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Mpg for new gas 2500


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I guess the perception on 6.0 being a dog compared to 6.2 is based on how one drives. My 2500 6.0 is a rural pickup that rarely sees interstate type roads. I lost my need to take off from stops like a rocket quite a long time ago. Probably just too many miles behind the wheel of semi trucks did that to me. My perception of the 6.0 is that it has all the get up and go I need. And my needs center around hauling more than towing. I am not sure I would notice any difference in performance between the motors.

You must live in an area with little elevation. The difference is very apparent when climbing any kind of a grade moreso than in stop and go traffic, the 4.10's help there. Compared to the 6.2 the 6.0 feels like you're towing something when you're not. Even with the 4.10's the 6.0 has to drop an extra gear going up any hill compared to the 6.2. Try to accellerate going uphill and you see a very big difference too.

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You could say that. Iowa is pretty much just rolling hills. And most times, the pickup is on rural two lane highway stuff. Even with 4.10, a lot of times will leave it in manual mode M5 to reduce "gear hunting" shifting on hills because the speeds are generally around 60 on those rural roads. The 6.0L seems to do it's best overall work at around 2000 RPM, give or take, and delivers not bad mpg in doing so. I just don't notice any sluggishness with the 6.0L in mine. Sure doesn't feel like I am towing anything around. Actually feels "peppier" than the 5.3 and 3.42 that was in the 2013 1500 I had before. We have some interesting grades around here, but they are not mountains by any reckoning. Several of those climbs are from dead stops at road junctions. Never felt the 6.0L was underpowered on any of them. Same for driving around corn fields, hay ground, and pastures. Just never felt anything was lacking.

 

Again it must all revolve around driving style. I don't feel the need to take off and get up to road speed in as short of time as possible. I am more of a gradual acceleration driver, but as I stated, probably due to those over 5 million miles of commercial semi truck driving. Rapid acceleration costs money and is abusive to equipment in heavy truck, and I get the bills for operating them as I own them. 140,000 miles a year driving those properly and some of it carries over to your pickup driving. Might also explain why, on road trips, I average 17-18 mpg with the 6.0L in the heavy 2500 Z71. From what I have read around various forums, not much worse than those with 6.2L in a relatively light 1500 compared to a 2500. And that is the rub. It is as cheap or cheaper to operate mine (I can use any grade of gas compared to premium for the 6.2L), and my motor is moving a lot more pickup, so any comparison to the 6.2 is a little lame. I would bet the L96 6.0L would feel peppier if it was moving less weight of the 1500 and any perceived major "get up and go" that one might experience with a 6.2L in a 1500 would not be so great if it was moving the same 2500HD my 6.0L is moving.

 

If one has a fondness for the 6.2L, fantastic! Feeling good about your ride, whatever it is or whatever it has in it, is always a good thing. I am fond of the sad, 'ol Vortec 6.0L L96 in my 2015 2500HD. It does a great job for me, and delivers what I need and a little better mpg than I had expected. A much heavier and better performing pickup than my previous 1500, yet the mpg is virtually identical. The overall lifetime mpg on that 1500 was around 14 for all miles and so far with the 2500, the lifetime average for all miles is 14.5 mpg. And this 2500 puts my previous 1500 to shame in a lot of ways. Even the wife thinks it is a much better pickup than the 2013 1500 we had before. It's a keeper!

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I've noticed that my 6.0L is definitely using up more fuel that than 5.3 '05 cc, but I'm not comparing apples to apples. The question I have on the 6.0 is if I get any appreciable gain in MPG if I shut off the traction control. Perceptually it runs quieter so I wondered by not constantly locking the diff it would be less parasitic drain on HP. I use the same scenario when leaving the truck in part-time 4x4 versus 4x2. - weird things I think about on a Friday afternoon... :throwup:

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I know that I get about a 1 mpg average boost by just lowering the stock air pressure in the tires when the pickup is not hauling. I have deduced that with stock OEM recommended air pressures, there is some wheel hop (when empty) going on that causes the electronics to do that anti wheel spin, traction control nonsense to a degree that is costing some mpg. Once I lowered the tire pressures to 50-55 psi, I got better mpg right off the bat. Just got tires rotated and wife took the pickup for a short road trip to a friends wedding. She lost the mpg again. I figured out the shop had ramped up the air pressures to stock. I reduced them back down and mpg came back. Only thing I can attribute the changes to was that the high OEM recommended pressures causing wheel hop. The wife noticed the pickup was bouncing around a lot more with the higher pressures. If the wheels are indeed hopping around more with stock pressures, that is also costing tire life. For both mpg and tire life, I lower the pressures.

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I know that I get about a 1 mpg average boost by just lowering the stock air pressure in the tires when the pickup is not hauling. I have deduced that with stock OEM recommended air pressures, there is some wheel hop (when empty) going on that causes the electronics to do that anti wheel spin, traction control nonsense to a degree that is costing some mpg. Once I lowered the tire pressures to 50-55 psi, I got better mpg right off the bat. Just got tires rotated and wife took the pickup for a short road trip to a friends wedding. She lost the mpg again. I figured out the shop had ramped up the air pressures to stock. I reduced them back down and mpg came back. Only thing I can attribute the changes to was that the high OEM recommended pressures causing wheel hop. The wife noticed the pickup was bouncing around a lot more with the higher pressures. If the wheels are indeed hopping around more with stock pressures, that is also costing tire life. For both mpg and tire life, I lower the pressures.

