Posted By: Eric
Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/03/13 12:24 PM
Looks like my Cummins might be totaled so I'm thinking of going back to gas considering the price of diesel. How are the Hemi's for towing and fuel milage? Thanks Eric
Posted By: V10nacuda
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/03/13 12:35 PM
I cant remember how big a trailer you have but any thing bigger than a 24' enclosed I think diesel is the way to go..
its great to have that cummins lock up in OD and not be shifting all the time!!!!
However if u are interested I did see a 03-05 3500 dually 4x4 quad cab HEMI truck for sale locally..
V10
Posted By: dusturbd340W5
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 12:05 AM
I have a good friend that has a 07 hemi he tows a small travel trailer with it and he is getting somewhere around 10mpg and my 06 TCD was getting 15 pulling a 32'enclosed tag race trailer with 1' extra height.
Posted By: max_maniac
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 03:28 AM
Eric if you remember I had an 04 1500 QC with a Hemi towing my 28ft enclosed trailer. I was pushing it with the 1500 as I really needed a 2500. The Hemi did ok for me but no where near what a cummins would do and I got around 10/11 mpg pulling my trailer. If it was a 2500 I would have kept it but ended up trading it in for an 07 2500 with a diesel.
Call me Saturday
and maybe I can go look at what you are interested in.
Russ
Posted By: J_BODY
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 04:37 AM
WTF??? you just got that thing??? say it aint so!! A good person to PM on this would be Jeepmon. Don spent a few years pulling his enclosed trailer with a Hemi equipped 2500. He now has a 2012 that I "believe" the emission crap fell off of. he would have a good opinion. My opinion is that you lost one of the best era CTD trucks out there. Great balance of power and mpg.
Posted By: Aero426
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 06:01 AM
I have an 04 Ram 2500 reg cab 2wd with Hemi. Low option fleet type truck. Mileage is not good. My last 250 mile round trip empty I got 13 up and 14 back. 15-ish is the best I have ever gotten on the hwy. Towing a 24' enclosed, I get about 9 mpg.
Posted By: Jeepmon
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 07:22 AM
As mentioned in your other post.. 06 Ram 2500 4x4 Hemi, had decent power towing the 24' enclosed... Going up the big hills in the Sierra Mtn... or climbing up to Las Vegas, I could easily pull the trailer at 55-60 mph, but my foot was real close to being on the floor and the rpms were up around 5000...
The mileage is horrible.. in the city, stop light to stop light traffic, we're looking at about 9.5 mpg.. In the city and on the freeway,it was 10.5 - 11 mpg with an over all of 10 mpg.. Travelling mostly on flat freeway, with the truck completely empty, I think the best I ever got was 13-ish mpg..
The new truck is the 2012 2500 4x4 Cummins and that thing is awesome.. Loaded with work tools and weighing in at 9020 lbs... we're talking mid 8 seconds for a 0-60 mph.. enough grunt when towing the same 24' trailer to Vegas.. it laff'd at the same hills the Hemi struggled with.. and I think it downshifted once while on cruise control but that was at 70 mph..
From San Jose to Vegas and back, pulling the trailer, I think we averaged 14 mpg... with the truck completely empty we got 18 mpg.. Lastly with the truck loaded and all around city driving is a very nice 13 mpg...
Power, speed and increased mpg... what the hell was I thinking when I bought the Hemi...??
Posted By: goldmember
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 07:28 AM
I agree the Hemi is not the best tow setup. Made me miss the old 5.9 gasser when towing an OPEN TRAILER, a larger enclosed?
Posted By: sportfury70
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/04/13 07:47 PM
My 04 2500 with a 5.7 5speed manual has hard enough time pulling itself. It's a real dog. 9-13 mpg. Only trailer I have ever pulled with it was an empty equipment trailer and it struggled to do that.
Posted By: Bad340fish
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/05/13 02:53 PM
If your not towing long road trips all the time I would go with the Hemi. Remember with the Hemi you get much less expensive oil changes, you do have to drop $50 on plugs every 30K miles but IMO thats no big deal(1.5 hours to change after the first time lol).
I have always had diesels but recently bought an 08 Hemi Ram. Reasons were fuel cost, oil change cost, etc. The new EGR trucks shouldn't see the extended oil change intervals of the past cummins so IMO that savings is gone.
I am responsible for a fleet of 8 vehicles at work. There is no comparison between the money spend on the diesels versus the two gas vans. I think the 210K of regular service on the ford van is less than some of single repairs on the diesels lol.
Posted By: Silver70
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/05/13 04:56 PM
I've towed with a hemi once and I thought it did pretty good. Although I wouldn't trade my 01 cummins for one as much as I haul in the bed and tow. I get 19mpg and 16.5-17 mixed with towing. A hemi, especially 2500 won't be anywhere near that. So I have no problem paying more for fuel, the added power makes it worth it to me. I've spent less maintaining my truck than similar gas trucks also.
Posted By: cudaboy
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/07/13 01:55 AM
the oil change statement always makes me LOL, with a gas motor most people do an oil change every 3-4k miles and it takes 5-6 quarts and a filter.
with my 5.9 cummins I was doing a oil change every 10k and that is 12 quarts and a filter so how is it more expensive, and the oil analysis showed the oil was still good to use so I could have pushed it longer.
I think the same thing, but it's not worth arguing it anymore.
Dennis
Posted By: Eric
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/07/13 03:47 PM
I'm thinking this may be the one...06' Cummins..
Posted By: 71yelladustr
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/09/13 02:00 AM
I have owned both trucks and there is no comparison. I had a 04 2500 4x4 hemi auto w/ 4.10s and was not impressed with how it towed. I live in a hilly area and it was always shifting and would not maintain speed well unless you had your foot through the firewall. The hemi has no low end torque and you have to rev the piss out of it to get it to do anything. The mileage sucked too. 12 mpg empty/ less than 10 mpg loaded. I had several CTD trucks before this one and after towing with one of them its hard to go back to a gas rig. I just got a 07 6.7 6 speed truck and after taking off all of the emmisions crap I couldn't be happier. It pulls well an gets good mileage. Yeah the upkeep on a diesel is more and if something fails or breaks it is also costs more. But in the long run, the diesel will still be worth something with the body falling off of it when the gas truck in the same condition or better will be worth hardly anything.
Posted By: Rhinodart
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/09/13 02:14 AM
I went through 3 G56 Mercedes (junk) six speeds in the 07 I had, would never buy another unless it is used for very rare towing.
Posted By: 71yelladustr
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/09/13 04:20 AM
Rhinodart, what were you doing to tear up that many G56s in your truck? I work on these trucks every day for a living and dont see that much problems out of them. I have had only 3 apart and all were subject to severe abuse before they broke. 2 were out of 600+ hp pulling trucks and the other was used to pull 36K lbs up and down the highway daily as fast is would run. I think you unfortunate experience with them is the exception rather than the rule. I like to run some thicker fluid, like 50wt in them for heavy towing rather than ATF+4. As for the flywheel and clutch in front of them, it is no doubt a piece of trash.
Posted By: RUNCHARGER
Re: Towing with a 06' Hemi vs 04.5 HO Cummins? - 05/09/13 04:52 PM
06 is the newest Cummins I would consider.
Sheldon
