JACK & MY MARGARITAVILLE ESCAPE 21 NE & THE NEW CHEVY 1500 DURAMAX 3.0L TURBO-DIESEL

[CharlesinGA]

Hey occer,

I'll check it out this weekend on our first trip out in the new rig. I'll let you know what I find. It's kinda sort of like a jake brake system in the big rigs. I traveled many miles through the Ozarks hauling for McDonalds, but they never outfitted our equipment with Jake-brakes. Just use your commend since and skills to pull you through. Those were the days and with millions of miles behind me now, all accident free. I treat all road trips the same as the first, anything can happen.

Occer thanks for shareing, I will check this out, it is a great feature to have and it saves a lot of wear and tear on the brake system, which equates into $ savings

Cheer to ya..........and Happy Trails .......... Jack

The exhaust brake works by turning the engine into an air pump trying the pressurize the exhaust manifold and turbo, with very little escaping. (Cummins allows up to 60 psi on most engines) The Jake brake builds the compression in the cylinder, and releases it at the top of the piston stroke, so that same pressure is not pushing the piston back down. It is more effective, to a degree, than an exhaust brake, but at much greater expense. Newer ones are selective, allowing for two, four or six cylinders to provide braking while the others simply go up and down normally.

Interesting fact, the Jake brake was invented by Clessie Cummins after he had left the Cummins corporation (1950's). He had Jacobs Corporation make the prototype compression brake and proved out the idea, and attempted to sell it to the Cummins corporation, who saw no future in it, so he sold the rights to Jacobs and the Jake Brake was born! I'm sure that by the late 1960's Cummins Corp was kicking themselves for not buying the rights to the design.

Charles

 

[jack sparrow]

Hey CharlesinGa,

Thanks for the information, does come in handy. Also the history of the Jake Brake, I didn't know that, but I do now because of you. So many great minds throughout our world, my hat is off to each of them for their contribution.

Cheer to ya........ and Happy Trails........Jack

 

[jack sparrow]

Hi All,
Well I'm back from our little weekend trip and was the maiden trailer pull with the new truck. I'm impressed with it's performance as a whole. The trip wasn't but about 100 miles there and 100 miles back. The roads traveled were half two lane and half interstate, and was not flat. No grades at all, just your normal roll a coaster hills in southern Mississippi. I ran the truck in trailer mode each way and the pulling power was just great, along with a very smooth ride. Full round trip and I used right at 1/4 of a tank of fuel. My mpg was 17.3 and the truck only has 768 miles on it, not even broke in yet.

So you can say I'm very happy with it thus far, still early yet and I'm learning how to use the different trailer hauling features and the cameras too.

I have another trip for this coming weekend, so I'll post that as well and anything else that comes to mind. Till then.....

Cheers to ya.........and Happy Trails.......Jack

 

[jack sparrow]

Hey All,

Last night I filled up the truck for the second time, it did still have a 1/4 of a lank left in it. Any way it only took 16.9 gals to fill it up.

Now the story..... Out of the 16.9 gals of fuel taken on, I had driven 479 miles and of those miles I had driven 200 miles of that pulling my Escape 21ne on the short weekend trip. Doing the math on those numbers I have a miles per gallon of 28.34 on that tank. This to me is great numbers and the truck at this fill up has a total of 1049 miles on it to date.

I have another short trip planned for this weekend, but this time I will leave out on this tank and fill up when I return to get the actual gals burned with the trailer.

As for the DEF, my gauge is showing one notch down from full, with total miles driven standing at 1049.

Till next time....

Cheers to ya....... and Happy Trails..........Jack

 

[GregWCIL]

I have about 50,000 miles on my 2021 3.0 - part of them pulling my 5.0. Towing mileage has been around 18mpg but 21 for complete trips (including miles when unhooked). Worst was about 3 days heading west in a 20-40 mph headwind - 14 mpg. Just returned from a 7000 mile trip to Yosemite and 9 other national parks. Average was about 19. Def useage is higher when towing but not bad. I usually fuel at truck stops and pump their def. Much easier than jugs.
I’ve only had diesel pickups for the last 30 years and this one is the best.
Safe travels.
Greg

Hey All,

Last night I filled up the truck for the second time, it did still have a 1/4 of a lank left in it. Any way it only took 16.9 gals to fill it up.

