CTD crappy mpg

Just got an 06 3500 qc lb. Only getting around 10.5 mpg. I kept hearing of more in the 15ish mpg. What can I do to increase mpg. I'm usually pulling a trailer with a z-TURN MOwer and some gas powered hand tools

How's the power? 2wd or 4x4?, what gear? mpg towing? what driving style? Mpg started going down in 05 and from what I've seen hadn't really recovered until 13 when the DEF system came into place.

Lots of unknowns. 4.10 gears? Automatic? Open or enclosed trailer? All city driving I assume? More info needed!

sometimes EGR sticks and get bad mileage

unsure of the gearing.4x4, Automatic trans, open trailer, driving is about 50%city, 50% hiway. no towing mpg best was 11.5

11.5 sucks. 4x4 may have 4.10's; more of a fuel hog. How tall a tire?

Millage? when you get on it does it smoke black? or is it whitish grey?
Slow crank/start?


My first thought with that low of mileage is bad injectior... you can always pull some oil from the crank case, have it tested, that will tell you if there is an injectior issue... Finding and fixing an injectior issues are not cheap...

What tire are you running? A larger aftermarket tire with higher rolling resistance will hurt fuel economy. If you are running taller tire, has the pinion factor been changed to correct the speedometer and odometer? This will make your mileage calculations be off. Do you have aftermarket steel bumpers? fuel tank in the bed? Brakes dragging? Worn front end components causing alignment issues? Air and fuel filter clean? All these things will have a negative effect on fuel economy. My $0.02.

Comparing mileage figure when towing is pointless. We need a baseline of driving the truck unloaded, preferably a nice long freeway trip, to get any sort of baseline.

For example, my wifes 2011 1500 will get anywhere from 6 to 20 mpg depending on use. Avg daily driving nets 16. My 92 Cummins avg 18, my 77 Wagoneer avg10

Been my experience most guys pad their real MPG 3-5 mpg to justify the expense of owning a miniture big rig. An 06 is a bad one for MPG as it is a very heavy truck with a 24 valve that never seemed to do as good as the 12V it replaced anyhow. Some chips can help significantly, otherwise, Check your boost, and fuel system out if you don't find anything than enjoy the truth.

While I would tend to agree, the 10mpg he's reporting is bad. However like suggested, we need to know your mpg after a relatively long highway run. Fill-to-fill calculated by hand, not using the overhead console for mpg and report know your speed.

FWIW, while at a 55-60mph cruise, my 99 24v long box 4x4 quad cab got 18 according to the overhead console, which I never verified by hand in the time I owned the truck. My buddy has an 04 24v crew cab 4x4 and his would show the same mpg at the same speed as mine. I know in winter, the overhead console would struggle to hit double digit mpg during town driving. I don't put a lot of stock in those reported numbers but it is something to watch for consistency if anything.

I have an 07 QC 4 wh drive with the 6.7 and when NOT towing I get (hand calculated) 13 MPG in the city and 18 MPG on the highway. When towing my 28 Ft trailer loaded with the race car, fuel, tools and generator I get right at 11 MPG so he should get way better then me with that earlier diesel as mine has that stupid DPF system and is all stock.

I just bought a 07 4x4 megacab 6.7 DPF delete I got 31mpg on hyway (hand calculated) lieometer said 32 everyday it says 18mpg I like it

My 2500 Auto 06 Mega cab highway driving would avg 22-24mpg under 65mph, milking it I get 31 mpg, pulling a 28' trailer at 65mph, dropped to 17-18 mpg. OP's mileage sucks.

take your heat temp gun and shoot the exhaust manifold at the exhaust ports when its warming up and see if you have a injector going bad.
these trucks are junk. (own one) put some cleaner though it. I use howes "meaner cleaner" seems to work well.
check your fuel filter and swap over to a fass system if you have the extra money. it helps.
the main problem with these trucks (06-07) is the fuel filter letting too much crap into the injectors. cummins calls for a 2 micron filter and mamopar put a 7 micron in


check out the diesel forums like cumminsforum.com for some good info you can see what others are getting which is around 20mpg.

thanks everyone. Its all stock as far as i know. stock size tires as well. I will check out the cummins forum as well!!

I have an '09 2500 quad cab 4x4.

It gets 19-20mpg in mixed driving, better on the highway.

It has both the EGR and DPF delete done to it.

Amazing truck!

I have the twin to your truck and it gets similar numbers. 350,000 KM 4x4 47RE and 3.54 gears and 265/75/16 tires.

I bought it this summer in Sask and drove it to Ontario which is 1800 miles give or take. The overhead was showing 18-18.5 tank to tank average 70-75 MPH and I verified it by hand. Mixed driving it does 17 and some tenths. I thought it might be maybe a mile or two light but I haven't run the valves on it yet and that can adversely affect mileage on a diesel.

Kevin

Update on mine. Drove it 366 miles round trip yesterday unloaded and it averaged 22mpg on the highway.

We towed a similar distance with an open car trailer and a car loaded both ways and averaged 17mpg.

We were in the Flint Hills towing back and it never even down shifted out of 6th on the steepest hill!

My 2006 Ram 3500 crewcab L.B. 4 WHD gets around 14.5 in town, 17.5 to 21.5 on the hiway depending on traffic and hills. It has got a best of 14.5 towing my 24 Ft enclosed Pace car trailer weighing between 8600 to 9100 lbs on the axles to the worst of 8.5 MPG towing my 34 Ft Fifth wheel travel trailer that weighs right at 11,500 on the axles against a strong headwind comng back from eastern OR at 65 MPH. It has 3.73 gears and stock size tires IHTHs. My old 1998 3/4 ton CTD 24 valve 2 whd drive got similar mileage also towing the same race car trailer with 3:55 gears and shorter tires. It had a programmer after the first 50,000 miles, I ran it in economy tow mostly I have passed a lot of other brand trucks towing similar loads up the hills with both trucks, I really liked passing the V10 Dodges and Fords towing race car trailers up hills