I pulled the TT with my current 5.3 no prob for it whatsoever but didnt check fuel milleage.

I go back and forth between home and the ranch(200 mile 1 way) So i get alot fuel milleage calculations that are pretty acurate for towing, not just 20 or 30 miles out of a tank, bu tthe whole tank is with that load. Dont get me wrong the dmaxes have been good trucks, but the fuel milleage towing has been a major disapointment for me.

In my experience he either needs to calculate a full tank of towing the 5th wheel, needs to hand calc instead of trusting the liometer, or needs to realy calculate it instead of just guessing, or he drives 55 mph with it. Pulling our travel trailer with the dmax since '04 I have never seen 12 mpg with the exception of the one time I drove it 55 mph, and that was becasue we had a blow out at 1 in the morning and our spare was a little shotty. And I am a very conservative driver and genearly get quite a bit better milleage than most people because Im big on maintaining my vehicles and since I have paid quite a bit for them I dont abuse then and drive them pretty easy.

matt

Matt,

Your answer is that he drives slow with it. I didn't realize it was that big of a difference. He drives worse than the "grandma" we always talk about.

Anyway, does your 5.3L have the 6-speed? I only get about 16-17 commuting, but I've got the 4-speed tranny. I've always thought that seemed low for that truck. I had a 4.3L V6 in two different vehicles and got near 20 with both of them.

Yeah I have the 6 speed auto with 3.42 rear end and the deal where it runs on 4 cylinders when you dont need the power, however it gets only marginaly better milleage than our 5.3 taho that is 4speed.

Alot of people dont rlize how just slowing down can save your fule milleage. When I was in college I drove a '94 half ton chevy with a 350 motor that had 265K miles on it and not to easy a miles eather, lots of travel trailer and boat towing, but I would drive it back and forth to san antonio and college station at 60 mph and get 19-20 mpg out of it on a regular basis.

My experience with mileage on the Duramax is exactly that of Redchevy. I pull a 28ft TT with the same mileage as he got on his 30ft, however when I had a gasser 1 ton with a 350 engine I got 12 mpg empty and 6mpg hauling the same TT.

If (and note I said IF!) I run 60 - 65 mpg I get much better mpgs with both my gas and diesel trucks, but its hard to run 60 - 65 when the flow of traffic around you it blowing by at 70 - 75.

Also had a Suburban with the 350 that I regularly got 20 mpg on the highway (but admittedly did not haul heavy very well).

Before we got the d-max we pulled the 30' camper with the same '94 half ton chevy. It got a steady 9.9-10 mpg from 55-65 mph... it also burned a quart of oil every 400 miles while doing it, but oil consumption slacked off when you unhooked it so it was ok.

matt

Big Red 12,
How often do you pull the 5th wheel and the boat? How much does that weight total? Thats the info we need. If that combo is pulled alot (12 times a year on long runs) and it is around 10K lbs total weight, i would say go diesel.
If that combo is pulled 6 times a year on short distances and weights 10k then go with the gasser as thats not worth the extra cost of the diesel IMO. The 5th wheel or the boat can be pulled easily with the gas motor unless your 5th wheel weighs 10k lbs by itself.

I pull triple maybe 3-5 times a year. Some long and some short. Pull the boat all the time. Most of my mileage is pulling a boat.

I guess ill chime in. I have had 2 2500hd trucks. Both crew cab, both long beds, both 2wd. One had the 6.0 and the other a duramax. The d max got better fuel economic. And box more power. In my experience it equaled out to caust the same to drive both. Diesel is more expensive per gal and maintance is more. But the gas motor got 13mpg. It was causting me $100 per week in fuel alone. And that adds up quickly. Both will pull the same amount of weight. Just the gas motor needs to pull more rpm to do it. Thus the fuel economy goes way down in the gas motor. The longer you pull and run Tue diesel, the more caust effecent the diesel motor becomes to run.

get the duramax and buy a programmer. FNL has one and he pulls his 30' fifth wheel to Colorado every year. said he gets almost 18 mpg. not sure how true that is though.

before that he had the 2500 HD and it got like 8 mpg pulling the fifth wheel.

If he claims to get 18mpg pulling a 30 foot camper or anything else then it is in neutral rolling down hill!

Be careful, many of the newer diesels do not get the fuel milleage they used to, and even the ford that does uses urea, so its really a wash. If you are not prepared to chop off the EPA stuff and chip it then you are probably better off with a gas vehicle unless you truely need the towing power.

matt

haha yeah maybe he said 14ish. i can't remember. i think 14 sounds more reasonable.

It is a Cummins. I love the engine. But, it like a bumper sticker we saw.
"I bought the Cummins Diesel and got all the other $!&& with It"

It is 33' and 10,000 #+. I am looking at selling it and getting a cab over.