Now the story..... Out of the 16.9 gals of fuel taken on, I had driven 479 miles and of those miles I had driven 200 miles of that pulling my Escape 21ne on the short weekend trip. Doing the math on those numbers I have a miles per gallon of 28.34 on that tank. This to me is great numbers and the truck at this fill up has a total of 1049 miles on it to date.

I have another short trip planned for this weekend, but this time I will leave out on this tank and fill up when I return to get the actual gals burned with the trailer.

As for the DEF, my gauge is showing one notch down from full, with total miles driven standing at 1049.

Till next time....

Cheers to ya....... and Happy Trails..........Jac

 

[GregWCIL]

A note on engine braking:
I’d advise against using cruise control on long steep slopes. It seems to actually apply your brakes to hold your speed down to the cruise setting. Found out the hard way that my truck brakes got cherry red because it rode the brakes.
Just use tow/haul mode. Sometimes I leave transmission in auto but usually shift it manually to find the best gear for engine braking needed. I use much less brake pedal that those ahead of me. I also carry an infrared thermometer to check brake temps.
On one big downslope on highway 50 in Colorado I stopped to check brakes near the bottom. The front truck disks got to 575, truck rear disks to 375, and 5.0 drums about 200 with brake gain set at 7.

 

[salmo7000]

I have about 50,000 miles on my 2021 3.0 - part of them pulling my 5.0. Towing mileage has been around 18mpg but 21 for complete trips (including miles when unhooked). Worst was about 3 days heading west in a 20-40 mph headwind - 14 mpg. Just returned from a 7000 mile trip to Yosemite and 9 other national parks. Average was about 19. Def useage is higher when towing but not bad. I usually fuel at truck stops and pump their def. Much easier than jugs.
I’ve only had diesel pickups for the last 30 years and this one is the best.
Safe travels.
Greg

After over a year of deliberation, I finally pulled the trigger and traded my beloved 2017 Colorado with the 2.8L duramax for a 2025 Silverado with the 3.0L. I’ll be bringing it home next week. People often say once you’ve towed with a diesel, you can’t go back… I’ve definitely fallen into that category. I just wasn’t willing to give up the 18+ mpg I got towing with my Colorado, not to mention the 30+ mpg it got not towing. Or the exhaust brake, which is awesome to have towing up and down long mountain grades in the Pacific Northwest.

Your post, plus others here, make me optimistic I’ll see similar numbers with the new truck. Mine will be towing a 2018 E19, dry weight is 3,400 lbs, loaded for travel I estimate 4,200. The truck is a 4X4 crew cab with the 10 speed transmission and 3.25 rear axle ratio.

I’m certain this will be an outstanding tow vehicle, but you never know until you actually tow with it. This thread has given me confidence I haven’t made an expensive mistake!!

 

[occer]

Salmo 7000
The Silverado is heavier, then the Colorado and the 3.0 is larger displacement then the 2.8.
Your towing mpg will be very similar but when not towing may be a little less.

 

[jack sparrow]

salmo7000
Congratulations on your new Silverado soon to be ownership. I have got mine on May 17th this year , so it's just been over a month now. I have to vouch Grey and myself. The mpg numbers are there and I'm loving it. Wife and I just got in from a short two day trip and my numbers pulling my Escape 21ne are sticking in the 17-19 mpg while keeping my speed closer to the 60 than the 65 mph mark. My truck just turned over 1800 miles this evening. I filled up just before getting to the house, so all in all I have burned 3 full tanks of fuel so far since I brought it home from the dealership. What's in it now is a fresh 4th tank.
As for DEF, so far I've used about a gallon. ( 2 marks down from full) As I said, I'm loving this truck plus all the on screen electronics that help with the trailer. (Mileage keeping, check list, Maint list) ect.

As for power, I don't push it, I drive it like I have a raw egg between my foot and the accelerator, coming off a light, I feed the fuel to it to bring it up to about 2200 rpms and let it shift on out. This thing is a dream.
You're going to love it too. Don't think I'll be looking back at a gas burner for towing. My Lexus Gx470 driving the same speeds would only yield me 10-11mpg and on a blue moon maybe 12.

Also, I find that your mpg will be better...... if you throttle the drive yourself as cruse control will not give you the same results that I have found. When I approach a hill, I maintain the throttle and not mash into it as cruse control would do. Just hold steady and let the truck do it's job, works out great.

Thanks for chiming in here and by all means keep in touch and add you finding hear.

