Hey guys, so I know Im gonna get torn apart for this question.. but I have to at least give it a shot. My dad and his business partner are looking at new 1 ton dumps and having switching between diesel and V10. It seems that the V10's are way more prevalent then an affordable diesel. So my question is.. what are you guys getting for gas mileage in you're V10's (I know its not gonna be great, but I figured I'd try to get some rough figures)

Thanks for your help!

 

I have a 2003 F350 FX4 SuperCrew Longbed, with 235/85R16's on stock wheels, no lift, stock V10, 4.30 gears.

I regularly get around 10-11 mpg working. That's short trips, and a lot of idling. On the interstate I get about 12.5mpg. On the highway @ 55mph with a small boat, I get about 13ish. Pulling peanut wagons all day, I get about 5-6 mpg with about half the day spent in low range.

I don't drive easy, and I never shut the motor off, but you can expect to get about 13.5 mpg at best on the highway. My father claims to have gotten 14mpg on a long trip with his 2000 V10 F250 Supercrew 4X4 305/75R16's w/4.10 gears.

Now, I just put on a set of 255/85R16 Open Country MT's today. We'll see what that does to my mileage.

 

Pickup's seem to get 10 to 13 MPG. I would expect the dump truck would be a little worse. Probably in the 8 MPG range. Diesel dump with be in the 12 to 14 MPG range.

 

Both the school district and the city in my town own F-350 V10 regular cab dually Ford dump trucks. I would say that either empty or full you are going to get anywhere from 6-10 MPG. Its a cost of owning a dump truck, but for certain businesses it is a need.

 

thanks guys, definitely what I was expecting to hear. Unfortunately like GreenBuck said, it is a necessity.. I guess we'll just look a little bit harder for the right deal on a diesel!

 

The better mileage is going to be counteracted by the higher cost of diesel fuel and higher maintenance costs. You have 15 quarts of oil to buy to do an oil change, for example.

 

x2 on what glc said... any way you go it is going to cost the same in the long run

 

Not only that, but the 6.0 and 6.4 diesels have not had the best reliability records. Hopefully, this will all be fixed with the 6.7 next year, which will be built by Ford instead of Navistar.

 

I concur with the earlier posts. In the end, you don't save ANY money with a diesel. And in the case of my uncle's 7.3psd, it has cost him a fortune in parts, service and transmissions. And he gets roughly the same mileage as our v10's.

 

You buy more oil, but change it less often... (3k vs 5K). I figured up the costs once, running 3K oil changes on my F-150 with Castrol GTX vs 5K oil changes on my F-250 using Motorcraft 15w40, it was slightly higher for the F-250. Not enough to make you hurt.

 

I would get the diesel to be honest. Let that baby run all day.

 

Who says you have to change the oil every 3k in a gas motor? That's no longer necessary.

FACTORY RECOMMENDATION is 7500 miles/6 months under "normal" use, 5000 miles/6 months/200 engine hours under "special", "dusty", or "severe" use - GAS OR DIESEL.

That said, do whatever you want, but if you follow the factory recommendation you will be using twice as much oil with a diesel. You also will pay about 4 times as much for oil, air, and fuel filters for the diesel, and the diesel also has a $75 water separator cartridge to deal with periodically. The only maintenance saving grace with a diesel is no spark plugs or coils, and if properly maintained it will run forever. Who keeps their trucks forever?

Z, it's no longer cut and dried like it is with your great old 7.3 - the new diesels are a pain in the **** and are fuel hogs. If a V-10 has enough power for your needs, in the long run it won't cost you any more than a diesel to operate. If you need the power of a diesel, then go for it.

 

Damn! good points made pard!

 

Wow, you can't argue with that.

 

I do that with my gasser. It's kinda funny, cause I crank it up in the morning when I leave the house, and I turn it off when I get home at night. I put about 10 engine hours (~150 miles) on the truck each day, and I still change the oil every 5,000 miles.

It didn't hurt the green one. yet.

It's purty much a matter of choice. I hate the noise and smell of the diesel. That's why I bought a gas. That and I needed a truck with a mechanical throttle linkage and cruise linkage to hook to my next motor...... seeing as how ford doesn't put Cummins in their F-350's....