"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 19:26:49 -0700, "RG" wrote:


That's about right, but my overall average is 17 around town and when
I came back from Wisconsin hauling the Halman Nordic 20, I got around
16/17 highway where I normally get about 20/23. I'm not hauling 14K
pounds either. (are you sure it's 14,000 pounds - 7 tons?)



Actually 14,040 pounds weighed on a certified scale, including 720 pounds of
tongue weight. Boat and trailer, light on fuel. CGVW 21,240 pounds. I can
email you a picture of the rig if you give me an address. Tri-axle trailer
tracks true and tows like a dream. Gotta leave plenty of room to stop,
though, even with surge brakes on all three axels. I once developed a
hydraulic leak in one of the brake line fittings on the trailer and lost
most of the fluid out of the master cylinder. This on an urban freeway.
The only real white knuckle experience I've ever had while towing. To this
day I carry a full bottle of brake fluid behind the rear seat of the truck.
Never had to use it since then, which is just fine by me.




I agree with you on the fuel, but I normally tank up at a local truck
stop that has plenty of fresh fuel and if I stick with that fueling
station, my mileage seems to increase. I do use additives to help
with the C-tane rating and I can adjust the computer remotely if I
need the extra HP or not which also helps the gas mileage.

No mods of any kind on either of my trucks. Bone stock. Should have
mentioned auto trans as well. The 05 doesn't even have 10k on it, so its
mileage could still improve some, I suppose, but not counting on it. The
only thing I dislike about the 6.0 versus the 7.3 is a bit of turbo lag
right off the line that was never there in the 7.3. Other than that, I
couldn't be happier about the trade. But once the tach is north of 1200,
the 6.0 simply runs away from the 7.3, and in a much more civilized fashion.
My '00 only had 50k on it, and was in pristene condition, so I got treated
exceptionally well as a trade-in. Most five-year old diesel pickups are
usually work trucks that have been beaten up pretty badly and are typically
high mileage. Mine would have been a rare find for someone shopping for a
nice used one. If it wasn't for the section 179 write-off on the new one,
I'd probably still be driving the old one.





In this climate, fuel can contain as much as 25% kerosene in the
winter which can also affect hp and mileage. I do know that my
mileage decreases in the winter significantly - the around town
mileage averages around 13/14 during the coldest periods and the
highway drops to 17/19 depending.

I have just under 100K on the 7.3 liter engine and nary a problem or
burp.

I really can't complain - it's been a good, solid, efficient truck.

Mine was too, for the most part. I replaced a water pump, and that was it
for the engine. I did lose the torque converter though. Actually it was
just the device that controls the lockup of the converter. Damn thing
wouldn't unlock intermittently. The net effect was like having a manual
transmission without the benefit of a clutch. Which is real fun when
pulling up to a stop light. Especially when it did it the very first time.
Truly a WTF moment. Without benefit of a clutch, you either slip it into
neutral early or let it stall by standing on the brake. And the 7.3 isn't
exactly the easiest engine to stall. It really likes to keep running. And
there was no warning when it would not disengage. You wouldn't know until
the moment of truth when coming to a stop. I had to drive it like that for
several weeks until the problem got bad enough to where I could get it to
lock up reliably so I could demonstrate it to the dealer. The stupid
service writer damn near rear ended a Taurus in the service drive even after
I demonstrated the full nature of the problem and the extreme importance of
implementing one of the previously mentioned workarounds. Torque converter
replaced at 30k under warranty, which out of sheer luck was just the time I
would have otherwise had to pay to have the trans fluid replaced as normal
maintenance.