Diesel Truck for hunting

[Brent]

Yeah, 500k mi. did surprise me a bit. That is a bit more than I had figured for the lighter duty diesel. My Freightliner I drove at CF had 680K mi. when we were finished there.

I agree, under a load the diesel gas milage falls very, very little. The new large gas engine V8's are doing much better on gas than I think you may realize. Often it'll take a diesel 30-50K miles just to break in and gas mileage to come up to normal. One friend of mine said his new one went up to 17 MPG and stabilized at about 30k, the other was up to 21 MPG and stabilized at about 40K miles.

I think diesel is about $1.45 a gal. here locally, $1.60 in places of high traffic and out here rural. About 10 cents lower a gallon than unleaded.

[Matt Regalia]

I get 22 MPG on the highway without my trialer and about 16 with the trailer. I do run 65-70 with the trailer on though. I don't cut her any slack on the hills either. I pull my car-trailer on the PA turnpike alot (traveling from Michigan to Maryland). The only thing that gets my nerves up are the damn Jersey Barriers and tight lanes with the extra wide trailer.

With me the biggect concern was not the engine lasting for 300K to 500K but the rest of the truck. They use so much salt up here in Michigan that 5-6 year old cars have RUST HOLES already. Get one stone chip and you are done.

Matt

[Darryl Cassel]

I keep a vehical a long time also if it gives me good service, which this Dodge certainly has.

The salt will cause problems for sure and I have taken care of that problem.

I keep mine outside all winter unless I pull it in to spray it off underneith and the fender wells and also wax it, then it goes back outside.

It is high pressure water sprayed at the Ziebart shop "every spring" and then re-ziebarted at the same time. This has been done every year since the truck was new and it still looks it.

There is NO rust on my Dodge and I plan on keeping it till at least 300,000 or 400,000 miles are on it and probably longer then that. I'm only at 156,000 miles now.

No rattles, doesn't burn any oil, and runs decent but NOT like the new HO engines from Cummins. The Banks kit sure did help out though.

It is a 1993 LE that looks like a 2003 (as per condition) it also has the 1 ton chassis and the extended cab. It is extra heavy duty and has run extremely well for me.

Didn't need two diesels any longer so, I sold my much newer Ford and kept this Dodge, glad I did.

Later
DC

[Brent]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>With me the biggect concern was not the engine lasting for 300K to 500K but the rest of the truck. They use so much salt up here in Michigan that 5-6 year old cars have RUST HOLES already. Get one stone chip and you are done.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's no joke! It's about the same way up here where I live too. We commute to work about 50 miles each way quite a bit and the miles do rack up pretty quickly. I know a few people who trade their rig in every year on a new one to avoid all the long term ownership troubles. It must be spendy though. I do my own work on my rigs so I hate trading them off once I get to know them. My uncle does body work, so that's a big bonus, and I'm learning that fast as I can. That cancer is creeping out from under the lower chrome trim all around my F100, my Bronco is very bad, it's sick to see.

Parking them in a warm garage every night is the very worst thing you can do in cold weather. Condensation forms EVERYWHERE and is a non stop attacker. Rust gets started in places that normally take years to develop. I've seen new metal not last two years before cancer starts in the seams and such.

[ewallace]

Here is a pic of the heavy duty dooley chains
Crow Mag

[michaelb]

Eric, very nice truck! I'm looking forward to seeing it at Plainfield soon. It looks like the drive from Michigan will be quite enjoyable in that big old truck. Oops, "big new truck".

Michael

[ 03-08-2004: Message edited by: michaelb ]