Traded Up

becker87 · June 16, 2015

Love that truck and that color is growing on me. What kind of mileage do you see while towing the camper and daily driving? Can you post some interior pics as well?

KMGZ400 · June 16, 2015

Nice truck...like the color! Everytime I see a k2 duramax I get one step closer to trading mine in

Cowpie · June 16, 2015

Great looking ride! Yes sir, there is a positive night and day difference between a 2500HD and a 1500 in just about every way.

AllTerrainBum · June 16, 2015

Love that truck and that color is growing on me. What kind of mileage do you see while towing the camper and daily driving? Can you post some interior pics as well?

I don't have any pictures yet of the interior. I'll see what I can do this week. As for mileage, I've only filled up twice since purchase, currently at 1750 miles. I did refuel and tow my trailer once, and I believe it was about 12mpg while towing (about 60 miles one way), though there was plenty of other driving during that tank. It looks like my daily driving is around 17mpg, which is mostly between two towns and in town driving. The best 50 mile that I have is 22.1mpg.

The best 50 mile I got on the 1500 was 24.5 (5.3L, 3.42), and daily driving was about 16.5. I'm more than happy with the mileage I'm getting so far, and to be fair, the 5.3 was very good in regards to mileage as well.

All of the numbers above are what's displayed on the PIC, not hand calculated.

Luster · June 16, 2015

Those Denlali's are GORGE!

wandern · June 17, 2015

I don't have any pictures yet of the interior. I'll see what I can do this week. As for mileage, I've only filled up twice since purchase, currently at 1750 miles. I did refuel and tow my trailer once, and I believe it was about 12mpg while towing (about 60 miles one way), though there was plenty of other driving during that tank. It looks like my daily driving is around 17mpg, which is mostly between two towns and in town driving. The best 50 mile that I have is 22.1mpg.

The best 50 mile I got on the 1500 was 24.5 (5.3L, 3.42), and daily driving was about 16.5. I'm more than happy with the mileage I'm getting so far, and to be fair, the 5.3 was very good in regards to mileage as well.

All of the numbers above are what's displayed on the PIC, not hand calculated.

Mind boggling to me. I get 21-22mpg in my 5.3L/3.42 2014 1500 4x4, but I'm seriously lucky to get 12mpg in exactly the same conditions with a similar driving style in the 3500. It's starting to worry me. I did 60 miles over the weekend, at 60mph, on flat roads, with only about 3 stops the whole time, and the DIC told me I averaged 10.2mpg. It's generally right when I hand calculate. This would easily be 21mpg in the 1500. Towing? 11mpg in the 1500 (averaged over thousands of miles). 7.5mpg in the 3500 -- with the same trailers. My gas mileage is 20% lower (or worse) than even the worst estimates I see from most people with the Vortec engine...

gmcleer · June 17, 2015

I have a 2014 1500 CC with the 3.42s. Can I ask how heavy is the new trailer? What is the tongue weight? Our travel trailer weighs 6750 and has a tongue weight of 920 as measured from the factory. It seems to be towing fine, but the tongue weight is a little close to the max for me. Just wondering where you are at.

Cowpie · June 17, 2015

Agree that the mpg numbers some are getting is a shame. I take it a step further, in that all the pickup line, irregardless of motor, ratio, class, etc has a sad mpg performance.

All this week, 32,500 lb of truck hauling roughly 20,000 lb of freight, average mpg for the last 1500 miles of 10.5 mpg. Pretty sad when a pickup with a GCRW of less than 1/3 the total gross weight gets only a couple of mpg better than a 70' long, 13'6" tall commercial semi tractor & trailer loaded with freight riding on 5 axles and 14 tires (wide base singles on drive axles).

wandern · June 17, 2015

I have a 2014 1500 CC with the 3.42s. Can I ask how heavy is the new trailer? What is the tongue weight? Our travel trailer weighs 6750 and has a tongue weight of 920 as measured from the factory. It seems to be towing fine, but the tongue weight is a little close to the max for me. Just wondering where you are at.

I'm in the same ballpark. About 6750 lbs on the travel trailer. Approximately 900-1200 lbs tongue weight depending on how full my tanks are (fresh water tank is in the very front of the trailer, black/gray tanks are behind the axle). I added Timbrens to the rear of the 1500 to help with porpoising. I use a WD hitch on the 1500. The 3500 has less sway without the WD hitch than the 1500 has WITH it. LT load range E tires on both trucks. The 1500 has a payload of over 1800 lbs, so the tongue weight isn't a problem.

AllTerrainBum · June 17, 2015

I have a 2014 1500 CC with the 3.42s. Can I ask how heavy is the new trailer? What is the tongue weight? Our travel trailer weighs 6750 and has a tongue weight of 920 as measured from the factory. It seems to be towing fine, but the tongue weight is a little close to the max for me. Just wondering where you are at.

This probably only makes sense to me, but here's the spreadsheet I worked up while trying to pick a trailer:

The GVW of the truck was the actual weight, with just me and full tank of fuel. Got the reading at the local landfill scales.

As most everyone knows, you run out of payload pretty much before anything else. I had some long discussions with the RV salesman about all of this. Not surprisingly, if they look at any of your tow ratings at all it's a miracle, and if they do, it's generally only the max tow rating that they look at.

In any event, you can see that there was little or no safety margin, given how light it is for its size. Of course, now that we got the bigger truck, the wife is giving me grief for not getting a bigger RV. Can't win for loosing.

Here's my more estimate based (haven't weighed in yet) for the Denali HD:

As you can see, even here it's pretty easy to run out of payload if you loaded up the truck with enough people and gear. I'm sure there could be a lot of discussion about the various weights, etc. I played out there, but just trying to answer the question best that I can.

P.S. As for the TW (tounge weight), I used a 13% calculation of GVW. It's not always easy to get the TW from various RV websites. The Keystone RV website lists 835 as the hitch weight for my particular model. I figured for more than that.

P.S.S. The cargo of 750 on the RV may appear to be a bit on the light side of reality, but I almost always have empty black/gray/white/water tanks. We had a fifth wheel before and I got rid of over half the stuff that we never used. So we carry a lot less than we used to.

LakeSpeed · June 19, 2015

Looks Great! Good luck and enjoy

ccdies · July 14, 2015

sweet truck, Ive been looking at Denali 2500's my self lately,,

Roidz · July 14, 2015

sweet truck, Ive been looking at Denali 2500's my self lately,,

After all the work you've put into ur 1500??

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ccdies · July 14, 2015

After all the work you've put into ur 1500??

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thats what my wife said,,,, my truck is on Autotrader, im asking too much for it so ill probaly be stuck with it, witch is no big deal i love it and have no problem keeping it, but if i do sell it, im getting a denali 2500 6.6, and starting over

Roidz · July 14, 2015

thats what my wife said,,,, my truck is on Autotrader, im asking too much for it so ill probaly be stuck with it, witch is no big deal i love it and have no problem keeping it, but if i do sell it, im getting a denali 2500 6.6, and starting over

Can't blame you there. The HD Denalis are sweet trucks. But so is urs so I guess either way you'd have a nice truck.

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