TFL Truck Trusts iDash

Intro
0:00 this video is brought to you by Grandeur
0:02 warranty your number one online source
0:04 for factory-backed extended warranties
0:06 in the country here at tfl truck we
0:08 specialize in real world testing we do
0:10 Gauntlet Mountain tow tests we do
0:13 fuel efficiency testing we do off-road
0:16 testing and we’ve compiled a lot of data
0:19 over the years and with an intro like
0:21 that you must be doing something pretty
0:23 significant in today’s video yes I want
0:25 to figure out what is the most fuele
0:27 efficient heavy duty pickup truck that’s
0:30 diesel we have a diesel truck right here
0:33 out there period yeah and it’s going to
0:36 be important for us to run our
0:38 company-owned Silverado 2500 Duramax so
0:41 that we can add to all that data to get
0:44 ourselves a better idea of what is the
0:46 most efficient HD truck yes and plus we
0:49 can show you also some of the towing
0:51 tests for fuel efficiency that you and I
0:53 have done and that Mr truck and I have
0:55 done and that all of us have done the

Outlining the Denver 100 test
0:58 Denver 100 MPG Loop is a toll road all
1:01 the way around Denver Colorado and it’s
1:03 mainly run at highway speeds between 65
1:07 mph and 75 mph and our standard distance
1:12 it’s just over 111 mil I’m here at the

Filling up
1:15 same fuel station that we’ve been using
1:17 for the last several years here in South
1:20 Boulder Colorado so let me top off the
1:22 tank and I can get on this 111 Mi Loop
1:29 [Music]
1:35 all right as always I’m going to wait 30
1:37 seconds and top
1:42 [Music]
1:57 off all right so I’m just starting the

Starting the Denver 100 loop
2:00 loop it’s mostly Highway like I
2:02 explained before and we’ve been running
2:05 this Loop for almost 3
2:08 years and when you’re talking about
2:10 heavy duty pickup trucks and you want to
2:13 know what’s the most fuel efficient of
2:15 course you have to look at the Diesels
2:17 and this truck is powered by the latest
2:21 l5p 6.6 L turbocharged diesel V8 470
2:28 horsepower and 9 75 lb feet of torque it
2:32 has a 10-speed automatic heavyduty
2:35 transmission and it’s got a
2:38 3.42 to1 rear axle ratio so GM’s been
2:44 using this setup for several years and
2:47 we’ve tested several of these
2:49 combinations with and without trailers
2:51 we’ve also tested this truck twice on
2:54 this Loop already once with a
2:57 4500lb cargo trailer and another one
3:00 with a goose neck trail that weighed
3:02 over
3:03 17,500 lb so first let me show you case
3:08 and I uh the result that we got when
3:12 pulling a cargo box trailer let’s see
3:16 that now only way I think a diesel

Past tests we’ve done with the Chevy Silverado HD Trail Boss
3:18 pickup truck makes sense is if you drive
3:21 a lot of miles if you’re buying a pickup
3:23 truck to commute 10 miles every day
3:26 that’s probably not the right vehicle
3:27 for you but if you’re driving along the
3:29 distance you know without a trailer or
3:32 with a trailer that’s where it makes
3:34 sense to buy a
3:36 diesel the big boy heavy duty Duramax
3:39 says
3:41 11.9 all right let’s see what the big
3:44 engine
3:46 does stop goes mine stop
3:51 pumping oh man 115 Mi divide by 9744
4:01 equals
4:02 11.8 which is not bad if you’re working

Ford F-250 Power Stroke comparison (past test)
5:42 this Loop it has to beat the Ford power
5:46 stroke um yes the ram Comin we’ve also
5:49 tested but we haven’t had a chance to
5:51 test the latest 2025 generation of the
5:54 cumins with an 8-speed automatic that
5:57 goes on sale in a couple of months so
5:59 we’ll have to wait for that for another
6:02 maybe several weeks but the Ford power
6:05 stroke diesel is probably the one to
6:07 beat let me show you what Nathan and I
6:10 did with an F250 Tremor off-road edition
6:16 of the big Superduty power stroke diesel
6:20 you’re rolling with a high output huh
6:22 and correct me if I’m wrong I put out
6:24 over 1,000 ftlb of torque am I correct
6:28 yes do you have to rub it in you have
6:30 500
6:31 horsepower and 1,200 lbet of torque
6:35 that’s like stupid ridiculous and
6:37 awesome all rolled into one it’s a love
6:39 burrito for
6:43 Nathan here we
6:47 go
6:50 okay wow that’s a big difference 5. 661
6:54 Gall 21 and dollar 111 mil div div by 5.
7:00 661 right yep okay so you have
7:05 19.6 so the truck’s said
7:08 19.8 ah woe so that power stroke at the
7:12 same gas station where I was just
7:15 filling up got
7:18 19.6
7:19 MPG so this
7:22 Duramax uh has to at least match that uh
7:25 that run was also in the winter months
7:27 about a year ago um the the Superduty
7:30 tremer is on 35s also very aggressive
7:33 tires it also has a 10-speed automatic
7:37 transmission um so this GM