Cheers to ya.........and Happy Trails........Jack

 

[jack sparrow]

I have about 50,000 miles on my 2021 3.0 - part of them pulling my 5.0. Towing mileage has been around 18mpg but 21 for complete trips (including miles when unhooked). Worst was about 3 days heading west in a 20-40 mph headwind - 14 mpg. Just returned from a 7000 mile trip to Yosemite and 9 other national parks. Average was about 19. Def useage is higher when towing but not bad. I usually fuel at truck stops and pump their def. Much easier than jugs.
I’ve only had diesel pickups for the last 30 years and this one is the best.
Safe travels.
Greg

Hey Greg, thanks for the information, I'm super glad to hear it and as you've said about the numbers, I'm seeing and am in the same ball park with you. There are going to be days when it won't make it's mark due to conditions that are out of our control, that's just life. But I'll be loving it is on the mark for the mpg. When I drive it to work, I do hit the 29mpg and above at times, this thing just sips fuel

Thanks for chiming in and keep us up to date on your experiences with your truck and travels.

Cheers to ya.........and Happy Trails......Jack

 

[salmo7000]

Salmo 7000
The Silverado is heavier, then the Colorado and the 3.0 is larger displacement then the 2.8.
Your towing mpg will be very similar but when not towing may be a little less.

Absolutely on the non towing mpg, the Silverado I bought is rated 2 mpg less than my Colorado. It was the towing mpg that was causing me fits. Originally I was planning to replace what I have with a new Colorado (turbo 4-cyl gas engine), until I read reports online of people's towing mpg, which average 10 - 12 depending on trailer weight, speed, etc. Then I considered a Toyota Tacoma hybrid, until I read several posts on this forum that explained why a person couldn't expect much better mpg than the new Colorados when towing. They also cost more than the Chevy diesel I just bought. I then looked at Ford Rangers, non-hybrid Tacomas, Honda Ridgelines, Dodge Ram, Toyota Tundras, and finally the lineup of Ford F150's before deciding I just didn't want to tow without a diesel.

GMC and Chevy are the only new light pickups currently available in the US with a diesel engine, so after thinking long and hard about the tradeoffs and comparing everything I could think of with every truck I considered, that's where I landed. Whew. I'm super stressed out and hoping I made the right decision for what will work for me!! Efficiency, capability, and safety were my 3 main criteria, with cost and comfort coming in 4th and 5th.

 

[salmo7000]

salmo7000
Congratulations on your new Silverado soon to be ownership. I have got mine on May 17th this year , so it's just been over a month now. I have to vouch Grey and myself. The mpg numbers are there and I'm loving it. Wife and I just got in from a short two day trip and my numbers pulling my Escape 21ne are sticking in the 17-19 mpg while keeping my speed closer to the 60 than the 65 mph mark. My truck just turned over 1800 miles this evening. I filled up just before getting to the house, so all in all I have burned 3 full tanks of fuel so far since I brought it home from the dealership. What's in it now is a fresh 4th tank.
As for DEF, so far I've used about a gallon. ( 2 marks down from full) As I said, I'm loving this truck plus all the on screen electronics that help with the trailer. (Mileage keeping, check list, Maint list) ect.

As for power, I don't push it, I drive it like I have a raw egg between my foot and the accelerator, coming off a light, I feed the fuel to it to bring it up to about 2200 rpms and let it shift on out. This thing is a dream.
You're going to love it too. Don't think I'll be looking back at a gas burner for towing. My Lexus Gx470 driving the same speeds would only yield me 10-11mpg and on a blue moon maybe 12.

Also, I find that your mpg will be better...... if you throttle the drive yourself as cruse control will not give you the same results that I have found. When I approach a hill, I maintain the throttle and not mash into it as cruse control would do. Just hold steady and let the truck do it's job, works out great.

Thanks for chiming in here and by all means keep in touch and add you finding hear.

Cheers to ya.........and Happy Trails........Jack

Thanks Jack!! I really appreciate the vote of confidence. I'm totally used to monitoring DEF and adding it when needed and understand these trucks use a lot more when towing. I think DEF consumption is correlated with how much fuel is burned. I almost never use cruise control when towing, always put it in tow/haul mode, rarely exceed 65 mph, and I've had consistently good results with mpg with my little Colorado. I think the worst it ever got was 16 mpg, and that was towing against a 50+ mph headwind. Usually we run between 18 and 19.5, and it's gotten as high as 21+ on the flat at 55 mph or less.

If I can get even close to that with the new one I'll be a happy camper for sure!!

Cheers to you too!!