Diesel Regeneration

denverman · July 20, 2018

On 7/12/2015 at 2:00 PM, Whip said:

We will be looking at trucks within the next year or so. I'm thinking of moving up to a 3/4 ton truck for better for capacity. I started another thread with questions on the 6.0, but have a diesel question here.

With the new emissions equipment on the diesel trucks I am wondering if they would even be feasible for my style of use. We tow approx. 25% of the time. But the other 75% of the time the truck is used more or less as a daily driver.

I've read that in order for regeneration to occur properly the truck needs to be driven at highway speeds in order to get the operating temps up. One comment mentioned needing to run 40 miles or so a couple of times a week in order for things to work as designed.

My normal use might not see 40 mile trips for a couple of months at a time. When I tow, it tends to be long distances. And we do take long trips 5 or 6 times each year. But when I'm at home my average trip is 10 miles round trip to town and back. It's not that often that I run more than 20-25 miles before stopping. Buti drive it pretty much daily, and might easily put on 2-3,000 miles of shorter trips before hitting the road again.

Will using a truck the way I have been cause problems down the road with the regeneration systems? From what I've read, repairs can be extremely expensive.

I sure don't want to have to go drive around for an hour a couple of times a week just to work through regeneration cycles.

Whip, I'm in your same boat. what did you end up deciding on? Gas or diesel?

KARNUT · July 20, 2018

We quit driving diesels for all the emissions. My parents still do older ones, mother 2000 one ton Ford, father 98 Ram. They both have under 200K miles and run like new. You really can’t daily diesels any more unless you work them or routinely drive long distance.

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Whip · July 20, 2018

12 hours ago, denverman said:

Whip, I'm in your same boat. what did you end up deciding on? Gas or diesel?

I ended up going with the diesel 3 years ago. No regrets so far - it goes like a champ and I never worry about regen.

denverman · July 20, 2018

3 hours ago, Whip said:

I ended up going with the diesel 3 years ago. No regrets so far - it goes like a champ and I never worry about regen.

that's good to hear. i'm really hung up on this regen thing. it seems so inconvenient (and expensive). did you ever smell the fumes in the cab during regen? or do you ever have to let it regen while idling? what kind of MPG are you seeing in town? thank you!

doverarjim · July 20, 2018

If you buy a new diesel its not IF but when you will have problems! With that being said I am looking at a new truck and it will be a diesel. I have 160,000 on my 2011 model and its a DD, yes I do pull trailers at times and some of them are heavy. The regen is not an issue unless you are making short trips and then it takes forever to complete. I drive 10 miles to and from work and if my truck is ready to start a regen it takes about 8 miles of highway driving for it to start, in the afternoon when I go home it will get started after about 2 miles of stop and go with stoplight driving at the most takes 3 days to get it done, am I happy about it no but for me its no big deal. I bought a CTSII a few years ago and I have tracked my regens since then and have found problems before they got me stopped on the side of the road. If you can't afford the repair bills then how are you affording the truck?

Colossus · July 21, 2018

20 hours ago, KARNUT said:

We quit driving diesels for all the emissions. My parents still do older ones, mother 2000 one ton Ford, father 98 Ram. They both have under 200K miles and run like new. You really can’t daily diesels any more unless you work them or routinely drive long distance.

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Yup what you said.

SilveradoX2 · September 10, 2018

I bought my GMC on Labor day with 25 miles, it was showing Continue Driving on the display. So based on what I've read here previously, I did. A couple miles on the Interstate driving home the message dissappeared. Not much in smells. I then drove 625 miles to northern AZ (9,000 feet) and back to Phoenix, mostly highways, for the 500 mile break-in with no further regens. Besides its hot enough here to keep the soot burned out. And I got 18.5 mpg climbing mountains so I'm very happy so far. Fingers crossed

Colossus · September 10, 2018

Sounds good to me.

xps800doo · September 10, 2018

2015 with 65000 Miles, never seen the keep driving message, and mine is less than a daily driver, it pulls my boat 6 miles from the house to the lake on the weekends and then I will drive it once or twice during the week to work or maybe Home Depot, And maybe once a month it will be on a 30 minute or More Highway Drive. I do occasionally scan the truck to see how many miles since the last regen and monitor soot level Because I just happen to have a scan tool, but there have been zero issues and zero messages to keep driving so obviously something is working as it should.

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jwstewar · October 18, 2018

I made my truck mad a few weeks ago. I was moving used hay/straw from the barn to the other side of the property for composting. I was loading the trailer and pulling it across the yard and let the truck idle while it dumped and pulled the trailer back. I had the continue driving message for the couple days I was doing that.

EXSlider400 · October 21, 2018

On 12/7/2015 at 8:39 PM, becker87 said:

Thousands of these trucks are running around as daily drivers, a few may have issues, sure, but it sounds like you will let your truck stretch it legs enough where it should not be an issue.

+1. And you can tell when regen at a stop as RPM increases a little. But may still add an indicator (which GM should have added already in my opinion).

EXSlider400 · October 21, 2018

On 9/9/2018 at 9:15 PM, SilveradoX2 said:

I bought my GMC on Labor day with 25 miles, it was showing Continue Driving on the display. So based on what I've read here previously, I did. A couple miles on the Interstate driving home the message dissappeared. Not much in smells. I then drove 625 miles to northern AZ (9,000 feet) and back to Phoenix, mostly highways, for the 500 mile break-in with no further regens. Besides its hot enough here to keep the soot burned out. And I got 18.5 mpg climbing mountains so I'm very happy so far. Fingers crossed

Almost all the ones I test drove had that message but it went away after the first real drive and I have almost 25k on mine now and have never seen it again.

SilveradoX2 · October 22, 2018

Well folks I just completed a four week, 8,000 mile road trip from Arizona to the East coast, North to Caribou Maine, around all the Great Lakes and back without any error messages. Truck ran great and I averaged about 19 mpg for the whole trip. I now rate the GMC as my number 1 favorite except for the seats. I like my 2003 2500HD seats better. Hope all you who've bought a 2018 enjoy yours likewise.

Colossus · October 22, 2018

Glad to hear it. Yes, I think the seats in the GMT-800s were the best as well. My 99 Silverado and 05 Sierra were very comfortable vs the 2007, 2008, and 2012s that I've owned.

avalonandl · October 25, 2018

On 7/20/2018 at 7:49 AM, KARNUT said:

We quit driving diesels for all the emissions. My parents still do older ones, mother 2000 one ton Ford, father 98 Ram. They both have under 200K miles and run like new. You really can’t daily diesels any more unless you work them or routinely drive long distance.

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BS.....