Denver 100 test (Chevy Silverado 2500HD) continued
7:40 truck uh needs to at least match it so
7:43 it’ll be very interesting can this Chevy
7:47 actually do it there’s several other
7:49 factors that affect uh turbo diesel uh
7:52 pickup truck efficiencies I’m using a
7:56 Banks ID Dash data monster gauge
8:00 it’s connected to the truck via OBD2
8:02 port the data port
8:06 and for example if the truck goes into
8:10 regen mode while I’m driving um today or
8:15 uh you know if it’s running low on DF um
8:18 some other factors could
8:20 affect um the efficiency overall
8:23 efficiency of this particular run which
8:25 is why we also buy pickup trucks we test
8:27 them for 10 20 30,000 miles sometimes
8:31 and do several Loops not just one so um
8:36 that’s how we do it you might also be
8:39 saying oh you’ve done this Loop for 3
8:41 years how cute that’s not really enough
8:44 time well we’ve actually been testing
8:46 pickup trucks in the real world since
8:49 2012 so about 13 years and we have done
8:53 MPG efficiency tests uh going back that
8:58 way and we were using a slightly
9:00 different route on i76 from Hudson
9:04 Colorado to Fort Morgan so we also have
9:06 all of that data and not just heavy duty
9:09 pickup trucks we also have this data for
9:12 half tons full size midsize compact
9:15 electric pickup trucks and you know some
9:19 SUVs as well including Chevy Tahoe and
9:22 the Chevy Suburban so we do have all
9:24 that at tfl
9:26 truck.com or at old tflc
9:30 but now you’re probably also wondering
9:31 about cumin cumin is a different type of
9:34 engine it’s a straight 6 it’s not a V8
9:38 and um it’s also known for really good
9:41 efficiency well almost 3 years ago I did
9:44 a road trip in our 2022 REM cin
9:47 long-term truck and um well here’s what
9:51 happened when I did about 400 miles this
Comparison to our previous long-term truck and other tests (2022 Ram 2500 Big Horn)
9:55 episode is the first road trip in our
9:57 new long-term truck the 20 20 Ram heavy
10:00 duty cumin diesel but it’s not just any
10:03 road trip I’m doing a little bit of work
10:06 and here’s what I’m trying to see can I
10:08 go about 380 Mi on one tank of diesel
10:12 over the mountains 190 Mi without a
10:15 trailer pick up a brand new Aluma
10:17 trailer and then 190 Mi home
10:21 [Music]
10:31 all right let’s um let me melt my credit
10:33 card actually tfl’s credit card and see10:35 how much fuel we’ve used for
10:43 real okay I think that was just right
10:46 topped off take a look
10:49 22101 let’s calculate so I went
10:52 395 miles and I used 22101
11:01 gallons the result
11:03 is
11:06 177 n if I round up so the truck was
11:11 saying about 18.9 so the truck was
11:13 optimistic the real result is actually a
11:16 little bit worse but still hauling the
11:19 trailer all the way back although
11:22 empty uh pretty good I am pleasantly
11:25 surprised and we were able to do it on
11:27 one tank okay so uh yes for about half
11:31 of that loop I was towing a very
11:33 lightweight aluminum trailer uh when I
11:35 wasn’t Towing the mpg uh trip computer
11:39 said uh 20.7
11:41 MPG but it was actually
11:45 overestimating a little
11:47 bit um in the very end it’s probably
11:50 around 19.6
11:53 19.7 uh when running empty so The
11:57 Benchmark is the same if you look at the
11:59 at the power stroke Ford 19.6 MPG while
12:03 running empty or if you’re looking at
12:05 the comments probably a very similar
12:08 number and like I said we’ll test the
12:10 brand new comments coming up in just a
12:12 few short weeks uh We’ve also test
12:15 dueles so and actually one of the bestWhat can you expect from a dually (Chevy Silverado 3500HD)?
12:19 most efficient du trucks is in fact the
12:22 GM let me show you that Loop when Mr
12:26 truck and I ran that truck now that’s
12:29 how close we are we just drove like a
12:32 tenth of a mile and we’re on the highway
12:34 I know that’s just so cool that way
12:36 we’re getting most all highway miles cuz
12:38 you know sometimes it’s 75 miles hour