 

You running 50 - 55psi all the way around? Your low psi light must be staying on. I have a 10 2500 6.0 CC with 3:73. I'm running 45 psi (front) and 63 psi (rear). Your running 10 ply tires right?

 

As for mpg. My average off my dic is usually around 14 - 16 combined. I more rural than anything, so it's mostly 2 lane roads. I do take the truck to our place in northern MI a lot. Highway driving I can get decent mpg until rpm's go to around 2200, of course I'm usually running 75-80 to get there. Towing our 2 pllace PWC trailer or 7 x 16 enlcosed trailer, it's usually around 11 give or take, depending on conditions.

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yep, running 50-55 all the way around on the stock Michelin LTX A/T2 265/70R18 tires that came with the pickup. TPMS having kittens over it. Ahhhh... Too bad. Get the warnings in my Onstar monthly report also. I just chuckle. It is insane to run 60 up front and 70 in back when empty. Unlike these tires, my commercial truck tires I have a load chart from Michelin that shows the proper pressure for the load. I wish I could get one on these pickup tires. Michelin will not help out and just punts back to GM when I ask. But the recommended pressure in the door specifies that this is for the maximum loading of the pickup. Well, I am not grossing 20,500 GCVW when I am running around empty, so the pressures are invalid. I have well over 5 million miles logged dealing with tires, I know when something is stupid. Else, how come I just turned over 424,000 miles on the original drive tires on my semi truck and they are still not ready for changing out? I am very meticulous about tire pressures.

 

I am in the ballpark you are running rural for mpg. Overall lifetime avg is about 14.5 for everything. Highway mpg on road trips hovers between 17 and 18 mpg. Of course, that is empty. Mostly on the rural two lane highways, I just keep it in M5 and run around 58-60. Lots of rolling hills and curves so keeping it in M5 avoids a lot of unnecessary shifting and gear hunting. I frequent a lot of gravel roads, and there I usually knock it down one more to M4. Mine seems to do it's best overall running around 1800-2100 RPM on the rural stuff. And all of this has been on the new E15 fuel. We started getting it right when I bought the pickup, so I decided to use it and see if mpg was going to take a hit. So far so good. On road trips have only used E10 fuel. I have regular and premium no ethanol readily available, but the cost just doesn't seem to be worth getting it. I save 30 cents a gallon on E15 compared to ethanol free regular. Around 80 cents compared to premium.

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  • 1 month later...

I recently switched my 2500 over to E85. I would use E85 a lot in my 2013 1500, as during that time, that price spread was pretty good. Since I got the 2500, the price spread has been narrower. It is at around 50 cent spread now. Normally, I would wait for a better spread. But the 6.0 seems to deal with E85 better than the 5.3L in my 1500. Where the 5.3 would normally get 3-4 mpg less on E85, the 6.0 seems to be getting about 2 mpg less. Given the price spread right now in my area between regular and E85, I am saving about 2 cents a mile on fuel using E85, even with the lower mpg. So, it looks like the 6.0 will stay on E85 for a while. And it is nice to fill the tank when the E85 fuel is only $1.84 a gallon like it is right now in my area.

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  • 4 months later...

146 mile trip from LI NY to the Poconos, 13.8. 14.8 on the way home. I used cruise control at 75 for most of the way home. Four people in the truck and a few over night bags. I have seen 1.99 a gallon for regular here on the island and 2.39 for diesel. Lowest I've seen in a long time.

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  • 1 month later...

Rochester to Barneveld NY and back I pulled 14mpg hand calculated average (RCLB Z71 6.0 me and a passenger). Speeds were probably 70-75mph from Syracuse to Utica on the Thruway, getting to the Thruway, speeds were 40-70mph. Took Route 12 to Barneveld and it was an interesting road, some long rolling climbs and descents. Made a few pit stops here and there, plus some city driving, so about an 80/20 highway/city split. All 87 octane. MPG's would have been higher but I had filled the night before and did about 15 miles before heading home so that took a hit from the start.

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  • 7 months later...

You can't. That is why they are replacing the 6.0 with the 6.2

When are you hearing that supposed to happen? Where did you hear/see it?

 

2017 is the 4th year for the new 6.2 in the 1500's, but they're still using the L96 6.0 in the HD's.

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When are you hearing that supposed to happen? Where did you hear/see it?

 

2017 is the 4th year for the new 6.2 in the 1500's, but they're still using the L96 6.0 in the HD's.

 

That quote is from 2014, so lots of speculation then for the new body.

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I have averaged about 13-14 for all the 25,000 miles on my 2015 2500 6.0L Not much different than the 2013 1500 5.3L I had before. About 1 mpg less overall lifetime mpg on the 2500. That is very tolerable considering the stock weight and overall capability differences between pickups.

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Will be towing my little trailer (roughly 4,000 lbs) over to the coast for a break-in trip for the new truck. I don't have a lot of miles on the truck and have only done one little trip out of town with it. So my milage is setting at 12.2 right now with a lot of city street driving with a mix of some freeway driving. It will be interesting to see what it does pulling a little trailer while doing the break-in speed on back roads and a rarely used highway. I am expecting the mpg to actually go up since the trailer is so light and that we will have very little stop and go. We will see.

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