Hi, I have a question or two about some GMC/Chevy/Dodge trucks that hopefully can be answered by the expert opinions on this forum.

The 1500 Sierra gets anywhere from 14-19 mpg city and highway mixed. The Silverado is rated to get the same mpg. Does it? I was debating on whether or not to get a 2500 Sierra/Silverado and with that either gas or diesel. People who own the 2500 6.0 ltr vortec and the 6.6 ltr duramax, please reply with some figures on the gas mileage you recieve with those vehicles, both Sierra and Silverado. Chevy, GMC, Dodge? Which is the best on gas mileage as far as 1500/2500 (gas and diesel). (Sorry, not much on Fords haha) When these trucks are lifted, its obvious they don't get as good of gas mileage as they were stock, but when is the point of lift where it does start to get really bad gas mileage? If you lift it for example 2-3 inches and put 33" tires, does it really affect the mpg that much? What is a good combonation of lift height and tire size to get around the same gas mileage as stock?

I will probably be posting more topics on other questions I have, but for now this is what I am curious about.

Thanks

 

Well it depends on what you are doing with it man. If this is going to be a work truck and you'll be pulling heavy loads every day, you definately wanna go diesel. If you are going to be using it as your daily driver and intend to use it for work maybe once in a blue moon or once every week or so then go with the gas engine. I have a GMC Sierra with the 4.8liter and my dad has one with the 5.3. We both have pulled stuff most people would NEVER venture to pull with ours and we did it on a daily basis cause we had a tree business and we couldn't afford to buy a diesel. So the pulling power is there with a gas engine. Although they were not intended to do that stuff on a daily basis and will tear upa lot quicker then a diesel would doing the same job. They also get horrid gas mileage while pulling a heavy load. Like I bet when I was pulling a 16ft trailer loaded down with lumber I was getting maybe 10mpg on the highway running 65mph. When not pulling a load my truck gets about 16mpg at 65mph. The 5.3 get's much better gas mileage than the 4.8 does. It makes more torque and thus requires less fuel to do the same speeds.

I used to work at a Dodge dealership and I can tell you first hand that Dodge's get terrible gas mileage. The Hemi's have plenty of pulling power but need a navigation system with every gas station in the nation programmed into them so you can quickly find the nearest one. The 4.7 engines in the Dodge's are a joke. They also get terrible gas mileage and aren't nearly as powerful as Chevy's 4.8.

The only real complaint I have outta my Sierra is the fuel pump. I have 45,000 miles on my truck and it's showing indicators that the fuel pump is going bad. I just got an estimate this morning at the dealership of $800 to replace the thing if I want the lifetime warranty on parts and labor. I could do it myself for a 1/4 of the price but the aftermarket pumps for these suck even worse. I'd still own a Chevy before any of the others though!

Also to make things clear, the only difference between Chevy and GMC is the grill on the front and the brand logos, LOL!

 

I only have 1000 miles on my stock08GMC SLE12500 ext. cab SB 4WD. So far in mixed suburban/hwy in wet to snowy weatherthe 6L 6-spd 3.73 gearedgasseris averaging 13.7-13.8.That may improvein warmer drier weather once broken in.

2 things you need to consider if running 33" paddle wheels is that more rotational mass and drag is going to use more gas, and unless you recalibrate your speedometer/odo, it will read low, soyou would be going more miles than it indicates (making gas mileage seem worse than it is).

 

I see.. So if you were to recalibrate the speedmeter and odometer then you would just be correcting your numbers, but not actually getting the same gas mileage?

And if you were to upgrade your 2500 to getting more torque, would that increase gas mileage? I am asking because the guy that posted before you talked about torque and how if you have more of it, then it is easier to accelerate, thus takes less gas. So i guess what im asking is, the more torque the better gas mileage?

 

If you do a lot of heavy towing, the diesel may be for you.
But you have to justify that. My dad has a 2006 LBZ Duramax Sierra 4x4 and he gets around 18 mpg empty and 13 towing, depending on the load.

However, it will take a LOT of towing to get your moneys worth out of a diesel. Nice trucks though.

 

Exactly. I bought my 03 GMC Sierra with 28,000 miles for $16,000. The cheapest diesel I saw about the same year was a Silverado 2500 with the duramax and that thing was like $25,000 give or take. It also had A LOT more miles.

 

yea i was reading this website were it compared whether or not diesel was worth it, for a car or truck, and it was showing all these calculations about how you would have to drive the diesel over 150,000 miles just to get your moneys worth out of the gas because of the 4-5grande extra it costs for a diesel. It was showing how most people only drive 50-100k miles then their done and trade it, so its really not worth it unless your gonna keep the diesel for a while.