12:41 sometimes it’s 70 sometimes it’s 65 and
12:43 probably sometimes it’s 60 yeah so we’ll
12:45 be following all the uh speed limits of
12:47 course and this is kind of real world
12:50 right real world it is it gives just a
12:52 little bit of variance but it’s not
12:53 really like City driving at all we’re
12:54 all flying down the highway did it Mr
12:56 truck oh that’s cool we made it back
12:59 Denver
13:00 100 we made it guys check check this out
13:04 the trip meter says 18.0 this is very
13:07 exciting wow that’d be cool if it
13:09 actually is is accurate that’d be
13:10 awesome 30 seconds
13:16 okay wow that was a big top off yeah|
13:20 thank you at least 1 o at least so the
13:23 final damage is
13:26 6232
13:27 Gall let’s calculate so we went
13:32 110.3 mil
13:36 precisely divide by
13:40 6232 Gall equals
13:44 17.7 okay so that was in the summer
13:47 months so the fuel mix uh may be a
13:49 little bit different cuz right now I’m
13:51 running in the winter but that dually
13:53 did do 17.7 MPG which is quite
13:56 impressive for a big heavy vehicle with
13:59 Six Tires on the ground all right so now
14:02 let me finish this Loop um I’m going to
14:04 go a full 112 miles on this particular
14:08 Loop uh like we usually do and I’ll tell
14:12 you I’ll show you my results just in a
14:15 few seconds Chevy Silverado 2500HD Trail Boss results
14:19 [Music]
14:30 here’s the result the trip meter says
14:34 20.0 and uh 112 Mi GPS verified let’s
14:39 see what the pump says all right I’m
14:41 back at the same pump and let’s see what
14:44 it is Remember The Benchmark is still
14:47 about
14:49 19.6 MPG let’s see if the durax can beat
14:53 that or match it
14:59 by the way it’s about
15:01 $359 per
15:07 [Music]
15:13 [Music]
15:16 gallon right now we I still have to uh
15:19 top
15:20 off all right 30 seconds are done
15:26 [Music]
15:35 5.48 6 almost 20 bucks 112 Mi divide by
15:45 5486 equals
15:50 20.4 all right well there you have it um
Closing thoughts
15:54 I think it’s a pretty definitive answer
15:56 currently the Duramax is the most
15:59 efficient diesel heavy duty pickup truck
16:02 on sale
16:04 20.4 almost identical to what the
16:06 computer said computer said a little bit
16:08 less so that’s always uh a good thing
16:11 that it the computer trip meter didn’t
16:14 overestimate and it’s a little bit
16:18 better than
16:19 19.6 or 19.7 that we saw in other trucks
16:24 in winter months as
16:27 well so
16:29 this test is to be continued um and as
16:33 you can as you saw in this video Towing
16:36 trailers can decrease your efficiency at
16:39 least by half if you’re towing something
16:42 relatively lightweight like between five
16:44 and 10,000 lb with a heavy duty pickup
16:47 truck you might be seeing 11 or 12 MPG
16:51 if you’re throwing something huge and
16:54 heavy you will see something around 9
16:57 MPG
16:59 so you losing quite a lot when you’re
17:01 towing even with a diesel and of course
17:04 with gasoline heavy duty trucks those
17:07 are about 15 to 20% less efficient than
17:10 the Diesels so that extra money you’re
17:13 paying for your Duramax or power stroke
17:17 or cumin and now now these days uh you
17:20 have to pay about $112,000 or more for
17:23 one of these puppies um this truck I’m
17:26 sitting in right right now we paid about
17:30 $74,000 for um we got a small deal uh
17:34 sticker price is around 77 for one of
17:37 these Trail bosses with a
17:40 Duramax um so yeah U so the price you’re
17:43 paying for the diesel engine can be
17:46 worth it if you’re using your truck
17:48 enough if you’re driving over 25,000 m a
17:52 year or if you’re towing on a regular
17:55 basis I think a diesel makes a lot of
17:58 sense if you’re just commuting and
18:00 you’re not driving a lot then the diesel
18:02 is really probably not for you so let me
18:06 know what you think check out ult
18:07 afl.com for Everything Automotive in one
18:10 place and I’ll see you next time maybe
18:14 after a few more years of testing thanks
18:18[Music]