I'd be happy with 10 mpg, so anything beyond that would be a bonus.

My last Cummins was in a 72 passenger school bus I converted to a motor home for the move here to PA, loved that rig, it did have an Allison automatic though.

My typical commute is 45 minutes or more at job sites all over PA and there will be times I'll need to pull big loads.

In cold weather I can plug in the block heater.

In nice weather I am not at all opposed to driving one of the 50 year old cars.

Any thoughts on the older 1st generations Cummins trucks and do the 3500s use the same gear box as the 2500s?

Thanks for all the thoughts so far, I also had a V-10 '99 with the 5 seed and loved it.