Heavy duty pickup trucks with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of over 8,500 lbs are not rated for fuel economy by the EPA – Environmental Protection Agency. There are so many hd truck configurations and use-cases. There are gas versus diesel engines, short cabs versus crew cabs, long bed versus short bed, 4×4 versus 2WD, chassis cabs, trucks with custom utility beds, and trucks that regularly haul or tow heavy loads. The variance in real-world fuel economy is great.
TFLtruck consistently performs a 100-mile highway towing and a 50-mile city/highway combined MPG tests. We test the HD trucks in the real world with heavy trailers and unloaded. We show and document all of the results.
If you are interested in more data, check out this HD Truck Fuel Economy study from Consumer Reports.
2017 HD Diesels with 22,800 Lbs
We compared 2017 Chevy HD 3500, 2017 Ford F350, and 2017 Ram HD 3500 crew cab 4×4 diesel-powered duallies with a 22,800 lbs gooseneck trailer. We go on a precisely 98 miles interstate highway loop at 70 MPH with cruise control set. This allows us to eliminate a lot of variables, compare trucks evenly, and show trucks being used with realistic heavy loads.
Heavy load trailering (22,800 lbs) fuel economy.
2017 Ram HD 3500 Cummins: 7.3 MPG
2017 Chevy HD 3500 Duramax: 6.6 MPG
2017 Ford F350 Power Stroke: 6.4 MPG
2017 HD Gas V8 Work Trucks
We also ran the 2017 Ford F250 6.2L gas V8 against the 2017 Ram HD 2500 6.4L V8 with a 12,500 lbs conventional trailer and unloaded.
Heavy trailer (12,500 lbs) fuel economy.
2017 Ford F250 6.2L V8: 8.6 MPG
2017 Ram HD 2500 6.4L V8: 7.3 MPG
2017 Ram Power Wagon
How about a combined city/highway loop that averages 35 MPH over a 50 mile distance. We do this as well. We ran the 2017 Ram Power Wagon and the 2017 Nissan Frontier king cab work truck to get the real-world numbers.
Check out the video below for the list of best & worst fuel economy in 2017 trucks, both half-ton pickups with their EPA ratings, and HD trucks with our real-world numbers.
