fuel economy - Diesel Forum

bergey · 06-30-2005, 12:04 PM

Yes I'm a complete rookie to Diesels.
I am looking at getting a 1996 E-350 Power stroke. I will be doing a combo of daily empty driving, and loaded highway driving all across Canada, and the US at 70 mph all highway. When loaded I would have a small 5' x 8' enclosed trailer which has a smaller frontal area than the van, so it should have a minor effect of aerodynamics. It weighs about 600lbs, and I would have a load of about 800lbs. What kind of mileage can I expect in these 2 scenarios? I have heard that these trucks are not effected much in the mileage by these "smaller" loads.

Thanks

Larry M · 06-30-2005, 07:43 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Yes I'm a complete rookie to Diesels.
I am looking at getting a 1996 E-350 Power stroke. I will be doing a combo of daily empty driving, and loaded highway driving all across Canada, and the US at 70 mph all highway. When loaded I would have a small 5' x 8' enclosed trailer which has a smaller frontal area than the van, so it should have a minor effect of aerodynamics. It weighs about 600lbs, and I would have a load of about 800lbs. What kind of mileage can I expect in these 2 scenarios? I have heard that these trucks are not effected much in the mileage by these "smaller" loads.

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't really say on the actual mpg, but just make sure that you get the 3.55 or whatever close to that offered in the 1996 PSD and not the 4.10s since at 70mph your mpg will suffer and with only that "no load" trailer the 3.55 is the way to go. Now if you get into the 4,000 and 5,000K trailers and up then the 3.55 might not be the right rear overall for mpg.

My guestimate if the 96 is running good is anywhere from 13 to 19 mpg with that trailer, but that's a real SWAG. I get a solid 11 to a 11.5 towing a 6K TT that is over 10' tall at the rear (not a normal TT profile) ... look HERE ... what most folks don't understand while the frontal area does offer a lot of resistance most of the drag is from the undercarriage and from the rear of the trailer.

Larry, keeper of the  New revised "little secrets" CLICK HERE [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

dansk · 06-30-2005, 10:25 PM

My milage on the highway is right at 20 mpg. I haul a double car enclosed trailer and gross out at 20,000 lbs. Highway milage drops to 10-11 mpg. You will probably always see 15-20 empty and towing
Dann

bergey · 07-04-2005, 09:10 AM

Thanks for the help guys, as of tonight I will own a 1996 E-350 PSD. Hope it works well for me. The truck definitely will not win any beauty awards, as it is Bright Orange, with a blue stripe down the side, but it has 230,000kms (143,000 mile), the body is excellent (big concern in Canada), and looks to be in excellent Mechanical condition, and I only paid $6,200 can ($4960 US).